Rivers Run Red

Game Master fictionfan

(Are there no signs of the prior inhabitants, no bodies or clues pointing at mass abduction?)

"Mal, could you get him out of the well?"

None as far as you can see everyone just walked away one day.

If they all walked in the same direction, then there should be a pretty obvious set of tracks.

Riva begins looking for tracks.

"We may need a tracker. Any takers?"

Toran shakes his head, I'm afraid I can't help you there.

So no trackers?

So no trackers?

Both Valissa and Mallichatti have a +9 modifier, but both appear strangely absent. Riva and Toran have a +0 modifier.

"Well, perhaps we will be able to find something if we all work together."

Riva's aid another: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Redwig's aid another: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Toran's Aid Another: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Do we have our cohorts with us? Vaelar has a +3 wisdom modifier, which is better than mine or Riva's.

My cohort sure isn't! She's minding the library and studying under Sootscale. At least, she better be...

Valissa tracking: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

Mallichatti tracking: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

The tracks lead toward the south.

Meant to comeback and say that I did have survival. :P

I didn't specify, so I guess I'll have him in town for this expedition, and he'll accompany us in the future.

"Anyone object to following the tracks and maybe finding out what happened here?"

Riva begins walking South.

I will assume that silence means agreement. This would go faster if you posted.

You move south into 50F.

Do you want to just follow the tracks or do you want to explore the hex?

Unless there is a reason for us to be hurrying, I think we should explore.

What kinds of tracks do they appear to be? How many are there?If it's a lone person, then we may follow out of curiosity's sake. If they are centaur hooves, then we may proceed cautiously. If there are many spriggan prints and what appear to be signs of human prisoners, then we make forgo exploring in the hopes of catching up to and rescuing the prisoners. People may not be responding due to lack of information.

About a hundred people. No centaur hooves. There are spriggan prints, but they don't seem to follow the trail and are newer.

Where are the spriggan prints headed?

"What do you think? Follow the spriggs or the people?"

The spriggan prints are heading to town.

Interesting. Where are the sprig prints coming from in that case?

"We came here to see why our neighbors stopped communicating with us. Determining what happened to the people is our priority."

If there are no obvious signs that the people were in trouble, we will explore the hex.

Perception checks.
Vallisa: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21
Toran: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Mallichatti: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Riva: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

Looking around you find the track lead out of a cave the cave seems empty.

The entrance remains difficult to find, hidden as it is behind an upthrust spur of rock and concealing brush (DC 20 Perception check to notice while exploring the hex), but the 15-room complex is now completely empty—the spriggans took everything of value when they moved into Varnhold and destroyed anything that was left behind.

"This must have been the spriggins' original lair."

You see the two women from before. There are flying about 50 feet above you. There is also a little girl with them in an old style dress.

"Hello again! Lord Vordakai is very interested in you. He want to talk to you. We are here to guide you to him."

They have very cheerful voices.

Riva resists there very cheerful voices.

"Little girl: Can you alone guide us to Vordakai?"

"Sure, but why? We have lots of friends to help."

With that a horde of skeletons flow in from all sides. On one side they are opened up into a corridor.

With that, a warhammer appears in Toran's hand. As you wish, take us to Vordakai, but I would recommend that you keep your friends under control.

"Thank you for being so resonable. Follow us. They start flying south though the corridor."

So much for killing everybody that isn't the little girl.

Is anybody else here determined to go from one crappy situation to the same crappy situation, but with much worse odds? I have no intention of fighting succubi, skeletons, AND a lich. Let's just take them here (or simply run away). Our chances will be much better I think than they will be on the foes' terms.

If that little girl is really just a little girl you will eat your spell book.

The problem is that in addition to a massive number of skeletons, we have at least one caster capable of flight, which would make this a really tough fight. If we managed to destroy all the undead, the girl would just fly away and we'd be back at square one.

You still haven't explained how adding a lich on on top of that and following them to a location of THEIR choosing is going to make things better for us. That way lies only madness!

Riva begins counting the number of enemies and formulating a plan while she stalls.

"Wait! What assurances do we have that death does not await us at the end of that corridor? That you, Vordakai, or any of his servants and associates will leave us unharmed?"

Diplomacy check: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (7) + 24 = 31; While stalling, she also attempts to improve the attitudes of the three "women" towards her, since they seem to be in command.

"Lord Vordakai does not desire your deaths at this time. He merely wishes to talk to you."

There are about 100 skeletons in close packed lines.

And they appear to be normal skeletons?

Knowledge: Religion: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

They are Medium Skeletons CR 1/3 there are just alot of them.

Let's just get this over with. Worse case is I have to kill a bunch more things today.

I'm assuming I still have neg levels.

Make me two fortitude save. When not raging.

1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18 Save 1
1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22 save 2

You have no negative levels.

I suppose we will need a battle map and initiative rolls.

"Thank you for being so resonable. Follow us. They start flying south though the corridor."

Riva waits until the succubi fly some distance away.

Hopefully their hoard will follow them, forcing them into easy to strike lines. Even if they stay put, it will take time for the succubi to return the same distance, giving us a chance to thin the herd before having to deal with the wretched fiends directly.

"They clearly don't know us very well."

Riva signals Vallisa to bring the fire as she casts haste on the party. She then moves into as ideal a position as she can manage; one that will allow her to hit as many skeletons with a lightning bolt as possible.

As soon as Riva casts her spell, Toran steps towards the nearest skeleton and slams his warhammer twice into its brittle body, only once succeeding at hitting the bony creature.
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Riva casts haste
"Appreciate the enthusiasm, but we arn't that much in a hurry."

Toran destories a skeleton.
"I see we are going to have to move onto aggressive negotiations."
The little girl laughs.

initiative
Vallisa: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13
Mallichatti: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
Riva: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12
Toran: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14 Toran: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
succubus twins: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
little girl: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Skeleton: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

Round 1
Skeletons
Toran
Vallisa
Riva
succubus twins
little girl

The Skeletons crow around. They surround Torran and attack with their broken scimitars.

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (1) + 0 = 1
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (2) + 0 = 2
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (5) + 0 = 5
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (17) + 0 = 17
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

attack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16
damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Toran's turn

least I get to go before the little girl.

Toran smiles as the skeletons all miss him, swinging his hammer at the skull of the skeleton directly in front of him, this time with more power. As he connects, he pivots and slams his weapon into another enemy.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage: 1d8 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Damage: 1d8 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

Who wants to see what melted bone looks like?

(percussion) perform: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8 DC12.

Fireball: 10d6 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3, 6, 4, 1, 1, 5, 1, 2, 4) + 10 = 41 if unsucessful perform check

Fireball: 10d6 + 20 ⇒ (4, 6, 2, 2, 4, 1, 3, 4, 5, 3) + 20 = 54 sucessful perform.

You find out what melted bone looks like. In fact some of them appear to have turned to gas.

Riva next.

Riva teleports outside the swarm and blasts a few dozen skeletons with a lightning bolt.

lightning bolt damage, Ref DC 21 half: 7d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 1, 6, 6, 3, 4) = 25

Casting defensively? You did cast right next to 3 skeletons.

The Twins say "Ah come on cuties don't you want to come with us? Lord Vordakai is really interested in you"

Dominate Person
Vallisa and Mallichatti DC 23 will save

Casting defensively? You did cast right next to 3 skeletons.

Sorry. My piece ended up in the wrong spot. When I warped the map to make a square grid rather than a rectangular one, it must have hopped a line.

Phone post.

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20will save

urk...

Oh no

I suppose we will just have to dispel it.

Spellcraft check to identify the spell-like ability: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (13) + 18 = 31