Heroes of Cadranite (Inactive)

Game Master Fallen_Mage

No, you were clear, I just wanted to give you a chance to RP it.

Round 6:
Samantha (5/7 HP), Alric (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Shadei (Unconscious, Wounded 2), Cardren (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Enemy, Zaranna (Unconscious), Elyana (Undetected), Feldrimala (8/10 HP, Undetected), Vei (8/10 HP)

I was going to cast stabilize on him this turn if that would help/save his hero point.

Otherwise

Moving, Samantha reaches for the rat man again, trusting to the spirits.

Bad Touch?: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

The rat proved rather evasive to Samantha's touch. Mace still in hand, it swung at the light again.

◆ E5 Strike: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13
◆ E5 Strike: 1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 8 - 4 = 17
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 Bludgeoning
◆ E5 Strike: 1d20 + 8 - 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 - 8 = 10

It once again managed to land a glancing blow.

The other two, seeing Carden's condition had stabilized, moved to engage the remaining threats.

◆ E1 and E3 Stride
◆ E3 Draw

◆ E1 Strike vs Elyana: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1 Non-Lethal Bludgeoning
◆ E1 Strike vs Elyana: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 6 - 4 = 11

The rat engaging the elf managed to graze her chin but missed the second swing altogether.

◆ E3 Strike vs Vei: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

The rat missed entirely.

Round 6:
Samantha (5/7 HP), Alric (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Shadei (Unconscious, Wounded 2), Cardren (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Enemy, Zaranna (Unconscious), Elyana (4/5 HP), Feldrimala (6/10 HP, Undetected), Vei (6/10 HP)

Fel will continue chanting until she drops; or until Vei tells her to stop.

Seeing a golden opportunity, the ball of light blinked out of a second and appeared next to one of the rats.

◆ Step

Glowing brightly for but a moment, a beam of fiery orange light streaked out at the three rats all at once.

◆◆ Vei's Burning Rage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 Fire Damage

E1 Reflex: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12
E3 Reflex: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
E5 Reflex: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Two of the rats turned to ash, leaving only their gear. However, the ball of light seemed rather diminished.

Round 6:
Samantha (5/7 HP), Alric (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Shadei (Unconscious, Wounded 2), Cardren (Unconscious, Wounded 1), Enemy, Zaranna (Unconscious), Elyana (4/5 HP), Feldrimala (6/10 HP, Undetected), Vei (6/10 HP)

Elyana grunted as she took the blow to her chin but she'd felt worse when her father taught her to defend herself. Knowing she wasn't likely to hit but trying regardless, Elyana let loose with a flurry of strikes in a one two three combination.
◆ Strike
◆ Strike
◆ Strike
unarmed 1: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 171d3 ⇒ 3
unarmed 2: 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 5 - 4 = 201d3 ⇒ 3
unarmed 3: 1d20 + 5 - 8 ⇒ (6) + 5 - 8 = 31d3 ⇒ 1

Taking the opportunity from the distraction of the burning, Elyana landed two solid blows. Knocking the rat out.

Combat over. Just a note, Enemies 2,3, and 4 are all just unconscious.

The ball of light began flickering and spoke in a melodic voice, "Hurry, I can't maintain my form for much longer. Gather the wounded to me."

Elyana was pleased to see that she took the ratman down and quickly headed the words of the glowing ball of light. She began bringing those who couldn't move with her to get close to it for whatever it was going to do. She looked to the ball of light and said, "Thank you Vei, you saved us."

As everyone was brought closer to Vei began flickering more rapidly. When they were all in a short-range her light changed to green and burst forth into healing energy. When the wave subsided Vei was gone.

Everyone that's hurt or unconscious, you are back up to full hit points.

Shadei gasped awake before going into a coughing fit.

"Wha...what happened?"

Cardren sits on the ground looking around the room, at the ratmen, at the other abducted children. After looking down at the blood on his shirt, his face pales. ”I don’t know exactly. I was fighting and then that one got me,” he pauses pointing at the ratman that knocked him out. ”I think...I was close to death...like I was slipping away into darkness.”

His eyes grow heavy with tear as he looks at his cousin. ”If I don’t make it, ask my mother about her mark. I think she was abducted like we were. ” He indicates the mark on his wrist. He blinks many times then wipes his eyes.

Cardren, you're not marked. Only Kristoff is marked.

