The Dark is Rising - WotW Part I (COMPLETED) (Inactive)

Game Master Darkness Rising

Being a neophyte, she would be unlikely to trust anyone...

*Sniff*

Ifrit broken hearths aside, in which order do we want to act? I say that disguising ourselves as guards with the circlet is a given, so at least we won't arise suspicion from a distance, but what do we want to do first?

Main Objectives:
1)Open the gatehouse and the bridge.
2)Kill Havelyn.

Extra objectives:
1)Kill Donnagin.
2)Make sure they haven't fixed that thing that seals the lower levels of the fortress.
3)Destroy the siege engines on the gatehouse.

I'd say we could start by the things we could do without alarming all of the fort i.e. checking if the stone seal is still broken and assassinating the paladin, at least.
Conversely, I think we should make it as so that we fire the signal just after we've opened the bridge and gatehouse: if we give them too much time, they'll just close it again, while with an horde of orcs at their doorstep their forces will probably be concentrated on trying to get them off.

One Million PP question:
1)How do we get Grumblejack back?
Escaping will already be hard enough, but how do we get back our friendly Ogre, while he's happy cleaving humies in two in the middle of a battlefield?

Remember that Sakkarot said it would take an hour or so for them to reach you after the signal is given.

Posted my thoughts in the IC thread in a spoiler.

Things we must do:
1) We need to eliminate the paladin.
2) We need to open the main gate.
3) We need to take control of the gatehouse.

Things we would like to do:
1) Eliminate the cleric.
2) Remove some guards.
3) Disable the trebuchet on the roof of the keep.
4) Search the wizards room for any useful trinkets (wands, scrolls, spell books (for the Doctor to scribe from, potions, other magic items).
5) Have some tasty snacks along the way (ok, this is just Tkaara).

Etna - I had really planned on posting about the hug, and ran out of time yesterday. And then, I completely forgot today. Will try to post a bit of a retcon for color.

I had really planned on posting about the hug, and ran out of time yesterday.

Why do I suspect it's about Etna's neck being dangerously close to Tkaara's fangs?

And wasn't the trebuchet broken? I think that killing some of the guards would be good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do that: I'd prefer if we conserved our resources to deal with Havelyn, as I suspect it will be a very difficult fight. Just slipping trough most of them would be ideal.

Just to clarify: you have discovered that the trebuchet on the roof of the keep is non-functional; it's the siege engines on the gatehouse you need to worry about!

Lets take out the paladin, then launch the rocket from the roof of the fort, before moving down and hopefully removing the cleric and taking control of the gatehouse.

Ok, that sounds solid!

I’m okay with Tkaara’s proposal – though we might want to fire off the rocket first, then attack the paladin, giving our friends some time to get to the party.

I should also say that I’m hitting a crazy busy period at work, and my posting will be limited for a while.

The real reason for firing off the rocket second is that I do not know whether we will be able to fire it off first, and, we do not want to alert the paladin, any more than he is already alerted, that we are on the attack. The difference should only be a minute or two I would think. If the battle lasts longer than that, we are in trouble.

So, paladin removal it is. And then some mopping up. I make it all sound so simple, right? :-P

We go kill the paladin in the keep right? If I'm not reading the map wrong, we should take the stairs up from where we are, go into the courtyard, enter the keep, and ascend to the top level, correct?

OK, you have 2 routes there: leave the armoury through the door and go up to the main hall via the trapdoor in room 10; or go up the stairs from the armoury into 32 and into the main hall via the path outside.

Which do you want to take?

Inside route through what appears to be the mess hall. - Room 10.

Yeah, inside route.
EDIT: let's not forget to disguise ourselves as guards with the circlets!

That route works for me - will post as I can.

On new medication and have surgery scheduled for next month. *crosses fingers* Looking forward to kicking some more self-righteous paladin butt! :D

OK, post coming up.

[popcorn]Audience ready...[/popcorn]

Oh great. Is this another campaign with a bunch of stalkers? The first law I am going to implement as the Chief Justice of Talingarde will be hamstringing of all stalkers. If that does not work, public execution by drawing and quartering will be next.

stalk stalk, stalk stalk

"Woof?"

I wonder what dog tastes like?

*Whimpers*

Due to the reticence of her companions to join her for a meal, Tkaara considers sneaking out for a quick bite with the locals.

Anyone know where our esteemed leader went? He had a ton of posts on Wednesday, and then a quick post yesterday, and has been absent today.

Too much anticipation stress. Tkaara is getting hungry.

Looks hungrily at the puppy again.

*Rolls in a basket of garlic to ward off the vampire barrister*

And dunno where DMD is: let's hope nothing happened. :/

Sorry, travelling right now. Post will be this weekend once I'm reunited with a computer.

Woohoo - he's alive.

Undead DM's just don't have the same character as living ones.

