Shattered Star

Game Master Zesdead

I'm game to try Teldon's idea unless someone has a better one; given my luck with the dice lately (and since Bri has no Dex modifiers) I'm not sure I feel brave enough to risk just swinging across :P

yeah, once you factor in Armor Check Penalty i think i'm at +0 on that roll... Jo's gotta be at a negative, and (IIRC) Briana just upgraded to scale mail which probably puts your total modifier around what -4?

At a DC5 check, Zee still has a 10% chance of failure... and certian death! I like the "mage hand the ring of feather falling-in-a-sack" idea!

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

"Teldon, I like your idea of Nalathi using her new-found telekinetic ability to bring back Joanna's ring of feather fall back to the next in line. We can also use that harness we recovered from Natalya to attach a rope to whover is swinging across-- in case of a fall, we could then reel that person back in, so that he or she does not need to climb all those stairs again.

She looks at everyone. "So, who will be first?"

Nalathi shrugs. "Well you've got the ring, Zee. You go first."

Is Joanna coming back? I know she said she'll be gone until the new year, but...

I noticed that Joanna's player mentioned they planned to pick back up with the games they're GMing around the second week/weekend of January so hopefully we'll see something soon.

"Joanna or Zee should probably go first." Briana carefully peers over the side. "I hope everyone can swim should someone fall..."

"Fair enough."

Zee straps on Natalya's burglary harness, and attaches a rope to the back. Leaving at least 30 feet of slack, she hands the other end to everyone else, who grip the rope firmly.

Slipping on Joanna's ring, she then stands at the ledge and grips one of the ropes to swing across. Forcing herself not to look down, she mutters, "Ce naiba fac?"

She then swings across.

Acrobatics (DC 5): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

I am VERY glad we have that ring...

Swinging across, Zee completely misjudges the amount of force needed to make it to the platform, pushing off far too vigorously. She lets go of the rope as her foot touches the platform, but her momentum carries her forward and she spins awkwardly on the edge. Sticking out her arms, she comically flails them in an effort to steady herself, but she then slips off the platform into the 200-foot void below.

Zee shouts a few words.

Fortunately, the magic of Joanna's ring causes her to fall like a leaf in the wind.

Despite logically knowing that Zee would be fine, Briana still utters a cry of dismay as she watches her companion teeter and then fall. Fortunately, the ring's magic takes effect and she breathes a sigh of relief as Zee begins to float downward instead of plummet.

Gripping the rope attached to Zee's harness, Briana prepares to help pull her back up.

Strength: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10

Pulling hard against the rope, Teldon tentatively calls out, "not too loud, we don't want to attract undue attention!"

As he, Briana, Nalathi, and mostly Joanna work to haul her back in, he stares off into the distance and then says, "I've had a thought... that girl said that some of her companions would be through some time today... perhaps before we head deeper in we should set an ambush out here so we can eliminate some of the opposition on our own terms? That sort of tactical advantage can make a big difference in the outcome of a fight..."

"Zee!" she cries out in surprise as the woman topples over the ledge. Together with the others, they pull her back up. At least now we know the ring works. "You all right?"

"Well...that seems sensible enough. But we don't really know when they're supposed to come through and she didn't seem to have an exact idea either. Do we want to risk spending most of the day waiting on this level for them to show up?"

With the assistance of her friends, Ziomarra scrambles back over the ledge, her heart racing.

She sprawls on the floor for a moment, muttering to herself, "'Alătura-vă Calea Telemetri,' au spus ei... 'A se vedea lumea, explora ruine, găsi secretele pierdute,' au spus ei. 'Acesta va fi distractiv și interesant,' au spus..."

She sighs deeply, and then starts to get back to her feet. "Yes, I'm fine. I think."

"Um, Zee? Teldon suggested that we might want to actually wait for the next round of Tower Girls to head this way and then ambush them here, so we might not have as many to deal with past the trapdoor. What do you think?" Briana says tentatively, a little fearful of what the woman's reaction will be after having put herself at risk. "It makes sense, but we might also be able get more exploration done today if we go ahead and push on now. Who knows when the next group is going to pass this way?"

"That might be a good idea. Or I can go across and see if there's anything to see over there."

"We would have the potential to explore further today if we move on right away," Teldon says thoughtfully, "the trade-off, of course, is that there will be more Tower Girls and wererats in the same amount of space, thus increasing the chances that any altercations will draw the attention of additional enemies... plus then any fights, which seem inevitable from the informant's comments, will take place in territory they are familiar with but we are in for the first time..."

