The Harrowing - DM Puppet Master (Inactive)

Game Master Anon A Mouse

Eirnar withdraws into the air to avoid the undead. We need to deal with the damned moon... Play the card Delroy! Anyone have any bright ideas? Perhaps Lokhir could fly to it, seeing as its only 500' away?

"Damn your eyes," Kaldwell muttered as the undead attacked, lack of eyes on many of the things none withstanding. Taking a deep breath he began to move faster, focusing his blades on the first attacker while trying to avoid the rest.

Swift Action - Spending Stamina to negate Combat Expertise's penalty, adding +3 Dodge AC for the round.
Kirin Style Knowledge Check (Swift Action): 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (20) + 18 = 38

Attack 1 (Main Hand): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (13) + 15 = 28
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (3, 3) + 8 + 10 = 24

Attack 1 (Off Hand): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (17) + 15 = 32
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (2, 1) + 8 + 10 = 21

Attack 2 (Main Hand): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (2, 2) + 8 + 10 = 22

Attack 2 (Off Hand): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (3, 4) + 8 + 10 = 25

Yattle flaps their way closer to Kaldwell. "Thanks for clumping 'em up greybeard!"

Empowered Fire Eruption: 5d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 1, 3, 2, 3) + 12 = 27 x1.5 so 40.
DC 22 for 1/2 - Currently hits two of 'em, but if Kaldwell's happy to 5' out of the way I could grab a third.

"I feel like setting the moon on fire is something we're all thinking about?"

Delroy swings his flail, taking out his blinded opponent in a single, mighty blow. He uses his moment to try to hit its ally, but the warrior sees the blow coming and neatly ducks out of the way. Lokhir tries to fend off both of his foes, but is too focused on his own defense to get in a good shot. Eirnar flies up in the air to get out of reach of his foe while yelling at Delroy to activate his tattoo.

Kaldwell miss chance 1: 1d100 ⇒ 18
Kaldwell miss chance 2: 1d100 ⇒ 88

Kaldwell lets out a torrent of blows. Unfortunately, surrounded as he is and with his old eyes struggling with the dim, red light, he only manages to hit one enemy. It greatly damages the undead warrior, but doesn't take it down.

Yattle then swoops down, raining fire upon another two. While one is obliterated, the other manages to avoid much of the damage, and though it is greatly injured, it too remains standing.

Unfortunately, impatient Yattle can't wait to see if Kaldwell will do as they want before acting. :-P

Reflex 1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Reflex 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

The undead swarm around the living on the ground, making use of their superior numbers to surround those that they can. Both Lokhir and Delroy get hit twice while Kaldwell, despite being completely surrounded, manages to avoid all the longsword swings in his deadly dance. 24 dmg to Lokhir and 23 dmg to Delroy.

The cursed moon seems to smile as the blood of the group hits the ground. The rich coppery smell summons another three undead to join in the feast.

Round 4
- Kaldwell (16 => 11 after life link), Lokhir (24 => 19 after LL)
Round 5
- Delroy (23 => 18 after LL), Eirnar (13 => 28 after LL), Yattle
- Undead

Current lighting: Dim light

@Delroy: Not sure if you've noticed, but Eirnar's been trying to get you to play a tattoo for the past several rounds. If you don't want to play it, I would suggest you tell him, so it's clear you haven't just missed his messages.

Yattle keeps scouring the area around Kaldwell.

Empowered Fire Eruption: 5d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 1, 4, 3, 4) + 12 = 30 45 due to Empowered, DC 22 Ref for 1/2

"Anyone got a plan? The moon's high up enough that it'll take me a while to get up close enough to break it."

I'm just having fun beating up undead and putting off burning an action on using the card.

"Fine...Fine..." Delroy says to stop the nagging.

"But this better not take away all of our playthings."

He steps back, away from the undead for a moment and activates the Eclipse card.

"Besides .... have you been staring at my tattoos? What kind of a creeper are you?"

Sweating and sweltering from the intense power of Yattle's attacks, Kaldwell kept trying to fight back. It wasn't going great, but eventually, he'd land a more decisive blow - or the others would come help him if things got desperate enough. He focused on the wounded one, stepping to the side to allow them to clump up for the next attack.

