Boston Theoretical PbP

Game Master Tarren Dei

Grendel's hurting and has no means to escape. How much damage can he do before you get him? He's definitely going after Charles top of the next round as Charles has done the most damage to him so far. Unless Valerie has a trick up her sleeve ...

Nissa will 5' step back and shoot. She does have two guns. Not sure if I can really hit anything with a full attack until Lv.5 though, so more likely I'll more more than five feet and shoot once.
_
Theo can still hit add to the damage this round, and @Val, 50% chance 'fall' will succeed. If Grendel can just once roll like my d20s so far, faceplant!

You mean next round? You're right Theo and Valerie still have a chance this round. He might not make it to next round, but it will be interesting if he does.

Round 3
Taking the leather thong of the hammer in his hand, The Olympian spins it momentarily in his grip, using the momentum to give Grendel a solid hit in his ribs. CRACK!
Hammer: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Dmg.: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Verve knocks Grendel one direction and The Olympian hammers him back another. Grendel's beginning to look dizzy with everyone landing solid punches. One solid hit before he has a chance to recover and he'll be down. Even now his wounds are slowly closing though.

Shrugging at the monster's stubbornness, Valerie returns to shooting at the monster.

Attack, arc pistol: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

But she misses.

Round 4

Grendel's barely standing, but his wounds are closing even as he slashes about. He knows he isn't going to survive this, but he'd rather take Charles with him.

You guys have medical insurance, right? I really hope this doesn't go horribly wrong ...

Claw 1 Attack; damage:: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 121d4 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
Claw 2 Attack; damage:: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 221d4 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
Bite Attack, if both claws hit; damage:: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 241d6 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

That looks like one claw hit. Where are you at Charles?

☀️
Nissa prays don't miss again, don't—

Shoot: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
2 holy / 1 fire-nonlethal

Nissa's steps back as shot grazes Grendel. She's not even sure if it did more than singe is Natural hide.

Nissa does graze Grendel. He's hurt and looking scared.

Round 4
Theo misses the monster as it lurches toward Charles.
Hammer: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11 F#<K!!!

Charles probably doesn't need this added information, but now that he is in the cave he can see those sample jars. They look just like the ones used by a certain mad scientist he knows.

The plot thinkens! I was wondering what DNA stasis jars were doing here.

^thickens.

Fortunately the first claw missed, so Charles is still conscious.

Charles roars in pain with his dinosaur-ish head as Grendel slashes him again, but his jaguar-like head strikes back in an attempt to put the troll down.

His fox head, meanwhile, is transfixed by the odd sight of the familiar DNA containers. PhDestruction, here!?

Bite: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 8 + 2 = 12 Sigh
Damage: 1d3 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14

^thickens.

I preferred 'thinkens.'

Charles' jaguar-like head misses. Can one of his heads be distracted by what the other sees? If so, I'd love to experience Chimera's split consciousness...

A million questions buzz around in Uncanny Valerie's mind, even as she processes the combat happening in front of her. Some of them escape her mouth despite knowing the time for conversation is long past.

"Who has told you about your birthright? Did they tell you to fight for it? Where are they now?"

Even as she speaks, she fires.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

But trying not to hit one of Charles's body parts, she aims too wide.

Okay, Grendel's going to make his attacks one at at time, hoping to put Charles down and save an attack for another.

claw 1 on Charles; attack, damage: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 241d4 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

If he scores with that one, this attach will be against Theo. If not, Charles.

claw 2 on Charles??; attack, damage: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 281d4 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13

That was round 5 for Grendel^^^.

So, 11 points of damage to Charles and 13 to Theo, I think.

Grendel heals a little bit, but you're about to fix that.

Round 5 for all of you.

Possibly in answer to Valerie's question, Grendel howls "MOTHER!!!"

And again, "Help me, Mother!"

☀️☀️
Nissa shoots again!

Shoot: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Not sure if flank bonus helps; rolling damage just in case.
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
2 holy / 1 crap
...
I mean fire-nonlethal. 'Holy crap' is a comment on my only damage rolls being natural 1s. The bright side is, if I missed it's only 3 damage.

Pitiful creature… but we gotta put him down for good.

Despite her thoughts, the halfling's words are pitiless. "Is that what the children cried when you hauled them here to eat them?!"

Round 5
Hammer: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
If this dice was real, I'd thrown into against the wall with high velocity by now!!!
Against all odds, Grendel's massive bulk shifts slightly, giving Theo a missed swing of his MCU hammer.

Where's Charles at? Do we have any healing magic or healers in the party?

"When your Hit Point total is 0, if you are not stable and you have no Resolve Points remaining but would lose Resolve Points for any reason, you’re dead. If you have 0 RP when you are first reduced to 0 HP, you have 1 round to be healed or stabilized. If you have not been healed or stabilized by the end of your turn on the next round, you’re dead (see page 275 for more details on the dead condition)."

