The Sunless Citadel - 5th Edition (Inactive)

Game Master spinningdice

!Ko watched Jack pick the lock, the flickering torch light casting shadows short and long along the walls. He's reminded of his last job - he was in a similar position, kneeling down studying a door trying to find a way in.

"Dad?" a voice rang out.

!Ko looked back to see his son. He had followed him here. "Son, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see where you went at night; where you worked. How you fed our family. I... I didn't know you did this. I thought you said you worked at the factory." A tear fell down the boys cheek.

!Ko was at a loss for words. On one hand, he needed to keep his family fed, and it was difficult to explain the prejudice goblins felt every day. Difficult to explain why he couldn't just get a job, or that what jobs there were would never pay enough to keep food on the table. But on the other hand, he didn't want his son to grow up the same way he had to, doing what he did now.

"...I...Son, look.."

"What was that?" another voice said from the other side of the door.

"I think someone is at the door." a fourth voice said.

"Crap," thought !Ko.

Just then, the door opened and a scream filled the cool night air. A scream for the guards.

"Son! Run! Run now, as fast as you can!"

That was the last time he saw his son, as he was kneeling in front of the door trying to explain why he was robbing someone - and in doing so, revealing his position.

Greg's words interrupted his revery. "No, Greg", !Ko says gently, "Kicking down the door may be too loud and give away our position to anyone who may not want us here. Let's let Jack work; he'll see us through."

Jack is confident in his work, but after some minutes of work he concludes that it should be unlocked, but isn't. He suspects magic is involved.

Examining the door, it looks very solid, even with Gregek's strength you think you'd need additional tools to break it - and it'd be impossible without some significant noise.

Map updated with exploring so far, easier to pull the map from the old 3.5 module since it's easier to edit in B&W

We appear to have stalled a little, do you have any further things to attempt to get through this door, or are you going to backtrack to the other known door?

Let's go back and try the other door, first. If that's also an impasse, we can discuss further, !Ko suggests.

Sorry, I've been wicked sick since Sunday. I'll try to get something posted this evening before I pass out.

"Needs special key...lets go find it!"

Gregek heads back with !Ko to examine the other door.

Backtracking to the tower, the other door is a plain wooden one, originally of study construction but now old and worm-eaten enough that even if it were locked it wouldn't take much to open.

You see no sign of any keyhole or other lock mechanism on the door.

!Ko says, Now this looks like a door you can break down without making much noise. Want to give it a try, Greg?

Greg move forward and attempts to open the door. If it does not give, he will use more force.

Perhaps the door in the other room is false? suggests the drow. If only we had a dwarf, their ability to see such things would be most helpful

The door shifts under mild use of force, revealing a corridor a little over 5 feet wide and about forty or so feet to the end (heading west).
There is little remarkable about the corridor other than three doors at the far end, one right at the end, the other two opposite each other about ten feet from the there.

Jack puts his tools away, recovers his big, hot torch from Kenzi before again putting it out and readying his weapon.

As the door shudders asunder from Greg's gentle knocking, Jack moves forward, sweeping along the other doors, making sure they're also not trapped before being treated to Greg's gentle wooing.

Perception!: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18

The doors at the end and to the right are simple wooden doors, they don't appear locked or trapped as far as you can see.

The door to the left is a stone door with a relief of a dragon-like fish on it. This door is locked.

"Open the door with the heating symbol on it jackelroy!"

Guillermo casts shillelagh on his staff again, anticipating the worst behind the locked door. He briefly puts his ear by the door to listen for strange sounds.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Stupid autocorrect. That should be Neat, not Heating.

Oh, and I was just musing how a dragon (fire) and water symbol would actually be quite interesting iconography for a heating system

Gregek moves down the corridor and waits for the others to decide what door to open. At Kenzi's urging, the bugbear pushes open the door with the dragon-fish symbol.

Maybe like a red fire-breathing dragon and a blue water-spouting fish chasing each other in a quasi ying-yang pattern? "The Warrior-Philosopher's Climate Control Choice!"

Jack nods at Kenzi, "Alrighty, love. If you want me to open your...gates, I'll not say no." He adds a wink that can only be called "salacious."

That important business done, Jack stares at Gregak for a while as the demi-human pushes on the only locked door. "Mind if I cut in?" he asks, again bending knee and trying the lock.

