More braziers keep the worst of the cold at bay, but a wall of solid ice blocks access to the foredeck. A large drum stands on the deck, and behind it is a trapdoor leading down into the hold.
Before leaving the portal behind, Kolris makes a trial of extinguishing the lantern to see what the effect of that is.
As the magical lantern’s ❄cold❄ fire is extinguished, the portal on the upper mast leading back to Skëlg’s manor *snaps* shut as if it was never there.
♨
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
As Kai begins playing the drum (poorly ... ;)
All except Kai & Khorshid who have rolled, DC 20+ Perception:
You think you hear the sounds of movement in the hold.
All except Kai & Khorshid who have rolled, DC 25+ Perception on same check:
Before leaving the portal, Kolris attempts to relight the lantern. If he gets it lit again, he extinguishes it finally, satisfied that he has control over its operation. He then joins the others at the drum.
Male CG Merfolk Oracle (Ocean’s Echo) 4 | HP: 31 / 31| AC: 21 (T 13 / FF 18 / CMD 15 ) |F +4, R +4, W +4 | Spells 1st 8 / 8 : 2nd 4 / 4| Bard song 15 / 15| Active conditions: None
Kai finishes drumming and turns around in a circle trying to hear the moaning.
"So, something down below. Cha, dudes, guess we gotta go face it. That the hatch there?" he asks as he points to the grating in the middle of the deck by Lucky's feet. "Who's gonna open it, and who goes first?"
Before leaving the portal, Kolris attempts to relight the lantern. If he gets it lit again, he extinguishes it finally, satisfied that he has control over its operation.
Kolris relights the lantern successfully.
Nothing happens until the lantern’s light is trained on the original portal location on the mast, at which point the *glowing* gate to Skëlg’s drawing room returns.
The portal *SNAPS* shut again when Kolris extinguishes the icy flame.
DC 15+ Survival:
The lantern uses about 10 minutes worth of oil every time it is re-lit.
DC 20+ Survival:
You figure the lantern has approximately 30 minutes worth of oil left.
Though obviously, it won’t use up any oil while it isn't lit.
Everyone gathers on the main deck, and once everyone is ready, Lucky opens the hatch.
The smell of death and rot wafts from the lower deck, even with the cold. There is no light source below.
Apart from a fine view of the top of Lucky’s head, Papa Òxọ́lé can’t make out anything of interest in the hold from his vantage point on the main deck gazing down.
👀
At the bottom of the steep ladder, Lucky makes out the first row of rowing benches. Bodies sit huddled at the benches.
As he takes in his surroundings, it becomes apparent the occupants of the benches are all dead, though not all of them seem aware of that fact.
His mind wholly on the imminent battle, Lucky doesn't recognise the foes - other than their essential nature.
"Uh, mates? There's a lot of undead here!"
Lucky enters his fighting stance and levels his hammer. "I'll hold the line, but you'd best get down here fast!" He steps forwards, his arms flickering with sulphurous fire.
Knowledge (religion) vs DC 13:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27 Knowledge (religion) vs DC 10:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
Let’s go with special abilities and special defenses for the wight.
“Watch out, Lucky - that’s a wight!” Drelluandast peers down from the deck, his big blue eyes wide with worry. “And zombies!” Small fingers plunge into a bag of glitter, twitching in anticipation.
Readying to cast glitterdust (Will 16) when the wight gets within 15 ft of an ally.
Male CG Merfolk Oracle (Ocean’s Echo) 4 | HP: 31 / 31| AC: 21 (T 13 / FF 18 / CMD 15 ) |F +4, R +4, W +4 | Spells 1st 8 / 8 : 2nd 4 / 4| Bard song 15 / 15| Active conditions: None
Kai taps the drum in a rapid staccato beat and begins a lively song about warm tropical isles and the beautiful women that inhabit them. It certainly inspires him to think about something other than the biting cold and the bitey undead below.
He peers skeptically at the ladder and decides to shimmy down instead of trying something fancy. As he maneuvers his flukes across the deck, he slips his wand of healing from his belt, too.
Standard action to start Inspiring Courage song, (+1 attack and weapon damage, and versus Fear); move action and draw with 10' accounted for to enter the hold.
FWIW, he has burning hands, which could be good in Round 2 if the tactical positioning allows for it.
