See if I can make out any of the humanoid tracks taking the tertiary path
To Dagnir and Maqej I assume you are both not too tired to continue?I think we should follow the group that split off and see where they are going. That is unusal behavior for rats; they are much more comfortable in packs. Let's follow them and see what they are doing, yes? I'll lead.
I'm going to cast mage armor
The last track you recognized from the humanoid was about an hour earlier. You are pretty sure there are only the 3-4 rats headed into the small tunnel. The group continuing down the main cavern is much larger possibly 10-15. It would be easier for the humanoid's tracks to be obscured by the larger group.
Let's see some STEALTH rolls.
Dolgrin is leading, where is Maqej? Second or in back?
I'm in back
Cast Message on Dolgrin and Dagnir
Meh, I'm not going to slow down and stealth over tracking some rats.
If anything I'll attract the action up front and Dagnir and Maqej can rush up and support me from behind getting a surprise attack on the foe as they are so focused on my noisy self.
If I see anything obvious I'll stealth, but otherwise I'm a regular Roscoe P. Coletrain and I'm in hot pursuit. Coo! Coo! Coo!
You move forward through the narrow tunnel (tunnel2), about 50 ft in you notice a very small tunnel split off to the right (tunnel3). Tunnel3 is easily big enough for a rat but you would be hard pressed to fit into it even if you were on hands and knees without armor, any weapon but a dagger or something similar would be unusable in those tight confines. You can see rat tracks that go in and out of this tunnel and they look to be fresh within the last few hours. Squatting down you can see into this tunnel only about 5 feet as it curves.
Looking further ahead Tunnel2 close to the edge of your vision it looks like it opens up into a larger space. There are rat tracks leading towards this open area as well, these also look just as fresh.
Party action.
Up Tunnel 2 to the larger space.
Watch our backs Maqej and make sure they don't double back and surprise us. Things could get tricky REAL quick!
You got it Dolgrin.
You move forward to the open area, its a cavern about 20 by 30, filled with piles of junk and bones and random bits of cloth and armor, a rats nest.
4 rats spring from the filth: initiative!
range AOO?
Power attack
Ooooh, that's GOTTA sting!
cast Ray of Frost
One rat goes down immediately under Dolgrin's merciless onslaught!
Another is blasted with Maqej's ray of frost and gives a squeal of pain but it still comes on.
Dagnir:
A third rat takes a solid blow from Dagnir's warhammer but is still up.
Two rats strike Maqej from behind as he brings up the rear his mage armor easily turns one bite but the other sneaks through, ripping his leg open with a vicious bite.
~thinking 'I TOLD him to watch the back....freaking flame brain...'~
Focus on one rat at a time; don't spread out the damage!
~now thinking 'Guess I should focus on what's at hand and not the rest...'~
Aaiieee!! -damn, Dolgrin told me to watch from behind-
Color Spray at the two rats from behind.
Maqej blasts the 2 rats attacking from behind with his color spray and they drop unconscious to filth on the cavern floor.
Dolgrin's concentration is broken by all the action behind his back and his weapon misses his agile foe.
Dagnir also glances over her shoulder to see how Maqej is fairing and her hammer swing goes wide.
Rats:
The rat attacking Maqej hesitates a bit too long, and Maqej dances away from the snapping jaws.
Dolgrin's rat takes advantage of his distraction to find the weak spot in the shoulder joint of his armor, his oversized teeth rip and tear deeply into Dolgrin's flesh and crushing one of his ribs.
Dagnir's rat snaps at her without effect.
1 dead rat, 2 rats unconscious, 3 rats up and attacking (2 are damaged)
Torag's teeth!
On undamaged one.
power attack
I. HATE. F#*~ING. RATS!
[dice=will]1d20+2
[dice=will]1d20+2Maqej blasts the 2 rats attacking from behind with his color spray and they drop unconscious to filth on the cavern floor.
Dolgrin's concentration is broken by all the action behind his back and his weapon misses his agile foe.
Dagnir also glances over her shoulder to see how Maqej is fairing and her hammer swing goes wide.
[dice=hammer]1d20+4Rats:
[dice=bite]1d20+4
The rat attacking Maqej hesitates a bit too long, and Maqej dances away from the snapping jaws.[dice=bite]1d20+4
[dice=dam]4d4+4
Dolgrin's rat takes advantage of his distraction to find the weak spot in the shoulder joint of his armor, his oversized teeth rip and tear deeply into Dolgrin's flesh and crushing one of his ribs.[dice=bite]1d20+4
Dagnir's rat snaps at her without effect.1 dead rat, 2 rats unconscious, 3 rats up and attacking (2 are damaged)
Shoot an Elemental Ray at my injured rat
They call them ROUS for a reason.
Dolgrin lashes out in pain. All he can see is red, his instincts take over, years and years of training dictate his actions. His weapon connects directly with the skull of the rat that savage him, dwarven forged steel meets bone and bone loses. The rat's skull explodes blood and grey matter are spattered across the cavern as the rat goes down.
Maqej's ray of energy misses his frenetic target and scores the side of the cavern.
Dagnir:
Dagnir's hammer sends hair flying off the rat in front of her but fails to connect solidly enough to do real damage.
The 2 rats left standing, seeing the lifeless bodies of 4 companions flee back down the small passageway (tunnel2) and quickly disappear into (tunnel3).
The throats of the unconscious rats are quickly cut.
END OF COMBAT
Well that sucked...
