DM Voomer's Age of Ashes

Game Master Voomer

As danger seemed to be approaching, Oren put the oar down near Lisi and pulled out his maul. "Be ready to take over. I'm a lot better with this in a fight than I am with an oar."

Lisi took to the air, so he can't steer or row...

Map up in Roll20!

Yasami looks in the direction indicated by Sulee and Guba but she sees nothing but more swampy water. But Catalina and Sulee spot an immense crocodilian form concealed just beneath the surface of the water about 30 feet away but moving in your direction.

Everyone can see it once Catalina and Sulee point it out.

INITIATIVE ROUND ONE!

Crocodilian thing 33
Yasami 32
Lisi 31
Catalina 30
Caiten 28
Oren 25

As the crocodilian creature moves towards you, its green leathery head, at least five feet wide, starts to emerge from the below the surface. The primordial predator rushes forward and smashes into Caiten and Catalina's boat, and then smashes into it again -- apparently attempting to capsize the vessel. Each time the canoe lurches wildly, but manages not to tip, perhaps aided by its connection to the second canoe. Caiten and Catalina are thrown about by the massive creature's strikes on their conveyance. DC 20 reflex check to avoid being thrown overboard.

The party is up! Lisi is in the air and Sulee is in the water. The canoes are still upright and connected by a rope. Note that it is a DC 25 athletics or acrobatics check to move from one canoe to another, and on a fail a DC 20 reflex check to avoid going in the water (crit fail on the original check puts the PC in the water as well).

"Oh my. That's a big buoy." Yasami quickly jumps over to the other boat to position herself between the reptile and the others. "Keep your distance. I got it!" With a few quick motions, she twirls her parrying blade - hoping to reflect some light into the creature's eyes, and goes for a twisting jab. Preferably in an eye.

◆ Stride (with acrobatics), ◆ Fascinate, ◆ Bleeding Finisher

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (14) + 19 = 33
Fascinate: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (6) + 19 = 25
Strike, Bleeding Finisher: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (13) + 16 = 29 | Damage: 1d4 + 4 + 3d6 ⇒ (4) + 4 + (4, 4, 2) = 18 + 3d6 persistent bleed if the strike hits. I am doing piercing damage for purposes of resistances.

Reflex: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32

Caiten uses the oar to help keep his balance, bracing it against the other boat to keep his footing.

He quickly casts a staple Hex on Catalina, then gathers his focus and conjures a weapon to use against this foe. A morningstar made of force materializes and Caiten swings it at the crocodile's snout. "Back off," he mutters.

Spell Attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17
Bludgeoning damage: 3d8 ⇒ (2, 8, 1) = 11

Catalina: +3 status to damage

◆ Stoke the Heart, ◆◆ Spiritual Weapon (H+2)

Sulee collects a bit of magic from the Hex and casts a protective ward over Yasami. She backs up a bit from the crocodile.

"Caiten, maybe try hitting the crocodile, not just the water. Or your own boat."

Yasami: +6 temp HP

Independent ◆ Swim, Restored Spirit

Reflex save DC 20: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (11) + 16 = 27

Catalina braces herself with a deep breath and grabs the side of the boat briefly to steady herself when the reptilian beast rams into their craft.

"Okay, what are you?" She mutters, leaning over and peering at the creature.

Exploit Vulnerability - Lore: Esoteric: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (10) + 18 = 28

I'll take my next two actions once I get the breakdown. Pretty sure this is a success but not a crit success based on DCs for stuff around our level.

Success: You recall an important fact about the creature, learning its highest weakness (or one of its highest weaknesses, if it has multiple with the same value) but not its other weaknesses, resistances, or immunities. You can exploit either the creature's mortal weakness or personal antithesis. Your unarmed and weapon Strikes against the creature also become magical if they weren't already.

This is definitely a deinosuchus, a primeval relative of the crocodile. And it is basically just a really big crocodile. It doesn't have any weaknesses or immunities or resistances, but it will swallow you whole if given the chance, just like it did with little dinosaurs when there were more of them around. It's a dumb ancient creature that you might be able to scare off if you hurt it enough (but just one or two blows won't do it).

