Ruins of Azlant (Inactive)

Game Master Nathan Goodrich

Yeah, I don't need anything. I've added the coins, gems, and art to the loot list. Haven't added anything else since it's all been claimed. Make sure you add it to your personal character sheets everyone. And yes, you're welcome to the armour and shield, Jenner. And you're welcome to the short sword, Sarine. I don't think anyone else was waiting on a response from me, but if you were ask again! I've missed it. Haha.

While everyone loots the place Ashlyn keeps watch. She smiles at the sight of Jenner with the coins, and Teddy with the scrolls. Curious about this statue everyone seems to be talking about she sneaks a peek, then leans in to whisper to Teddy.

"Of course it's about love. Why have sex if you're not in love?"

With a shrug she helps examine the paperwork and tablets.

Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Knowledge History: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Linguistics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

Guessed at what I thought might be applicable.

"Yes, love and sex, they are one and the same ..." the swordsman nods sagely.

"Of course it's about love. Why have sex if you're not in love?"

"Exactly!" Tettia whispers back as if Ashlyn is making her point for her. "You're not going to have ... sex ... with someone you're not in love with."

"And Desna and Pharasma aren't in love. So it would be blasphemous to depict them ... " she gestures towards the statuette. "Like ... that."

"Yes, love and sex, they are one and the same ..." the swordsman nods sagely.

"No," Tettia responds with the surety of someone who's experienced neither. "They are not."

She then turns from the handsome man to join Ashlyn in examining the papers and tablets.

"But sex is fun and feels good, and you can grow closer to someone with it. Love can develop from it, if you do it right. Do you only eat foods you already love? Or do you try new foods that you do not know you love? If you only put things you are familiar with in your body, you would soon grow tired of them, or maybe you would have starved when your mother decided she did not want to feed you at her teat anymore," Aurelian tries to reason with the two girls. "No, you should try more sex. Aurelian Fache would be happy to show you if you want. Or he could teach you the sapphic love of Desna and Pharasma..."

Tettia closes her eyes, but doesn't look up from the papers she's examining. "Sex is supposed to be something special between a man and his wife ... or husband ... or a woman and her wife ... or ... The point is that it's supposed to take place between a married couple - not something that just happens between any two random people. It's too important." She finally turns to the swashbuckler and opens her eyes. "And I'll thank you to keep you offers to yourself."

Ashlyn Orellis wrote:

"Of course it's about love. Why have sex if you're not in love?"

"Exactly!" Tettia whispers back as if Ashlyn is making her point for her. "You're not going to have ... sex ... with someone you're not in love with."

"And Desna and Pharasma aren't in love. So it would be blasphemous to depict them ... " she gestures towards the statuette. "Like ... that."

"Really?" Ashlyn asks Teddy, clearly in awe of her new friend's wisdom. "I didn't know that. I don't know much about the gods and goddesses and stuff." She shrugs. "Never really needed to before. A lot of people back home worship Gozreh. For fishing and things, you know. But Elizar's always taken up most of my time. It's hard to pray, I think, when there's already voices in your head."

"No," Tettia responds with the surety of someone who's experienced neither. "They are not."

Aahahahaha!

"But sex is fun and feels good, and you can grow closer to someone with it. Love can develop from it, if you do it right. Do you only eat foods you already love? Or do you try new foods that you do not know you love? If you only put things you are familiar with in your body, you would soon grow tired of them, or maybe you would have starved when your mother decided she did not want to feed you at her teat anymore," Aurelian tries to reason with the two girls.

Ashlyn thinks on this... "I guess that makes sense..."

Tettia closes her eyes, but doesn't look up from the papers she's examining. "Sex is supposed to be something special between a man and his wife ... or husband ... or a woman and her wife ... or ... The point is that it's supposed to take place between a married couple - not something that just happens between any two random people. It's too important." She finally turns to the swashbuckler and opens her eyes. "And I'll thank you to keep you offers to yourself."

"Oh, that also makes sense..."

Ashlyn thinks some more.

"It's really hard to make a decision without Elizar. I wonder what he'd say..."