Use the Tool! Be the Tool!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Gregek look a little bewildered as the door did not open when he pushed on it, then realized that it was locked and the other doors were the ones were not locked.

"Sorry...wrong door.."

He slinks back to behind Jack, letting the ranger work on the door.

"I don't have any gates. I made some for my da once though when I was still learning to smith. they were pretty and shiny."

Jack guffaws as if Kenzi said something unexpected and hilarious. "Oh, aye, I'm sure you've got some gates. And right pretty ones, no mistake. Maybe later we can revisit the topic of how shiny they are." There's that wink again.

Jack returns to his work, still chuckling.

Jack frustratingly feels he is just a little off on the lock, it's not quite clicking into place, perhaps if someone could just hold his tool in place...

[ooc]Worth nothing that if someone else is proficient in thieves tools, they can assist Jack, giving him advantage...[ooc]

I know !Ko and Kenzi both have Thieves Tools, so will assume one of them (Kenzi probably since they're already bantering) is helping and roll an assist...
Advantage: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

... With Kenzi holding the tumbler in place Jack can click the last one into place and hears the door unlock.

Opening the door leads to a small room, maybe 10 feet square, all that seems to be in there is a rusted keg-like metal barrel, it has pipes leading back into the wall and a wide-metal bung covering the top. Kenzi is pretty sure that the tank is rusted enough that it will just cave in under any force.

"Greg, care to open that keg up? Let's see what's inside."

There's still two other rooms in this area, right? While they're looking in the locked room, !Ko will take a quick peek in the unlocked rooms.

Greg attempts to open the keg.

As it is rusty, do I need a roll, and if so, is it with advantage?

Can I attempt to find out what it's purpose is?

Not sure that his skills are useful right now.

Kenzi - You're not sure, but it may have been either some sort of well, or storage for liquids of some kind.

Greg - it's more of a struggle not to break it, than a test of strength to open it. You easily lift the lid off the keg, the edges crumbling in rusty flakes as you do so.

!Ko - You get chance to open the opposite door, before Greg opens up the keg, it appears to be another room - about 20 foot square, all you can see from the entrance is some stone blocks that appear to have fallen from the ceiling.

Everybody: Gregek twists off the lid of the Keg, and a burst of steam and a sharp hiss comes from within. As you prepare yourself, a pair of imp-like creatures emerge from within, one almost like a semi-solid cloud of vapour, the other crystalline - like ice. They both glare at you with malice in their eyes.

Player Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 141d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
Foes: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Party Up First. - Map updated. The Keg is in the bottom Right corner of the small room, No-one other than Greg saud they were entering the room, so I've put you all in the corridor.

Gregek drops the lid and swings his maul at the closest of the creatures from the keg.

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Damage: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (5, 1) + 3 = 9

Kenzi will throw an acid bomb at the one Greg does not swing at.

Attack Roll: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Acid Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Jack had been checking out the other doors in the hall, but at the bugbear's cry of battle, Jack dances past !Ko, making room for the others and rapidly loosing a bolt the demon made of ice!

Attack!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Adv fast Attack!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Damage!: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

The area is dangerous. They all know it. So !Ko has his rapier always at the ready. Using his Goblin quickness, !Ko darts in and jabs with his rapier, and then quickly darts back out.

Attack!: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 221d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Action attack, bonus action disengage, end up right where I started.

What kind of roll would I need in order to identify these creatures?

They're obviously elemental in nature, An intelligence (Arcana) Roll may give you some info about them

Round 1
Greg smashes into the crystalline creature, with his maul smashing it into the wall, it struggles to right itself after his mighty blow.

Kenzi throws acid at the imp-shaped steamcloud, it does seem to impact on it's body and it starts to sizzle...

Jack The ice-imp struggling to keep flight is then pinned to the wall by a bolt from Jack's crossbow. and it bursts apart, jagged shards of ice ripping into everything nearby. Anything within 5' (just Greg and Steamy) make Dex Save (DC10) or suffer slashing: 1d8 ⇒ 2 damage, 1/2 on a save. Steamy Save: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

!Ko darts in and quickly thrusts at the remaining creature, while it looks less than solid, there's definate resistance as his rapier strikes home.

