The World's Most Interesting GM |
Arrows and bolts of all sorts whizz past and through the melee. Practically speaking anytime two foes engaged in a fight where at least one is in the threat range of the other is a 'melee' in the game. So, yes the penalty applies, but the 'soft cover' penalty does not apply to Hoo--unless Hoo was actually aiming at Stefan. It does apply to Vozzik.
Meanwhile, the Xavier makes use of his wand.
Bless Each non-mesmerist ally gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear effects.
Round 8! (Theme ♬)
The Bold May Act!
_________________
__ Vozzik
__ Boomer -4 hp
__ Stefan
__ Zahd -3 hp
__ Xavier -14 hp
__ Hoo -6 hp
__ The Biggest Fish in the Pond -45 hp, 11 nonlethal, bane
Mistress Koi |
Free action.
The fish stops in the middle of the fight, and brushes one tentacle to her small chin as if in contemplation. "Hm. Mi faris ion, ĉu ne?"
Zahd Mullman |
Zahd clambers up the bookshelf, back to his heightened view of the fight.
Climb: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (9) + 0 = 9
"I'll give peace one more go!"
"If you stop now, I can call them off; I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to die. We can talk this out."
diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Mistress Koi |
"'Mortu?' Mi ne povas morti! Mi havas ion gravan por fari. Se nur mi povus memori .... Kiu vi estas? Io pri vi ŝajnas familiara. Sed kiu ajn vi estas, mi vere ne havas tempon paroli. HO! Mi devas kolekti la rulajn fragmentojn kaj kapti malnovan, kion li nomas antaŭ ol li foriĝas - la ŝelaj pantalonoj. Ĉu vi ne vidis lin havi vin? Li havas tre dikajn dorsajn naĝilojn, kiel vi ĉe ambaŭ flankoj de via vizaĝo, kaj havas ian forkovritan kofron kiel vi, kun paro da rigidaj tentakloj, kiujn li uzas por stari. Ĉu vi vidis lin?" says the fish to the elf.
The World's Most Interesting GM |
Bless Each non-mesmerist ally gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and on saving throws against fear effects.
Round 9!? (Theme ♬)
The Bold May Act!
_________________
__ Vozzik
__ Boomer -4 hp
__ Stefan
__ Zahd -3 hp
__ Xavier -8 hp
__ Hoo -6 hp
__ The Biggest Fish in the Pond -45 hp, 11 nonlethal, bane
Zahd Mullman |
"We can catch this thief for you if you give us a chance to breathe! We're willing to come to a peaceable arrangement if you'll cease your hostilities!"
Stefan Mariano |
With Zahd looking like he is making progress in communicating with Mistress Koi Stefan stops attacking but readies to defend himself should hostilities restart.Ready to attack
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
Still a little injured, Xavier takes a second to heal himself.
CLW (Wand): 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Mistress Koi |
"Kiaj malamikecoj?" The fish says, and blinks all of her eyes at once. "Bone, alportu al mi ŝian nomon, kaj ĉiujn pecojn de la skribrulaĵo, kaj estas afero."
Zahd Mullman |
Zahd heaves a sigh of relief. "She's willing to leave us be if we can get the remainder of a scroll and the person who stole it. I... have a bad feeling about the latter, but we'll see."
In Sylvan but translated to the team
"Could you better describe this 'whatshisname'? their height, anything notable they were carrying... if they had feathers..."
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
Having been in a fighting stance the whole fight, Xavier relaxes. "Oh, thank Cayden. I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up."
Mistress Koi |
Sylvan subtitles for the Sylvan-impaired.
"Oh yes, whatshisface was quite distinctive. He had only two tentacles and they didn't even flex right like yours." Koi says pointing to Zahd's arms. "And he was forked like you." she says pointing to Zahds legs. "He's only got two eyes and had rather pointy and ineffectual pectoral fins on either side of his tiny face like you've got...." she slows as she speaks almost as if some terrible suspicion were growing inside her, taking shape, reaching for one inescapable, ominous conclusion about Zahd. Then, she blinks. "What were we talking about? .... .... .... -Oh right! That smartypants! Yes, he looks a lot like you, though who am I judge such monstrousness--yet he carried it very, very well. Very distinctive, noble even, sharper in body, and mind, a credit to his designer and your unfortunate shapes. Completely unlike you--um--I want to say 'Craig.'" she chortles as what she had been thinking a moment before seems to return to her.