Fel sensed Vei's departure. Her chanting faltered and stopped. The sounds of battle had likewise ended. She tentatively peered out from her hiding place. The group was shaken and disoriented. But they were also alive, and victorious. Fel breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Vei. Thank you so much."

She rushed out to join the other kids.

"I-Is everyone all right? We really need to escape now. I don't think that Vei can save us twice."

Elyana wanted to try and comfort Carden but knew that Fel was right. She looked at the group and then said, "Let me get the little kids, I don't think we can afford to take this slowly any more. There's probably more in here and they'll wonder where those ones," she gestured at the downed ratmen, " went soon."

She turned and went back to the room where the little kids were and said softly, "Come on and be very quiet. We need to pretend like we're invisible so we can sneak past any bad guys. Can you all do that?"

The other children nodded at the elf as they followed her out.

Shadei looked around at the bodies, "Perhaps we could drag them back into the room they came from?"

Zaranna sits up, surprised to still be in this room. She thought she would either be dead or in a cage again. She quickly adjusts, knowing they still had to get everyone home.

She started going through the the bodies of all the rat-men, finding the mace from the one that had been attacking her and taking it.

Other distribution once we find out what we have. Hopefully everyone can have a better weapon. Anyone want my club? It only does non-lethal damage, but if you can use simple weapons, might be slightly better than fists.

She hits all of the fallen rats with the mace to ensure they are dead.

Is it an auto-hit on an unconscious foe, or do I need to roll?

When Shadei suggests dragging the bodies, she says.

Not to the room they came from. I think back to the cages... leave all the bodies together.

Once that is done, she suggests

Okay, I think from now on we should stay together. If this place was smaller, then sneaking would be a good idea, but it isn't. We need to stay together and if we see a rat, then everyone hit him until he is down. We have to gang up on them and not let them gang up on us.

If everyone has something to hit with, then I think that is better going forward at least for the player-characters. The littler kids can follow, and of course Shadei is an NPC so she does what she wants, but for us, we don't have ranged weapons and we don't have stealth, so all we have is dogpile. Obviously we should still be as quiet as we can, but if one person tripping brings that kind of response, we can't afford to be spread out. Thoughts? Other ideas?

@Zaranna - For the sake of brevity I'll say to auto-hit.

Is anyone searching the bodies?

Samantha shivers and jumps at the sound of rat-men skulls being smashed and cracked. All of this was very, very scary. But, being scared wasn't going to make them magically not be in this situation.

She grabs ahold of Oak's hand and follows the older kids.

Alric stirs from his unconscious slumber, the pain he had felt before dissipating as he slowly lifted himself up off of the ground. Around him were the other kids, kids who had begun to stir awake as well.

"It had to have been a close one." He thought to himself as he stands up and brushes himself off, giving the little gnome a nod. "I'm with you on that. We can't have another fight like that. It'd be too damn risky." The sounds of Zaranna eliminating the downed rats makes him grimace only for a moment before he goes for his dagger again and joins her in ending their lives. It is gruesome and near the end of it, his hands are shaking slightly, but the deed is done.

"Let's move them, see if they have anything on them we can use, and then keep moving. I still think having a bit of scouting can be good but not so distanced. I don't want to be on the ground anymore."

I am cool with only being 10-15ft ahead of the host of kids moving through here. Just enough scouting to give us an idea of what is going on. Alric would definitely look over the bodies and see if there is anything useful to him or the others on them.

I said in my post above, second paragraph, that I was going through the bodies... not just for the mace, but so we could gather everything and distribute items that will help.

Elyana looked around at the available weapons to use and asked, "Do we ahve a second dagger and if so is anyone but me trained with one? If not then I would like to take it since I'm familiar with how to use one."

Each rat-man had the following: Chain Shirt, Wooden Shield, Light Mace, Manacles x2, Healers Kit, Key.

Reminder: Shield proficiency is no longer a thing. Anyone can use the Raise a Shield action to increase their AC.

After getting the bodies moved back to the cells, Shadei had a suggestion, "Maybe there's more gear were these came from? It's probably empty now."

Cool... and there were 5 total, right? I think that means that every player character can have any of that stuff that they want, including a key. I'll add anything left over to the loot list and post it once everyone claims stuff.

Zaranna puts on a chain shirt and takes a light mace. (This is the one she already mentioned picking up, not a new one.) She also puts the club she was carrying into the pile in case someone wants to carry that instead, and asks if anyone wants a sleep vial or an elixir of health to carry. (4 sleep vials, 2 elixirs of health)

She then steps back, encouraging everyone to go forward and get something.