And, yeah, an ordinary success on the check.

I googled crocodile weaknesses for real crocodiles and...there aren't many for personal antithesis, except they said their eyes are very sensitive, so that is where my personal antithesis flavor is coming from.

"It's nothing special--just a big reptile...don't let it bite you, though!" Catalina calls out, deftly pulling some dried lemon peel out of her bag of esoterica to resonate with her pistol before firing off a shot at the creature.

Striking Dueling Pistol: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (15) + 16 = 31
Pistol damage, piercing/bludgeoning, personal antithesis, stoke the heart: 2d6 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 4) + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 = 25

If 31 crits, this is the damage instead:
Pistol, fatal d10, piercing/bludgeoning, personal antithesis, stoke the heart: 3d10 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 7, 2) + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 = 26

Catalina bares her teeth at the creature toothily as she reloads, ready for the next move.

Actions: Exploit vuln, strike, reload. My HP should actually be 96/96, I forgot to update it after the last fight. Will fix.

Oren apparently misses that Lisi's not in the boat anymore, but even still, he makes full use of his height and muscle to come off as physically imposing as possible to the creature before lashing out viciously with his halberd!

Intimidation: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
Attack: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (10) + 17 = 27
Damage: 2d10 + 14 ⇒ (5, 8) + 14 = 27

If Intimidating Prowess Applies: In situations where you can physically menace the target when you Coerce or Demoralize, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your Intimidation check and you ignore the penalty for not sharing a language. If your Strength modifier is +5 or higher and you are a master in Intimidation, this bonus increases to +2.

Retcon: Oren will simply move his canoe next to the creature in order to attack next round. Using Assurance for a 24 on the Athletics check

Yasami deftly leaps to the prow of the other canoe and plunges her main-gauche into one of the Deinosuchus' eyes, leaving a gushing wound. (18 points damage + 3d6 persistent bleed). Her flashy movements seemed to have drawn the creature's eyes to the blade, to its dismay (fascinated).

Catalina strikes the foe with a mighty blast, manipulating her esoterica, and striking the creature between the eyes, creating a flash of exploding leathery flesh.(25 points of damage)

Caiten conjures a floating morningstar over the crocodile's massive head, but the rocking of the boat distracts his aim and he fails to connect with the snout.

Frustrated to be out of the action and lamenting the exit of his druidic rower, Oren releases the rope connecting the canoes; drags his canoe closer to the swampy predators with a mighty tug, using the other canoe as leverage; and pummels the massive crocodile with his maul (17 points of damage). I decided that, given the short distance and Oren's strength, he could just grab on the other canoe and pull his canoe close enough to attack.

botting LisiFinally, Lisi sends a spray of needle darts at the Deinosuchus, but they fail to penetrate its tough hide. He then moves to stay airborne.

I'm assuming you meant Yasami for the first one?

Lisi drops rocks on the deinosuchus.

Scatter Scree: 4d4 + 4 ⇒ (1, 1, 2, 3) + 4 = 11

He spends an action to fly another 10 feet above the fray, just in case.

Yes, I meant Yasami! And, Lisi, I botted you already for round one but I'll count that as your action for round two of combat. The Deinosuchus will go first and then everyone else can post their actions.

ROUND TWO!

Deinosuchus 33
Yasami 32
Lisi 31
Catalina 30
Caiten 28
Oren 25

The Deinosuchus is battered by a series of furious blows from the heroes, but for the moment it is more enraged than scared off. It opens its massive jaws and chomps down on Yasami for 19 points piercing damage. It also grabs Yasami in its jaws (she is actually restrained because it was a critical success).

The creature then smacks Oren with its tail for 13 pts of bludgeoning damage.

The party is up!

"Do you taste particularly good, Yasami? It seems like most everything in this jungle is attempting to eat you specifically."

Caiten sustains both of the spells he has active, noting with satisfaction that his corrections for the rocking of the boat were sufficient, and casts his damage boosting Hex on Oren now that he is also in position.

Spiritual Weapon attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30
Bludgeoning: 3d8 ⇒ (3, 8, 5) = 16

+3 damage to both Catalina and Oren

Sulee renews the healing energy on Yasami with some borrowed power from the Hexes. "Hey, Caiten. I have a new trick to try out. Let me know when you want to see it." She holds her position, biding her time and waiting for opportunity.

