Much |
Much watches her compatriot skewer the first bee.
Haunt has that bee well in hand. I'll set up the next for Laesah!
Much launches herself across the room, the scars across her forearms beginning to glow and smear in a queasy display.
Much strikes at the bee
Attack: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 281d8 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11
Laesah is fast, but maybe I can still serve this bee up to her.
Brutish Shove: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 81d8 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Much's attempt to move the bee fails with her missed strike and she bites back a frustrated growll;
2 Sudden Charge
1 Brutish Shove
GM Qronos |
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Much menghancurkans the bee, scoring a critical hit. It buzzes up towards the gnoll and tries to strike back.
stinger: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 251d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
mandibles: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 191d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
The stinger finds a gap in Much's splint mail, but the mandibles barely glance off.
Round 1
Initiative
1. Haunt - 30/35 HP
2. Bee (green) - 9 Damage taken
3. Much - 37/43 HP
4. Bee (red) - 22 Damage taken
5. Barnabus <-- We are here
6. Laesah
GM Qronos |
The phasing bolt smacks into the side of the bee's oddly adorable face, exploding it into a much less adorable smear. Red bee is slain.
Laesah Doul |
Momentarily stunned by the diminutive arachnid's warning, Laesah springs into action just after her companions impressively obliterate one of the monstrous bees with a combination of menghancurkans and missiles of force. The anadi frowns, then raises both of her arms up as if raising a portcullis.
A blast of water shoots out from the floorboards, directly under the remaining bee!
Casting spout her College Attendant Dedication spell!
Spell Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 92d4 + 3 ⇒ (3, 3) + 3 = 9 Ugh. Spending a Hero Point on that.
Reroll: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 262d4 + 3 ⇒ (4, 4) + 3 = 11 That's more like it. She then casts ki rush, her focus spell, and strides into place on the map.
Laesah glides into place on the far side of the remaining bee, her outline shimmering with indistinct edges.
Laesah now has the concealed condition.
GM Qronos |
The gout of water knocks the bee around, but it's still flying, for now.
Round 2
Initiative
1. Haunt - 30/35 HP <-- We are here
2. Bee (green) - 20 Damage taken
3. Much - 37/43 HP
4. Bee (red) - Forcefully menghancurkaned
5. Barnabus
6. Laesah - Concealed
Haunter of Monsters |
Haunt steps into the flank with Laesah, then stabs out at the remaining giant bee.
◆: Step
◆: Strike, +1 Rapier (P), Personal Antithesis (+3 dmg), Implement's Empowerment (+2 dmg): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 241d6 + 1 + 2 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 2 + 3 = 11
◆: Strike, +1 Rapier (P), Personal Antithesis (+3 dmg), Implement's Empowerment (+2 dmg): 1d20 + 9 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 9 - 5 = 141d6 + 1 + 2 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 2 + 3 = 7
↻: Amulet's Abeyance (resistance 4 to all damage if triggered, benefits either Haunt or one ally within 15')
GM Qronos |
Haunt runs the bee through, and it drops unceremoniously out of the air. With the threat ended, the group finds a Scroll of Dispel Magic on one of the tables, tucked into the notes and drawings.
What do you do? Reminder that you took a little damage in there. Haunt is down 5, and Much is down 6.
Haunter of Monsters |
Do we still hear the humming? Any change? Can we close the door to the hall that the bees flew in from?
Haunt licks at one of his wounds and winces. “That stings! Pun intended, but it’s a little worse than I realized at first. Much, you look like you got cut up some yourself. Laesah, would you mind patching us up before we go on? I’d rather hold my healing scrolls until we really need them.”
GM Qronos |
The droning sound has diminished, but is still audible coming out from the tunnels. It's loud enough to make it hard to hear your footsteps and make you raise your voices slightly. You can close the doors that lead out of this staging room and back into the library (and then the school grounds), but the bees emerged from tunnels in the walls. You could spend some time blocking those up, but you've been asked to explore and map them, and you know these mining bees can dig through at other points.
Laesah Doul |
”I’ll do my best!” Laesah says, pulling out her healer’s tools.
Treat Wounds, Much: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10 Sorry!
Treat Wounds, Haunt: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
Healing: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 8) = 11
GM Qronos |
To recap, you found:
- Some maps and notes (pretty basic, reflected on Roll20)
- A scroll of Dispel Magic (lvl 2)
- Three tunnels you can go down. The western most has some shallow water, the notes on the middle path talk about some sort of mushroom, and there is nothing said about the eastern tunnel - it doesn't seem like the previous students did much more than peek into it.
Much |
Much nods in thanks to Laesah, rolling her shoulder to test its mobility.