Using three more points of Stamina for Combat Expertise.

Attack 1 (Main Hand): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (2, 2) + 8 + 10 = 22

Attack 1 (Main Hand): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (1, 4) + 8 + 10 = 23

Attack 2 (Main Hand): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 2) + 8 + 10 = 24

Attack 2 (Off Hand): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3) + 8 + 10 = 25
Crit Confirm: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28
Crit Damage: 4d4 + 16 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 1) + 16 = 25

Thanks Delroy! Not staring, its right there on your arm... Perhaps you should group up while Yattle decides to either set fire tothe moon or blow up the undead? Either way, it'd help with healing your wounds.

Eirnar wards himself, conscious of the amount of damage likely to come to him as the undead swarm his allies. He also pulls a hallowed chalice out of his pack.

shell of succor: 4d6 + 7 ⇒ (2, 3, 3, 1) + 7 = 16 temporary HP on Eirnar

Reflex 1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Reflex 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Kaldwell Miss chance: 1d100 ⇒ 51

Yattle blasts another warrior away as once again its companion manages to avoid the brunt of the blow and remains standing. Kadwell swings wildly, missing three times. But even then, the wily old man used each swing to bring his foe into the perfect position to strike it down! Lokhir tries to emulate his companions' success, but his blows merely bounce off of their armor.

Lokhir to hit 1: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14
Lokhir to hit 2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Up above, Eirnar prepares himself for more pain to come as his life link wards his allies. There's a small crack from above him as Delroy activates his tattoo and a small chunk of the moon breaks off. Each round the moon takes 1d10 damage, bypassing hardness

Despite their greater numbers, only one of the undead manages to strike anyone, landing a blow on the surrounded Kaldwell. 7 dmg

The moon then brings forth another five creatures to aid their companions.

Moon damage: 1d10 ⇒ 1

Round 5
- Kaldwell (18 => 13 after life link), Lokhir (19 => 14 after LL)
Round 6
- Delroy (18 => 13 after LL), Eirnar (28 dmg + 1 temp after LL), Yattle
- Undead (blue = uninjured)

Current lighting: Dim light

"I knew you had been staring at my massive biceps!" Delroy calls back at Eirnar.

Delroy takes a step back away from a couple of the undead shifting slowly towards Lokhir, leaving one undead in range of his attacks.

He bashes it in the face with his buckler to obscure it's eyes and blind it temporarily.

dirty trick blind: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (11) + 19 = 30

Underhanded trick prevents removing the blinded condition in the first round.

A clump of deaders without any of their traveling companions in the center of it appears, and moments later the ground erupts in flame!

Empowered Fire Eruption: 5d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 6, 1, 5, 4) + 12 = 29 43 due to Empowered, DC 22 Ref for 1/2

Reflex: 4d20 ⇒ (10, 9, 3, 14) = 36

Delroy blinds his enemy only to have it be immediately obliterated, along with its companions, by Yattle.

Round 5
- Kaldwell (13 dmg), Lokhir (14 dmg)
Round 6
- Eirnar (28 dmg + 1 temp HP)
- Undead (blue = uninjured)
- Delroy (13 dmg), Yattle

Current lighting: Dim light

Eirnar calls out Kaldwell, get within 30’ of me!.

After Kaldwell, he lets out a wave of healing.
channel: 5d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 4, 3, 5) = 17

@Kaldwell: FYI, "within 30 feet" means "within 20 horizontal feet" due to height, meaning I don't think you can get there with a single move action.

I'm just going to go ahead and bot both Lokhir and Kaldwell.

Kaldwell attempts to withdraw closer to Eirnar. However, surrounded as he is, two of the undead warriors still get swings at him. Even in his old age, he's too nimble to be hit. Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield, Lokhir swings his sword another two times as he once again tries to move out of where he's flanked, but continues his unlucky streak of misses.

