The Devil We Know Series (Part IV: The Rules of the Swift) (Inactive)

Game Master Baerlie

"Noooo cries Iso, swinging again.

"My Axe Will Cut You."

attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26
damage: 1d12 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

Celentrai attempt to distract the creature with frost.
Ray of Frost: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Tippy continues to fling daggers at the elemental and hits, but the daggers don't leave a scratch in the elemental's skin. DR5 Iso's axe instead leaves a big gap in the elemental's shell. Celentrai throws a ray of frost at the creature and hits.

Round 2
Tippy
Borrobol
Iso
-----
Earth Elemental -19HP
-----
Celentrai

FYI that creatures with reach don't suffer the same limitations of those of us that fight with reach weapons.
Borrobol grunts at the heavy hit delivered by the elemental, but sets his feet and swings back with a blow to rock it right back.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (4, 4) + 12 = 20
Confirm: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Extra Damage if confirmed: 2d6 + 12 + 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 5) + 12 + (6, 5) + 12 = 46

Oh what the hell, I'm using my reroll on that confirm roll!
Confirm: 1d20 + 6 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 5 = 22
That's more like it!

Elementals are generally immune to crits, so probably no point in blowing your reroll on it

Aerondor is right, "Not subject to critical hits or flanking. Does not take additional damage from precision-based attacks, such as sneak attack." as it says in the PRD ;) Save the reroll. And I handled the reach thing wrong may whole (GM) life, great XD

Borrobol hits the earth elemental hard, causing its skin to break more and more.

The earth elemental tries to hit Iso in front of it.
Slam left: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32 Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 3) + 7 = 13
Slam right: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34
Confirm: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16 Damage: 4d6 + 14 ⇒ (1, 3, 3, 5) + 14 = 26

Round 2 & 3
Tippy
Borrobol
Iso
-----
Earth Elemental -34HP
-----
Celentrai

Totally right about crits. Why is it I always forget about that on the player side of the screen and always remember it on the GM side :)
Seeing the battle is going to be a quick and brutal once, Borrobol girds himself for another blow, only to see Iso take the next hits. Knowing the party won't be able to stand long in front of such a fierce foe without healing, he braces himself again and swings the hammer hard again slamming into the elemental.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 5) + 12 = 18

Realizing that he is about as useful here as boots on a snake, Tippy draws two more daggers and tries to ignore the battle as he watches for other dangers.

Delay.

Realizing this battle must end quickly Celentrai lets loose with missiles.
Magic Missile: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (1, 4) + 2 = 7

"ugh" moans Iso, somewhat staggered by the force of the blows.

His rage takes him through the pain and his axe swings hard against the elemental.
attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24
damage: 1d12 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Borrobols hits the elemental once more and while Tippy waits for the fight to come to an and Celentrai shoots a magic missile and Iso attacks it with his axe.

The earth elemental slams at Borrobol.
Slam left: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33 Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 3) + 7 = 13
Slam right: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32 Damage: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (2, 2) + 7 = 11

Round 3 & 4
Tippy
Borrobol
Iso
-----
Earth Elemental -63HP
-----
Celentrai

"Friend Borrbol!" froths Iso, who continues to hack away with his axe as fast as he can.

attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21
damage: 1d12 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

"Arrghhhhh"

"That'll leave a mark! How about this!" Borrobol manages to spit out nothing but an idle threat. Dizzy from the pair of brutal slams, he misses wildly and takes a step back to try to get out of reach of the elemental's rocky mitts.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 6) + 12 = 19

"Die already" Celetrai shouts
Magic Missle: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Celentrai shoots another magic missile at the elemental while Tippy continues to watch for anything unusual in the room. Iso's axe hits the beast, but Borrobol's attack misses. Nevertheless the large elemental drops and causes the ground to shake before it disappears.

combat over

"Oy! Now that was a fight! Think you can learn to summon those Celentrai. I want them on our side next time!"

Iso slumps to the ground, panting.

"Friends. That earth demon was the toughest that Iso have ever fought!"

He pants and grabs a quick drink.

"Even mighty Iso would have fallen without you all. Iso is proud to fight by your sides. Iso is still very sore."

"Does everyone have healing potions? We should heal ourselves before we move on."

"Iso only had potions he bought for friend Tippy. Iso Never gets hurt. Not like this. Iso is very sorry to delay friends."

It may be another trip back to the market.

Celentrai pulls out two potions.
"Here these may help"

Iso downs the two potions.

CLWx2: 2d8 + 2 ⇒ (5, 6) + 2 = 13

"Bluuurrrpppp"

He looks much better than before. Though given that before one of his arms looked like it may have been dislocated that doesn't say much.

