Tyranny and Anarchy - Curse of the Crimson Throne (Inactive)

Game Master Corsario

Gyllan swings his mace once again at the wererat but misses, to his intense frustration. "You can't win!" he cries out, "Why won't you surrender, fool?"

Mace, FE, Flank: 1d20 + 7 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 7 + 2 + 2 = 20
Damage, FE: 2d6 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (5, 4) + 4 + 2 = 15

Selina - the wererat is proving pretty hard to hit - could you come up and drop a bless on us, or try a hold person on him, or something? It would be nice to put him down.

Edit: Ninja'd! Rommin's attack may have addressed my concern.

Rommin manages to barely hit the wererat, killing it, just before Corso, in a very bad timed attack, sinks his dagger on Rommin's arm.
Rommin, 7 damage from Corso. Combat over.

Once she is sure the ratmem are dead, Selina channels twice, healing everyone of 4d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 6, 2) = 14 damage.

Well, one of them escaped. You don't know if there are more deeper into the cave.

When the wererat leader falls, Gyllan can't contain his relief, "Finally, that guy was driving me crazy! Let's search him and his thugs, then clear the rest of this place. And feed them to the otyugh around the corner while we're at it."

He drops to his knees next to the body of the wererat leader and searches him for anything of significance, asking as he does so, "You all right, Rommin? The mighty Corso got you pretty good there! I was worried maybe one of those rat bites had turned Corso into one of them!"

As his blade finds an unexpected target, Corso turns crimson with shame and manages only to blurt: "Rommin, you're bleeding!?" but quickly recuperates and adds "This is my fault! My fault only! I'm truly... I don't know how it happened... I'm... Sorry..." His words ring true, and all his bravado has left him, for a moment at least.

Anyone keeps watch, or looks into the next tunnel, or you start checking the bodies right away?

Gyllan is checking the leader's body, I don't know about the rest of the gang.

"Don't worry about it, Corso," Gyllan reassures his friend, who's taking his little mistake surprisingly hard, "crazy things happen in a fight like that." With a barely suppressed grin, he adds, "Of course, it wasn't my arm, you hit our friend with anger issues."

"If he hadn't have ducked away like that, I'm sure you would have hit his throat instead of my arm..." Is this because I used Cressida's first name? I'll have to keep an eye on this one. After the waves of positive energy flow over them, he adds "See? It is already staunched. It was never really any danger; more of a nuisance than anything."

When Gyllan crouches over the leader's body, Rommin takes up watch. He stands near the southern entrance to the chamber, but rotates focus between the various ways in and out.

Iozif heaves a sigh of relief as the madrat finally falls to the floor of the cavern. "Crazy, indeed, the poor fool seems to have driven himself to madness with hate already. He got a good bite at me, so my thanks to you, Miss Aldaeth."

Still feeling a little sick to his stomach from the encounter, Iozif keeps a watch on the passageway to their right (eastern door) in order to cover what Rommin wasn't. He doesn't enter the room, but listens for any sounds coming from the darkened cavern.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16

Relieved to see that Selina's healing took care of his blunder, he bows to Rommin's gracious understating of his mistake: "I'm in your debt, Friend." to which he adds a warm smile.

At Iozif's words, he turns, alarmed: "This foul thing bit you?! I pray he doesn't have the plague!"

You scan the room and you seem to be alone. After a minute you venture into the next one, and find the lair of the wererat leader.
In the room you find rotted food, miles of rope, and dark cloaks that fill most of the crates in this room.
On himself he had a +1 chain shirt, +1 silver rapier, now broken, but probably somewhat valuable and 30 gp. On the rest of the wererats you don't find anything of value, just old weapons and armor, not valuable enough to be carry outside.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

Between the risk of a renewed assault and infection, Corso is too nervous to be of much help when searching the first room.

He calms down a bit, reassured by Iozif, when they retrun to the main room.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

With the tip of his sword, he lifts and pushes trash around, then shouts: "I found something! Well, it doesn't look as rotten as the rest..."