+6 Temp HP for Yasami

Now in range of the deinosuchus, Oren uses the most of his height and considerable strength to make himself as physically imposing as possible, in order to come off as the alpha predator and scare this beast. Then, he swings viciously with his maul!

Intimidation: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (10) + 12 = 22
Vicious Swing: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (14) + 17 = 31
Damage: 3d12 + 14 ⇒ (6, 6, 7) + 14 = 33 plus 3 because I missed Caiten's hex

Alright, first of all, my attempt to escape. One action, and se'll see where that gets us.

After being pulled down into the muck, Yasami attempts to weasel out of the creature's grasp.

Escape, Acrobatics: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (9) + 19 = 28

Yasami is able to wiggle a bit and gets her hopes up, but the creature's jaws are just too powerful and she is unable to escape.

Well, I can't really do anything else while restrained, so let's go for another go? That would be my 2nd action.

The beast spins violently with Yasamina in it's mouth, creating waves in the water. If there are bubbles coming from below the surface, you can't see them. But knowing your companion, you imagine she's probably screaming colourful names at the overgrown reptile.

Acrobatics, Escape, MAP - 4: 1d20 + 19 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 19 - 4 = 33

Good enough! So you have one action left. You can either be in the water or on the boat, as you prefer.

I'd like to climb onto the boat, if that is one action. Do I need a roll?

Yasami breaks the surface, taking a deep breath. "Son of a... I think I made him mad. Get ready." she shouts as she rushes to the boats to get out of the water.

I think the rules are a little fuzzy (see my comment in discussion thread), but I'm fine saying Yasami can scurry back to a standing position in the boat without making a roll.

"Oh, I'm ready," Catalina says, taking careful aim at the creature.

Striking Dueling Pistol: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20
Pistol damage, piercing/bludgeoning, personal antithesis, stoke the heart: 2d6 + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (4, 2) + 2 + 4 + 6 + 3 = 21

Pretty sure that doesn't hit...

Catalina grumbles and quickly reloads her gun, firing off another shot.

Striking Dueling Pistol: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (2) + 16 = 18

"Ugh, what is wrong with my gun? Now is not the time..."

Actions: Strike, reload, strike.

Lisi hovers, mildly concerned. "You're not supposed to dance with it, Yasami," he notes.

With heroic effort, Yasami manages to slip out of the crocodile's maw and scurries to the relative safety of the boat.

The rest of the party maintains its concerted assault on the deinosuchus.

Lisi scatters rocks from above, which the predator is able to avoid in part (5 HP damage), while Catalina fires two shots which fail to connect -- firing from a rocking boat is apparently a new experience for her.

Recalibrating his aim after Sulee's teasing, Caiten connects with his spiritual morningstar with a strong blow (16 HP damage).

And, while Oren's attempt to physically intimidate the beast fail, given their relative sizes and the confusion of the battle, he smashes it with a mighty blow from his maul (36 hp damage).

Severely battered, although no longer bleeding out of its eye, the ancient beast concludes it is no match for the group and plunges under the water and swims away to the West.

Silence settles over the scene, and the water calms, although the group knows Belmazog's fortress is nearby to the North (about 150 feet ahead where the the swamp seems to open up into a large area, slightly around a bend and obscured by foliage).

What do you all want to do? Technically we are still in combat rounds and it is round 3, which is relevant to Lisi's flight and Caiten's spiritual weapon. If there are external guards at the fortress, you suspect they have heard the sounds of the combat.

Caiten watches the battered beast swim away. He calls out to Sulee, "It doesn't appear to be necessary."

He looks over at the not so distant fortress. "I expect that any option of a stealth approach has been lost." He sustains the force weapon spell and rows to come alongside Oren's boat. "Oren, if we row this boat together, Lisi, can you push the other boat? We may be able to at least get on solid ground before facing guards."

He calls out to Sulee, "It doesn't appear to be necessary."

"Awww," Sulee replies, clearly a bit disappointed. "Well, just know I have a new trick for later, then."