"My thanks Friend Celentrai."

Borrobol downs all four of his potions, "Much better, but I still ache. We might want to go for more potions before going any further. Especially if there are more of them around."
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Some lucky rolls there bring me up to 34/44 hp, but I'd vote for going back to pick up enough that we have four for each of us (or whatever you can afford.

Nobody can use a wand of CLW can they?

Iso nods sorely. "More nice bottles."

Then his eyes brighten "And ale to wash them down?"

Perhaps we could pay a cleric to use our wands for us.

That would be a pretty nice option. I think we all have them and I think the only time I've gotten to use it was someplace in Silent Tide. Unusual group where we have no one capable of using the wands!

Actually Iso has never bought a wand. He's a cheepskate who normally relies on finding potions, or killing stuff before it hurts him.

Although he probably has someone in the society who'd be willing to do him a favor for all of his great deeds by now.

I'm sure he does. I'll probably just spend the $$. A little short on prestige after buying a keep :-) I have plans to retrain up HP to make him an even more impressive hp bag than he is today. And that all takes PP

If somebody of you has a wand available, I'm sure one of the clerics in the constabulary team will use it on you. If not, you find potions at the market ;)

Celentrai pulls out her wand and approaches one of the clerics. "Excuse me but do you think you could use this on my friends please?"

Just let me know how many charges you need so I can mark them off.

Since I have a wand, I'll just mark my own charges...
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
3 charges and I'll buy two more potions while I'm out there for 100 gp.

Asusming that Celentrai is willing to use it, Iso is happy to go and buy a 'broken wand' - Infernal Healing. He doesn't generally need in combat heals, and he has a lot of hp, so the infernal healing works out more efficient

Celentrai does not know how to use the wand. she asked a cleric outside to use it for her.
"Iso you look like you could be healed a little bit too. Come over here and let the healer help you."

Just roll the heals and let me know how many charges you use.

CLW: 4d8 + 4 ⇒ (3, 1, 7, 7) + 4 = 22

"Thank you friend Celentrai. That is much appreciated."

Ten down, that should hopefully be okay. I was thinking that if I bought an infernal healing wand, Celentrai would be able to use that though.

Actually, Tippy interrupts Celentrai. Since Iso bought the healing potions used on him, he offers his wand to heal Iso, insisting the barbarian use another charge to finish his healing.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8 Leaves Iso at 2 down.

You take a break to tend to your wounds and once everybody feels better you prepare yourself to investigate further. ready to proceed?

Ios stretches his mighty armes.

"Iso is always ready!"

And stomps on toward the church.

You move on and the big man opens the biggest door he can see, the double door to the north. Broken furniture litters the room behind: parts of a stool, a modest writing table battered in twain, and several smashed chairs sprawl across the keep’s wooden floor.

Two sets of stairs, one in the northeast corner and one in the northwest corner, lead down.

Iso scratches his beard, and then heads south. After a moment he realizes that there are ladies present and stops.

"Iso thought bells hung up not down."

"You're usually right." Borrobol looks skyward to see if he can see any evidence of a bell or bell tower.

Iso nods wisely. "Iso is Very Smart."

The Cleaver Barbarian(tm) moves to the eastern door and opens it.

Celentrai laughs and follow Borrobol & Iso into the dark.

Tippy follows along behind the others, holding his breath against the sulphurous smell from Iso's backside.

"Iso notes that Tippy's eyes smart too."

He pats Tippy on the head. "Do not worry friend Tippy. Iso will make sure no harm comes to you."

Behind the door Iso finds a hallway leading north and south around a corner to the north and ending in front of a wall to the south. A door leads back to the east. The door on the other side of the big room leads to another tunnel with the same layout. The two doors at the end of the hallways each lead into a lavatory.

Iso waves to his friends and bounds quietly up the corridor to look around the bend to the north.

stealth: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Seeing Iso wants to try a stealthy approach, Borrobol lets him get a safe distance ahead before following with his clanky self.

Around the corner Iso sees three cages, empty.

Iso stomps back to the rest of the group.

"Cages block passage. Iso will try side door."

He heads back outside to see if either the west or east wings provide any access into the outer passage that appears to have stairs going up.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

If not, he will try the western door in the outer area where we fought the earth elemental.

I may be reading the map wrong. Is that middle corridor open to the sky? As in, a gap between the keep and the outer wall? If so, I guess we'll just have to try the stairs down. That is, is the map on the right an inside version of the top down map on the left?