AoO 1 vs Kaldwell AC 26: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17
AoO 2 vs Kaldwell AC 26: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Lokhir to hit 1: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23
Lokhir to hit 2: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

The undead swarm and charge the group of heroes. Some blows hit while others miss in the chaotic flurry of metal and flesh. Up above, the moon cracks a little more as it summons another four undead. See initiative tracker for final damages

Moon damage: 1d10 ⇒ 5

Round 6
- Kaldwell (13 => 0 channel => 24 undead => 19 dmg after life link)
- Lokhir (14 => 0 channel => 26 undead => 21 dmg after LL)
Round 7
- Delroy (13 => 0 channel => 9 undead => 4 dmg after LL)
- Eirnar (28 dmg + 1 temp => 11 + 1 temp hp channel => 25 dmg after LL)
- Yattle
- Undead (blue = uninjured)

Current lighting: Dim light

"Lokhir....I don't think any of us would look askance at a Haste spell right about now." Delroy suggests to the occultist.

Delroy steps 5 feet to the east to put himself into a position where he flanks one with Lokhir.

He quickly studies that undead and the one outlined in red (swift action)

He attacks the flanked undead.

Flail 1: 1d20 + 13 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 13 + 2 = 29 (2handed, power attack, studied target, flanking)

damage: 1d8 + 19 + 3d6 ⇒ (4) + 19 + (5, 4, 3) = 35 (sneak attack)

Assuming that drops the target, he shifts his second attack to the red outlined undead.

Flail 2: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 (2handed, power attack, studied target)

damage: 1d8 + 19 ⇒ (2) + 19 = 21

"This is the most fun I've had since we ended up in this place. I'm finally getting the kinks worked out of my muscles."

Casting Defensively: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

Ascending to the wise request, Lokhir used his blade to defend himself while he cast a spell which caused the party to move with haste

"There we go!" Delroy says with a grin.

He raises his flail in a salute to Lokhir, and then ducks a slash from an undead warrior.

Can you set that moon on fire? Eirnar asks, concerned about his healing magic running out...

"More speed and less haste is most fine," Kaldwell agreed. He couldn't set much of anything on fire, but hopefully he could keep the undead tied up long enough that the others could do so. He relied on the speed boost the magic had granted him to maintain his defences.

Attack 1 - Main Hand: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 4) + 8 + 10 = 26

Attack 1 - Off Hand: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (17) + 15 = 32
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 4) + 8 + 10 = 26

Attack 2 - Main Hand: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3) + 8 + 10 = 25

Attack 2 - Off Hand: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3) + 8 + 10 = 25

Haste: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31
Damage: 2d4 + 8 + 10 ⇒ (3, 4) + 8 + 10 = 25

Now that I've got haste, it'll only take 3 turns running to get up there... alternatively I could just teleport assuming I got my scroll back... How badly does it look like the moon is degrading over time - I really don't have a sense of what 5 damage to the moon looks like :-p

UMD: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (6) + 17 = 23

"Ast kiranann kair Soth-ar- Waitwaitwait: wrong spell."

Despite the numerous wounds he's suffered and then been healed, Delroy happily smashes first one foe and then another. Lokhir, despite being partially surrounded, gets off a spell to quicken his allies. Kaldwell, boosted by his ally's magic and despite his old, half-elf eyes, manages to land three mighty blows, felling another two undead. Seeing their companions starting to turn things around, Yattle attempts too teleport to the moon, unfortunately uttering the words to summon fire to light an old man's beard on fire back in the fae realm rather than to teleport themself.

Kaldwell miss chance 1: 1d100 ⇒ 66
Kaldwell miss chance 2: 1d100 ⇒ 81
Kaldwell miss chance 3: 1d100 ⇒ 63

Just missing Eirnar's action for this round.

Eirnar says I’m going to pickup Delroy and Kaldwell next round, group up and grab onto me next time, the undead are ceaseless
Hw drinks the chalice he pulled out and puts it away in anticipation of this plan.

Hallowed chalice : 5d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 1, 3, 2) = 13 Just me

Eirnar heals himself as he yells to his comrades. Despite their large numbers and the flurry of blades, the undead horde only manages to land a single blow on the newly quickened heroes. 12 damage to Lokhir The moon then brings forth another two warriors even as it starts to crumble further.

Moon damage: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Round 7
- Kaldwell (19 => 14 dmg after life link), Lokhir (33 => 28 dmg after LL)
Round 8
- Delroy (4 dmg, LL doesn't activate), Eirnar (12 => 22 dmg after LL), Yattle
- Undead (blue = uninjured, red = charged this round)

Current lighting: Dim light

Be aware that lifting Delroy and Kaldwell up while next to the undead will provoke AoOs on all three of you. You can mitigate that somewhat by taking withdraw actions, but only the people who actually take the withdraw action will benefit from it. Also, I moved Eirnar very slightly on the map because there's an undead directly below him, and I wanted to be able to see both the tokens.