Good idea Shadei, but let's get as ready as we can. Have you looked in there? Are you sure it is clear?

"I didn't get a chance, but Alric and I could go take a look real quick." She glanced over at the boy.

Oh, I should have re-read those posts instead of acting on memory. Sorry for the confusion and mistake.

The sweat from the fight hasn’t dried yet, and already Cardren is helping to move the ratmen to the cages. Taking off their armor and weapons feels good. The enemies are less dangerous, but still very dangerous. He puts on a chain shirt, grips a light mace in his right hand, and holds a shield on his left forearm. He takes a few practices swings in the air, side to side and over head.

”My family taught me how to fight with a dagger,” he responds to Elyana then he looks at the mace. ”My mother wanted me to learn with a mace, but my dad thought daggers were more common and concealable.”

Perception roll vs DC 12: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

Cardren gives everyone a look to see if they're ready, lingering slightly longer on Shadei.

Alric also grabs a chain shirt, cleaning it off as best as he could before settling into it. It was a bit big for him but it would do its job well enough. He grabbed a shield and light mace, hefting the weapon for a moment to feel its weight in his hand.

"If someone wants to take my dagger, I don't mind. I know how to use a mace like this just fine." If anyone wished it, he would hand the dagger over to them without a fuss. Otherwise, he slipped it onto his side and made a makeshift waistband out of some cut clothing on the ratlings.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 Very good.

"That's a good plan Shadei. We'll check the room they came from, see if there is anything good there. We all move as a group and pray for anyone dumb enough to get in our way, right?" Alric tries to offer an air of bravado, even though his stomach twists in a knot. He had been taken out and from the shocked looks on the others, he wasn't the only one. They would have to be immensely careful going forward.

Alric will obliviously go with Shadei to check out the room the guards emerged from as quietly as he can. His stealth bonus is a +6, +5 with the armor.

Shadei took the offered dagger and moved off with Alric to check the room.

Sahdei slipped in and took the dagger from Alric beating Elyana to it. That was fine she supposed, it wasn't that much better than using her fists. Besides, she would rather not kill anyone if she didn't have to. Elyana picked up the wooden shield that one of the rats used, grabbed the healer's kit, and then the key, otherwise she left their things be.

Once they were ready Elyana stayed slightly back with the younger kids. Elyana's greater speed than most of the others made it less of a hindrance for her and it put her in position to defend the rear if needed.

Fel didn't take any of the offered equipment. She was too small for the armour, and too magical for the weapons. She just stood awkwardly, while her companions busied themselves. Vei was gone. What good was Fel without her guardian Angel?

Zaranna gathers up the leftover things, and then sees Fel looking upset, so she goes over to give her a hug.

I'm glad you're here, Fel. It is good to have another angel-born around. Thanks for helping to save us, and being brave in front of the other kids.

Can you do me a favor? Take these sleeping vials, and if you see another rat thing coming at any of us, just throw this at it. Might work, might not, but if it does, then it will fall asleep and not hurt us. Take these manacles too... so if you put one to sleep you could go over and trap its hands so it can't hurt us even when it wakes up. How does that sound? Do you think you can do that?

Now let's go check where Alric went and make sure they are okay in there. Stay behind me, so you will be safe, and if you see anything I don't see, let me know.

Gave her 4 sleeping vials and a pair of manacles.

Then she gathers the others (everyone else not in Elyana's group), and they go after Alric.

Fel gave a brief squeak of surprise; Then relaxed, and returned the hug. Zaranna's warmth enveloped Fel like a cloak. It made her feel safe. She looked up at her fellow Aasimar. Their shared heritage had never been more obvious. With growing courage, the Gnome accepted the task she'd been given.

"O-Of course! I won't let you down."

Vei was gone. But Fel had gained another guardian angel.

The room was small with a series of beds and footlockers at the end of them, a reinforced door with an iron lock and bar keeping it closed. In the center of the room, there was a table with a half-finished game of cards left messily upon it.

"They had been playing cards? Why are they here? Why would they help kidnap children?" Aldric's thoughts linger back towards his unconscious brother, his grip tightening on the mace for a moment before he looks towards Shadei.

"Do you think you could check out those beds over there and I'll look at the three over here. We might find more supplies to get us out of here." The girl was brave and quiet, traits that the young hunter could appreciate. "Just be careful, alright?" With that last warning, Alric would look over the beds and footlockers on his side. He would test to see if the footlockers were locked and if anything was hidden under or in the beds as well.