Nil Seeing them explode decides to rely on his crossbow attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22 dmg: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Soval reasons cold may hurt a creature of steam and fires a freezing beam of energy at the creature Save: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11 dmg: 1d8 ⇒ 4

Guillermo Steps up, hitting it with his staff Quarterstaff (Shillelagh): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24 Quarterstaff (Shillelagh) Dam: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5 finishing the creature off, which then duly explodes in a cloud of steam - Greg and Guillermo DC10 Dex save or suffer fire: 1d8 ⇒ 8, since you're ready for it's death burst this time you can get advantage on the save.

Combat Over

The metal keg has been shredded by ice shards, whatever it's function was it's definately not doing it any more.

Among the wreckage you can see the glint of gemstones though... On further investigation you can pick out five tiny saphires from the twisted metal.

Is there a reason my question was not answered?

They're obviously elemental in nature, An intelligence (Arcana) Roll may give you some info about them

He said to roll Arcana. >.>

Jack bends down to examine the stones. "Darndest thing, keeping gems inna rusty bucket like that. Still, good goin', Greg. Ya knocked the tar, the stuffin' and the gems right out of it."

Jack gives the room a quick circle, making sure there's nothing else of note.
Then he crosses the hall and opens the unlocked door opposite, seeing what's in there. To the North.

Perception!: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

I am not sure it matters if I am not given the opportunity to do so/

Save vs cold: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Fire save: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Advantage: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

The bugbear's thick fur and armor, as well as his nimble feet, keep him from being damaged by the imp's exploding.

Heat and cold? That's beneath Gregor.

Well, that was fascinating. What do you suppose they were?

In pbp games, they can really he dragged down while waiting for back and forth for a single check. Take the initiative and roll, advising the DM to add appropriate bonuses if necessary. For example:

!Ko tries to recall if there's anything he's ever heard about these guys (using history proficiency if appropriate).

Intelligence: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

If the DM feels that a roll is even necessary, he'll use that roll. He may even decide that my proficiency applies. Or he may decide that no skill check is needed and I auto pass or auto fail.

Doing it that way helps speed up the game. You gotta be proactive.

"Was anyone hurt by those creatures? If so, I have a healing potion for you."

Dex Save: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Dex Save Adv: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
"..."

The crusty druid manages to step back out of the way of the explosion, feeling the heat on his skin.

"How about we take a quick rest before we encounter more of these buggers??"

Arcana: 1d20 ⇒ 14

"I'm not really versed in all that fancy wizard stuff, but I can say those damned things weren't from around here. Some kind of minor devils, I'd say."

Greg looks over to Kenzi and shakes his head.

"I am ok...thank you."

there is a difference between being proactive and not being able to do much because some people have to do everything without concern for other players in the group so please don't lecture me on being proactive. The knowledge I might have gained might have illicted another response which I didn't even get to make since the decision was made for me not even 7 hours after asking the question.
I don't think that is fair to players especially if people live in different to e zones.

The creatures were mephits, evil elementals combining two of base elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water). You suspect the gemstones were either used to summon them or hold them in place, though that's more guesswork than knowledge.

The opposite room is indeed as empty as it appeared at first glance. Most of the fallen masonry looks like it fell generations ago, and hasn't really been disturbed.

Carried discussion on knowledges over to Discussion thread. I'm not super experienced at running games in this format and am open to suggestions for improving

Are you falling back to rest, or continuing through the next door?

I am comfortable with a rest, Mr. Arkha, !Ko says politely.

Soval nodded in agreement as he studied the room a bit closer. "I agree. A bit of rest will give us the opportunity to refresh both our minds and our bodies."

What is the difference between short and long rests in 5E?

In a nutshell, short rest is 1 hour and lets you spend Hit Die to recover hit points. A long rest is 8 hours and lets you recover all hit points and regain spent hit dice. Expended class abilities should tell you which you need to regain them

Are you taking a long or short rest? Where are you going to rest in either case? If its a long rest, are you arranging watches?

I'm assuming short rest, since we've not really taken enough damage to justify a long rest.

"But we just got here! Ach, alright, fine. I'd recommend we hole up in this room I just found. It has only one door so we can be secure enough while we rest.

Greg! If you don't need to rest I have a bottle and a set o' dice that might need some attention, if you've a mind to, while the rest of the book-readers meditate on their belly-buttons or what-have-you."