"No, you should try more sex. Aurelian Fache would be happy to show you if you want. Or he could teach you the sapphic love of Desna and Pharasma..."

Ashlyn blushes brightly. "Oh my..." She looks a flattered and slightly tempted. Suddenly she smiles. "Oh! But I know what Elizar would say to that! That's an easy one!!" Ashlyn suddenly makes an exaggerated frowny-face and mutters something in a foreign tongue, clearly impersonating her poor, sad, spirit.

Ashlyn breaks down into an oddly hysterical fit of giggles that somehow turns into tears. "I MISS HIM!" she wails.

With a great big sniffle she wipes her eyes and goes back to the tablets.

"Oh, mercy," Jenner mutters into the depths of his beard, but does glance over at noting Tettia's request to Aurelian to keep his offers to himself. He looks thoughtful a moment, then busies himself with testing out the heft of his new shield as strapped to his arm.

"Well, this is an interesting discussion to be sure, but at the end of the day every soul has their own notion of what love means to them, with or without the flesh coming into it. For now, I'm more worried about our flesh in the sense of 'people trying to kill us' than what folk get up to in their own time."

He grimaces slightly at Ashlyn's wailing, and gingerly pats her on the shoulder. He so strongly wants to say she's better off without her blasted ghost, but has the sense not to-- plus, he knows from experience now that the damned thing is coming back.

"There there, now. I'm sure your.... friend.... will be back soon enough. All too soon, really."

Ashlyn smiles at Jenner and sniffles. "You're right... Thanks, Jenner!" She sniffles again and wipes her face. "Right! Back to work!" Ashlyn busies herself with the paperwork.

Jenner gives Ashlyn a toothache smile in return, and sighs inwardly. "See, there's the spirit." Pause. "Well the spirit happens to be absent. But still."

The dwarf rolls his head around on his neck, stretching out sore spots still battered from the rockfall. "We can't carry the vast bulk of all these coins with us," he points out. "Not without a set of mules. What's useful, we haul with us for now, the rest we will have to trust we can come back for. Pocket that platinum and the gold for sure right now.

"So. Are we continuing on, friends?"

Aurelian Fache apologies, Lady Tettia," Aurelian says, his usual disarming grin falling from his face. "He did not mean to make you uncomfortable."

He pats Ashlyn on the back.

"You are right. We should get back to work. We still have missing colonists that the witch of this mountain may be holding," he says, a determined expression now on his face. "Let us finish with these papers and whatnot and go back to rescuing them."

As Aurelian comforts Ashlyn, he misses the small shy smile that appears on Tettia's face as she glances back at him.

Perhaps there's something in the papers that would convince the group the haul butt outta here?

Hauling butt is a moot point until we either find a new boat, or manage to repair the one we have (the one down at the bottom of the tunnel mouth covered under a pile of rocks). We can't exactly try and swim back with that crab in the water. I could prep make whole if we rested overnight.

Jenner frowns, tugging his beard here and there as he listens to the discussion. "I don't like having much of a way off this damn island. It's possible we could dig our rowboat out from under those rocks if we tried.... give me a day and I might be able to set it to rights, but no promises. If we wind up against something we can't handle, I'd like to have a way out, aye? Not have to retreat down here just to be trapped."

We might be a level over our heads, but now that we're here we should keep going. I don't think I could explain leaving our colonists behind in-game. No one has come down to attack us yet, despite the alarm. Should we rest here?

At least we're no longer two levels over our heads!

Resting down here appears to be an option - no-one has come down yet.

Examining the papers Tettia finds them to mostly be alchemical formulae, although there are notes scrawled over them in a strange mix of Azlanti and another language that she doesn't read?!?! The bits she can make out seem to suggest that the writer is obsessed with prophecy and some sort of powerful foe.

The longest complete Azlanti fragment reads. Now I have a living specimen - this might be the key to a true prophecy! With the eye I will see and finally have the advantage over على ثو الغير. Then I can drive his agents from my island and reclaim the humans he stole.

Ok, I hope this doesn't break anything, but ...

