DM Carbide's Rise of the Runelords

Game Master John Woodford

Yes but I can't imagine how drinking a potion would result in a shimmering shield floating in front of her so instead she throws it in the air. ;)

Alchemists and investigators can make extracts of fire shield, which is also an external effect. Plenty of potions do that, though--mage armor, for one.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Garrick-acted
Bruthazmus-acted
Vidar
Nia
Ilryan

Gasping in pain at the axe blow, the bugbear takes a short step back from the door, draws a potion, and drinks it down.

Vidar, Nia, and Ilryan can act!

Bruthazmus: AC 19 T 13 FF 16 HP taken: 14

"No no no, none of that if you please. We cannot have you ruining master Oakbeard's fine work now can we?"

Vidar mutters a phrase and slams two magic missiles into the Bugbear, seeking to undo some of the healing he suspects the potion will cause.

Magic Missile: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 3) + 2 = 9

Ilryan casts bless.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Garrick-acted
Bruthazmus-acted
Vidar-acted
Nia
Ilryan-acted

Vidar's mystical bolts do more damage to the beleaguered bugbear, and Ilryan bolsters the party with Desna's divine blessing.

Nia?

Nia assesses the tight quarters and sheathes her rapier, pulling out her crossbow and shooting at the bugbear.

Don't really want her to go one-on-one with a bugbear so she'll shoot from out here and let Garrick man the door.

Xbow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Dmg: 1d8 ⇒ 2 Ha!

It is at this point that the goblins take up weapons in the bugbear's defense, even though they're not wearing any armor. The two that can reach Garrick both miss him, though.

Round 3:

Initiative order
Garrick
Bruthazmus
Vidar
Nia
Ilryan
Goblins

Garrick can act!

Bruthazmus: AC 19 T 13 FF 16 HP taken: 25
Goblins: AC 13 T 13 FF 0 HP taken:

Garrick looks at the other two goblins, and growls in his strangely resonant voice, "That would be a very bad idea," even as he steps forward and swings the axe at the bugbear again.

Waraxe(raging, power attack, hatred, magic weapon): 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 7 + 1 + 1 = 29 Threat
Confirm?: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 7 + 1 + 1 = 18 Maybe?

Regular Damage: 1d10 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 9 + 1 = 17 Plus Critical?: 2d10 + 18 + 2 ⇒ (7, 6) + 18 + 2 = 33

Garrick, there's a goblin between you and the bugbear. Unless you have some way of getting past it, I'm going to resolve your attack against it.

Round 3 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Garrick-acted
Bruthazmus-acted
Vidar
Nia
Ilryan
Goblins

Garrick's blow leaves the goblin in two pieces, splashing gouts of blood all over the doorway. Bruthazmus draws a bow and shoots at Garrick, missing the dwarf cleanly.

Vidar, Nia, and Ilryan can act!

The map suggests Garrick could 5' step to follow the Bugbear? The goblin doesn't seem to be in the way - and the 5' wouldn't provoke

I just took the dead goblin off the map--it'd been between you and the bugbear.

OK, this is what I want to do- move Nia into the room with Acrobatics to avoid AoOs and through Bruthazmus's square to end up in flanking position in the far corner. She moves half speed with Acrobatics, so it'll take a double move for her to get there. Target DC is Bru's CMD. Does this work, DM?

Acrobatics check, adding Inspiration 1 of 5: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (16) + 8 + (5) = 29
Acrobatics check, adding Inspiration 2/5: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (15) + 8 + (4) = 27

Normally, moving through an opponent's square would have a DC of their CMD+5. Do you have an ability that would allow you to ignore the +5?

That said, he's currently using a bow, and has no abilities that would allow him to take an AoO. Not that Nia knows that.

Using a bow would be obvious, no?

True, but there are class abilities that allow people to make AoOs with bows, and if he has a bite attack he could use that. Nia can certainly assume he can't take an AoO, though.

No she doesn't have an ability that would let her move through a square without the +5 DC penalty. That said, she can also add a Derring-Do die for an extra 1d6 if she can't make it through his square.

No, what you have will be enough.

Round 3 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Garrick-acted
Bruthazmus-acted
Vidar
Nia-acted
Ilryan
Goblins

Nia dodges past the goblins and slips by the bugbear, coming out behind him.

Vidar and Ilryan to go!

Vidar, deciding to go for his surest possible spell at the moment sends another Magic missile at the Bugbear.

Magic Missile: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 1) + 2 = 7

Vidar's magic missiles are enough to finish off the wounded foe.

Cleaning up the rest of the goblins is a trivial task. Out of combat!

"So, that was Bruthazmus?
Well, I am not saddened by his death in the least, apart from perhaps feeling a slight twinge of regret at robbing Shalelu of her eventual climactic finale with him."

Garrick takes a breath and binds the power again, and slumps a little as his wooden skin softens and the added strength leaves him. "I'm not sure whether Shalelu'll be happy or disappointed we just did that," he says with a chuckle. "Though I'm pretty pleased either way."

