The Emerald Spire: Chaos party (Inactive)

Game Master Captain collateral damage

I say we let those dumb cannon fodder occupy the adventurers and waste their resources, while we go... Talk... To the chief. Later we can come back to finish the service. - Kandoo replies with an intimidating tone.

Works for me.

Sounds like a plan. Meilu says. I think we should avoid contact with whoever's outside. At least until we know who or what they are.

"I agree.. Lets continue.."

Through the double doors then?
Through the door: Stairs wind upward, circling around the bright pillar of emerald you saw from outside earlier. The stairs circle around two and a half times before ending in a sturdy wooden door with an arrow slit. A deep, commanding voice that is certainly not a goblin comes from behind the door. "Give me one reason not to shoot you right now."
This is assuming you don't try to stealth.

Well we don't wanna overthrow the goblins here, just go deeper into the spire and wanted ta ask permission all like. If we wanted to hack through goblins, we'd be fighten downstairs.

EEP! Meilu ducks into cover behind one of the doors, peeking carefully past it.
What does she see in there?

Asassi lets the gobo do the talking while she waits, hand on her crossbow..

Some clarifying info:
Manny- I believe this is directed to your party members before you came to the top of the stairs, not at the voice behind the door?
Meilu- There are no doors to duck behind, the double doors you went through led to stairs which circled around the spire for 2 and a half times before ending at the door. Also, I'm not sure if you got the part about all the light shrinking to a 5 foot radius. It kinda sucks. The author of this level is Lisa Stevens, so blame her instead of me. She's evil. :)

Manny directs it to the voice behind the door

Ok. She'll try to get cover wherever. Did we go up or down the stairs? Her Low-light vision effectively makes the light 10 feet, correct? The rest of the party has 60 foot darkvision I believe.

Anybody got a light? she whispers intently.

Manny flicks his finger and a spark lights up.

The stairs go up, low-light vision makes the light 10 ft, even magical lights are shrunk unless you succeed at a very high caster level check which is impossible to make at your level even if you took 20.
Will wait for Kandoo to post.

Kandoo grinds his teeth and moves. He's not comfortable with the whole darkness thing, and he's arrogant enough to move forward as if he owned the place.

Darkvision is no good?

darkvision works fine
You want to explore deeper? Very good. Kill the zombies on the guarding the way down, And I'll tell you about the lower levels.
The arrow slit shuts.

Manny turns to the others. Well, looks like we're choppen the walken dead. We'll ask one of the goblins where they are. Manny heads down with the others.

All right then Meilu says a little hesitantly. I can do this, just remember what mother said. Let the big guys get their attention, then sneak around and stab em in the back!
She pulls out a dagger and follows the others down.

Asassi follows as well.

Kandoo will move with the others. He will let the rogue check for traps first, but other than that the antipaladin will try to position himself towards the front to protect the group with his shield.

As soon as the group gets to passages we haven't seen before, Meilu will start searching for traps.
perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

As you are descending the stairs, the doors open to reveal the invading "longshanks" They appear to be a dwarf and three humans, as you can't make out exact feature s in the dark.
Roll initiative! This is the law party, so this should be very interesting.

OMG! This could cut one group's game short.

Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

How is each of them dressed? What is their light source? Can we get a map?

Yipes!
Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Init: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

So you guys can whack each other more easily, I'm moving the combat to this thread, at least until it ends.
Initiative order:
Thoril
Karist
Kandoo
Meilu
Corath
Enrico
Asassi
Manny

Enrico if you could put together a map of sorts that would be great.

Hey guys! Here's hoping we all survive, but with the terrain and inhabitants I think Chaos has a distinct advantage. We should've brought some hellknight initiates or something with us :-) The map link is in my sig. Everyone can edit. This way DM CCD can draw in what the map looks like. I put our marching order and the door (blue line), but I didn't know the Chaos marching order. I also made up a picture for Karist since he didn't have one.

We should've brought some hellknight initiates or something with us :-)

Gee, thanks. :p

Manny casts Bless on his group +1 Hit/saves vs. fear for 1 round

"Shut and bar the damn door Thoril." Karist yelled from the back of the party and his mind envisioned a fist hitting the armored hobgoblin. As he focused on the hobgoblin, without thought his right hand mimicked his thoughts and punched forward.

He grimaced as nothing happened and through pursed lips began drawing in air as he scanned the area ahead of him.

Why can't we all just get along?
"Now let's all calm down," the cat girl says, "no one needs to get hurt"
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
She seems to suddenly remember the dagger in her hand, and swiftly puts it behind her back.

GM: could you please answer my questions above? Thanks!

Awaiting a map of some sort. Oh and Bless last 1 min/lv, not rounds.

Thirding the map idea, if possible.

"Identify yourselves!" Corath calls out, readying himself to cast a spell.

Readied action to cast shield on myself if a fight breaks out.