At finding writing that she doesn't recognize or understand, Tettia's eyes widen a little. "I don't understand this." She reaches into her backpack and pulls out a pair of delicate-looking spectacles and puts them on. She adjusts the fit a little and then returns to the papers.

spectacles of understanding

I earlier suggested resting, I think, so I'm fine with that and don't feel like it would be totally breaking our suspension of disbelief. Or we could push on a little further to see if there's anything else to discover but then retreat to try to maintain our secrecy until after we rest.

Sarine takes a quick look at the papers after Tettia's examination. "These papers are too new to be from Azlant - they must refer to more recent events. If this witch is the author, she appears to regard our people as specimens for research. I was hoping to negotiate with her, but this doesn't bode well.... Can you decipher that text, Tettia?"

I don't think anyone here makes a good scout. Maybe Elizar, but he's currently (more) departed. Let's just take watches and rest. With full resources, we should have a decent shot at this.

As they read through the papers Ashlyn yawns loudly.

"Sorry. I'm sleepier than I thought I was. Maybe we should take a rest." She blushes brightly, looking more than a little sheepish. "Is that alright?"

Ashlyn finds a corner of the room to rest in, pulls out her bedroll and gives it a thorough ringing out. "Teddy? Are you any good at that drying spell?" (Care to fling a prestidigitation my way if you can?)

Ashlyn either cuddles up in her dry bedroll and goes to sleep (or leaves her wet one out to dry, pulls off her extra clothes, rings them out, then puts her stuff back on and tries to get some sleep without a blanket).

Right before going to bed Ashlyn uses up another healing spell on herself.

Healing Ashlyn: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Sounds like we're resting, so I'll take last shift on watch.

"Oh, yes," the blonde-haired girl answers in a distracted voice as she continues to perused the papers. She waves a hand that's just as distracted and dries out Ashlyn's clothes and bedding.

"Thanks, Teddy!"

Tettia spends the rest of the 'evening' cataloging and summarizing the documents into one of her journals. She then carefully stows all the paper documents and rubbings of the tablets into her waterproof bag, alongside her other books. She then curls up in her bedding near Ashlyn.

I miss Toddy so much.

On that thought she drifts off.

@Tettia: the writing reveals itself to you to be more of the same sort of things. The name however was Onthooth and by piecing together some more scraps...

I need a watch order please. :)

Knowledge (dungeoneering): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

"Some of this is strange. It almost seems like they're referring to an aboleth."

Assuming that the others know nothing about the creatures, she begins to tell them everything she knows about them. It sounds disturbingly as if she's reciting a paper she wrote from memory. In fact, as she lectures, she continually mutters to herself as if refuting some unseen critic's hand.

...

"I know, very well, that they're not actually fish - I was using that as something to create the image in someone's mind."

...

"How can you argue that they're extinct just because you haven't seen one?"

...

"Tobill himself wrote that they ruled vast empires under the sea. Stating that any such claim is mere speculation is just being contrary."

Once she finishes her presentation, she looks around at the others with excitement. "Do you think this means that there was an aboleth here at one time?"

Tettia knows nothing of this 'watch order' of which you speak. :)

Pairings? Aurelian and Tettia; Sarine and Jenner; Ashlyn and the wet blanket ... I mean Elizar?

Now I want to see Elizar & Aurelian take a watch shift together....

"Azlant fell so long ago that almost anything is believable. We still have that Master to deal with from before as well. Hopefully we xan learn more when we meet this witch."

If there aren't other complaints about the watch order, Sarine will start trying to get some sleep.

Tettia tips her head, her spectacles glinting in the torchlight. "Who's the Master?" she asks. "He sounds like someone important."

When the subject of arranging a watch comes up, the arcanist looks embarrassed. "I didn't realize that I would have to ... I mean it makes sense now that I look at it. I just ..." She seems to realize that she's rambling and pinches her lips together.

She does seem annoyed, however, when Aurelian points out that it's counterproductive to be engrossed in reading papers when one should be actually 'on watch'.

Tettia's been around for discussion of the Master; possibly an aboleth.