LN Male Gnome follower of Asmodeus | Mesmerist 5 | usually enjoying his intimidating aura and allegedly superior presence | | HP 30/47| Riding dog HP 6/13 | AC 23 T 10 FF 22 | CMD 8 | Darkvision | Speed 15 ft (40ft on riding dog) | F: +8 (+2 vs. Death Effects, +4 vs. Diseases/Poisons), R: +7, W: +14* | Init: +9 | Perc. +5, Dipl. +19, Intim. +19, Sense M. +5, Bluff +18 | Retroactive bonus 4/5 | Tricks 9/9 | Breath 3/5 | Reroll 0/1 | Spells: 1st 6/6, 2nd 4/4 | Active conditions:
"Behold my presence and power you weak stinking things!!" Khorshid shouts.
In case anybody tries to hit him he will activate mesmeric mirror as a free action so 1 mirror image appears with the chance to prevent the attack. This can be activated six times but only once per round.
Khorshid rides and the dog has 40 ft speed. So standard action remaining for dog after movement.
Khorshid then tries to make his riding dog attack the creature in pink but the dog doesn’t understand.
As someone above beats the drum, the remaining Zombies do an about-face and look to be making a move towards the rowing benches.
Their aggressive behaviour towards you returns once the drumming stops.
Kai beats the drum for summer in the beautiful South Arcadian isles, before fluking a trip down-under, wand at the ready.
Khorshid, may I ask you to please read my note in Discussion, and let me know what you’d like to do?
Round #1:
Party Buffs: bard song +1/+1, attack/damage
The ladder is steep and narrow, so going down requires either:
1) DC 15 Acrobatics check to drop in; this costs no movement, but failure results in landing prone and taking 1d6 damage.
2) Squeeze down. This costs 10' of movement to descend from the upper to lower deck.
Lucky
Drelluandast May take a move action if he wishes
--
Yellow, Black, Greenstill dead
Pink
Blue
Red
--
Kai bardsong up Khorshid
--
Orange
--
Kolris
Papa Òxọ́lé
Khorshid may want a re-do? Drelluandast may take a move action if he wishes.
M Halfling Bloodrager (bloody-knuckle-rowdy) 2 / Monk (sohei) 2 / Swashbuckler (mouser) 1 | current AC 19 T 15 FF 15 | HP [42/42] 42/42 | F +9 (11) R +9 W +3 (5) | CMD 19 |Init +4 | Perc +9 devoted guardian| Rage 14/14 | Luck 3/3 | Hellfire 3/3 | Panache 2/2
Lucky holds his position, guarding his allies against the undead. To keep his lucerne hammer available to fend off the wight, he strikes at the ice zombie in front of him with a series of crane-kicks.
I'm sorry GM, I still don't understand the movement around this 3D map. After his last post, Kolris was next to the drum. How much movement does it take to get down to the action, and where does he emerge? Please bot that movement and take control of my token; I think that's easier and quicker than trying to explain it again.
If, after moving, Kolris still has a standard action remaining this round, let me know.
With a double kick through its rotting abdomen, Lucky *snaps* Pink-eyes’s lower spinal column, sending the zombie to the deck in a broken pile of guts and bones.
Papa Òxọ́lé hacks half the face off blue, though the zombie maintains a congealed-blood gurgling growl through its ruined nose and missing jaw.
Kolris drops 30 feet of move-equivalents into the hold.
Kolris still has a standard action to take if he wants to.
Round #1/2:
Party Buffs: bard song +1/+1, attack/damage
The ladder is steep and narrow, so going down requires either:
1) DC 15 Acrobatics check to drop in; this costs no movement, but failure results in landing prone and taking 1d6 damage.
2) Squeeze down. This costs 10' of movement to descend from the upper to lower deck.
Lucky Drelluandast
--
Yellow, Black, Green, Pinkdead again
Blue -10
Red
--
Kai bardsong up
Khorshid
--
Orange
--
Kolris
Papa Òxọ́lé
The swash’ parries the thrust, and punctures the zombie’s bloated belly with his rapier.
*PFFFFFFHHTTTTT*
The RAPID expulsion of its gassy innards, collapses the undead like a gas spore mistaken for a beholder. Though dead again, a heady reminder of Red hangs in the ships hold for a while longer.
👃
Cold Blue stands her ground and swipes at Papa Òxọ́lé.