Charles is at zero HP, but full resolve, so he'll stabalize this round, but he's out of the combat. The first attack knocked him out, because looking back I hadn't edited his HP for last round's one hit. It's amazing how much the dice hate us this encounter. XD

Unfortunately for Charles, his moment of distraction proves near-fatal, for his ability to coordinate three pairs of eyes at once is... sub-par. Too much focus is on the shocking discovery of the DNA vials, too little on the claw coming at his face, until sudden, sharp pain followed by the blackness of unconsciousness.

Seeing him fall, Valerie points at Charles and incants a stabilize spell, causing his bleeding to stop. Unlike in Pathfinder, this is a ranged spell, so she doesn't have to touch Charles to make it work.

She then runs in to physically intervene between Charles's body and the troll. Fine if this provokes AOO. If need be she will stand in the same square he is, which should be possible since he is prone and unconscious.

I think I missed Verve's round 4 attacks. See discussion thread. Sorry Verve.

Round 4:

Verve uses her telekinesis to fling another crystal diamond at Grendel.

Attack Roll vs. KAC: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Damage Roll: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Round 5:

Verve continues to launch crystals at the creature until it stops moving.

Attack Roll: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Damage Roll: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

It's hard to tell if the first crystal or the second crystal is what finally takes down Grendel; he falls so slowly.

The giant makes a meaty splash as he hits the floor of the wet cave, amidst the collection of garbage and treasure he has gathered.

☀️☀️☀️
There's a wildfire in Nissa's eyes—she look ready to explode… but she calms herself.

"Charlie... are you alright?"

As Nissa goes to check on Charles, Theo takes his tactical sword and begins the grizzly task of removing Grendel's head. As others look on in disgust, The Olympian shrugs, "Best way to deal with regenerative foes. Making sure there's no sequel."

Nissa does not turn away. She walks up and stands by Theo and watches him remove the head.

"One the one hand, I pity him. On the other, I had to do all in my power not to explode to blast his corpse to pieces. He was big, murderous, and scared.

"Putting him down is best."

Charles doesn't respond, but he is breathing.

"Actually, the best way to deal with regenerative foes is this." Valerie produces the torches she asked the Danes to give her, and hands them and a lighter to Theo. "Would you mind doing the honors? Apply the fire to the wounds much as your half-brother Herakles did to the Hydra. I must attend to Charles. This will take about ten minutes, so I'd appreciate it if one of the others of you would watch over us while I am working."

She leans over his body, places her hands on him, and begins to hum--harmonic tones when issued in exactly the right way, urges the body to rapidly speed up its natural healing processes.

Using my 1/day Healing Touch ability; it will heal 15 hp.

Nissa does not turn away. She walks up and stands by Theo and watches him remove the head.

"One the one hand, I pity him. On the other, I had to do all in my power not to explode to blast his corpse to pieces. He was big, murderous, and scared.
"Putting him down is best."

Theo silently tries to comfort Nissa while not getting grendel blood on her.

"Actually, the best way to deal with regenerative foes is this." Valerie produces the torches she asked the Danes to give her, and hands them and a lighter to Theo. "Would you mind doing the honors? Apply the fire to the wounds much as your half-brother Herakles did to the Hydra. I must attend to Charles. This will take about ten minutes, so I'd appreciate it if one of the others of you would watch over us while I am working."

The Olympian gives the knowledgeable android a smile and a wink as he accepts her tools and mythology chops. With Nissa's help, both heroes char the abomination's remains. To be honest, I was just wanting a decent trophy to bring back.. or keep, Theo thought to himself.

Nissa feels a bit silly for not Super-Nova'ing Grendel while he was down, but in the calm her photon has neutralized... as those nerds at Boston Theoretical put it.

She stands guard, and responds to Theo, "Yeah... I think I'll take advantage of my fun size and take a dip in whatever goblet's poured for me."

Nissa smiles sweetly as she stresses Theo's term of endearment—
Bluff: Pass Secret Message: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12
—but alas, whatever forces tilted luck against her and Theo (by which I mean our shared streak of single-digit d20 rolls) are still in power despite Grendel's death.

So whatever Nissa was trying to imply, Theo will need to figure it out.
(In other words, I still RP'd the facial expression and body language for Pass Secret Message, so you might be able to guess. But since I failed the DC15 check, you get no answer key.
_
I suppose a Sense Motive check > my Bluff would give you the gist.

"Does anyone know why someone from our world would be here?" asked Verve as she approached the DNA Stasis Jars to investigate them further.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21 Ball's in your court, Nissa.
"Well, I think I got here because Dionysus or the other Gods wanted me here", Theo guessed.

Along with the stasis jars, you can see a few other things that don't belong in this world; for example, there's a few gum wrappers for a gum called "Splash," which you've never heard of. The wrapper advertises that the gum contains 1% psilocybin, which is not an ingredient you've seen in gum.

