The Dying City: DM Norv's "Curse of the Crimson Throne"

Game Master The Norv

Round 2

Sadly, the critter dodges Diamon's mighty blow, scampering back with a wail. As it skitters out of the dwarf's range, it raises its hands and shrieks out a cacophonous, magically amplified wail that blasts over the table and practically knocks Korriban, Gadriel, and Adoros backwards with its force! They manage to regain their feet, shaking their heads to clear them, as the other strange humanoid retreats around the corner of the table and, grasping its leg, mutters some words that cause a cloud of darkness to roil out from the table, dousing the dimly lit cavern. Dimly, you can see it heft its hooked club within the cloud of darkness.

Everyone but Diamon takes 4 points of sonic damage, but fortunately everyone also saves against its stun effect! The other foe has cast darkness; there's a rough template in place there, but unfortunately it pretty much just covers the room. Remember that unless you have darkvision, the creatures have total concealment (50% miss chance on attacks against them). Party is up, in posting order!

Initiative:
Teodor, Diamon
Foes
Korriban, Gadriel, Adoros <---

Before I make my move, I would like to know the rules for concealment. I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with them. Do I need to make some kind of roll to make sure I hit?

Yep. Basically, you can get a general idea of where the creatures are--based on hearing them, etc.--but you can't actually see, so you have a 50% miss chance. Make your attack as normal, but also roll a d100. On a roll of 1-50, you miss, regardless of how the attack went. On a roll of 51-100, resolve the attack as normal. Diamon's darkvision isn't affected by this, though, so he's ok.

In the darkness, you can dimly see the creatures moving about, readying to strike...

Round 2
hp 24/31

Move Action: 5-foot step forward.
Standard Action: Attack purple creature.

Greatsword Attack vs Puprle Humanoid: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Miss Chance: 1d100 ⇒ 71

Squinting in the darkness, Adoros stumbles foward and makes a nearly blind swipe of his blade at where he vaguely sees the outline of one of the short creatures.

Korriban scowls at the encroaching darkness. "D****t! This is not helping things!" Korriban steps forward and lashes out with his rapier at the last place he saw the creature in front of him.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Miss Chance: 1d100 ⇒ 29

Dang it.

Unable to see, Gadriel stumbles around trying to find a wall to hold on to. Abu tries to push the darkness back, but the magical light isn't strong enough.

Sadly, there's little to nothing Gadriel can do. Without LoS, these beasties are immune to her hexes and she doesn't have a strong enough light spell to push back the magical darkness. Go go Dwarf! :D

Diamon watched as the space filled with inky blackness, watching his allies stumble, unable to see. Hefting his weapon, he marched through the magic darkness with impunity, approaching the creature that cast the spell and swung at it. Giving a bellowing roar to help his allies better find their way through.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

Ow. That will hurt. Waiting on Teodor's action; since it's been a while, I'm going to post an update one way or the other tomorrow morning!

Teodor attempts to bash the thing with his flail. attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 33

As the humans stumble through the darkness (or, in Gadriel's case, back out of the way), Diamon steps forward and brings his hammer down decisively on the head of the one who cast the sonic blast. Its eyes widen as it realizes the dwarf isn't being hampered at all by the darkness, and it tries to dart away, but too late--the lucerne hammer crushes its skull, and the spindly humanoid topples to the ground.

The other humanoid slips away into the darkness, and the humans lose track of him. To Diamon's eyes, however, the creature has backed into a corner, and, snarling silently at him, it throws a wickedly hooked club toward the dwarf! Diamon ducks, only to hear the club clatter to the ground behind him. As the dwarf straightens, puzzled, the creature gives a cord at his belt a yank--and the hooked club jerks and sweeps the dwarf off his feet! Diamon falls to the ground with a metallic thud.

If you have any conditional modifiers, Diamon, he just made a trip attempt and totalled a 20 against your CMD. Party is up, in posting order!

Diamon has the best kind of modifier, being a Dwarf! +4 CMD to resist bull-rush and trip attempts.

Unfortunately I think a 20 still hits (barely), no? You have your normal CMD listed as 16 in your class line. :(

Korriban looks around frantically as the creature disappears. He decides to just step forward a little and settle into a defensive stance.

