Hell's Rebels 2nd Edition

Game Master Levi Steadman

Moving towards the others, Lucius remains on high alert. Glaring beyond the gate with his shield and blade ready, Lucius reports in a low voice "Whatever those things were, grimples...? Well, whatever they are, I saw scurrying in this direction on the rafters above, beyond the gate." Glancing back towards the others with a nod "We should be ready."

Continued Scout and Defense.

Enara attempts to pick the lock once as Tilorean but doesn't have much luck. Fortunately enough for the group, the key that Tilorean found fit into the locked grate with some slight effort and you're all able to get past.

"I know about as much as you do at this point," Rexus replies to Jivli's question. "Given that my mother called this place out in her potentially final message to me it must be something of paramount importance."

Past the grate is a hall that's southern wall has what appears to have once been a secret door hanging partially open on decayed hinges. Past that door is a workroom.

This old workroom houses numerous old slaughterhouse
tools, veterinary equipment, and woodworking tools, all of
which are covered with a thick layer of dust through which
strange tracks and patterns have been traced. Heavy mallets,
crumbling ropes, and tools for restraining animals hang from
pegs in the walls or rest atop leaning tables. To the southwest,
a trap door sits ajar, propped open by a block of wood.

Not long after the group starts surveying this room the walls appear to begin bleeding and some of the slaughterhouse tools begin to float around the room. The numerous grimple tracks throughout the room leading to the trapdoor seem to be the obvious culprit of the "haunting". After looking about the room there does not appear to be anything of value.

Clarification: does that description mean we're easily able to tell that we're being pranked regarding the bleeding walls and floating tools? What do we know about grimples in general?

Yeah, probably should have been more clear. Grimples are known for this sort of thing. They're just using cantrips and at this point you and Hemdar both would know that.

Sheepishly, Enara hands the key back to Tilorean. "Thanks. It's not often I get outsmarted by a lock, but we live in strange times."

Cautiously, she steps into the room and then recoils from the bleeding walls. Nervously, she turns to Jilvi, saying, "You have magic for this, right?"

Meant to post yesterday, but got kinda overwhelmed with school stuff, sorry. :/
Hemdar relays what he knows about grimples to the group. "Grimples are a kind of malicious minor nature spirit. They can use a few minor magics, usually just to steal or play tricks, they'd probably defend themselves using natural weapons. I saw some of their tracks leading into the rafters or into tunnels into the ground, so keep an eye out."
As the walls begin to bleed and the tools dance in the air, Hemdar just shakes his head.
"I can use a spell to clean up the blood if you really want, but try to ignore it. We'll see more of the grimple's tricks if we go through that trapdoor, and I'm guessing we'll have to to find what we're looking for."

Til refuses the key. "Not mine. You may want it later."

"Probably, though it doesn't seem that well hidden anymore. We should check up here, first, though, I think."

Glancing about the room with a scowl, Lucius listens to Hemdar explain the nature of grimples. "Fowl creatures. They obviously don't want us going through the trapdoor if they're trying this hard to scare us off." Shrugging, Lucius adds "Alright then, trap door it is."

Jilvi shrugs. "Yeah Hemdar's right, it's creepy but ultimately harmless. Gremlins are nasty little pests though, so there's a strong chance they'll escalate if we press on. Nothing for it really, just be ready."

"Noted. I'll try to be less jumpy, too. Not used to all this stuff yet. Usually, places try to discourage me with guards or putting razor blades under the windows. Bleeding walls and floating meat hooks are...new."

"Truly awful creatures, these grimples," Rexus says with derision. "Who would like to be first down the trapdoor? I don't have any spells to cast light down there, unfortunately, so we may need to get that figures first."

"I can see pretty well in the dark, and I can also illuminate something with magic to help everyone else see. Lucius, perhaps we can use your shield?"

Assuming we send Lucius first since he's our big shiny paladin, Hemdar casts light on his shield.
Hemdar speaks a few words in sylvan and twists his fingers together, then opens them to reveal a bright light as it blazes to life in the center of his palm. He then moves to Lucius and presses the light into his shield until the shield glows with its own internal radiance.

"LIKE to go first? You're funny! But I can help, here.