3 smokesticks, a tanglefoot bag, 20 tindertwigs, a bent copper trumpet bearing a pennant with the city’s coat of arms worth 120 gp, and a complete set of carpenter’s masterwork artisan’s tools.

Will take 10 on Perception for the first two checks, for a 23.

Taking a moment to further investigate the crates, Gyllan says, "I thought it was a bit funny that they'd only have cloaks for whatever they're planning. There's lot of stuff underneath the cloaks in the crates!"

22 daggers, 12 short swords, 3 light crossbows, 60 black metal bolts, 4 chain shirts, 12 flasks of alchemist’s fire, a masterwork longsword, and a masterwork suit of chainmail.

He then takes a look around the room, wondering what else the crafty ratfolk have stashed, and moves over to a crack in the wall. "Oh, here's some more!"

Four potions of cure moderate wounds, a masterwork silver dagger, and an eversmoking bottle.

After you find all the items the Ratfolk rebellion had stored, you look at the south wall, into the darkness, where no noises are coming anymore.

Gyllan collects a pair of alchemical fire flasks and a healing potion, then waits for the others to grab what interests them. Looking at the broken silver rapier for a moment, he wonders aloud, "Why do you suppose they had silver weapons? Are they fighting each other? Is there some kind of turf war between the wererats and the were...bats?"

With a shrug, he continues, "I guess we should check out that other corridor, near where we fed that otyugh. Let's bring a couple of bodies along, since it seems to like wererat." He sheathes his sword and hoists the body of a dead wererat over his shoulder before moving to the south, keeping his eyes open for the great hungry monstrosity.

How close? Trying to be stealthy? Calling out?

Calling out that there's food coming.

The monstrous hand jumps out from the wall crack.
"Food! Give it to me! Hungry!"

Iozif retrieves a few flasks of alchemists fire and slips them through his bandolier. He takes one of the medicinal potions, taking a moment to pour it into an iron vial. The delicate operation done, he shrugs to Gyllan, "Possibly, or it may be that there were others before us who came down here. I'm not sure which is the more alarming possibility."

He jumps back at the monster's roaring shout, he pales, "Are we certain feeding this... monstrosity... is in anyone's best interest? Or that it's most definitely an oytugh?"

Taking 3 alchemist's fire and a cure moderate wounds potion.

"If it can talk, maybe it can tell us what they were planning?"

Rommin carefully wraps and stows his flail. He then hoists a body to his shoulder and follows Gyllan. He tells the ranger "In case you need it in negotiations. Just give me a nod if you want to me toss it in."

Gyllan pauses and considers Iozif's question, then says, "Well, it hasn't attacked us outright, and we've got lots to feed it. And it probably beats fighting it."

"Stay close, Rommin," Gyllan suggests, moving toward the passage heading south, "I don't want this thing to think I'm the next snack. But I think you've got the right idea, trying to talk to it. I guess I'll give it a try."

As he gets to the opening (heading for the big red question mark on the map) he calls out, "Here's food! Who are you? Can we go past?" He then tosses the wererat body ahead of him down the tunnel.

The monstrous hand grabs the body and pulls it into the darkness.
Sickening crunch noises and a nauseating smell of dead pours out.
"More! Hungry! More!"

I've moved through the southernmost passage, so I am not at the crack where we fed the otyugh before. Can we see anything in the blacked out areas now? If I could edit the map it would be a lot easier to place my token...

Ohh, got it... let me work on it.
It was a good idea.

You walk back to the tunnels, and the dogs you befriended receive you with yelps of joy and licks to your hands.
Two thick grates of rusted iron hedge in this section of sewer tunnel. From a man-sized crack in the northern wall seeps a steady flow of sewage, oozing into the greater flow of tainted water. A hulking pile of filth and debris partially blocks the stream of offal, a cart-sized clot in this disgusting artery.
An old and permanent fixture of the city sewers, the grate to the west prevents undesirables from slinking through the sewers. The grate to the east is a newer addition meant to serve the same purpose, but includes a lifting mechanism for the passage of sewer workers and other civic servants, and the city has simply not corrected the redundancy yet. Both grates extend to the ceiling 10 feet above.
A wall-mounted mechanism consisting of several gears and a large handle rests on the south wall, 5 feet to the west of the western grate.
In between the grates there is something like an otyugh, but it is different from the others, with a powerful body and one humanoid arm and hand besides the normal tentacles.
"Food! You are friends, not like rat hoomans! Let me go!"