The wiry young would-be explorer drifts off, once again, into quiet contemplation, then asks earnestly, "Which is more important for us, that we move quickly in the hopes of finding and defeating this Ayala before she retrieves the next shard, or that we move carefully so that we have the most possible available resources when we have to fight her? In my opinion, that is the question that ultimately determines our course of action."

After weighing Teldon's words, Briana seems to settle on something. "I can't disagree with the logic of taking our time and being cautious. Why don't we compromise - let Nalathi scout ahead to see what's just beyond the trapdoor, but unless she finds something that we should deal with quickly, we wait for the next group of Tower Girls."

Moving things along a little / and going with the compromise option of Nalathi scouting ahead

After Ziomarra's 'a bit too exciting' attempt to swing out to the platform, Nalathi has a much better idea of how hard to push away when swinging out on the rope...with the ground disappearing from underneath her and the wind in her ears, she acrobatically lands on the suspended platform. Tethered against various bits of masonry, it barely moves underneath her...using her trident, she manages to dislodge the trapdoor and pull the rope ladder that flops out towards her...

Climbing up, she disappears from view of everyone else...

Nalathi - Clambering up into, what for most people would be, a cramped passageway, you head southwards coming out in a wider passageway that heads westwards. The walls along this short passage bear murals showing strangely dressed priests placing bodies into crypts. Several niches in the walls may have once been burial crypts themselves, but today, the hall is strewn with bones and the niches lay empty.

Far to the west, you can hear the sound of water splashing and can see reflected light illuminating the walls of a large room.

Assuming I'm still within 110 ft of the party...

Looks like all's clear. Nalathi wishes she had an easy way of communicating this to the others. On an instinct, she speaks it aloud. "All's clear," she whispers into the darkness. "There's light and water up ahead. I'll go check it out." Her magic carries her voice behind her toward her allies. She moves forward, hoping for a closer look.

Using message. DC 25 Perception to hear it.

Nalathi, could I get a Stealth and a Perception roll?

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

As they wait for Nalathi to return, Briana attempts to keep her ears open for signs of trouble. However, she finds herself easily distracted by the view from the top of the piling.

You can see everything from up here! What a fantastic painting this would make...

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Sweet!

I think the DC 25 check is to overhear it if anyone is nearby... We hear it automatically (if we're valid target)

"Don't get too far ahead or we won't be able to reach you if there's trouble..." Teldon whispers back to the wind...

Creeping forwards, Nalathi moves past a number of large alcoves which have been painted with images of various creatures in flight…birds, dragons, humans… and, at the last moment, notices a tripwire running across the corridor. Skipping across it, she moves further towards the light (tracing the tripwire mechanism along the corridor as she goes).

Arriving at the corner of a large room, she peeks around to see that the light originates from a lantern sitting on the lip of a fountain in the western wall of a room to the north. A tinkling rill of water runs from a demon-shaped mouth on the wall into the fountain...presumably the running water that she heard earlier.

And, totally involved in the methodical sharpening of her sword, a woman in midnight black leather armour sits at the edge of the fountain…whilst a second woman is curled up asleep in a bedroll just beyond the fountain.

…it is about now that Nalathi realises she is beyond the range of her new-found ability to whisper on the wind…

Nalathi has not been seen / observed by the women in the room.

As Ziomarra gets to her feet, she mutters, "Vreau o băutură."

She retrieves a tin hip flask and takes a swig. She offers the flask around. "Chelish brandy?"

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12 ...nope!

"I wonder how Nalathi is faring."

Oh ok, I get it now. Misread the spell. Yea we'll say I targeted Teldon there, since he responded first :-) so it's DC 25 Perception for everyone else.

She could probably get around these women without being noticed, but her job was to scout ahead and now she's done that. She heads back the way she came to rejoin the party, and describes to them the fountain and the women next to it.

"Well, whenever we end up moving forward, two will be easier to deal with than three. And thanks to Nalathi, we know to watch for the tripwire they've rigged," Briana says, sounding a little more cheerful than before. "Not to mention even if they heard any of us approaching, they're probably more likely to think it's their companions from the first guard post than intruders." With the scouting done, she looks back the way they first came. "Okay, so where should we set up our ambush? Maybe some in this room right here and then some in the room beyond to try and have them surrounded before they know anything is amiss?"

"There are several places in this area where we could gain a tactical advantage even beyond the element of surprise... but we need to know for certain from which direction they'll be coming..." Teldon replies thinking over the layout of the floor. "We never asked our informant if the girls who would be passing through would be coming out or in; that will obviously make a difference in the ideal preparations. If they're headed in, perhaps it would be simpler to keep moving... We could tie up the ropes behind us to prevent them from swinging out to the platform and grease the supports with oil to hopefully dissuade them from climbing across... That likely won't stop them but it might delay them until we've recovered the shard- when they find out their leader is dead and their quest failed they may lose the appetite for combat?"