He shuffles around the trap door, trying to see how it opens up below so that he can give himself the best line of sight before settling down and uttering a few arcane phrases accompanied by unusual gestures. 4 balls of a yellowish light pop into existence inside the opening and he spreads them out to cover as much space as he can. (Each must be within 10' of another. And he wants the way down lit, so that should define the limit.)

Cast and sustain Damcing Lights.

Holding up his shield, Lucius admired the light emanating from it a moment before nodding at Hemdar "Thanks, this will do nicely." Looking towards the other, Lucius added "I'll go first."

Lucius descends the ladder below the trap door and scans the room with the light from his shield.

The eye-watering stench of urine and feces fills this large
room. Nests made of chewed crates and barrels line the
walls, while rusty knives and hooks cover the tabletops.

As he scans the room, rats the size of men come out from behind the crates and barrels intent on making a meal of the shining champion.

Rat Kennel—Round One

Initiative Order
Party
Rats

Everyone is up! Climbing down the ladder is an action that requires a DC 5 Athletics during combat. A success nets 5ft and a critical success is 10ft. The ladder is 15ft. If you crit fail you will fall prone in that square and take damage equal to half the distance you fell rounded down (if you fell more than 5ft). To make things easier, you may move to the ladder and make your first Athletics check as part of a single Stride. When you hit the bottom you may end that movement in any square adjacent to the ladder.

Lucius is already down, correct?

The moment the large rats come into visual sight, Lucius calls out "Careful! We have company down here, three rats the size of... good god, men!"

With sword drawn, Lucius quickly engages

Action #1 Stride to Engage #2
Action #2 Longsword Strike: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Action #3 Raise shield, AC20

Hearing Lucius's call, Hemdar scrambles down the ladder. Once at the bottom he hastily speaks an incantation to summon a shield of magical force.
Athletics: 1d20 ⇒ 141d20 ⇒ 20
Actions 1 & 2:move down the ladder Action 3: cast shield

Enara, somewhat less eagerly, climbs down after Hemdar and Lucius, putting herself between the druid and the rats.

Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

"I'd hate to see the mouser that you'd need to clean this place out," she mutters.

Men sized rats? Emarel shuddered. First dogs, now rats. Were there any animals around that didn't want to kill them? Taking a deep breath, he headed over to the ladder and descended.

Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Athletics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16

Once at the bottom, Emarel put his back to the wall and took in the state of the room. Somehow, it smelled even worse than upstairs had. Casting a wary eye at the three giant rodents, he said an incantation, waving his hand in front of him and summoning a wall of magical force.

[Ooc]Actions 1 and 2) Descend ladder
Action 3) Cast Shield

Athletics 1: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Athletics 1: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Sliding down the ladder after the others, Jilvinirri hits the ground below and invokes a prayer of warding, raising a Shield between herself and the rats.

Back from another Scouting campout. Time to look at the map and figure out what options exist. Done. Okay, this is going to be simpler than I was thinking it would.

Athletics: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
Athletics: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (16) + 0 = 16

Til begins his Inspire Courage composition, providing everyone with the appropriate status bonus as he climbs down the ladder.

Rexus follows you all down the ladder and casts shield as well. "By the gods! How does a rat even grow that large?"

Lucius's sword meets rat flesh and scores a decent blow across the rodent's side.

One of the rats lunges forward to bite Enara, but only grazes her due to a well-timed dodge. It tries to bite her again but misses entirely the second time.
Enara takes 2 damage unless Lucius would like to use his reaction to lower that, Step, and Strike this rat.

Once I get a priority order for Lucius's reactions I'll know for sure, but I'm going to have him use it here.

The rat's graze seems to be completely nullified by holy light. Lucius steps back and, with his shield still raised towards the other rat, takes a back-handed swing at the rat attacking Enara. It doesn't connect, but it certainly gets the beast's attention.

The rat Lucius already struck advances as he backs away, getting in a lucky bite on the armored man. The rat lunges for a second bite without the same luck.
Lucius takes 4 damage

The last of the giant rats lunges for Rexus. It's first attempt at biting him is narrowly avoided, and it's second is mostly mitigated as Rexus briefly amplifies his shield spell.
Rexus takes 2 damage

Rat Kennel—Round Two

Everyone is up!

Enara rolls out of the way, drawing her rapier as she goes, lunging at the rat as soon as she comes to her feet.