"I think our work here is done, no? Fresh air beckons! I say we take their mischieving tools with us and rob us of the means, as we just took the will..." offers Corso, trying not to touch anything.

Iozif pales at the crunching of bone coming from the monstrosity before them. He pulls a kerchief from a pocket and sniffs, eying the creature warily. He opines quietly to the group, "I am not so sure the Field Marshal would thank us for freeing . I seem to recall a tale you told about an oytugh that escaped the sewers and the havoc it wreaked. Do I recall correctly? Otherwise I think Corso's idea is a fine one. I've seen enough of the sewers today to last a lifetime."

To clarify, we've explored all of C6 (as marked on the map) as well, right?

Right. Exploring done.

"I'll go along with what the majority decide, but I can't help but believe that perhaps it can be negotiated with. It could be a boon to the city with the right understanding. And if its hunger grows strong enough, it may free itself regardless."

Corso listens to Rommin and Iozif and nods: "Ok, I agree: we can't leave that... thing... behind. Either we educate it... Or we eradicate it... Personally, I'm not looking for a new pupil."

As the others remain silent, Corso nods and says: "That settles it. We kill another otyugh and we get out of here!"

He looks at the "cage": "Best if we shoot it down. No need to get close..."

Really? What to shoot it down from afar? You are right it is safe that way, but not really sportsmanlike ...

Corso looks at the face of the others, reading something that might be there, or might just be in his mind: "All right! All right! We'll open the gate and it will have a fighting chance, but anything happens to my boots..." he warns, preparing his sword.

"It just called us friends," Gyllan objects, laying a hand on Corso's blade and pushing it toward the ground, "and it sees itself as an enemy of the ratfolk! I'm with Rommin, we free it, maybe we can tell it to only eat ratfolk or monsters or something."

Corso blinks a few times at Gyllan, checking whether the ranger's got the plague or something, then turns to Iozif, who always seems to know what's best.

In fact, if somebody has the plague, is Iozif ;)
He got bitten by the wererat, remember?

Rommin steps forward, heaves the dead ratman off his shoulder towards the creature. Assuming the otyugh sets to devouring the remains, Rommin takes that moment to look at the mechanism restraining it. Assuming he can figure out how to release the otyugh, he'll say "If we release you, you promise to not attack people who do not attack you? Animals are okay, and anyone who attacks you is okay. And you stay underground? Do you agree?"

The creature moves next to the bars containing it.
"You friends! You give food! Let me out!"

Corso gives a smirk and, with a bow, indicates to Gyllan and Rommin that the Otyugh is all theirs to train. He takes a few steps back, sets his sword against the wall, and crosses his arms, looking quite full of himself in an annoying way.

Rommin shrugs to the others, and then releases the otyugh. "You are free to go, friend."

"But- but Rommin, how do you know it will behave?"

"We have its word?"

Rommin opens the cage and the otyugh charges against you all.
"Friends, feed me with your flesh!"
Roll initiative! Attack it if you go first.
Otyugh Initiative: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Initiative 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Yeah, I deserved that 1 there.

"AHAHAHAHAH!!! Now hurry and slay it quick!" roars Corso as he picks his sword up and bolsters his companions' spirit with the inflexion of his voice as it echoes in the cave.

Start Inspire Courage.

Init: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

"Dammit," Gyllan mutters quietly as the otyugh challenges the bounds of their friendship. "I was with you all the way, Rommin, sorry it didn't work out."

He steps forward and slices at the creature with his greatsword!

Greatsword attack, Inspired: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 1 = 18
Greatsword damage: 2d6 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (6, 2) + 5 + 1 = 14

Corso: You can attack.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Selina swings her morningstar at the creature, moving to flank it with Gyllan.
1d20 + 2 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 2 + 6 = 18
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Corso: You can attack.

Starting IC is a standard action, no?