And to have the full picture, the fortress is on some sort of artificial island? No peninsula-ish patches of ground we could use to park the boats?

you don’t really know at the moment because you still haven’t got a good look at the fortress. The info from the elephant people scout was that it is surrounded by water. Lisi does think he could try to reconnoiter from above. If he doesn’t want to fly directly above in the open, he thinks he could fly to a treetop and look out from behind cover. Frankly, if he’s spotted… you figure they already know you’re here. All of this is clear from the party’s perspective — I’m not saying anything your characters don’t know.

Lisi decides to "fly casual" and scout a bit. He does his best to fly low, skimming the canopy.

Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (3) + 12 = 15
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

uffff da

Catalina reloads her gun and grumbles while she does it, glancing up at the sky as Lisi flies off to scout ahead.

"All this noise definitely gave us away. Let's follow Lisi on the ground so he isn't caught alone," Catalina says, a tinge of worry in her voice as she picks up and oar and gestures with it. "Onward, through the fog?"

If there are no objections, Catalina will push forward in the canoe she's in and keep pace with the other canoe as they roughly follow Lisi ahead. Catalina will look out for a good place to land? Feel free to roll whatever you need to on my behalf, DM.

Lisi takes into the air and heads in the direction of the fortress, attempting to stay in the cover of the trees. The rest of the group moves slowly forward in the canoes, while not passing the bend that would put the canoes within sight of the fortress (easy rowing, so no rolls necessary).

As Lisi crests the treeline he finally is able to take the full measure of the fortress. He first makes a full circle from a greater height and distance and then approaches closer from the Southern treeline (the direction from which the group approaches), in order to take in more details.

Rising out of the murky water, a massive but relatively squat oval red clay fortress is built atop a slab of granite thrust up from the swampy jungle floor. The fortress appears to be over 200 feet from North to South and over 125 feet from East to West at its widest.

From above, Lisi can see that there is an enclosed central building surrounded by a defensive platform roughly 10 feet wide. The platform appears to be about 15 feet above the level of the water and there a number of watchtowers that appear to be about 30-feet high.

The central building is about 20 feet tall and flat-roofed, save for a section to the North, which rises another 20 feet in height with a domed roof.

The fortress is surrounded by 8 towering dragon-shaped pillars that appear similar to the ones the group encountered before, but taller. Your understanding from the elephant people scout is that the pillars previously produced a colorful shell of light over the entirety of the fortress, but there is no such shell at present.

There does not appear to be land access to the fortress. At closest, there are trees 20-25 feet away. The trees are submerged in water, but one could stand on the ample roots. Lisi cannot tell the depth of the water around the fortress, although Sulee reports the depth has been decreasing and varies from about 5-10 feet in the area where the canoes are, around a bend from the fortress.

Lisi spots only one entrance to the central building -- a pair of huge timber gates at the southern end.

Finally, Lisi spies cultists atop the defensive platforms, and, as he tries to take in the full measure of the fortress, some of them spot him. He spots six staff-wielding boggards and they begin to croak loudly after spotting Lisi.

I will post a map and initiative later. Feel free to discuss what you all want to do (the party hears the croaking) but let's post actions in combat rounds (unless the group's decision is not to engage). Also, feel free to ask any questions you have. Lisi is 2 moves away from the group and will need to spend a full round back at the group to explain his observations in full, if the group decides to wait for his description before moving forward.

Caiten helps to row while also keeping his weapon spell active. As soon as the Boggards come in view, Caiten sends the mace flying out to harass them.

Athletics rowing: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33

Sustaining spell for as long as I can. Let me know how many rounds are left.
Spiritual Armament has a range of 120 feet and a maximum sustained time of 1 minute.

"Oh, well..." Yasamina stores her parrying blade and starts stringing her bow. "I was hoping to sneak inside and THEN start the murder spree, but we'll have to do it the hard way, I suppose."

Lisi speeds back and explains the situation. "If we get up on a watchtower, we can rain arrows and magic down on them. The real bottleneck is getting into that central building. I imagine Belmazog will hide in there and hope her troops wear us down, so we should save what we can for that assault."