There are lots of skulls down here; many wear metal helmets. One of them, however, wears a pair of night vision goggles with smashed lenses that doesn't look authentically Viking.

The gum wrapper confirm's Nissa's suspicion. "I think we're still like, pioneers. From our world. But there's a lotta worlds that are way ahead of us when it comes to interdimenional travel.

"Looks like we're not the first Farlanders to try Grendel. And we almost weren't the last, the way we all kept missing so much. I think his cave's cursed to make intruders' attack spazzy."

(Yes, in-game, my character thinks such improbably bad luck must be explained!)

The bejeweled chalice that Theo checks out looks crafted by magic or advanced technology, but not by people of this era. The chalice might seem less anachronistic, but it doesn't belong here any more than the hallucinogenic gum wrappers.

Theo will attempt to carefully retrieve the bejeweled chalice.

You retrieve the chalice. It's flawless and seamless in ways that mark it as too perfect for this world.

You also find a lot of swords down here. Most people didn't get the memo about Grendel being immune to blades until they got down here.

The Olympian slips the chalice under his sword belt. Looking around the cave, Theo shouts, "Any intelligent magical swords speak now or get your shiny metal a$$es left behind!"

"Does anyone know why someone from our world would be here?" asked Verve as she approached the DNA Stasis Jars to investigate them further.

Uncanny Valerie speaks after she is finished healing Charles.

"Charles' nemesis, PhDestruction, clearly had some means of capturing mythical beasts and created chimeras with them. It is possible this is PhDestruction's handiwork or something simular--after all, if PhDestruction from your world was able to collect 'samples,' that means the technology to travel transdimensionally existed in that time and place before we tried it. Especially given the presence of others from other worlds who attempted to take down Grendel, I even wonder if our arrival was not accidental. We were specifically recruited as 'superheroes.' Most who would answer to that moniker would leap without question to fight a dangerous monster threatening a town--and would be among the few to be willing to do so given low survival rate and absent guaranteed reward."

Her eyes begin to glow brightly as she looks around the cave. "There is obvious high technology here, but I would also like to scan for extranormal energies. 'Magic,' in other words. Please bear with me for a few minutes." Casting Detect Magic She walks around as she looks for magical auras.

Uncanny Valerie speaks after she is finished healing Charles.

"We were specifically recruited as 'superheroes.' Most who would answer to that moniker would leap without question to fight a dangerous monster threatening a town--and would be among the few to be willing to do so given low survival rate and absent guaranteed reward."

Theo looks down at Nissa and quips, "I feel that was a targeted statement at me, for some reason."

Valerie blinks at Olympian in genuinely innocent confusion. "You were not recruited with us, Theo, so why would I be 'targeting' you? My assessment was based on the parameters by which the rest of us were selected for this mission." This last statement she states matter-of-factly. She shakes her head. "Although you are right to correct me. You DID arrive here by different means, so my theory lacks sufficient data to support it. There are obviously multiple entities or phenomena sending people here. Why here? Why this place? Is this really ancient Denmark, or a simulation?" She nods to him. "What do you remember before you came here? Perhaps if we understood why and how you arrived that may provide some clues to the situation."

"What do you remember before you came here? Perhaps if we understood why and how you arrived that may provide some clues to the situation."

Ugh! Why must I try sarcasm with androids? They never get it! Thinks Theo.

"Hmm. The transfer happening at a Bacchanal throws in numerous complicating variables. Has this ever happened to you before?"

She keeps walking around the room looking at everything and then stops. "Well, you have an eye for the special, at least, Theo. That chalice definitely has a magical aura. As does this blade." She picks up the weapon.

"I can run a magical diagnostic to see what they do, if you don't mind handing the chalice to me briefly." She looks around. "Has anyone found anything else of interest?"

"Hmm. The transfer happening at a Bacchanal throws in numerous complicating variables. Has this ever happened to you before?"

Theo chuckles to himself. "Ha yeah! I invited Dionysus to my 21st birthday a few years ago", the godling adds, wistfully looking off in the distance. "I nearly died of alcohol poisoning, despite my half-god constitution. Woke up between Katherine Langford's legs, before she got famous. But no. No interdimensional shenanigans until now."

She keeps walking around the room looking at everything and then stops. "Well, you have an eye for the special, at least, Theo. That chalice definitely has a magical aura. As does this blade." She picks up the weapon.

"I can run a magical diagnostic to see what they do, if you don't mind handing the chalice to me briefly." She looks around. "Has anyone found anything else of interest?"

Pleasantly surprised, Theo offers the chalice to Valerie. "Sure!"

Charles stirs with a tripartite groan, the three different simultaneous pitches forming a combination the likes of which could easily inspire ghost stories. Slowly his eyes blink open.

"Got him?" he rumbles, looking over at what's left of Grendel. "What's going on now? Did you see the DNA jars?"

He stands up and stretches out, his fox face wincing at the pain of just-healed wounds. "Look like PhDestruction's."