Zahd has the last word on how much of this gets to the rest of you. So for now assume broad strokes.
Boomer Forgehammer |
Boomer holds his hand over the bombs in his belt, "W..w..wait. Is she talking about V...virml? Don't we h..have that scroll p..p..piece?"
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
Xavier looks confused at the Koi's words (I'm assuming Zahd is translating). "Pointy and ineffectual pectoral--you mean these?" He gestures to his ears.
Mistress Koi |
Sylvan subtitles for the Sylvan-impaired. Assuming the translation goes both ways.
Xavier looks confused at the Koi's words (I'm assuming Zahd is translating). "Pointy and ineffectual pectoral--you mean these?" He gestures to his ears.
Pointing and nodding at Xazier she says "Your goblin is correct. Does she like treats? I might have one." Koi begins patting her flanks with her tentacles. "Who's a good little girl? Who's a good little girl?" (This bit sounds like a fog horn making baby talk.)
Vozzik Astrana |
Speaking to Boomer, Vozzik says "Thieves they might be, but I think she's referring to the "Fox" they mentioned."
Has she let off on the water spraying?
The World's Most Interesting GM |
Has she let off on the water spraying?
No.
Vozzik Astrana |
"Hey, Zahd, maybe explain to her that we can't even go down after the miscreant for her if she doesn't slow the waterworks? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not even a particularly good swimmer!"
Hoo Hullo |
"I also bad experiences with water. Wait, howdowe know if fish won't bury us in water if we go down? Why do we trust her?"
Zahd Mullman |
I'll provide full translations for and from the party.
In Sylvan:
"If you would stop flooding the archive, we could find this thief and reclaim the full scroll for you, but we won't be able to help you otherwise. Additionally, the others are my friends, not... pets."
Mistress Koi |
Sylvan subtitles. In stereo where available.
"Really? Even the little one? She's not your child? Concubine? Out-growth? Parasite? Hmm.... .... .... What? Sorry. What where we talking about, again? .... Oh, yes! Perfect, Craig. You and your not-concubines find, and return whatshisname to me alive with all the bits of his magical scroll of confinement, and I-" she puffs up a bit like an imperious maiden aunt, "-shall wait here."
Mistress Koi |
A moment later. Sylvan subtitles.
"Well? What are you waiting for? That rascal isn't going to catch himself is he? Chop, chop."
The World's Most Interesting GM |
Down to a trickle. The waterfall over the mezzanine dries up. Vozzik could make more water.
What's the plan?
Boomer Forgehammer |
"Ok. Ok. Wh..where could someone like us with p..p...pointy ears be?"
Vozzik Astrana |
"Didn't the bird fellows say he 'splashed down the fishing hole?' I think we'd best find where all this water's draining to."
The World's Most Interesting GM |
The iron stair that you took to the mezzanine level, sinks downward into a subbasement. There is a stone step berm on the main floor that keeps about a foot of water from flowing down the hole into the unlit depths that lay below the map that you can see. Looking down, or heading partway down the iron-grill stair with a light allows the party can see that there is probably a good 4-feet of water down there. Like above it is filled with books, paper, and other debris making it the equivalent of a deep bog.
Stefan Mariano |
"Great. More water. the warpriest says as he looks down the stairs. "Let's take a quick look here before we go down. Maybe we can find something useful." Stefan says as he looks to the others.
Boomer Forgehammer |
Boomer nods at Stefan as he hefts his earth breaker, "Sounds like a g...g..good idea."
The World's Most Interesting GM |
Perc (Vozzik): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
Perc (Xavier): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
Perc (Zahd): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Perc (Stefan): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Perc (Boomer): 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8
The party spends some time looking around a the mezzanine. Mistress Koi follows them about for a minute curious about what they are doing but quickly looses interest. After about five minutes of searching about party doesn't turn anything up, and Mistress Koi having forgotten their bargain and begins flooding the archive again until Zahd explains things to her again.
Now what?
Stefan Mariano |
Resigned to getting even more wet Stefan proceeds to go down stairs.
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
Xavier follows Stefan, but not before making sure everyone was healed.