"I don't see much use in trying to limit the movement of a burrowing enemy, I'm not sure we could even slow them down. We'll just have to search them all till we find the source of their intrusion."
"I say we go to the worst tunnel first, just to get it out of the way while we are, mostly, uninjured. And in this case, my 'worst' is the tunnel with water. If that gets any deeper and we have to swim in a dark tunnel? No thank you."
Much shudders at her own imagined scenario before setting off to the west.
GM Qronos |
As the group moves down the tunnel, it immediately gets cramped. You turn sideways to squeeze through narrow passages, and stoop to get under low, 4-foot-high ceilings (When the ceilings are low like this, it will function as difficult terrain).
Fortunately for you all, you quickly emerge into a watery room with ceiling tall enough to stand straight. In the center of the shallow pool is a dead vexgit gremlin, half its head missing from some act of violence.
Laesah Doul |
Laesah transforms into her full arachnid form as the tunnel gets cramped. Once within the watery room, she maintains that arachnid form.
"This form might come in handy," she reasons, a whispery version of her normal voice echoing slightly across the cavern walls.
Laesah concentrates, trying to suss out the reason for the decapitated gremlin for the remaining half of its body.
Medicine is +8. So is Perception and Survival. Nature is +10.
GM Qronos |
It looks like the head was blown off, through some sort of explosion, rather than sheared off with a blade, or smashed in with a hammer. As you look closer, you also see bits of centipede legs lodged deep in the neck and torso.
Unrelated to the injuries, you also note a shiny silver bracelet (which would be about the size of a ring on a person) on one of the vexgit's arms.
GM Qronos |
Laesah isn't sure if it's magical, but can tell that even as a mundane silver ring, it would go for 40 gold.
Rolled you a pretty good craft check, Laesah
Much |
Much crouches down and cocks her ears forward, rummaging through her mind to see if she has any knowledge on the strange little creature.
Ah, yes. We've fought these before. Strange little gremlins...
She then drags herself up out of the water and proceeds south.
Haunter of Monsters |
"Hang on, let me see if I can figure out whether it’s worth the time to check." Haunt takes the ring and puts it back on the gremlin’s corpse, then backs up a few feet and casts his detect magic, excluding all the magic items he and his allies are carrying.
Does he get a ping? If so, he will tell the group and spend 10 minutes trying to Identify Magic with the appropriate skill.
Once the spell is cast (and any identifying is done), he picks up the ring and hands it back to Laesah, then joins Much in trying to identify the characteristics of the dead gremlin. Recall Knowledge (Esoteric Lore +11).
I had to go back and reread all this because most of the time we’re dealing with this in Downtime. Detect magic in 2E is a 30’ emanation (rather than a cone as in 1E), so he can’t specifically determine whether the ring is magical or not with the spell, only whether there is anything with a magical aura in the area of effect (other than what he and his friends are carrying). Read aura is the spell for determining whether a specific object is magical and if so, from what school, but is not actually necessary for the Identify Magic skill action (which takes 10 minutes). This has reminded me to be irritated all over again that read aura doesn’t give you a bonus to Identify Magic, which it absolutely should.
GM Qronos |
Haunt is quickly able to tell that the ring is mundane, so while it doesn't have any extra features, it still carries a decent price tag.
To the south, the group walks into a well-lit space, glowing softly blue. The source of the glow is a large mushroom. Nothing about the room is immediately interesting otherwise.
Feel free to array yourselves in the room as you see fit. I will use this to roughly establish future marching orders/formations. Otherwise, what do you do?
GM Qronos |
Stopping to think for a moment, Haunt remembers that Havvix, the maul-wielding "friend" of Kurshkin was a vexgit.
You know that these are tiny, but noisy, with a crab like carapace that clanks and rattles, and that they are saboteurs. They can create traps and magically rust armor and weapons. Even for gremlins, these little guys are jerks.
Laesah Doul |
”Traps, eh?” Laesah surmises after Haunt’s assessment. The spider skitters around to face the newest member of the team. ”I don’t think any of us are very good at traps, Barnabas. Do you have any talents in that area?”
Laesah would defer to someone who can detect traps as the lead. She’s happy to tank in the front once combat begins, though.
Haunter of Monsters |
Haunt follows Laesah into the next room.
Moved on the map. If I recall correctly, we previously decided was that our standard procedure for opening a door or entering a room would be that someone with a better Perception modifier than Haunt would check for traps, while Haunt (who is trained in Thievery and now has a set of thieves’ tools) would step up to disarm traps and pick locks when needed. With that in mind, Haunt is fine in the second row, and is planning to pick up scrolls and eventually a wand of longstrider to make up the distance.