A slight smile involuntarily crossed her face as she moved to the other side of the room.

As Zaranna and Fel entered the room, they saw Alric and Shadei looking at the footlockers at the end of each bed. Each one appeared to be locked and there was nothing under the beds.

Looking at the locks on the footlockers and the heavy door on the other end of the room, Shadei had a thought.

"Didn't those rats have keys?"

Yep.

Seeing that it was all clear, Zaranna fished the keys out and unlocked all of the footlockers and the door.

After opening all of the lockers, you notice that one key doesn't fit the lockers.

So, do you mean that one locker won't open, or that there is a key left over? ... Or that the door didn't unlock when I tried it? Elyana has a key, and there are several other doors we haven't opened, so hoping we have keys to most of it.

Zaranna is disappointed that there isn't anything useful in the lockers, but takes the gold to add to their stash and grabs some blankets and pillows off the beds and carries them out to the giant 70x130 room that Elyana and the rest of the kids were in, so the kids can have something for comfort if they want it.

Hey, Elyana, looks like maybe we need your key. Can I borrow it? Trade you if you want to keep one... or you can come see if it will open something in here.

Is any of the "worthless junk" string or something similar? I was thinking we could have the younger kids make themselves some necklaces out of the used keys to give them something to do if there is anything like that. Might be a good reminder thing later in the story as well.

Sorry, I missed that you went to the door. I meant you had an extra key leftover for the door. Sure, let's say that there is some string.

I believe that the door at S2 should also be open... that's the one I opened that got me knocked out.

Zaranna gives the string and the keys that they have already used (that don't seem reusable, like to the lockboxes) to Elyana so that she can help the kids make some key necklaces.

I don't know if you think this will help, Elyana, but I thought it might help distract the kids.

Shadei pulled a dagger from the armory and asked, "Who wants this dagger?"

Alric looks up from the footlockers, nodding as Elyana grabs what little goods there were to take. If they were going to be kidnapped by some bogeyman, he had no problem taking his things so his family would be a little better off. The heavy door was opened and behind it was an small arsenal with a few additional pieces of armor. Confident with the mace on his side, he would look inside and spot another dagger laying there. There was a crossbow beside it but when his eyes lingered over the place, he realized there was no ammunition there either. At least, none that he could see.

I'm not sure that we'd find ammo along with a weapon of our choice so I've opted to just take a dagger and solidly sit in my role as a front-liner for now <3

Alric would head back to the door they came in from, keeping an eye out into the large room just in case more trouble decided to rear its ugly head. His heart was still pounding with adrenaline though and he would take another moment to breath. "Keep calm Alric, you've been in hunts before with a deadly predator. This is the same. Just make sure the others get home, make sure Kristoff gets home." He though to himself, dark eyes scanning the eerily lit columns for danger.

Zaranna looks at the closet full of weapons and armor and is disappointed that there are no swords or bows, but she finds a morningstar and swings it a few times and seems satisfied with it.

She considers the leather and padded armor, and ends up pulling off the dead ratman's chain shirt she took and finding some padded armor that looked like it would fit her instead. Less protective, but quieter, which they might need. Plus, it seemed cleaner.

She goes back and tells all the kids

If you want something to fight with, go get something from the closet in there. You don't have to, but if you want something, there are lots of things to choose from.

Any ammo for a sling if some of the kids want to stay back and go david and goliath on the bad guys? :) Would copper pieces work maybe? We have 18 gold that we can't use at this point, but if it worked in a sling, that might be useful. :)

Cardren struggles under the weight of the chain shirt. His movements are hindered (-5 ft speed, -1 to strength and dexterity checks that don’t have attack type). ”It feels like my shoulders are getting pressed down, like one of my brothers is hanging on my shoulders.”

He paces a few more steps testing how the chain shirt hangs from his body and affects him. It’s flexible so he can move his arms and torso without losing range, but it’s noisy, a sound like a metal fabric swishing against itself.

”I don’t think I’ll be as sneaky.”

Hearing Shadei offer a dagger, Cardren pipes up ”I’ll take that if nobody else does. I think I need any advantage I can get.” He looks at the mace, hefting it but not enthusiastic.

Seeing Zarana change her armor, he also finds some leather armor that fits him. He nods in satisfaction to his cousin Chet. ”This is better.”

So, Cardren is now wearing leather armor and wielding a dagger.