Seadogs and Scallywags

Game Master Grymp

Ok, so Doc knocks out Z2 and Z3.

Ethron handles Z4. (great job Ethron!)

You've battled through the six Brine Zombies, and behind them, on the deck of the Deathknell you see Captain Whalebone Pilk standing tall on the quarterdeck next to the ship's bell. Pilk is a skeletal version of the man he once must have been.

Ask questions based on your skill roll. Visually you can see he is carrying a harpoon and wearing a chain shirt.

Now that Alessandra made the Knowledge(local) check, I would encourage everyone to read the associated spoiler.

Hopefully the link to the image above works for you.

Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26 Beat the DC by 10, so I get two questions. Any weaknesses/special defenses? Considering the name, does it have a special attack/ability we should be worried about?

"Ohh...you're a big guy, ain'tcha? We're going to have some fun. I can tell.

The half-orc girl licks her blood-red lips. "Been waiting to try this trick out. Big guy, you say? I know all about big guys - they fall hard."

Carefully selecting an arrow from her quiver, she slowly and deliberately pulls back on the bowstring, aiming for the thing's leg.

Using my Ranged Trip feat to do a ... oh hells, YOU work it out. Full round action.

Ranged trip attack vs CMD: 1d20 + 5 + 1 + 5 - 2 ⇒ (15) + 5 + 1 + 5 - 2 = 24

If that works, he also takes damage

Damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 1 = 7

Know:Religion: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

That is the captain. He liked his bell so much, maybe we should steal it or break it.

@Ethron - He has the standard undead traits, no special defenses, but he does have a special attack common to all breath takers. It is cleverly called "Steal Air" that has a 10' range. If you give me 6 seconds, I will show you how it works.

@Alessandra - your attack fails to trip Whalebone Pilk.

"Pretty darn ugly, that's what it is! "

Doc isn't very keen to find out what Breath-takers do, so he just tosses a Tanglefoot bomb to keep the late captain in place. But looks like a gust of wind carries his bomb from away from the target.

Tanglefoot bomb,PBS : 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Damage : 3d6 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (3, 3, 4) + 5 + 1 = 16

Chaenath hits Pilk with an Evil Eye Hex targeting his Saves and Cackles to extend it.

-2 to all saves for 10 rounds 18 Will save reduces to 2

Does Breathtaker mean he is awed by how pretty we are?

Chaenath's mind affecting hex fails to awe Pilk.

Doc's bomb does miss!

Ethron and Alessandra are both injured, so Sandara will channel.

channel: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25 Success, half damage for Pilk.

Ethron, any action this round?

Evil Eye should still be active for 2 rounds

Evil Eye should still be active for 2 rounds

Evil Eye is a Mind Affecting hex. Undead are not affected by Mind affecting magic of any sort.

The various type, and their standard traits can be found here.

Having a little distance between him and the walking corpse of a captain, Ethron spins his blade, waves his hands, and starts reciting lines of prayer under his breath before he puts both hands over his falcata with a final shout. An ancient rune of fire appears near the hilt as the blade erupts into flames.

Casting Flames of the Faithful. My sword is now Flaming Burst, dealing an extra 1d6 of fire damage with a successful hit, and an extra 2d10 fire damage on a crit.

"Oy Captain! Ever had a drink with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

Ethron rushes up to the captain, ready for the next move. Move action to close the distance between us.

Pilk steps back 5' and hurls his harpoon at Ethron.

Harpoon: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 201d8 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

That hits, so he gets a free grapple on Ethron.

Grapple: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22 success

Ethron is grappled by the harpoon.

Ok, the party is up!

Ethron bites back a yell of pain as the harpoon pierces through his side, the barbs poking out through his back. He tries to brake himself free of the harpoon, but to no avail.

Break Grapple: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

"Ouch! At least ye got 'is weapon now, Ethron!"

While the previous bomb failed, Doc thinks the tactic was still good. He prepares another bomb, and this flies much better.
Tanglefoot bomb,PBS : 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Damage: 3d6 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (2, 4, 3) + 5 + 1 = 15

DC 17 ref save or entangled

Chaenath moves up to Ethron with a thoughtful expression on her face. Do you like getting hurt Ethron? Some people do you know. You can tell me.

Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 3) + 5 = 15

Ethron failed to get free.

Doc nails Pilk hard.

Reflex: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 - 2 = 15 Fail (because he is grappled with Ethron)

Chaenath heals Ethron.

Sandara casts CMW and moves forward to touch Pilk.

Touch: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 172d8 + 3 ⇒ (5, 4) + 3 = 12

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10 Fail

Pilk takes full damage from the spell!

Pilk reaches out to touch Ethron with an incorporeal touch attack:

Steal Air: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12

I believe that hits, Ethron, do you agree?

If so, make a Fort Save DC 17, or take

Con DMG: 1d4 ⇒ 3 and become fatigued.

It should be readily apparent that Ethron is in a very dire situation should he fail this Fort save. On the flip side, if he makes the save, no worries!

Ethron and Pilk are both grappled, so spellcasters need not fear AOOs and such.

This is my attack for the previous round (sorry for delay in posting)

Having failed first time, Alessandra tries again to trip their skeletal enemy.

Ranged Trip vs CMD: 1d20 + 5 + 5 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (18) + 5 + 5 + 1 - 2 = 27

If that works, he takes damage

Damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 1 = 7

As Ethron falls, grappled, Alessandra scowls. "Get to him, Red! And get out the way!" This is aimed at Sandara; she's not suited to get involved in fighting, in Alessandra's view. She has vivid memories of having to rescue the cleric - and the scars to go with it.

Action for this round:

Concentrating on her (hopefully prone) target, Alessandra looses a volley of arrows.

