"I'll admit you have a point at least on the trust issue. On the other point, however, I was think of us more like a small scouting force."
"You are right that this tribe would have its own way of doing things, so letting them do them while we attend to other maters ahead of them seems to be a more optimal. Admittedly this would require more trust on our part, so I can see where the difficulties might lie, but we also don't know the true extent of our enemy either. This might just be a single cult that's put some leaders in the right place, but it also might be a significant foothold, and we cannot always count on being able to sneak up on our enemies."
Nyd shrugs. "At the very least, they would be a loud distraction."
Nyd eyes the 'decorations' of the Sharp "Subtle decorations," he says in a tone so dry the sarcasm might as well be wearing a hat.
Nyd eyes the gate doors. "If no one else minds, I believe it would be best if I opened these doors. I am far less likely to catch something from their poorly maintained condition."
"After we make sure they are safe to open at all."
"I am sometimes quite grateful about the nature of my construction. This appears to be one of those times.
Nyd shivers a bit at the howl. "Do you think that is a sign of intimidation, or occupation?"
"Feel free. I think someone might get tetnus from grabbing those." Artur said as he gestured to the spikes.
Artur seemed completely unphased by the terrible smells of the entryway, and seemed a bit surprised that anyone else might be bothered by it.
"Well, that was weird." Artur said matter-of-factly. "Guess we'll have to get used to things like that though; we're in the fortress of creatures that, if the legends are to be believed, are literally the stuff of nightmares."
Artur started picking his way forward, picking a path through the room before walking, and stopping every six seconds or so to reevaluate his route.
"Alright, this is almost so scary it's funny." Tharivol half giggles at the end to hide his terror. To bolster his courage, he wiped his eyes and said a command word, in case anything less scary was invisible.
The dragonmarked elf attempted to be absolutely silent as he padded behind the troop. In his head, the minstrel juggled the words of a description of this place to accompany a frightening beat.
"Artur, to have them with us would not necessarily mean traveling with them. They are not an army, traveling with a supply wagon and all that. I presume they would more be a force we could call upon if we needed such."
She stared at the dull blades on the gate, then followed Nyd through after he opened them.
The muscle under Briar's skin rippled and hardened as alien physiology responded to the rank stench of the place. Her jaw was taut, the grip on her glaive strong.
The fur on Liti's hide stood on end, her mouth was wide in a silent unending snarl. She kept bringing her paws up sharply as if he floor was hot. She shook her head and snapped at the air.
"This place is more and less than we can see. Be strong of spirit, the denizens herein prey upon fear."
The words sounded hollow in her throat. Despite her training, despite her will, she was daunted by the immensity of the fortress. It's size yawned in front of her, threatening to swallow her up.
Liti snarled at Briar, eyes blazing. Acid dripped from her maw as she prowled forward.
"But he said 'fight with you.' I am assuming that he meant just that."
Nyd, a little too shaken to speak eloquently, just shrugs.
Tharivol stops dead in his tracks. His head starts turning slowly from side to side while his eyes dart everywhere searching for the source of the scream.
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, pass
, fail
, fail
, pass
OOC: we cross-posted. :)
At least I made one of your saves. You're welcome. :)
Game on!
Tharivol shivers and follows the kid down the hallway. His naive calm becomes contagious and slowly settles the dragonmarked elf, so he can restarts his tune creation.
"Oh, what the hell?" The minstrel moves forward to put Artur between himself and the swarm.
"Oh hell no." Artur said as he saw the swarm of disembodied limbs chasing them. "Keep moving!" he shouted, then turned and fired a grenade at the mass of limbs, determined to at least damage it so that he could rationalize it's destruction. He then turned and moved down the hallway before turning again to observe it's progress.
Briar shook her head like a dog that had just taken a swim, the unwelcome sinking sensation, the anxiety rising. The fear, this place, she knew she could not allow it to overcome her. Liti snarled at her...