UMD: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (12) + 17 = 29

"Esla sivas gaboing!"

**pop**

Yattle disappears and reappears 120' below the moon with a cry of elation on their lips!

Yattle's going to burn down the moon, I hope it doesn't crash onto us and kill us all. I don't see what choice we have though...

Eirnar's action depends on Delroy and Kaldwell. If you guys just want to keep fighting we can, but I'm concerned. The tale said 'The light awoke a powerful hunger in the dormant bodies in the nearby cemetery, who rose up and sought out the flesh of the living to satiate themselves. Though the remaining villagers fought valiantly, there seemed to be no end to the hoard. For every foe struck down, yet more were summoned from their rest to feed by the moon's wicked light, and eventually the town was overtaken and its inhabitants consumed alive.' I don't know if killing them is doing anything. Is there any sort of check we can make to notice? It seems like eventaully you'd run out of dead bodies to animate?

@Yattle: Next round you can just roll damage. The moon is big enough that I don't think you're really going to have any trouble hitting it.

@Eirnar: No check needed. I'm not going to punish you just because I decided to give you info via fluff text instead of straight out stating it. Basically, as long as the moon is shining red light, more undead will be summoned. If you stop the moon from shining, the undead will stop spawning. You might run out of bodies in the Material Plane, but you're in the Harrowed Realm where stories rule.

Kaldwell allowed himself to be raised above the maddening horde, fighting to block there attacks rather than strike them himself.

Delroy studies the red undead to the southwest and smacks it with an uppercut.

Flail 1: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 13 + 1 = 27 (2handed, power attack, studied target, haste)

damage: 1d8 + 19 ⇒ (8) + 19 = 27

Then he steps west, northwest to get adjacent to Eirnar for takeoff.

Before he takes further damage, Eirnar ends his life link on Lokhir. Its an immediate action before my turn. I think if my understanding of action economy is correct, Eirnar can't really afford to take damage next round from life link, since he'll be getting hit by the undead, potentially twice, before we get in the air

Eirnar swoops down, grabbing his allies. I hope we get off the ground in one piece... and that Yattle can do something about the damned moon. Lokhir, get out of there!.

I suspect I can move to them this round, grab them, and next round we can take off. I think Kaldwell needs a 5' step in order to grab on, but he didn't post any action, so I'm hoping that his full round and my standard are enough to load our passengers. If this is correct, they get a round of attacks and AoO's next round (although we could withdrawl then). Do I have that right?

Acrobatics avoid AOO: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Standard mind over gravity and move straight up 90ft

Deciding that it was in the air that he must fight, Lokhir began flying up, intent on getting out of reach of the undead horde.

@Lokhir: It's one acrobatics check per enemy with increasing DCs for each check after the first. I went ahead and rolled for you under the spoiler.

Yattle remembers the correct incantation this time and manages to successfully activate their scroll, disappearing and reappearing a little over a hundred feed below the large, glowing orb. It doesn't look especially flammable, but if there's one thing they've learned, it's that if you use enough fire, it may as well be.

Delroy takes a mighty swing at one undead warrior, just barely failing to put the creature down as he moves up close to Eirnar. Lokhir activates his ability to fly and maneuvers up in to the air as well, managing to dodge the one swing that comes his way. Kalwell swings multiple times at his foes, managing to kill one and gravely injure another before mimicking Delroy and moving closer to Eirnar.

@Eirnar: Feel free to add in your action here. It seemed like you were leaning towards healing, but if you wanted to do damage, I'll retcon that in if you kill any undead with it. Either way, decide before reading the "Undead turn" spoiler. I also once again shifted you since there's an undead directly below you.

Assuming Eirnar's action happened on his turn when he moved with Lokhir still in range, it'd be good to channel to heal probably

channel healing: 5d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 3, 2, 1) = 13

Kaldwell put away both swords and moved to a more total defense stance until he could be lifted.