Delaying on the bless spell

We are...zombie killers!

"We are explorers from Thornkeep." She says. "I am Meilu"
I'm going to die. They're going to fight and I'm going to die

No point fighting if we can get through this peacefully.
To my allies: "The catgirl has it right - no reason for needless violence. Let's wait and see if we can talk our way through this." To the chaos group: "And we be explorers from Fort Inevitable. Ye can call me Thoril." He hesitates. "How's it going?"

Karist moved forward to a point between Enrico and Corath. He listened to Thoril's response and continued his focus on the others.

"there are zombies in this place too?" He spoke aloud when the goblin said that. He rubbed his forearm and shook his head. "No one said anything about zombies...

Big human eating zombies! Best let the goblins handle them.

Sorry for the late post, my computer wasn't working. It's fixed now, I think. Map done, I had to move around a few characters. Green is the actual color of the wals, black is closed door, blue is open door, and the big green circle is the Emerald Spire itself.
Descriptions: Feel free to elaborate on your character's description
Enrico: A small-ish half-elf dressed in simple clothing and a chain shirt, wielding a strange heavy curved blade.
Corath: A tall half-orc in robes with a longsword.
Karist: A human in simple padded armor with a scimitar.
Kandoo: A hobgoblin in plates of leather armor wielding a large dagger-like weapon.
Meilu: A small black-furred cat-woman in leather armor with a dagger
Asassi: A female hobgoblin wearing studded leather wielding a falchion
Manny: A small black goblin in leather armor and rags with a light crossbow, with a small light in his hand.

So... What's up? I feel like we're all waiting for each other to post. If you want I can have some enemies come in... :)

Sorry to be the one to start the PvP, but before we even entered the Spire we were attacked by a goblin who then ran away to alert his friends. Very shortly after that we now run into 3 gobbos, I just don't see Enrico trying to negotiate peacefully in the goblin lair. So...

Enough talk, I only trust a goblin to cut my throat while I sleep, or burn a building to the ground. I'm not taking any chances here, Enrico says, sliding up alongside Thoril. He swings his curved blade at the most heavily-armed opponent, striking quickly.

Move: 15 ft

Swift: Mindful Dodge if I trigger any readied actions.

Free: Switch Falcata to two-handed grip

Free: Switch back to one-handed grip

Note: If I am attacked before my turn I will use Mindful Dodge

So that is 31 damage on Kandoo. Uh, sorry? :-/

Oh goody! PVP!

Manny sqawks as Kando's head no doubt flies through the air You killed Kando! You bastich! Manny jabbers at Enrico and then points at Enrico and then at whoever is near him(No map at the moment)KIll him!

Murderous Command, DC 13 Will save or take a chop at the one indicated. In this case, closest ally near Enrico.

WS: 1d20 + 0 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 0 + 2 = 9

Ruh Roh

Enrico's eyes glaze over as he tightens the grip on his sword.

My initial attack should have triggered both Thoril and Corath's readied actions, so Thoril's attack vs Assassi should technically occur before your spell is cast (not that it really matters). Oh, and the map is in my sig.

OHGODSIKNEWITIMGONNADIE
Meilu squeaks and jumps back.
5-foot step NE, Total Defense action(+4 dodge bonus to AC, can't attack. AC 19)

Well, this is exciting :/
Thoril lets out a shout as he punches for Asassi. "So much for talking, eh?"
Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Please allow me to recap: we roll initiative, but God knows what for, since it's clearly not being followed. I am attacked - the attacks misses, yet people keep talking as to make friends. At this moment, I'm still waiting for answer from the GM and I notice the map has we all in a line: my group, conveniently, is all crammed, while the other group is all neatly organized with distance between themselves as if ready for the combat they didn't know it was coming, and conveniently their group head is right by me, in a place I can't either charge or go around. The GM finally responds, yay! Not before someone else responds for him, beforehand, that in front of us we have the first group in the world where everybody carries a torch (yet, at the same they use two-handed weapons and cast spells). Following the out of initiative mess, another dude runs from the back, the map magically changed to allow him a spot in front of me to attack me (lol!). More than that, readied actions are triggered out of order and he crits the hell out of me with a falcata, the weapon of choice of his elves ancestors (wtf? Lol). Well, that's promising! Did I miss anything?

That sums it up.

Kandoo: Apologies again for the late post, my computer wasn't working and I had to take it to the local computer nerd to get it fixed. :( Presumably the casters have cast light on their weapons, and they can cast spells with one free hand, which they have. Enrico most likely would have had to drop his torch to use the falcate two-handed, but that's still a free action. The law party did hear something coming down the stairs, as they rolled well enough for perception and no one in the chaos party rolled stealth. The stairs are indeed quite cramped, and the doors are double doors, that was me changing them, not magic. :)
However, you are correct about initiative. As I see it, Karist and Thoril have taken their turns, meaning Kandoo and Meilu are up.