Question: Would Erevan have had the time to activate his Fiendish Boon ability as soon as they saw Lord Havelyn and his subordinates, but before actual combat started?

Ok, I didn't see the Time Stop coming. D:

I'll post in half an hour or so: considering he's in full plate and this far, I'm planning to Deja Vu him. You just have to wish for it!

Question: Would Erevan have had the time to activate his Fiendish Boon ability as soon as they saw Lord Havelyn and his subordinates, but before actual combat started?

Hmm... Yes, why not. I look forward to your write-up - I think this is the first time you've used it?

Ok, I didn't see the Time Stop coming. D:

One of the nice things about the Automatic Bonus Progression is that I get to spend NPC money on useful and interesting things, rather than the usual weapon/armour/cloak/ring combinations.

I'm not sure what the item he just used was, but does it somehow allow him to forgo rolling initiative? I surely don't mean to whine, but it seems if anyone should have had a surprise round action, it would be us. And if he saw through our disguises, then we would just go straight into initiative.

If there's something else at work here, I'm fine with that, and if we want to just leave it as is for narrative sake, I'll roll with that too, but I thought I'd raise the point.

On a related note, can we have cast some buffs before this fight? Felrin would have cast protection from good before launching into this part of the mission, given its long duration and our ability to predict more or less when the fight was going to happen.

This was narrative power at work - I'll roll initiative next round.

As for buffs, it depends on duration: anything that only lasts 1 minute/level or less you probably wouldn't have up yet, as you weren't expecting to encounter him at this stage. On the other hand, I let Erevan activate his Fiendish Boon power as soon as he saw Havelyn, so I will let you have one (1) buff of your choice active going into this round.

Hope that sounds fair.

Totally fair, thanks for that.

If she can, Tkaara will cast Bless in the buffing round.

Tkaara - that's fine

Hmm... Bless would not do anything, given that Erevan's Beacon of Evil grants morale bonuses to attack, damage and saves vs. fear as well. Since I did not see Tkaara's OOC post until now, I could of course simply change his action to something else or to just readying an attack.

Edit: Also noticed that BoE's morale bonus extends to AC as well.

That is true, but your Beacon of Evil power is pretty iconic. Tkaara, if you'd rather have something else up then you can - or we can put it down to one of those mis-communications that crops up so often in combat, given that neither of you is exactly used to your new powers at the moment.

Ok, let's go with Shield of a Faith on Erevan. It is only +2, a + 1 gain, but every bonus helps.

If we have time to cast a buff before the battle, then, Etna will cast Mage Armor: it lasts several hours so it makes sense that she casted it when the group entered the fort, but I forgot about it. <.<

I think he means one short duration buff. I am sure that you would have cast Mage Armor in the dungeon well ahead of time since it lasts 5 hours.

Anyone have thoughts for the good Doctor? I would think that his pre-buff would be his mutagen. Also, with a duration of 10 minutes/level (50 minutes), I would think that he would have used a Barkskin formulae. Round 1, being in the dark, would likely be enlarge person, especially since the paladin just pulled off the same stunt.

This combo would take him through the end of the first round.

We can wait on AsmodeusUltima to post, but he has not posted in several days, and I do not want to hold this fight up since it may take a while anyway (barring some well timed crits.)

That sounds like a good plan, and what he would likely do, Tkaara.

That sounds reasonable. Let's hope he gets better soon. :(

Hey guys. So, fun story: my car got stolen. That was a hell of a day. The police found it later the same day, minus the radio, but otherwise okay, so I got off lucky.

Still almost a month til my scheduled surgery, but tomorrow I am supposed to call a specialist about making an appointment for another problem.

For long-duration buffs, I will have barkskin and mutagen up. For the pre-battle buff, shield. First round of combat, blur.

Yikes. Thanks for posting, under the circumstances! I'll get the next round going.

Moving the rules queries to the Discussion thread; I think that Grease does prevent a 5ft step, and that the hall is sufficiently illuminated that the Darkness spell doesn't prevent Havelyn seeing Felrin, although it does give a miss chance which I will roll when I know that he actually gets to attack.

EDIT: do you think that someone teleporting in creates a surprise round? If so, does their arrival create the surprise round (giving them a Standard action after they arrive), or does the teleporting count as their action for the surprise round?

Asking for a friend

The Almighty Grease strikes again!

PS: For future questions regarding Darkness et co, there's this blog post where they clarified most of the corner cases.

Not that it would have made any difference in this fight, but Tkaara's Init is now +10, not +5.

I figured that it was probably normal light, but thought that I would ask. Dim light should be a 20% miss chance if he does not have Darkvision.

Wow, I kind of figured others would be moving into the fight with me. I'm quite curious to see the outcome of the miss chance rolls - because if both of those attacks hit, Felrin is very dead.