...and she snarled back. Liti glared but finally moved her gaze. She panted on the floor, mouth closed for a moment, before she seemed to retch and spit...
...the black ichor on the floor that resulted was quickly disolved by the acid, Liti had already moved on.
Briar glared at the artificer
"Your whole purpose appears to be preventing me from killing things. It's becoming aggravating."
As he fired his weapon at the swarm she still turned and concentrated on the way forward. Brandishing her glaive she went to the doors and attempted to open them with a mail-encased fist.
"Hey now, entering this place was not my idea." Artur said.
OOC: I'll give Nyd a few more hours and then recap later today.
Questions?
Game on!
Nyd shivers, still unsettled by the conditions of the site.
Seeing the limbs Nyd shivers harder, this was close to a personal nightmare of his.
"Fall and cease!" With a shout Nyd gestures with his most common spells, and launches three magic missiles at the swarm of limbs.
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, fail
, pass
"Everyone get the door open. I'll get Zdravko and her arm." Artur then moved forward, his eyes never leaving the her arm. He grabbed the arm first, then grabbed Zdravko and bodily tossed her down the hallway before sending her arm flying after her.
This is going to hurt.
Artur thought just before the swarm engulfed him.
OOC: No need to apologize. I really do not take these types of questions as a personal offense or challenge at all. Truth be told, it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job because you care about the story and your character's role in it.
That aside, here's what 'happened'.
The swarm coalesced behind you when you guys were walking down the corridor so no surprise.
I was nice and let all of you win initiative and attack first (we are still using initiative).
I had Zdravko, use disengage (bonus), move into the swarm 20', attack, and move out of the swarm 20'. The attacks were effective; I even wrote Zdravko ran forward, sliding into the mass of the arms and entrails, sending some flying before quickly retreating for another dirty n' run...'. I took out the baseball reference because it did not resonate with me in a fantasy game. :)
The swarm then moved and attacked you.
Is this clear?
Any other questions?
BTW: Zdravko has no idea what Artur is talking about and why he grabbed an amputated goblin arm from the swarm.
Game on!
OOC: As you say, stealth is not easily portrayed in PBP but we can have Z be the 'front scout' and then have her act is she surprises someone. The problem is that I don't want to have too much of 'only one player acts and everyone else waits' because it could lead to disinterest in the other players. However, I will try and incorporate her stealth as much as possible. Feel free to remind me.
As for acting before or after another PC, I have no problem you doing that. Just make it clear and I'll adjust the other person's action (in this case Artur's).
I usually have everyone act in the order they post but this is NOT necessary. Moreover, Artur did something to another PC without their consent so that is usually a contested roll if the other PC is not in agreement.
Questions?
Game on!
PS: by now you should all be aware that this place is 'messing with your mind'
"Zdravk! Pull back and we will attempt to repair the damage!"
Nyd gestures sharply and quickly. Using one of his more powerful slots
Tharivol advanced to the door beside Briar and started investigating how to open it. He used material to interact with the blades in case they were illusions. Just in case, he triggered his magic shield to pop open.
Not finding anything useful, he offers, "We may need to turn flask of oil into bombs."
Briar spun in place and started to run back down the corridor, towards the swarm.
"The door isn't opening any time soon, no choice..."
There was no hint of regret in her eyes as she brought her glaive to bear, spinning it from hand to hand like a threshing tool against the wheat of the limb swarm. The acid running down the weapon sizzled as it ate hungrily through the undead flesh.
Liti dashed out from between Briar's legs, also tearing in to the horde of limbs with gusto.
OOC: I'll be recapping later tonight...
Anybody want to tell me what Veratash would do for these first two rounds?
ray of sickness? psionic blast?
Rules savvy people...5e treats swarms as single a creature with regards to targeting with spells, right?
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and
vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large
enough for a Tiny rat. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain
temporary hit points.