CLW, Xavier: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
CLW, Boomer: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
CLW, Hoo: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
CLW, Zahd: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Ok, at this point, everyone should be back at full except for Boomer, who's only 1 down.
Vozzik Astrana |
Vozzik speaks to Hoo briefly "You hang on to that wand, for now, you're better equipped to use it than I am...I'll want it back at the end of this errand, though."
The World's Most Interesting GM |
It's dark down there, what are folks using for light?
Vozzik Astrana |
It's dark down there, what are folks using for light?
Darkness!
*grins in half-orc*Boomer Forgehammer |
Seeing that the way down is heading into darkness, Boomer offers to take the lead, being well-suited for the dark himself. He holds his boom stick at the ready, knowing things are going to get ugly.
Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
The mutagen lasts for 20 minutes total. How much time, if any, is remaining on that?
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
With a quick enchantment, Xavier's rapier begins to glow with a holy light.
Casting light.
Stefan Mariano |
Stefan follows behind Xavier, letting the other warpriest's light guide him.
Hoo Hullo |
Hoo also cautiously follows Xavier's holy light, sporadically looking around and arguably overreacting to every little noise in the archive.
The World's Most Interesting GM |
The party proceeds down the metal spiral stairs into the sub-basement where they find the water to be much higher than above. Even with the stair's stone lip the water down here has reached a depth of about four feet (1.22m) obscuring the bottom of the steps and most of the bottom three or four shelves of each bookshelf.... Books, codices, ledgers, folios, scrolls and piles of paper and vellum clog the narrow walkways. From up on the stair you can see the top tiers of the bookshelves sticking up like strange obelisks or seawalls amid the black lake.
The ceiling here is 15-feet-tall, and barrel-vaulted. The bookshelves are about 10-feet-tall. The floor is covered in 4' of seawater, and debris--just like a deep bog. It sort of looks like the background of the first page of the hand-outs except the water would be at about the level of that third shelf. This means that for some characters it might be easier to swim (the water is considered calm). Small or smaller characters pretty much must swim, or navigate some other way.
Xavier stops about six steps from the bottom of the stair as the water displaced by mostly soaked Stefan laps at his toes.
There is no light, aside from what filters down from the stairwell above and what you've brought with you.
Whatcha wanna do?
Boomer Forgehammer |
Did Boomer's perception net anything? Also, any ruling on the length of time left on the mutagen?
Xavier "the Drunkard" Elington |
Xavier, noticing the water at his feet, looks around for another way to get through this chamber. He opts to try and jump onto one of the bookshelves.
Also going back up the stairs so I'm not jumping 6ft straight up.
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
From the top of the bookshelf (assuming he makes it), Xavier holds his rapier out in front of him to continue to illuminate the way for everyone else.
Hoo Hullo |
Hoo unglamorously wades towards the bookshelf by Boomer and climbs up its side.
climb: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
She tries to identify anything important in the nearby area from this vantage point.
perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Zahd Mullman |
Zahd begins wading through the paper swamp, letting out a long, quiet and pained sigh as he begins scanning the room.
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
The World's Most Interesting GM |
Did Boomer's perception net anything? Also, any ruling on the length of time left on the mutagen?
Once down into the chest-high water Boomer notes a brass-screw top scroll case floating nearby amid all the spoiled paper. The case has a sculpted relief design of a long serpentine fish worked around its surface.
Zahd notes a similarly styled case wrapped in an exotic bird relief.
Xavier, noticing the water at his feet, looks around for another way to get through this chamber. He opts to try and jump onto one of the bookshelves.
From the top of the bookshelf (assuming he makes it), Xavier holds his rapier out in front of him to continue to illuminate the way for everyone else.
Leaping out from under the stair's metal rail Xavier lands on one of the cases. It is a DC 5 Acrobatics check to move at normal speed on top of the bookcases. Bonus: because Xavier is small he doesn't have to worry about bumping his head on the ceiling, and can get close to the sides of the vaulted room without having to walk doubled over.
From their vantage, to the north, Hoo and Xavier note a strange blue green light emanating from behind the far bookcases.
Boomer Forgehammer |
Not trusting the dark water and seeing some of his companions rise above it all, Boomer attempts to climb on the stacks as well. As luck would have it, he easily makes it up the bookshelves. He makes sure his earth breaker is secure on his back for this next part.
Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21