Ruins of Azlant

Game Master pauljathome

Summarizing (and adding in the inspire courage damage)

Fenna inspired courage and hasted everybody (so, everybody is +3 to hit, +2 damage)
Vexas - Threw a ray of frost for 1+2=3 points
Sho - Also presumably readied, hitting for 8 points of damage
Sosche - readied his action, got a crit, nearly killing his Globster as it does 33 points of damage.
Bannart - readied his action doing 20 points.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure who is on which side of the boat (I should have asked). Given that
1) You're all experienced adventurers and
2) It was mostly my mistake :-).

I'm going to assume that you all decided to strike the one globster and ignore the other. Which turns out to be very good tactics :-).

The globsters approach the boat, one going to Port and the other to Starboard. All the characters except Fenna choose to go to the Port side and wait for the globster. Just as it approaches the body there is a massive flurry of sword blows and even a Ray of Frost and the poor wee beastie is chopped into pieces before it can strike.

The other one, however, has managed to reach the boat and attacks the only target on that side of the boat, Fenna.

It reaches out to strike her
Slam attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

But obviously the driving rain had confused it as it slammed into the wrong square entirely.

PCs are all up.

Note that it is a 5 ft step to go from one side of the boat to the other (if we had a map you'd have to make sure to do things in the right order, but in theatre of the mind you can just do it :-)).

You are almost certainly going to kill it before it gets another opportunity to strike. In a case like this, should I just narrate your victory and move on or is it more fun to actually kill the darn thing?

@GM - Unless otherwise specified, oozes are immune to critical hits. Adjust for that or not as you wish, but I don't think it matters even if two were still up.

Brannart steps to finish off the other ooze.

Longsword, Haste, IC +2, PA -2, Fatigued: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 = 22
Damage: 1d8 + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (7) + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 = 21

Hasted Attack: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (18) + 13 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 = 31
Damage: 1d8 + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 = 20

Iterative: 1d20 + 8 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 8 + 1 + 2 - 2 - 1 = 17
Damage: 1d8 + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 ⇒ (3) + 7 + 2 + 6 - 1 = 17

Ahh, good point on the ooze-crit there Brannart. I shouldn’t have rolled to confirm, sorry about that!

Sosche continues to hack away at the enemy blob, possibly 5’ stepping.
Greatsword: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 8 + 2 = 12 (fatigue, inspire, haste)
Damage S: 2d6 + 12 + 0 ⇒ (4, 5) + 12 + 0 = 21 (fatigue, inspire)

Hasted Greatsword: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 8 + 2 = 23 (fatigue, inspire, haste)
Damage S: 2d6 + 12 + 0 ⇒ (5, 4) + 12 + 0 = 21 (fatigue, inspire)

Vexas stares at the first creature for several moments to really be sure it's not longer moving.

[standard] Cast ray of frost
Concentration, DC15 (cantrip): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

When he turns to target the other, it seems his footing isn't quite right. As simple a spell it is, it's broken up by his stumbling.

He grumbles and curses under his breath.

Is there still blobs to fight ?

Sosche actually manages to miss the ooze with his first attack. Missing an Ooze. Please feel free to make fun of him :-).

However, his second attack hits and the Flurry Of Death (TM) that a hasted fighter is ends the ooze and the encounter. You are all victorious!!

You proceed to row in to the island, finding a nice sandy beach that you can easily land the boat at.

Looking around, you see a beach stretching 10 to 50 feet from the waterline. Inland, there is a gently rising hill with a considerable number of trees on it with no obvious paths into the forest.

A hundred yards or so along the beach there is an ancient, square, stone tower standing in the sand at the water’s edge. The tower’s battlements show few cracks and little wear despite the construction’s apparent age, but the tower’s upper stories have crumbled away, and only a broken stump and piles of rubble remain.

It seems fairly likely that the tower was the source of the signals you were receiving. At least, there is nowhere else obvious nearby that could be the source.

At this point you are all quite tired after a very long day, it is still raining (although the rain is letting up) and night is falling.

Do you wish to go under the trees and make camp for the night. proceed immediately to the tower. or come up with some other plan so cunning that you could put whiskers on it and call it a weasel?

Sorry, you can expect BritCom references from me from time to time :-)

How big is this tower? Is it small enough to simply know whether there's someone in it right now or more of a larger broad and multi-level tower?

How big is this tower? Is it small enough to simply know whether there's someone in it right now or more of a larger broad and multi-level tower?

It's reasonably small, just a watchtower not a large fortification or anything. Probably at most a few rooms in the part that hasn't collapsed.

You see no signs that it is currently occupied but that doesn't mean much given the distance and the rain and the light level. But, for what it's worth, no lights are visible.

"I'd rather proceed to the tower. If we can catch up to the enemy, that would be best. If not, it's at least a safer place to rest. Once we deal with this 'Karnax' that they left behind. I wouldn't want it seeking us out while we were resting."

"I agree. Let's check the tower before bedding down. I'd be nervous of someone there waiting for us and finding us asleep but for a watcher or two."

Sosche summons a Fog Cloud just before the party breaks from cover and gets close so as to disguise their final approach from any possible watchers.

A watchtower? Maybe you could use it as an inspiration, Fenna.

Turning to Soshe, smiling

Nice trick you did on your first attack on the blob earlier. Didn't knew an ooze could be bluffed.

Yes, I'd rather ensure it's cleared before passing it by.

The little halfling ducks into Soche's fog cloud...

The group heads up towards the tower (hopefully now on slide 20).

As you get near the tower, you spot on the beach a boat quite similar to the one that you've been using. Examining it a little more closely, you discover that it is the Liberty Herald's ship's boat (the Liberty Herald was the ship that dropped off the original colonists).

The boat has been pulled up only a day or two ago.

In the sand outside the tower you find some partially smudged footprints. Most of them belong to medium humanoids but one set belongs to a larger creature (hard to tell any more than that, they're too smudged)

The most recent footprints head west.

Vexas Knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Fenna Knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 15
Other Fenna Knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 5
Sho Knowledge: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Both Vexas and Fenna made their Knowledge Dungeoneering and Local rolls and can identify the medium sized prints are made by a mix of Faceless Stalkers (in their base form) and humans.

None of you are able to identify the large creature by its prints

The wooden double door to the tower has long rotted away so you can easily enter. There is a steel ladder (climb DC 5) leading up to the battlements which are 20 feet above the ground. The years have caused the towers upper floor to collapse and now only the bottom floor or so remains.

The only obvious entrance to the tower itself is up on the battlements.

Note, I was assuming you saw all the above before throwing the fog cloud. You'd have been able to see into the tower a bit from a distance and the marks on the beach were more than 40 feet from the tower.

Unless the extra knowledge changed Sosche's mind, as you got a bit closer I am assuming that she threw the fog cloud so that basically the area you are now in is covered by fog but the grounds of the tower are clear. Sound about right?

Yeah, that's how I envisioned the fog. Just a block in case they had archers on the walls or whatever.

Sosche has his ranseur ready so he stows it on his back and moves up to the ladder to climb. He takes ten for a 13 climb. If he reaches the top safely, he’ll draw his ranseur and wait for the others to climb before circling around the tower.