Five foot step forward. And total defense. Korriban's AC is 20 until the next round.

The Dwarf swears loudly as he finds himself falling over, unable to catch himself in time when that accursed weapon tripped him up. Grumbling loudly and finding his footing, he hauls himself to his feet and starts scanning the darkness for that other little bastard so he could return the favor.

Adoros looks around in the darkness as the one barely visible drops like a sack of bricks, "Where did the other one go? Cursed darkness!"

Total Defense until he sees something.

Diamon, standing is just a move action, and since you have darkvision the creature isn't hidden from you. You can move to engage if you want!

Just waiting on posts from Teodor and Gadriel now.

Gadriel continues keeping her back to the wall, her eyes trying to adjust to the perfect dark around her.

She will ready an action to hex the crap out of the bad guy as soon as she can see it. :D

Grumbling loudly as he picks himself up off the ground, he hefts his polearm once more and swings angrily at the creature that tripped him.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Damage: 1d12 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Moving forward...Teodor will ready an action to attack, I'm assuming, as well.

The little humanoid shrieks in pain as Diamon smacks it with his hammer (which breaks itself, so you can try to attack it with a 50% miss chance again), and, yanking its club-thing back into its hands, jumps toward Diamon with a snarl! Fortunately, the hook scrapes against the side of the dwarf's armor, but fails to penetrate the sturdy steel.

Finish it off!

He simply stood there, as solid and immobile as the earth itself, as the creature made one last-ditch effort to hurt him. The Dwarf's response was to bring the very blunt end of his hammer down onto its head.

Miss Chance: 1d100 ⇒ 83
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Damage: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Nope. Won't even finish off a beer on a 2.

Korriban hears the clanking and crashing and steps to it, maintaing his defensive stance. He calls out, "What's going on?!"

Again, 5 foot step forward and total defense. AC 20.

Gadriel continues waiting for the darkness to dissipate, her back to the wall.

Same action. Ready an action to hex a bad guy if she can see.

Just show yourself, you little s$$@bag. You're wasting time.

The Stonelord snorts in frustration as the creature rolled away from him, sparing himself a precious few seconds. His polearm came to bear once more and lashed out among the inky darkness. Now fully intent on bringing this slippery bastard down.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Damage: 1d12 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

I think Ill hit if I get Flanking somehow.

The little humanoid scrambles forward and tries to cut the dwarf, hooked club rattling against Diamon's steel. The creature looks like it tries to move backward, but before it can do so, Adoros, hearing the movement, steps forward and successfully brings his greatsword down on the creature's head...dispatching it instantly.

Botting Adoros to (luckily) move us forward! We're out of combat.

After a minute or so, the darkness in the room evaporates, and everyone blinks in the dim glow from Gadriel's stone. The small cave reeks of sweat, mud, and, now, blood as well; four filthy pallets line the floor, and the table holds what looks like it was meant to be a crudely made clay maze and a pair of dice.

He was pleasantly surprised that Adoros was able to land the killing blow. His polearm wasn't well suited for close quarters, or directly under his boots. Once the darkness cleared, he wiped the blood off his hammer and hefted it in one hand. "Tha' was inconvenient, t' say th' least. Sorry it took awhile; Little bastard was harder t' hit than I thought."

Korriban gives a sigh of relief as the darkness fades. He looks over to Diamon. "No problem. Doesn't help that we're just stumbling around like a band of drunks. Though, I think we may have found out who's been using the tunnels. I say, we keep sealing off those tunnels. Prevent them from getting the jump on us." He gives the area a good search.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Perception vs Traps: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Gadriel sighs, a small measure of relief evident on her face as the light from her stone once again pushes back the black. She looks closer at the creature before cautiously following the rest.

Korriban's quick search of the room doesn't turn up anything else remarkable; the pallets are exactly what they appear to be, filthy little beds for the creatures. You do note that there are four pallets, while only two creatures were here...

The table's maze is revealed to hold a dying rat, one that appears to have been abused many times by stones, hooks, knives, and various crude implements lying around the maze. A set of irregular stone blocks next to the maze looks like they might be some weird pair of dice...though they look nothing like dice you've ever seen before. They have strange symbols carved on the faces. And what the hell kind of die has twelve sides? Perhaps this rat in the maze was intended as an experiment, or maybe a "game" of some kind.