Rapier strike against #1: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 1 = 12
Damage: 1d20 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 1 = 15

1) Stride. 2) Draw rapier. 3) Strike against #1

"Don't let them surround you!" Til cries out before moving up to try to prevent giving them exactly that sort of an opportunity on some of his new companions, pulling his blade as he goes.

1) Maintain Inspire Courage composition 2) Stride 3) Manipulate rapier

Despite the heat of combat, Hemdar eagerly supplies a likely unwanted answer to Rexus's question. "When rats live underground, they have no predators to hide from."
He pauses mid-explanation to blast a nearby rat with ice and maintain his warding spell.
Ray of Frost: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 201d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
"Since they don't need to be small to hide, they grow larger with each generation. It seems fast to us because we live so much longer."
Action 1: cast shield Actions 2 and 3: cast ray of frost at rat #1
@Enara: you accidentally used a d20 for damage. :D

lol
With a 12 I doubt it'll matter but maybe the flat footed penalty is enough, so I'll cover my bases.

Actual damage: 1d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 1 = 6
Forgot sneak attack too: 1d6 ⇒ 1

incredible

Continuing his attack, Lucius tries to put an end to the rat that was attempting to bite him.

Action 1 - Attack Rat #2: 1d8 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 6 + 1 = 12
Damage: 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 1 = 7

Action 2 - Attack Rat #2: 1d8 + 6 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (1) + 6 + 1 - 5 = 3
Damage: 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 1 = 5

Action 3 - Raise a shield

Wow, those are some crap rolls :P

Creating an arrow of electricity, Emarel aimed his bow at the mutant rodent attacking Lucius, and fired. Mid flight, sparks arced off the arrow to create another, smaller arrow heading towards the rat that had attacked Rexus.

As he raised his hand again to sustain his magical shield, Emarel thought about what Hemdar had said about the rats. "But what could their food source possibly be that's allowing for continued, sustainable growth for so many? Even if they were feeding on the local wildlife, they would upset the balanced ecosystem in place and cut down their available prey quite quickly."

He paused, thinking through what he said. "Well, I suppose that actually explains why they're attacking us.

Actions 1 and 2) Cast Electric Arc targeting rats 2 and 3
3) Cast Shield

Electric Arc Damage: 1d4 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 1 = 8

"Nerds!" Jilvi punctuates the cry with a crack of her whip at the nearest of the rats. Lashing out at the one menacing Rexus, the gnome invokes her protective prayer again.

Whip 1 vs #3: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Whip 2 vs #3: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (11) + 0 = 11 Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Ugh. Draw Weapon, Strike, Shield

Enara lashes out with her rapier to no avail, missing the rat by a significant margin.

Hemdar's ray hits the rat, eliciting a squeal as a large clump matted fur on its side freezes together.
Rat 1 takes 8 cold damage.

Lucius, similar to Enara, has no luck with his two sword swings. A well-timed dodge from the rat nearly throws the armored man off balance.

Emarel's electric arrow misses both of its target, though they look minorly wounded by the electricity arcing off of them.
Rat 2 and Rat 3 take 4 electricity damage.

Jilvi's lashing strikes miss as well, adding to the cacophony of curses coming from the clumsy heroes.

Attack (rapier): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
Damage (rapier): 1d6 ⇒ 4 P
Attack (rapier): 1d20 + 7 - 5 ⇒ (16) + 7 - 5 = 18
Damage (rapier): 1d6 ⇒ 3 P

Rexus draws his rapier and lunges forward twice at the rat that attacked him, leaving two shallow puncture wounds in the beast's side.
Rat 3 takes 7 piercing damage.

"While I feel bad for moving in on their territory, we must move forward!" Rexus shouts over the noise of combat.

The rat that Enara is fighting tries to bite her three times to no avail, the nimble woman dodging out of the way each time.

The rat fighting Lucius bites at him in a frenzy, narrowly avoiding his femoral artery as it gets a solid bite in on his thigh.
Lucius takes 8 piercing damage

Rexus gets the worst of it, however, as the rat engaged in combat with him lands bites twice and severely wounds the unarmored man.
Rexus takes 15 piercing damage.