~binds wound of fanged death~
Dolgrin: You are able to staunch the bleeding, but you are a bit dizzy and have to sit down for a moment.
Maqej is also able to stop his wounds up and is pretty chewed up but in better shape than Dolgrin.
Suggest you make some Heal checks.
Treat Deadly Wounds DC20
Requirement: You must expend two uses from a healer's kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your check for each use from a healer's kit that you lack.
When treating deadly wounds, you can restore hit points to a damaged creature. Treating deadly wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day.
Dagnir:
"Torag's teeth, these wounds are beyond me."
Char:
"Well then, its fortunate that I came after you."
"By the power Dolgrin, you near killed yourself! At least you managed to splatter a few of these damn rats in the process."
"Let me have a look at you too Maqej."
"Ah good, that's better, I think you will both live."
~giving Char a strange look~Girl, Dagnir as my witness, I never thought I'd live to see the day that I'd be happy to see a hobgob. Can't believe I was dumb enough to come out here and leave you behind. puts an akward hand on her shoulder Thanks for coming after us.
Check out the rat's cave:
Then how come your skills block says Heal +6?
Then how come your skills block says Heal +6?
Thanks Char, you're the best.
uuhhh, sorry Dolgrin for not watching the back. I'll do better next time.
That's allright Maqej, you did great. That snazzy spell of yours is making me think about having YOU in the front. ~chuckles~
Ooh, I can also shoot some flames from my fingers...but I can only do that once a day.
"It would be more amusing if you could shoot them from your ass."
I knew this fella that worked in the forges that could shoot flames from his ass, but really he was just lighting his farts; but he could do it almost all the time.
Dolgrin finds 72 gp, 3 gems worth 50gp each, a short bow, 7 arrows, and 3 silver arrows, everything else is junk.
I guess that would be pretty good if someone was chasing me...
If Maqej or Char can use a a short bow I give it to them with the arrows. If not I keep them.
What ways out of here?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/Chief_Wiggum.png
uh, I don't know how to use that. I'd rather just zap em. -I shoot a ray of frost at the wall-
The wall gets cold when Maqej blasts it with a ray of frost.
Char: "You keep the bow Dolgrin, I don't think I would be much use with it, and like Maqej I have spells I can use at a distance."
The only way out is the way you came in, there are a couple of small rat sized tunnels that lead from the open area with the rat's nest. Dolgrin's eagle eyes sees something that has been dragged part way into a tunnel, perhaps that handle to a tool or weapon. Sensing no danger, he heads over for a closer look and sure enough finds a silver heavy flail.
Well, well, well. Despite me almost being ended by one of the foul ROUS this has proven to be a valuable little jaunt. Let's head back to where the tunnel branched off. I'm not feeling up to crawling around in actual rat holes today. Anyone make use of htis here flail? It's a beauty...
Unless I see anything else to take back with us or someone else has a better idea, head back the way we came.
When we get back to the branch point:
Dagnir-I'm game for following the main trail if you are. It will be a little cold, but that probalby means any ambushers are getting lazy. It'd be nice to know where this jerk off and his rat pals are hiding out. It would be even nicer to convert their hidey-hole into a tomb!
Dagnir: let's go, they won't be worried if we don't return for a few days, been out that long before.
Dolgrin easily picks up the trail again
Perception and survival rolls
I see my plan to exhaust all of Dolgrin's good rolls before the next combat is on track.
You come to anther narrower passage that branches off from the main cavern, again several sets of rat tracks break off from the larger main group.
Party's action.
I'm keeping an eye out behind us!!
Good man Maqej.
Look to see if the humanoid tracks head in any particular direction.
Either way-I think we should follow the small group again. Basic tactics dictates that when faced with a large force, the smaller force (that's us) should try and divide up the larger and then defeat them in detail. In this instance, our muroideal friends are making our job easier by splitting their forces voluntarily. When the enemy is making a mistake, don't get in their way. points to the tracks leading down the narrower passage Let's go.
You head down the narrow passage single file: Dolgrin, Dagnir, Char, Maqej. The passage quickly curves to the right and slopes down for about 50 feet where you come to a pool of water that is about 10 feet across. You can see about 3 feet down into the water but it is too murky to see beyond that and it smells foul, you definitely wouldn't want to drink it or wash with it. On the other side of the pool of water the passage starts up again.
Char: "I can cast a spell that will improve your ability to leap across if you wish to try Dolgrin." (Guidance:+1 to skill check)
DC10 acrobatics check to leap across
Sure I could leap, but what about the rest of you? Hate to have ALL the fun killing our rat friends. Maqej you have an magic powers for this? Maybe you could zap it with your frost and freeze it so we could walk across the ice?
Don't think it works that way, sorry.
Char: "We would all have to jump in turn. I just thought you might want to go first. Do we have anything to check the depth of the water, maybe we can just wade through it, though based on the looks of it I would rather not. Anyone have any other ideas?"
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p8dv?What-is-the-deal-with-Ray-of-Frost
(Nice idea, interesting discussion at thread above, my take you might be able to turn a drink into a slurpee, but freezing over something this big would take days.)
I'll run my DD out there and see if the water is deeper than 15'.
Let's see how deep that water is, though I'm with you Char and rather not get wet with it. Too bad I don't have proper equipment; I could stake the rope and we could all swing across.
If the water is not super deep (over 15') I'll go for it.
Ah hells; here we go!!