Now that you're not busy fighting, you do see that there's another exit in this chamber, a tunnel leading off to a set of crudely carved stone stairs to the northeast. This isn't a hidden passage so much as just a tucked-away tunnel, but since the stairs descend you can't quite see where they go...

Nothing else of value or interest is apparent in the cavern.

Where to next?

With everyone situated and Korriban giving the room a thorough looking over, Diamon speaks up. "I say we keep from headin' any deeper underground for now. I got no problems, but it's too easy for somethin' t' go wrong. 'Specially since we're in a nasty place like this. We should take th' tunnel that's just around the corner here."

Pulling Gadriel's hair, Abu directs her towards the dying rat. With an angry look, she reaches out towards the creature. Abu chitters softly, and Gadriel's hand glows a soft white. The frightened creature bites at her but she seems undeterred, just wincing in pain. As her glowing hand touches the rat, the signs of abuse repair themselves. The animal suddenly dashes away, using her outstretched hand as a ramp before leaping to the ground and disappearing through some crack in the ground. Abu pats the girls head as she stands back up.

CLW on the rat, 1 point to Gadriel for her good deed. :D

Korriban nods at Diamon's idea. "Now, that's something we can agree on. I'd rather we explore this level before going to another one." Korriban looks on as Gadriel heals the rat.

As the party troops back the way they came, you cautiously approach the area where you heard something moving earlier. Coming out into a larger, open chamber, you see that three wooden tables stand in the middle of this room, their surfaces stained red with blood. To the east stands a ten-foot-wide hutch with wicker doors opening into a straw-lined cage.

Another of those strange humanoids you slew in the other cave is currently standing behind one of the tables, administering to a corpse laid out on the wood. As you watch, he carefully carries a squirming, leathery creature that looks like a huge, four-winged mosquito over to the corpse and lets it grab on. The insect sinks its proboscis into the corpse, and begins sucking greedily. The humanoid smiles down at it with a look of satisfaction.

Though you've been fairly quiet, the little creature turns away from the table as you approach and glances your way. Its eyes widen when it sees you, and it shrieks and scrambles toward the hutch!

INITIATIVE
Gadriel, Teodor
Foes
Adoros, Korriban, Diamon

Alright, what will you do with this one?? Teodor and Gadriel respond quickly enough to get in before him!

Gadriel strides into the room, Abu growling on her shoulder. Suddenly Abu's eyes turn black, and a shriek pierces the caverns. With an outstretched finger, Gadriel points to the creature. "Abu claims this one."

Cause fear on the creature. Will DC16 or be frightened, fleeing the wrath of the monkey. Success leaves the creature shaken for a round.

Teodor touches the back of Korriban's neck. "May the Lord watch over you and protect you, my son." Casting Shield of Faith for +2 to AC

ROUND ONE

The little beast quails before Abu's spell, but doesn't panic. It leans over and unlatches the door to the hutch, causing two of the huge mosquito things to come flapping out! As they fly toward the party, the little beast takes off toward the south, running away as fast as he can!

Fortunately, the mosquito-things that are perched on the corpse don't seem interested in you...the two that fly out of the hutch, though, head straight toward you, buzzing hungrily. They dive toward Gadriel, and though Abu bats one away with an angry shriek, the other (the green bordered one) manages to grab onto Gadriel's arm with its barbed little legs! The girl lets out a gasp as its proboscis pierces her arm, and it hungrily begins to feed.

1 point of Constitution damage for Gadriel, and the party is up! An attached stirge can be pulled off with a grapple check or an Escape artist check, or it can be hit with a weapon.

INITIATIVE
Gadriel, Teodor
Foes
Adoros, Korriban, Diamon <---

Diamon stumbled mentally as they came across the scene before them. Watching a giant mosquito drain a corpse. Before the Dwarf could give chase and smite the derro, he released more insects, and one latched on to Gadriel. He lashed out with his polearm, expertly striking the bug and roaring, "Get away from 'er, ya flyin' parashite!"

Focused Power Attack
Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Damage: 1d12 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Round 1

Standard Action: Shoot the bug!

As it appears that Diamon has the attached bug on Gadriel's arm in hand (so to speak), Adoros swings up his rifle and takes careful aim at the bug flying around the young girl's head. The musket goes off with a loud retort in the enclosed space.