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, pass
, Zdravko
, hit
, Zdravko
, miss
With everyone engaged with the swarm of limbs, Tharivol continued investigating how to open the door. He used material of his cloak to interact with the blades in case they were illusions.
Not finding anything useful again, he offers, "This is crazy."
Briar briefly considered grabbing Zdravko to pull her out of harms way, but grit her teeth instead, the quickest way to help the goblin was to eliminate the threat so she could be attended to properly.
Briar used her glaive like a fishing spear, it dived and swiped across the crawling limbs...
Whilst mising with her blade, the pole mashed one limb nearly in to paste.
Liti continued her own frenzied assault, siezing the hobgoblin arm with her fangs and rapidly shaking her head to tear it apart.
Veratash, suddenly aware of the situation, chastised himself for not being more pro active before. He analysed the situation, ran towards the mass of limbs and pushed it away mentally.
OOC: waiting on actions from Nyd and Artur before recapping later today..
Questions?
Game on!
Sorry, my intent was to chuck Zdravko down the hallway so that I was the only person in the swarm.
I guess that falls under 'GM interpretation screw up'. :)
I thought Artur was going to throw Zdravko but then Zdravko asked if he could interrupt the action. I said yes. Then Zdravko wrote about 'shoving fingers up Artur's nose and striking at the swarm' and I thought that Artur's initial intent was stopped.
I then had four PCs who were engaging the 'swarm' and being mindless, I rolled to see who it would attack. It came up Zdravko both times but one of the attacks missed. If not then we may be talking about rolling a different PC right now. :)
Please just assume that I am 'slow' and you need to be very explicit with what you intend to do. :)
I think Zdravko will be OK so I don't think this merits a re-write. Maybe we'll be lucky and have some sort of epiphany by Zdravko as she comes out of it. :)
Questions?
Game on!
Looking at the situation, Nyd is split on his actions. While he could heal Zdravko, what would require him stepping closer to the severed limbs....
Which with great relucatance, Nyd does reaching out with a glowing hand to touch Zdravko. "Tharivol, keep woking on the door. I will support from here."
They don't even have good survival instincts. I really need to get them both ranged weapons. Artur thought as he raised his rifle, swapping magazines on the fly, and then unloaded beams of fire on the swarm of limbs.
Once Veratash finished off the limb swarm, Artur immediately drew his first aid spray and sprayed Zdravko with it several times.
Seeing that she was still seriously wounded, Artur emptied the bottle spraying her with it.
"Well, if we get the chance, we can try to release them, but I don't know how we would; we lack anyone with a more spiritual background."
"This is....horrific. We can try killing them, but I don't know how keen I am on destroying souls. I'm pretty sure every church in existance frowns on that sort of thing." quipped Artur with a clear attempt at levity.
Veratash saw the limbs and metal parts burst out and became amazed at how strong his psychic powers had become. His thought was interrupted by the sound of the opening door. His smile faded as he remembered they still needed to move through the fortress.
Veratash had only then realized Zdravko was missing a limb. "You're hurt!", he said. "How can you withstand so much pain? Do you need any help with it?", he asked thinking of ways he could diminish the goblin's pain with his abilities.
The pleas of release made Veratash a shrill. He thought to himself Now this would make a good thing to put in someone's mind to frighten them. It is horrifying. He turned to the others and said a little dumb looking "Can't we help them?" He wished he could and thought of everything about death and beyond he had learned in Adar.
"There were no humans around to witness the Daelkyr War.", Veratash said.
Veratash was visibly hurt by that display of suffering. He wanted to help them and looked around for something that could be holding the spirits in the mortal realm.
"Zdravko, your hand let me see if you are still interested after Artur's ministrations." Tharivol offers in a surprising concerned tone. He has healing magic if the goblin is still injured, and gently checks the stump, which would attempt to break the illusion.
"What is this magic? Your hand is intact. What's it's purpose?"
"Is this like that house in Sharn with many differently shaped mirrors? Can we actually trust our eyes and ears?"