"Or, it might just give them time to set an ambush of their own," he adds with a shrug.

"Come to think of it, she spoke as if that Terisha woman from yesterday hasn't come back yet. Her and her friends might not be the ones the woman was talking about, but they would certainly be coming in from the outside. And if that's the case, we probably would be better served by moving forward, at least to where Nalathi scouted."

she's one room away... it might not hurt to double check...

"What? Who?....oh....", roused from slumber, the bound Tower Girl takes a few minutes to collect her thoughts... "So you haven't gone further in then?" and then, confirming what Briana had remembered, "Terisha is still city-side but she won't return until darkness...if Ayala does send the girls out tonight they'll go to the boats a little before dusk. We always check the harbour traffic before heading out...easier to do that with some daylight"

"Thanks." She turns to the others. "Well, let's keep going then. Better to be further in when Terisha gets back; she won't have as many friends to call that way."

Sound good to everyone? If you are moving in, you can post for crossing out to the platform (individually or, to keep things ticking along, one post for all...whoever feels most inspired!!!) ...and then I'll need stealth rolls if you are to sneak up on the Tower Girls

With no one taking her up on her offer of a swig of Chelish brandy an hour after dawn, Ziomarra takes another swig from her flask, closes it, and tucks it back in her pocket.

She draws a Harrow card for inspiration.

The Publican

Zee smiles to herself, and looks to her friends.

"The card of friendship and camaraderie. I know you won't let me fall!"

She dons Joanna's ring and attaches the second-story harness again, handing the rope to everyone else as before. She then swings across again.

Acrobatics (DC5): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Landing hard on the platform, she teeters on the edge again, arms flailing. But this time she manages to regain her footing. Unstrapping the harness, she ties the ring securely into one of its straps.

"Okay, Nalathi, use your magic to bring this back over. Or, just reel in the rope."

Zee admires the view from the platform for a long moment, then opens the trap door above her.

Whenever her turn happens to come up...

Okay...just do what Zee did and you'll be fine. She made it across the second time, didn't she?

"Come on, Rowenna..." she calls, gathering up the extremely reluctant cat and placing her within her familiar satchel, which after a moment of thought, she straps to her back along with her backpack and the rest of her equipment.

Carefully donning both the climbing harness and the magic ring, Briana fixates her eyes on the platform and attempts to swing across just like her companion did previously.

Acrobatics (DC 5): 1d20 - 4 ⇒ (16) - 4 = 12

After getting a bit of a running start to compensate for the weight of her armor, Briana swings across the gap - an unhappy yowl coming from the satchel as she does so - and manages to land on the platform without losing her footing.

"Let's...let's try to minimize how often we have to do this," she gasps as she prepares the harness and the ring to be sent back across to the next person. "I don't think my nerves could handle having to do that every day! How do those Tower Girls manage it?"

At her friend's rhetorical question, Zee looks down at the surf below and deadpans, "Practice, I would imagine."

Yea, we can assume I bring the ring/harness over each time.

Following the leads of the others, she swings herself across again.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Whoa! Her foot slips at the last moment, threatening to send her down the way Zee went the first time. Instinct kicks in and she corrects herself, bringing herself safely to the other side. "That was close."

sorry if Teldon seemed to be waffling on things... He was taught that intelligence is the warrior's first weapon and, honestly, probably would have put a much bigger stink about setting an ambush but we've been having some trouble getting our rhythm/momentum back so I figured we'd be better off moving on...

acrobatics: 1d20 ⇒ 8

also (GM), I suspect you're hesitant to use Joanna's resources but an out of combat lay hands would save (or at least delay) me from needing in combat heals later...

After Teldon swings out to the platform all eyes turn to Joanna who, encumbered by her armour, is about as far from acrobatic as it is possible to get. Grudgingly, she removes her breastplate and shield, ties them to the rope and swings them across to whoever is left on the platform, before swinging across herself...

Joanna, Acrobatics: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Landing catlike on the platform, she smiles to herself before following everyone else up the rope ladder and into the cramped tunnel. It takes a few minutes of scrabbling through for everyone other than the diminutive wayang but soon enough you are into the main corridor that Nalathi had described...

Whispering a prayer to Iomedae, Joanna presses warm hands against the wound left by the Wererat...the wound knits closed leaving freshly pink skin...

Joanna, Lay on Hands on Teldon: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Moving you forward

Nalathi points out the trip-wire as you follow the corridor towards the light...Peeking around, unnoticed still, you see that the Tower Girl is still sharpening her sword whilst her companion sleeps on...