Musket Attack vs Stirge Touch AC: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 5 + 1 = 12

Gadriel braces herself against the wall, though whether from blood loss or from the extremely close and deadly blade of the dwarf is hard to tell. Abu Screeches at the bug still flying around, and it seems to slow down slightly.

Move, then Evil Eye the bug for an AC penalty.

Korriban's face is in shock at the sight of the room. It turns into a visage of grotesque as the blue creature places the ugly mosquito on the corpse. Then, chaos breaks out. He feels Teodor tapping the back of his neck. The rogue feels a slight surge of protective power flow around him. He smirks back at the mad priest. "Thanks for that." Seeing the mosquitos attack Gadriel, Korriban decides to get to work. He moves deftly past Adoros and Diamon, then tumbles past the mosquitos. He then attacks the one not attached to the young witch.

Acrobatics DC 13: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Crit Confirm: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Extra Damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

ROUND TWO

Diamon's hammer smacks the bug right off Gadriel's arm and grinds it into the floor. As Gadriel darts back, the roar of Adoros's musket fills the chamber, reverberating off the stone walls. Korriban darts forward and, even as Gadriel and Abu focus their ire on the remaining creature, he skewers it deftly on his rapier, flicking the twitching little corpse off with a deft twist.

Just waiting on Teodor's next action, then our little blue friend gets to go. The bugs are out of commission!

Heavy Flail: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10flail damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Teodor bursts into the room, past the mosquitos, to block a possible exit. He takes a swing with his flail but it misses. "I do believe we have a lot in common, Ye Who Make Darkness. Shall we compare notes?"

ROUND TWO(cont'd)

As Teodor's flail smashes the southernmost of the two tables, the little creature shrieks and scrambles back, clearly blocked from the exit he was attempting to escape to...the humanoid casts about wildly, looking toward the corner Gadriel is standing in before finally backing away and then darting up a small flight of stairs and disappearing to the left in a hallway beyond!

Yep, he's gonna withdraw. Party's up!

INITIATIVE
Teodor, Gadriel
Foes
Korriban, Adoros, Diamon <---

Korriban makes a beeline for the blue creature. He moves through the entryway. Seeing the creature, he tries to flip over the creature and avoid taking damage.

Acrobatics to avoid AoO; DC 18: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

He lands in front of it and says, "That's far enough, stronzo."

Taking 2 move actions.

Again, Italian is elven.

Round 2

Move Action x2: Follow the little creep!

As the little humanoid goes scurrying away with his possible exits being cut off, Adoros goes charging after Korriban in pursuit of the creature. "Stop or be cut down!", Adoros calls after the creature.

Gadriel hustles into the corridor, bringing her light with her.

Double move to there. :)

Diamon's bringing up the rear. He ain't built for running.

ROUND THREE

Botting Teodor...you still with us, friend?

Teodor, too, joins in the pursuit of the little humanoid, charging past the creature (which still hasn't drawn a weapon) to stand shoulder to shoulder with Korriban, blocking its path. Now that you're in it, you have a better view of this room: the walls and ceilings of this tall hallway are encrusted with dozens of yawning skulls, their mouths open into dark holes in the walls. It's a chilling sight.

The little creature looks back to Gadriel, Adoros, and Diamon, then to the creatures blocking its path, and then, strangely, to the walls, in a sort of panicked whirl.

"Esipastlar! Siz bizga hamma erib ketadi-ku!" it shrieks, before attempting to leap through the gap between Teodor and Korriban! Seeing their weapons start to move, though, it shrieks and scrambles out of the way, and both men hit only empty air. Desperate, the creature tries again, but is rebuffed by the startled pair.

Party's up!

Sorry, I'm here ...haven't been at an actual computer to make the post I want to ...back to work tomorrow, so I should then. Was gonna summon something to block it but it a bit seems to be blocked. I will reread with sober eyes tomorrow.

Gadriel, irritated from being bitten and still a little woozy from the loss of blood glares at the creature. Abu glares as well, with black eyes and a high pitched chittering. Suddenly, Gadriel breaks out into an odd laugh.

Misfortune hex the little monster, then cackle to extend the duration.