Blue icy touch on Papa Òxọ́lé:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10 cold damage:1d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Round #2:
Party Buffs: bard song +1/+1, attack/damage
Lucky
--
Yellow, Black, Green, Pink, Reddead again
Blue -10
--
Drelluandast Kaibardsong up Khorshid
--
Orange
--
Kolris
Papa Òxọ́lé
Male CG Merfolk Oracle (Ocean’s Echo) 4 | HP: 31 / 31| AC: 21 (T 13 / FF 18 / CMD 15 ) |F +4, R +4, W +4 | Spells 1st 8 / 8 : 2nd 4 / 4| Bard song 15 / 15| Active conditions: None
"Sorry about givin' up on the drums, there, dude. Not really my thing," Kai apologizes to Lucky in between humming stanzas of his song about buxom light-brown lassies. "Looks like you took care of all the rowers anyway."
He moseys forward, resuming the verses as he goes, then weaves magical words into the song. It conjures forth the heat of the tropical sun and send it forth in a cone to wash over the two undead, hopefully giving them more than a nice sunburn.
Free act to continue bard song, move forward, standard to cast burning hands enhanced with alchemical reagent of saltpeter for +1 damage
Reflex save DC 15 for half of fire dmg:3d4 + 1 ⇒ (2, 1, 4) + 1 = 8
Ghermez, Khorshid and his illusionary twin leap courageously over rowing benches to confront the Other, though the Chelish Mastiff does not immediately attack.
Kai sings of sun worshippers, and demonstrates the downside of Long Summers to the Winter Walker and its slave.
Slave Reflex DC 15, modifier added off screen:1d20 ⇒ 10 Other Reflex DC 15, modifier added off screen:1d20 ⇒ 9
The conflagration melts away the final zombie’s flesh. Its blackened bones collapse gradually to the hold bottom under their own weight.
The Other has also taken fire damage from the bardspell.
❄
The Frost Wight holds its ground and swipes at Khorshid.
Khorshid, Fort save please to avoid a 1 level energy drain. DC is secret
Round #2/3:
Party Buffs: bard song +1/+1, attack/damage
Lucky
--
Zombiesall down
--
Kaibardsong up Khorshid-2 hp, Fort save
--
Orange taken fire damage, hp tracked off screen
--
Drelluandast Kolris Papa Òxọ́lé
Male CG Merfolk Oracle (Ocean’s Echo) 4 | HP: 31 / 31| AC: 21 (T 13 / FF 18 / CMD 15 ) |F +4, R +4, W +4 | Spells 1st 8 / 8 : 2nd 4 / 4| Bard song 15 / 15| Active conditions: None
"Cha, little dude, let Lucky do the smashin'," Kai seconds Lucky's advice to Korshid. The next stanza of the song is about a lovely young lassie he met on the shores of Broomtralia. A beautiful, bronze-skinned gal, but he could barely understand her because of how strangely she spoke the Common tongue. Of course, some things transcend the need for words.
As he sings of her, he focuses on a piece of rotten wood nearby and flings it at the remaining foe.
Papa Òxọ́lé splits a bench behind the Frost Wight.
Upon lifting the broken bench block with his mind, Kai discovers it is still connected to its frozen bearer, resulting in a few worn planks being torn out of the ship’s bottom as the wooden mass flies between Khorshid and Lucky, to strike the starboard bulkhead.
Framed by the new portal in the bottom of the longship, the frozen ocean gleams in the hold’s limited light.
Round #2/3:
Party Buffs: bard song +1/+1, attack/damage
Lucky
Kai bardsong up
Khorshid -2 hp
--
Orange bloodied, hp tracked off screen
--
Drelluandast Kolris
Papa Òxọ́lé
"Khorshid! Watch out!" Drelluandast snaps out his trance, bits of his frozen breath falling loose from his beard. Slowly the little gnome begins to stumble forward over the crew's broken bodies, a golden light pooling around his small hand that leaps out to surround the other gnome.
Kolris thrusts his rapier up one of the Other's empty nostrils, the point reappearing through the crown of the abomination's hairless scalp.
This sparks a shivering fit in the creature. After Kolris removes his blade, the quivering continues on the hold's floor, until the undead strikes its head firmly on an intact bench post and lies still.
It depicts the time Loki was imprisoned deep below ground, where his wife would protect him with a simple bowl from the venom of a giant serpent dripped into his eyes.
When his wife left Loki to empty the full bowl, the serpent venom that entered his eyes caused the god such turmoil, that the very ground shook like it was alive!
This gave rise to the Ulfen golarionquake myth.
A silver and gold mask lies haphazardly at the bottom of the bow ladder, which leads upwards.
Knowledge Knowledge (history or nobility) DC 12:
It’s an Ulfen funerary mask, often placed on the face of deceased nobles or warlords, before their body was transported on a funerary ship from this world to Paradise.