Lisi flies back and reports to the group and makes a tactical suggestion on how to proceed. The group can hear the boggards croaking loudly from around the bend.

If you want to take some time to discuss how to proceed you can. Lisi's recon time used up the remainder of the spiritual weapon spell (it took him some time to circle the fortress to get a look at the whole thing).

ROUND ONE INITIATIVE:

Catalina 29
Lisi 22
Caiten 19
Boggards 18
Yasami 16
Oren 15

We'll start paying attention to initiative order once you engage.

I've posted a map to Roll20. The hidden areas are the central building -- all of that is flat roof or a domed roof (to the North). It may be possible to go on the roof but, except for the domed portion, it is 5 feet higher than the platform. The 10 wider spots on the platform are the 30 foot watchtowers. Lisi spotted 6 boggards but I haven't put them on the map because you aren't exactly sure where they are at this moment. When Lisi saw them they were distributed around the fortress.

Okay that is closer hgan I imagined. I shall pull out my tioe dart instead.

"Bring us closer, Caiten. I want to slash them with my blade." Yasami lets out a manic chuckle during the approach.

"Yes. One moment," Caiten responds as he maneuvers his boat next to Oren's. "I believe a ranged barbarian would be beneficial." He reaches across to the other boat and casts Fly on Oren. Then paddles his canoe with Yasami and Catalina around the corner.

"Let's count how many headshots I can get today," Catalina chirps, patting her Implement fondly as they approach. "And we should consider sticking together, yes?"

When the canoes land, Catalina will step out of the boats and wait for the others before proceeding.

Before round one...

Caiten casts fly on Oren (5 minutes), who lifts into the air. At the top of round one, Caiten then takes the oars and maneuvers the canoe with Yasami and Catalina into position, round the bend and 30 feet from the fortress. The boggards croak loudly and gesticulate and move to attack (but the PCs go first).

It takes Caiten all three of his actions but he manages to pull it off.

Lisi flies along just behind the canoe and then focuses his attention on conjuring a controlled wave that pushes the canoe alongside the fortress.

Oren, Catalina, and Yasami are up. If anyone wants to take their actions before Lisi casts his spells (such as a ranged attack that might not be possible or would be harder from the base of the fortress wall), just specify that. After Lisi's spell, the canoe will be alongside the wall and the PCs will need to figure out how to get the 15 feet up to the level of the top of the wall.

I didn't mention this before, but there is some kind of gate in front of the large double doors, so it is not possible to directly access the doors from the water (without lowering the gate).

Is there any mechanism connected to the gate that needs to be lowered? Can you mark the gate itself on the map?

The doors are the V at the bottom of the map. I've added the gate to the map (and the boggards). Between the gate and the doors there is dry land. You can't tell from here how the gate is opened or lowered. There may be way down from the platforms to the space between the gate and the doors but you can't tell.

Thanks for the clarity in discussion, GM!

Catalina stares up at the boggard closest to her, narrowing her eyes to identify a weakness.

Exploit Vuln: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (2) + 18 = 20 Gotta wait to see if this is a failure or crit failure

That's actually a success!

Catalina searches her memories and manipulates her esoterica, but cannot recall any boggard weaknesses. You recall fighting boggards like these at the mine. Like all boggards, they aren't particularly fast and nimble, but they have a long grabbing tongue and brutal croak. Catalina recalls that these staff wielders are spell casters, that attacked with acid and cold.

Oh dang, nice!

Catalina deftly pulls a piece of milky quartz from her esoterica and holds it against her pistol, evoking the acid-neutralizing power of milk with the association. Using personal antithesis; sympathetic vulnerabilities comes into play here with the personal antithesis so if the other boggards are the same type, that's good for me ahaha

Striking Dueling Pistol: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (2) + 16 = 18
Damage, piercing/bludgeoning, implement empowerment, personal antithesis: 2d6 + 2 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (6, 4) + 2 + 4 + 6 = 22

Catalina reloads her weapon, ready to fire off another shot.

◆Exploit Vuln, ◆Strike, ◆Reload.

As you probably guessed, that's a miss. But, yes, all the boggards seem to be the same type, so you can take that into account in your future actions.