Searchy the corpsies.

He's a bit more dangerous if he isn't in close quarters.

You find a heavy flail, a well-made and extremely stiff composite longbow (masterwork, built for 18 STR), 23 arrows (four of which detect as magic), a suit of studded leather armor, and 4 pp. He wears a rather repulsive necklace--a thin leather thong with several pairs of elf ears strung onto it.

"Hmmph,desecration of the dead, a vile crime. In the land of the Linnorm kings, such crimes are severely punished.
The dead should be allowed to rest in peace.
I am unsure if we should take the necklace and allow Shalelu to decide what to do with it, or if we should merely burn the grizzly trophy."

Nia shakes her head. "Can you use that bow, Garrick? It's nice but it's way too heavy for me. If not, maybe we should see if Shalelu wants it. We probably want to give her the necklace too- she might have known some of those elves."

I think we can probably just take and sell the rest of this stuff?

Borgol shrugs, "I can pull it while raging, but not otherwise. I'll carry it for now, but I think we may be better off selling it later."

Vidar grunts noncommittally, someone else had said something that sounded logical to him.
He was still unused to dealing with people, and was glad to leave most social interaction to others.
It did not really occur to him that he was associating with the other members of this adventuring party, nor that he had done some fairly intimate (for him) interaction with Ameiko.

Instead he tries the bow himself, straining and grunting for a moment before giving up.
"Hmmph, whatever else Bruthazmus was, he was clearly a creature of great physical prowess.
...
However, no match for Master Oakbeard's prowess, backed up by a little magic on the side."

Where to now?

The party checks the other doors in the room, finding corridors on the other sides of most of them, and a small chamber that appears to be a currently unused goblin nursery behind the last.

"Goblin nursery...horrible."

"Shall we look down the shorter corridor first? If anyone are there, it is the most likely place they might have overheard our confrontation with Bruthazmus."

Nia nods and quietly heads east down the shorter corridor.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Nia hears nothing at the door, nor does she find any traps. The chamber on the other side is unfinished stone, unlike the hall or any of the other rooms you've seen before. Crates, barrels, and mounds of miscellaneous refuse lie heaped against the walls here. There's a passage to the north, and from it all can hear the sound of crashing surf.

Nia checks the passage to the north.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

Nia, are you going down the passage, and if so how far?

Oh, sorry, from the description I thought the source of the sound was nearby. She wants to figure out where the waves sound if coming from but if the tunnel goes very far she'll just go to the first room, check it out, then go back to the party, same as when they were exploring the Glassworks dungeon.

The passage goes about ten feet north, then bends sharply east. The noise is definitely coming from somewhere around the bend.

She continues around the bend (to the first room, trap, or living being).

What is everyone else doing while Nia scouts ahead? Are you in the storage area, out in the main room, where?

If Nia's cleared the main room and reported back, we'd follow her there before she heads down the northern passage. At least, that's what I thought was happening.

The main room is the one the stairs opened into when you first came down to this level.

Nia rounds the corner, skulking fairly well (as far as she can tell). The passage widens into a cavern with a strangely smooth floor. To the east, a thick curtain of vines and nettles hangs down, drifting in the breeze from outside. The sound of surf originates from the other side of the vines. The human is surprised when a long tentacle lashes out from above, but not so surprised that she isn't able to dodge it. Looking up, she sees a dark blue creature about the size of a dwarf. It has a conical body covered in angry-looking red eyes and numerous tentacles, two of which are longer than the rest. It clings to the ceiling with some of the shorter tentacles. It is currently out of her reach.

Round 1:

Initiative order
Party
Enemy

Nia can react, and if she alerts the rest of the party they can act.

Enemy: AC ? T ? FF ? HP taken: 0

Nia turns and bolts out of the room back toward the group. She points back in the direction of the room. "Some kind of ambush monster back on the ceiling of that room. It has two really long tentacles, tried to grab me."

Withdraw action. That thing has some serious Reach!

Kn:Dungeoneering to ID the creature?: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 9 + (4) = 18

Nia recognizes it as a tentamort (and may at this point realize that she almost encountered it earlier, when she was scouting entries into the fort).

Garrick asks, "Can we see it from range? Not against filling it full of bolts. Otherwise, maybe we go around."

In its current position, if you knew where to look you could see it from beyond its apparent range.

Garrick suggests, "I'd say we clear it out -- now that the goblins are gone, this might be a useful base for people from Sandpoint or its allies. "

"Hmmph, or for us..."

What are you doing?

Nia nods. "You might be able to see it around the corner and just try to fill it full of crossbow bolts."

The creature doesn't appear to be pursuing Nia, so you have time to consider things.

Garrick says, "Actually, let's leave it for later. Just in case another little vermin that didn't surrender tries to leave this way."

You have a variety of ways you can go from here, then. Where to?