Yattle draws heavily on their power, tapping into their internal reserves as they try to burn through the moon with a bolt of dripping magma!

Empowered Extended Magma Blast: 10d6 + 35 ⇒ (3, 5, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 4, 5, 1) + 35 = 69 Empowered up to 103; 1/2 Fire, 1/2 Bludgeoning. This would normally cost 1 net burn but I'll draw it from Yattle's Internal Buffer.

Withdraw with one hand free to grab onto Eirnar.

Eitnar withdraws with Delroy and Kaldwell hanging onto him. 70’ fly speed so we should easily be able to get out of range

Eirnar starts to fly upwards, taking care to angle his flight in such a way to avoid as many AoO for Delroy as he can. Kaldwell, unlike Eirnar and Delroy, did not withdraw, so as many as possible are going to take AoO vs him for his first square of movement.

Fortunately for the group, between Eirnar's careful maneuvering, the bonus from haste, and Kaldwell's defense, none of the attacks hit! Meanwhile, Yattle sends a blazing bolt of magma at the moon. It burns and sizzles, melting and denting the object and almost, but not quite destroying it. Another blow like that will certainly destroy it!

Now updated to include Eirnar's healing
Round 8
- Lokhir (33 dmg => 20 dmg)
Round 9
- Undead (blue = uninjured, red = charged this round)
- Kaldwell (1 dmg), Lokhir
Round 10
- Delroy (73 dmg), Eirnar (9 dmg), Yattle
- Undead

Lokhir just needs to decide what he's doing this round.

Lokhir flies over to the dangling Delroy and attempts to give him a boost to pull himself up to a safer position.

Str (aiding Climb for Delroy next round): 1d20 ⇒ 16

Moon damage: 1d10 ⇒ 6

The moon, mostly torn apart by Yattle's assault finally crumbles to pieces. While no more undead rise, the ones standing staring below you show no signs of un-animating, though spread out slightly, staring up at the group in case they venture within arm's reach. Kaldwell remains dangling from one of Eirnar's feet while Delroy clings to the shaman's hand.

Statuses:
Round 9
- Kaldwell (1 dmg), Lokhir (20 dmg)
Round 10
- Delroy (68 dmg), Eirnar (14 dmg), Yattle
- Undead

How do you all want to handle the remaining undead?

Delroy also has about 2 rounds to make a DC 15 Climb check before Eirnar has to start making Str checks to avoid dropping him.

I can start getting 'em in relative safety starting the round after next - flying down is soooo much faster!

Eirnar reaches out and touches Delroy. Not wanting to try lifting himself just yet, he instead uses magic once more to improve his fortune for the eventual attempt to secure himself on Eirnar.

You're going to hold on, you're not going to fall! Eirnar divines, perhaps optomistically.

Diviner's Fortune, +4 insight bonus on all of its attack rolls, skill checks, ability checks, and saving throws for 1 round.

climb: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29

Lokhir, now safely in the air, dedicated himself to helping Delroy get to safety. ”Yattle can remove the undead with impunity. We just need to get out the way.”

"Her powers are devastating, and she can attack with impunity," Kaldwell agreed.

It takes several minutes for Yattle to both come down and then wipe up the remaining undead. Largely because they seem annoyingly insistent upon not grouping together to be picked off in large batches. It's really quite inconsiderate. The rest of the party watches on, Kaldwell danging from Eirnar's boot as Delroy hauls himself up to a more stable position. But finally, everything seems to be all clear.

Feel free to heal yourselves up and decide where it is you want to head next.

Eirnar lands, reestablishes his lifelink on Lokhir now that the danger has passed, and slowly heals using his boots.

3 1/2 minutes later using the boots and Vigor Eirnar is full, Delroy still has 3 damage, Kaldwell still has 1 damage

Yattle lands with a smug grin and as heavy a thud as their frame can muster. "So a whole moon, huh?"

"Well before we got sidetracked with stolen shadows we'd been thinking about paying a visit to Marzalee and her Manmold. That still the plan?"

"I don't think anything here has changed that, no," Kaldwell agreed.

”Remind me not to anger our resident Gathlain Pyromaniac. That was quite an amazing feat.” Lokhir said, nodding his thanks to Eirnar for taking on the burden of his wounds.