Sarine: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28
Jenner: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

?: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6

A few hours later, as Sarine keeps watch and Jenner nods over his axe, the warrior woman hears splashing from the cave they entered. Her sharp eyes easily pierce the gloom and see the mostly submerged form of a troll like the one the group fought on the beach! It is approaching up the tunnel, apparently trying to be stealthy! Jenner, seeing Sarine rise shakes his head and looks into the darkness, spotting the creature as well!

Aurelian: 1d20 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 2 = 7
Ashlyn: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19
Jenner: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
Sarine: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Tettia: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

Scrag: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Jenner, Scrag, Sarine.

Aurelian sleeps peacefully.

Sorry for the delay! Two very busy days back to back.

Jenner bellows out a warning. "WARE! Scrag troll!"

The dwarf jumps to his feet, axe in hand, and calls on Abadar to protect him. "Hoa, ugly! Over here!"

activating defense blessing, +1 AC, and standing/drawing weapon

The scrag hurries out of the water at Jenner's challenge, raising a large club to strike at the dwarf. As it does so, another appears from up the stairs! The trolls strike at the two standing heroes!

vs. Jenner: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21 Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
vs. Sarine: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20 Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

Both are viciously bitten by the scrag's huge jaws!

Everyone is up! Those who are asleep will have to stand from prone etc.

No map I'm afraid. The troll fighting Jenner is in the water but not in reach of anyone but Jenner. The one attacking Sarine is out of the water but can reach almost all of the dry section.

Jenner: -8
Sarine: -11

Sarine steps up to the scrag that bit her while pulling out her greatsword. "To arms!" she cries.

8/14 bloodrage remaining, 10/10 temporary hp remaining, power attack
Attack: 1d20 + 12 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 12 + 2 - 2 = 23
Damage: 2d6 + 8 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (4, 5) + 8 + 2 + 6 = 25

My understanding is that a person adjacent to a large size creature can give cover to people behind them & prevent opportunity attacks. If that's true here, Sarine will try to give her allies as much cover as she can.

Also, any spells we use during this combat are still expended after a rest completes, right?

Yes, because your rest is being interrupted unless you take another 8 hours after this to rest then you won't recover any more spell slots.

Just to clarify, did we get the benefit of any rest yet, or will that be after the full 8 hours?

Tettia stumbles grumpily to her feet.

"I was asleep you scabrous monstrosity!" she complains bitterly. Her hands flash in a gesture the others recognize, she barks commands and three bolts of energy slam into the scrag that Jenner is fighting.

Magic Missile: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (3, 2, 4) + 3 = 12

Towards end of second watch, so Ashlyn has full benefits, everyone else - regained half HP but no spell slots.

Tettia sticks her tongue out at the GM.

Full benefits?! *happy dance*

"Huh?" Ashlyn says, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looks around groggily for a moment... Then gasps!

It sounds like Ashlyn is within reach of a troll. If this is accurate she's spending a move action to mentally steady herself (this lowers my concentration DC) then defensively casts spiritual weapon. If she wasn't in any troll's reach she would have stood up with that move action instead, and the concentration check isn't needed. Thanks.

Ashlyn steadies herself, then imagines a magical trident stabbing the nearest troll...

Defensive Casting: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27 Success!

A magical trident of force appears between Ashlyn and the nearest troll and stabs at it!
Spiritual Weapon Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Force Damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Realizing there's trouble, Aurelian flips his legs into the air, followed by his body as he lands on his feet, sword drawn kipping up without provoking as a move action as a class feature; I'm assuming I can draw my weapon as part of that move action.

He takes up a guard stance, using the sword's stone to offer him some protection. Using the sword to cast protection from evil; not sure if there's a concentration check I can/need to make to avoid provoking with that too?

No concentration Aurelian you don't have to do anything apart from think at it.

Ashlyn summons a forceful trident that strikes hard but fails to penetrate the trolls hide. Aurelian rises in flamboynat fashion and wards himself against evil (sadly thats no protection against the trolls BO!)

Jenner!

"Hnhhhg... ow..." Jenner grunts, and switches to a more defensive stance as he tries to hold the line long enough to allow his friends time to get to their feet. "Abadar... know I asked for a lot today already... but how about it, m'lord...?"

The axe in his hand flickers with a slight golden energy. Sacred weapon

I'll be using combat expertise and fighting defensively. That should push my AC up to 24 vs the scrags thanks to saltbeard.