Rat Kennel—Round Three
Total Damage This Combat
Lucius (-12 HP)
Rexus (-15 HP)
Rat 1 (-8 HP)
Rat 2 (-10 HP)
Rat 3 (-11 HP)
*Some damage numbers pending reaction from Lucius

Everyone is up!

"Ugh, this was always Enara's thing. I'm a liar not a fighter!" Jilvi attempts to lash the rat mauling Rexus again.

Whip Atk 1 vs 3: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Whip Atk 2 vs 3: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Strike, Strike, Shield

"Just run the Galtan Patrician, they'll be eating out of your hand in no time!” Enara replies, stabbing once more at the giant rat.

Rapier at #1: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 7 + 1 = 20
Damage w/ sneak attack: 2d6 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (3, 5) + 4 + 1 = 13

Jilvi's attacks do not connect as she lashes out at the rat that wounded Rexus.

Enara stabs the rat in front of her deep in its side, piercing its heart and dealing a fatal blow. She dashes through the crowded storeroom and stabs at the rat harrying Rexus, landing yet another killing blow.

Getting frustrated at the beast, Lucius continues to strike back.

Action #1 - Strike vs. #2: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 6 + 1 = 22
Damage: 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 = 10
Action #2 - Strike vs. #2: 1d20 + 6 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 6 + 1 - 5 = 12
Damage: 1d8 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 1 = 7
Action #3 - Raise a Shield

Lucius channels his frustration and swings out savagely with his sword twice. The final rat died with the first blow but the second held the real catharsis.

Rat Kennel—End

"I hate to slow us down, but can we take a few moments and patch up?" Rexus asks through ragged breaths. "Unfortunately that is a skill that I never learned how to do growing up as I did. I have a few potions if we need those."

"Save your potions, we might them later. Gather 'round ye wounded and weary--enjoy the savor, and pray you never suffer the sting."

Triple-Action Heal spell for a 30ft burst of healing for anyone who wants it
Heal: 1d8 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

The 3 action version doesn't add the plus 8, unfortunately.

Enara nods and reaches into her cloak to tap twice on a tiny holy symbol sewn into the sleeve.

"A breather would be good I think. It's not every day you have to fight off man sized rodents. Speaking of..."

Emarel walks closer to the corpses and examines them a little more closely, for science of course.

"My thanks for the healing. I could likely use my magic to heal the rest of your wounds, though I suspect these rats will not be the only foes we face down here. If we take a few minutes here I could treat someone's wounds more conventionally and save the magic for an emergency."
Assuming we want to spend at least 10 minutes, Hemdar will use Medicine to treat wounds on Rexus.
Medicine: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 132d8 ⇒ (5, 2) = 7
or maybe not. :/

"I do not think we are in safe enough conditions for me to offer semi-skilled healing. I can help far more often than I hurt, but . . .. I do have the ability to cast some healing magics if Jilvi's efforts are insufficient."

"Thank you for your efforts," Rexus says, drinking a potion and passing another over to Lucius. "I do believe Tilorean has the right of it, though. We may as well press on."

Healing Potion (minor): 1d8 ⇒ 8

The potion that he gave Lucius is identical, just 1d8 of healing.

Emarel searches the room while the rest of the party rests up and tends to their wounds. There are a few things of note: the rats are huge, the urine smell is gross, and the crates and barrels in the room appear to have been looted of anything of value. Any perishables did so long ago. Near the door in the room, he does hear a few curious things.
First is the skittering of tiny creatures from the other side of the door—more than likely the grimple nest is not far off. The second is a strangely discordant sound that he hears not more than once per minute. A few off-key sinister sounding notes coming from a pan flute that both sounds very near and impossibly far.

"When we're ready to keep going, we probably should. We might have the time to do a very thorough search of this area, but for now we need to be more worried about things like the Grimples and less about things like secret cubbyholes and plans to overthrow a long-defunct government." He looks around. "So, are we ready?"

Taking the potion from Rexus with a grateful nod, Lucius uncorks and quickly throws back the healing elixir.

Healing Potion: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Perfect, back up to full HP after that nasty little rat.

Glancing at the door, Lucius moves towards it with his glowing shield. Nodding back towards the others he adds "Ready when you all are."

Lucius will press through the door on unless somebody else has something else they want to do first.