As the group manages to reach the corner undetected, Briana quietly draws her mace once more. With the expectation that diplomacy to try and head off a battle will probably be ineffective, she instead readies her magic, hoping it will prove as effective as it did in the previous scuffle.

Readied action to cast Daze on the sword-sharpener.

Clinging to the shadows, she creeps around the corner, closer to the as-yet unsuspecting girls.

Stealth: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20

Teldon leans in close to Zee and Briana and as quietly as he possibly can whispers, "why don't you try to lure her past Nalathi? Call out that Terisha has returned but she's hurt and you need a hand pulling her up here... she likely won't suspect anything when she hears a woman's voice and if she comes over here we can attempt to deal with her with much less danger of her waking her friend or escaping deeper in..."

As Nalathi creeps forward, unseen thus far, Joanna raises her eyebrows atvTwldon's suggestion. She looks to Briana and Ziomarra for their opinions on the idea.

Also known as GMPC doesn't take story driving actions unless things slow down...Briana / Ziomarra, are you going to put Teldon's plan into action?

In the interests of moving things along, sure, Briana will take Teldon's plan and run with it...or at least attempt to!

"I suppose it's worth a try," Briana whispers, somewhat hesitantly. She tries thinking back to what Terisha's two companions from yesterday sounded like, as well as the names of the women who had been at the first guard post.

One of them called out 'Nayven'; that must have been the one we spoke to, since she identified the wererat as Sasha and the woman who fell as Embyr.

Nervously clearing her throat, Briana calls out, "Hey, could you give us a hand? We made it back with the shard but that Natalya b**** put up more of a fight than we'd thought; Terisha's hurt and we need a little help pulling her up the ladder," trying very hard to imitate the voice of one of Terisha's companions. "Nayven and Embyr are too lazy to help, but no surprise there."

Bluff (Untrainted): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

The Tower Girl almost drops her sword in surprise; whether it is the sudden interruption to her contemplation or the idea of Terisha being hurt, you can't tell. Leaving her companion to slumber on, she grabs the lantern and runs around the corner to assist...

...and, inconceivably for such a discrete hideout, is confronted by a bunch of strangers...and, worse still, is surrounded.

Initiative for Party / Enemy

Nalathi: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Briana: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15
Ziomarra: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Teldon: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
Joanna: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

Tower Girl: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

Initiative Order
Nalathi, Ziomarra, Joanna, Briana, Teldon then
Tower Girl

Everyone may take a Surprise Action plus their first Turn now

Surprise round: move to close, drawing trident.
First round: poke!

She draws her trident and dashes in before the woman has time to react, willing her magic to enhance the weapon like it had before.

Trident (vs flat-footed): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Damage: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 1 = 8

The Tower Girl, barely seeing Nalathi before she stabs forward, yelps in pain...

Beyond the fountain, the water burbling keeps the second of the Tower Girls soothed and asleep...

Zee draws her spell deck and holds it up, displaying the bottom card to the Tower Girl.

The Lost

Evil Eye hex: -2 to saving throws for next 6 rounds. Will save DC 14 reduces to 1 round.

"I'm sorry about this," Briana says as she calls upon her magic that has, so far, proven quite useful today. "ჯერ კიდევ!"

Casting Daze, DC 13 Will save :)

The Tower Girl's attention is swiftly drawn from the wayang to the Harrow reader before her...and, moments later, she drifts into a reverie...

Tower Girl, Will Save vs Evil Eye: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20, Will Save Made, -2 to saves for 1 round

Tower Girl, Will Save vs Daze (Evil Eye): 1d20 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 1 - 2 = 0, Will Save Failed, Tower Girl is Dazed

Everyone may take a bunch of turns now...what are you doing with the dazed Tower Girl (relatively quickly)? What about the sleeping Tower Girl?

surprise round:
As the tower girl rounds the corner and comes face to face with her attackers, Teldon shifts to flank with Nalathi and attempts to stab her with his longspear...
Flank vs FF: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9; for: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

first round:
Before the stunned girl can even react, hebstabs at her again, and then moves around her to cut off any chance of escape...
flank vs FF: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7; for: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

ouch- looks like I used up all my combat ability against that wererat

GMPC action for Joanna to bring this to a quick close

Seeing her opportunity as the Tower Girl's attention drifts elsewhere, Joanna moves forward and, with a mailed fist, strikes her hard on the temple...the Tower Girl slumps to the floor unconscious but alive.

Joanna, Unarmed Strike vs Tower Girl 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15, hitting for 1d3 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 non-lethal

Next actions?