GM Qronos |
The group heads off to the east, on high alert for traps. As they squeeze through the tunnel and enter the next opening, they see three centipede carcasses on the floor. Each appears to be curled around a ball of string or wire, like a kitten with a ball of yarn.
The notes from the previous group of students mentioned this room and the centipede corpses, but they didn't do any further investigating. You wonder if all the branches coming off of this room is why they turned back, as the scope of the ask become apparent.
Much enters the room first, scanning, and immediately raises a paw when she spots the centipede corpses, signalling the group to stop.
The centipedes are trapped. Jostling the bugs is likely to cause them to throw bits of shell and legs around like shrapnel and some significant damage. Worse, the mechanism that sets them off seems is likely to run for some time - maybe a full minute - filling the room with flying pain over and over.
Much and Laesah both smoked the perception checks. Each of these bug bombs can be disarmed by a nature (untrained, DC 23) or thievery (expert, DC 21) check. What do you do?
Much |
"Persetan tidak..." Much mutters under her breath.
Without moving or lowering her hands, Much whispers to Barnabas. "Uhh..Barnabas? You wouldn't happen to know anything about disarming traps, would you? I know enough to know I can't do anything about these."
GM Qronos |
If you want to disarm these, you'd have to do nature, since none of you are experts in thievery, to my knowledge. That makes Laesah your best candidate, I think, but she can tell these are complicated. You rolled high enough on your perception checks that I'll throw this in: the kill zone on these things looks to be 30 feet, and they are activated by being interacted with, not proximity or tripwires or the like.
Laesah Doul |
Laesah regards the crude-but-effective traps with disdain. She sighs and then turns to the group.
"I think we should leave these alone. They are not likely to harm us if we don't fuss with them. I might be able to do something if I had to, but it'd be like setting Anchor Root to a tug-of-war contest." She harrumphs.
"Not impossible, but somewhat ridiculous, eh?"
Laesah will try to move gingerly around the traps, giving them a wide pass.
Much |
Much follows closely behind Laesah, trying to mirror her careful steps.
"Not impossible, but somewhat ridiculous, eh?"
Much grins and responds, if only to keep her mind off of the ramifications of a misstep.
"Oh, I don't know. Anchor Root is scrappy, and so low to the ground! Kilo for kilo, not a bad choice for a tug-of-war team."Haunter of Monsters |
Haunt grins. He casually sheaths his sword and starts to pull out his thieves' tools, but stops when he hears Laesah describe how complicated the centipede traps are. After a moment, he slides the toolkit back into his bookbag of holding and draws his rapier again.
"Right, let's just sneak right past them. But somebody has to remember that they're there when we're coming back!"
Especially if we're in a hurry.
Editing to respond to Barnabas - didn't see his post until after I uploaded mine.
"Nah, Laesah's right. Sounds like they're just somebody's way of taking out intruders like us. We can always try to deal with them when we finish the job we came down to do."
GM Qronos |
As you go through the tunnel, Laesah spots some creatures. A mining bee rests in a small alcove. It turns towards you, but looks so exhausted it doesn't make any moves in your direction. Down a longer tunnel you see a tiny gremlin with a shark-like face, chewing into some of the rock. Between the constant drone of the mines, and the work it's doing, it doesn't seem to notice you yet.
If you want to try and learn more about the gremlin:
What do you do?
Haunter of Monsters |
Esoteric Lore: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14
“What in the Hells is that?!?” Haunt tries not to draw attention to the group, but is completely baffled by the creature gnawing on the rock.
Laesah Doul |
Nature Check: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
”I’ve no clue, in fact,” Laesah admits. ”I’m going to assume it’s hostile, though. How do we want to approach?”
Much |
”I’m going to assume it’s hostile, though. How do we want to approach?”
Much abruptly pulls up, realizing walking blissfully forward is maybe not the best idea.
"Weapons out? Fire if fired upon?"GM Qronos |
It's pretty clear that you guys are either going to have to try and sneak by, or this thing will likely notice you. Even though it's noisy in here, it's not so loud that you can just waltz through.
What do you guys want to do?
Laesah Doul |
The anadi holds up the universal sign for STFU, then begins moving gingerly down the passage, attempting to sneak past the sharky gremlin.
Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12 Ugh.
GM Qronos |
Laesah makes her way down the corridor, but there's a little too much debris lying around, even for the lightfooted anadi. She kicks a small rock that skitters down the hall. The gremlin groggily looks over its shoulder, seeing the party. Its eyes widen and it lets out a yelp, then growls, a sound like rocks being shaken in a tin can, and (flavor) charges.
Laesah, having moved forward, also sees another gremlin down a corridor, who turns to fight as well. As far as you can tell, the bee is not engaging in the combat.