Longbow: 1d20 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 2 = 16
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 2 + 4 = 15

Longbow: 1d20 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 2 = 27
Damage: 1d8 + 1 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 2 + 4 = 15

My apologies, I thought Alessandra had acted already!

Ok, so Alessandra did indeed trip Pilk in the previous round.

I don't see that you took the -4 for shooting at a prone target this round though, so I think your arrows effectively hit AC 12 and 23. The first misses, and the second hits.

Yeah, figured it was easier for you to add in if he was tripped than for me to include it and then have to take it out

EDIT: Being entangled, Pilk has no protection against Alessandra's merciless accuracy.

Sneak attack damage vs entangled opponent: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 5) = 6

Will see if Ethron needs more healing or if I should attack Pilk

If steal air is an attack roll, then natural 1 always misses

If steal air is an attack roll, then natural 1 always misses

Holy moly, you are right! I totally missed that I rolled a 1!

So disregard all mortal concern about the immediacy of Ethron's death!

At least until next round!

Seeing that Ethron is nominally okay Chaenath slings an Ear Piercing Scream at Pilk

Ear Piercing scream: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5

Dazed for one round Fort Save DC 16 to negate daze and halve damage. This action went better in my head.

Fort: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8 Fail

Chaenath's scream bites into Pilk, who drops his harpoon.

Pilk crumbles to the deck, as do all of the brine zombies up and down the deck that have been battling your crew. The Deathknell begins to shake and shiver as you feel it starting to be torn asunder under your feet.

We are still in rounds, although, for no particular reason, I will start counting the rounds at 1 again.

Anyone who hasn't already acted in this round, can still act, before we move to round 2. Ethron is still "grappled" by the harpoon, which has 50' of rope attached to it and is tied to the main mast.

This action went better in my head.

It appears to have worked out well in reality too.

Wohoo! What happened to the bell?

Wohoo! What happened to the bell?

It's still sitting right there on its stanchion on the deck.

Chaenath points at the bell. I think if we don't get rid of that, Pilk comes back.

We are still in rounds, although, for no particular reason, I will start counting the rounds at 1 again.

"no particular reason" - riiiiiiiiiight... :)

Sandara shrugs her shoulders, "makes sense, but what's the plan?"

"I'm just an NPC, and have no problem solving ability myself!"

If I'm grappled, but the rope is tied to the mast, can I still move up to the mast/bell or cut the rope?

"Ahhh...this hurts like hell..." Ethron tries to get out of the Captain's grapple.

Break Grapple: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16 Still not free, am I?

"We...need to break that bell..."

Ethron is free. That was your standard action this round.

Still awaiting Doc's action for round 1.

The others can go ahead and give me actions, or notional actions, for rounds say 2-5. Roll dice as appropriate.

Profession (Sailor) : 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30

"Ye got one minute before she sinks beneath the waves! Why ye care so much fer some bell?! "

If destroying get the bell seems so important, Rogar gives the a try with a bomb.
Bomb damage: 3d6 + 5 ⇒ (3, 4, 2) + 5 = 14

Damaging an object, I am to cut the energy damage in half first, right, and then apply hardness?

In that case, Rogar's bomb does no damage to the bell.

Ok, the party is up again! Round 2.

Ethron looks back over the Death Knell with a sigh. "I have a feeling we're not ready for this...cut the lines, get off this ship, set it behind us...and pray Pharasma gives this ship and crew a proper death."

Before heading off the ship, Ethron grabs the harpoon that was stuck in his side. Standard Action to pick it up, Move Action to get back to the Chimera.

Ok, everyone ok with cutting and running.

Alessandra has already cut and run, the moment Pilk vanished. She's disappointed; she was hoping to get his skull to scrimshaw as a trophy. The bell doesn't interest her - she isn't much into abstract thought and her approach to problem-solving has not yet evolved beyond the "see problem, kill the person causing it" school.

It has served her well so far.

You know nothing of ghosts.Chaenath tuts as Swum tries to bite the bell and runs back to the ship whimpering. Tie ropes to it and attach it to our ship so we can drag it on board and break it at our leisure

You attach ropes to the bell, and as your ship pulls away, and the Deathknell goes under, the ropes go tight, you hear a load ripping noise, the ropes part, and the deadly force tied up in them springs back at your ship, but the bell remains on the Deathknell as it disappears beneath the surface of the sea.

Alright, so you have survived Whalebone Pilk and the Deathknell. Not many can claim this. What is your plan for the rest of today?

"Don't know 'bout ye, but I be needin' a drink. Or two... Or make it four!"

He'll be... baaaaaack!

Oh yes, yes he will.

The next morning, you can find no trace of Pilk's harpoon. Odd thing that!

The very next night. You hear the ship's bell clanking in the distance, as a fog rolls in, and the Deathknell rises up out of the darkness.

What's the plan?

We need something that can hurt metal. We do not need to kill Pilk. We need to kill his bell

Chaenath taps her foot So obvious

Any Knowledge check on how best to damage something like the bell. Would something like acid maybe work well against it?

As the bell is made of brass, and as acid does affect brass, I will rule that acid will affect the bell without needing its damage halved, and it will ignore hardness.

Alessandra's eyes light up. "You mean I can keep on killing him over and over again and he'll just come back for more?! Fantastic! And it's not even my birthday - though it might be, at that..."

The girl has no idea of when she was actually born; she's been 'about 16' for some years now.

In a MMO, you could conceivably "farm" this encounter over and over for XP and loot. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way here, hahaha.

Can't even farm the +1 harpoon!

You can keep killing him. Ethron can keep getting harpooned by him but this fog is bo-ring

*tap* *tap* *tap*

The real risk is that someone fails that fort save, and bad things start happening quickly when fighting Pilk.