Attack, sacred weapon, saltbeard, c.e., f.d.: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 7 + 1 + 1 - 2 - 4 = 23 ...potential critical
Confirm?: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10 Sadface.

Normal damage, sacred weapon: 1d10 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 6 + 1 = 17

Jenner may be fighting defensively, but Abadar helps him strike true-- and hard-- all the same. "Focus fire wi' me, Sarine!"

"Busy over here!" Sarine shouts back, choking slightly on her words due to the troll's foul stench. "Everyone, help Jenner!"

If I understand the map right, Sarine is the only thing between her scrag and the rest of the party so she can't afford to move around right now.

Sarine and Jenner are holding a scrag each right now. Everyone else is up and awake, but not in combat range.

Jenner hammers a blow into the scrag, but almost as he does so it begins to close up again. Sarine's blow cuts deep into the other scrag and this one doesn't begin to close!

The scrags retaliate in a whirlwind of claws and fury.

Bite vs. Sarine: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15 Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Claw vs. Sarine: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11 Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
Claw vs. Sarine: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18 Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

Claw vs. Jenner: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 Damage: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Claw vs. Jenner: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9 Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Claw vs. Jenner: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14 Damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

Luckily for the heroes they are no match for their adversaries and only land a single blow each.

Heroes up!

Sarine: -17
Jenner: -15
Scrag (r): -12
Scrag: -25

-15 this fight but I had unhealed damage still, so that blow puts me at 8 hp (just clarifying)

"The damned thing is healing!" Jenner snarls through the blood streaming down his face and matting his beard from the well-aimed claw. His breathing rasps in his lungs but he makes no move to pull back. "Anyone know why?"

Can't remember if we'd made successful knowledge checks on scrags or not. Maintaining full defense/etc from last turn.

Attack with all the previous bonuses/penalties: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

The injuries are getting to the dwarf; his attack does not connect.

Tettia made the knowledge check while we were fighting the last scrag. (See March 13, 2019 entry)

Note for GM: I think you might be missing Tettia's Magic Missile damage on Jenner's scrag. Should be -24 if I'm counting right.

"It's in the water! The water heals it!" Sarine shouts back as she fends off the worst of the scrag's attack. Now that she's called for the party to help Jenner, she begins to fight more defensively to buy time for that side of the field.

8/14 bloodrage remaining, 4/10 temporary hp remaining, combat expertise & fighting defensively
Attack: 1d20 + 12 + 2 - 2 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 12 + 2 - 2 - 4 = 23
Damage: 2d6 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (1, 4) + 8 + 2 = 15

Current AC should be: 18 base raging AC + 2 combat expertise + 3 fighting defensively with acrobatics = 23

"I am coming," Aurelian calls, diving forward as he pulls his sword out and coming out of his lunge with a thrust right toward the scrag's chest.

As he flicks the creature's blood off his rapier's point into its face, he resumes his customary guard stance, his mithral armor that's light enough for him to sleep in gleaming in the room's light.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16 Probably means I provoke an AoO

+2 relic rapier: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Damage (includes 4 precision damage): 1d6 + 8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 8 + 4 = 17
Intimidate (demoralize as a swift action on a successful hit): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (11) + 12 = 23

Parry (DC=attacker's roll): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
Riposte (if parry succeeds): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18
Damage (includes 4 precision damage): 1d6 + 8 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 8 + 4 = 18

Tettia continues her barrage of mystical bolts as three more bolts seek out Jenner's opponent.

Magic Missile: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (4, 4, 3) + 3 = 14

Made a mistake above: Sarine is at 7 rounds of bloodrage left, not 8. I haven't noted any recovery from resting yet, though.

The magical trident continues to attack Sarine's scrag.

Attack: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Force Damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Ashlyn stands up and attempts to move behind Jenner without being attacked by the scrags.
Acrobatics to prevent AoO: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

So she did, re Kn checks. In that case my actions wouldn't have changed but I'd have appended a verbal:

"Need to lure it outta the water, right?? Gonna be hard to do without him clawin' me up, he's got long arms!"