Much initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9
Haunt initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Laesah (SNEAK) initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
Barnabus initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
Gremlin (red) initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13
Gremlin (blue) initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Round 1
Initiative
1. Barnabus <-- We are here
2. Haunt
3. Gremlin (red)
4. Much
5. Laesah
6. Gremlin (blue)
GM Qronos |
The arrow glances off a jutting rock, missing the mark, but you all now enjoy a +1 status bonus to attack and damage rolls.
Much |
Much closes the distance to attack the northernmost goblin.
Strike: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 141d8 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
GM, Assuming that misses, the next strike is plus one to the math below.
Strike: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 191d8 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
GM Qronos |
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The gnagrif, somewhat cornered, steps up and lashes out at Much...
◆:Step
◆:Hammer time 1: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 251d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
◆:Hammer time 2: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 91d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
...connecting with the gnoll for some light damage.
Going to assume control of Haunt here for the sake of moving things along
Then Haunt, rapier and implement in hand sizes up the gremlin...
◆: Exploit Vulnerability, Esoteric Lore: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12
...and realizes that while gremlins are usually weak to cold iron, this one eats rocks, so maybe he's weak against HOT irons. Wait, that doesn't make sense, the gremlin has no hair. Are any other minerals cold? (Haunt is flat footed as he confuses himself trying to sort this out)
When knowledge fails him, Haunt doubles down on physicality, rushing in and thrusting out with his rapier.
◆: Stride
◆:+1 Rapier (P), Implement's Empowerment (+2 dmg): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 281d6 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 1 + 2 = 5
CRITICAL damage, Deadly d8: 1d8 ⇒ 7
Haunt stabs down through the top of the tiny gremlin's head, and you see his blade pierce out the bottom of the jaw. It's probably dead from such a wound, and just doesn't know it, but it spits out a mouthful of blood and keeps fighting.
Round 1
Initiative
1. Barnabus
2. Haunt
3. Gremlin (red) - 25 Damage taken
4. Much 31/43 HP
5. Laesah <-- We are here
6. Gremlin (blue)
Laesah Doul |
Laesah, still in arachnid form, surges forward to the remaining shark-jawed gremlin. Spider limbs and jaws a-flash.
I'm assuming that I cannot do Crane Stance in my arachnid form ("Your spider legs can't perform actions that require fingers or significant manual dexterity..."), but I think I would be able to perform a Flurry of Blows. I'll await formal GM forgiveness if I get it wrong.
Flurry of Blows (Limb), IC: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 10 + 1 = 181d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 1 = 7
Flurry of Blows (Jaws), IC: 1d20 + 10 - 4 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 10 - 4 + 1 = 131d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 1 = 3
Non-Flurry Strike (Limb), IC: 1d20 + 10 - 8 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 10 - 8 + 1 = 231d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 1 = 3
Of course, if the GM rules that Laesah can enter Crane Stance, I'll enter that next round.
GM Qronos |
I think you can't pick locks or play the lute, but I'd certainly let you enter stances and flurry some blows.
Laesah lands a couple blows (first and third strikes) and rocks the gremlin back. It wheels and starts attacking in response, showing an alarming amount of martial prowess.
light hammer 1: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 211d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
light hammer 2: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 241d6 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
light hammer 3: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 211d6 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
I have gotten Laesah's AC wrong enough times to doubt myself, but I think that's 20 points of damage from the gremlin. We can adjust as needed.
Round 2
Initiative
1. Barnabus <-- We are here
2. Haunt
3. Gremlin (red) - 28 Damage taken
4. Much 31/43 HP
5. Laesah - 18/38 HP
6. Gremlin (blue) - 13 Damage taken
GM Qronos |
Nope, you'd need to move forward to put them within 30 feet. One step to reach red at 30 feet, and 15 or so to reach blue. You will also have line of sight issues targeting blue unless you go down and become parallel with it.
GM Qronos |
The arrow clatters off a different rock, and causes the gremlin to flinch. Haunt capitalizes and strikes.
◆: +1 Rapier (P), Implement's Empowerment (+2 dmg): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 281d6 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 1 + 1 + 2 = 9
With the help of Barnabas's song, pushing him a little bit harder, Haunt punches a different hole through the top of the gremlin's skull.
CRIT Deadly d8: 1d8 ⇒ 1
This one does the job, and the gremlin falls over dead. Haunt uses the rest of his energy to move into a support position for Laesah.
Round 2
Initiative
1. Barnabus
2. Haunt
3. Gremlin (red) - TREPANNATED
4. Much 31/43 HP <-- We are here
5. Laesah - 18/38 HP
6. Gremlin (blue) - 13 Damage taken