DM Eric's Hells' Vengeance Campaign

Game Master Vanulf Wulfson

Amala smiles at Fellzir.

“Whatever color you prefer you mysteriously bound cleric of whatever mysterious god you worship!! Maybe we just mix some yellow in … and some black … “ she says while walking to the gate.

Octavonius had been enjoying the few days of peace and quiet at the jailhouse, but quickly rouses to the call to action. Though the does listen to the lycanthropy concern with a nod. "If the beast remains tight-lipped about its origins and the lack of any others it might have run its use. However, if we risk keeping it alive and jailed and there are sympathizers it could provide a useful bait to weed out any if they attempt to free the creature. Although we will need a few others outside our little band we could trust to watch the beast when we are away."

"Useful bait! Useful bait!" Ohd caws from his master's shoulder.

Given the ample amount of downtime I believe Ocatvonius should be able to produce the three scrolls of Burning Hands he had been working on before Caggan interrupted things. Just in case.

Cimri nods in agreement, "I'll stay behind to make sure Caggan behaves himself," as she twirls her kukri in her hand.

The rest of you hurry over to the Castle Gate where indeed you can see the gate stands wide open, in direct violation of the Archbaron's directive. Oddly enough the gate area appears deserted, although a cursory glance shows the gate can be easily closed again. There is no sign of anyone here, and also no trace of the former Gatekeepers you faced down earlier though the house where they reside is in sight.

Current Status:

Amala 21/21 hp
Aurelius 17/17 hp
Fellzir 17/17 hp
Hallidan 16/16 hp
Octavonius 10/10 hp

_____________________

Current Effects: Morning time. (none)

Current MAP.

Actions?

Octavonius, with Ohd's assistance, does a cursory glance of the area to see if there is anything out of place aside from the open gate and missing guard. As he does so he says, "Perhaps the guards abandoned their post. If they are truly gone we will need to see about posting more reliable sorts to watch this gate."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 = 7

Seeing no sign of a threat, Hallidan rolls his eyes. "Probably asleep or drunk, or both. We should start carrying saps or something." He makes for the gate to make sure no one is outside it. "Guess we'll need to close this ourselves."

Can the gate be closed and barred by one person or do I need help?

Fellzir scans the area carefully and then helps Hal.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

Saps are pretty useful indeed, and I have one with me since the beginning of our adventure.

CHecking for magic because why not

Aurelius scanes the gatehouse with detect magic

perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Amala looks around and seems to be bored.

Octavonius notices nothing out of the ordinary, while Amala hides her impatience at the menial task set upon them. Hallidan, working with Fellzir, is easily able to close the gate again and also slide the bar back into position. However Aureluis discovers the doorway leading into the gate tower has been barricaded from the inside, impeding his access to the interior.

Actions? Octavonius realizes since the Gate has been ordered closed there is no need for the gatekeepers to be stationed here.

Barricaded from the inside, curious. There should thus be an alernative way in. Aurelius muses as he gets to work removing the barricade with his considerable physical strength.

Aurelius proceeds to put his shoulder into the door...

Please give me a STR check. Anyone else feel free to assist Aurelius here, one other person can fit next to him.

Str guidance taking 10: 10 + 5 = 15

The door refuses to budge despite Aurelius's best efforts...only until he gets an additional hand does the door gives way with a loud clatter revealing the single room inside the tower’s base is drafty. The interior of the tower is completely open (except for several crates that have been stacked against the door) between the stone floor and the flat wooden roof 20 feet overhead, interrupted only by supporting crossbeams and a well-used ladder that ends at an open hatch leading to the second story.

Actions?

"What a strange thing to find in place that should be long abandoned," Octavonius muses aloud as he scans the interior, pulling out his crossbow as he does. He nods at the ladder. "Shall we proceed upwards?"

"Upwards and onwards!" Ohd says in a hushed squawk.

"Silence!" his master hisses regardless.

"I guess so. Amala leads or Hal sneaks?"

Amala tries to support Aurelius.

str aid 1st try: 1d20 ⇒ 11
str aid 2nd try: 1d20 ⇒ 11

"I'm all for taking the quiet approach, but if anyone's in here they've probably noticed us." Hal draws his sword and heads for the ladder. "Let's see what we got."

Climbing the ladder with weapon drawn.

Hallidan juggles his blade between his arms as he proceeds to climb up the ladder but the blade does not impeed his progress...but as he gets about halfway up, a large chest suddenly drops from the open hatch...

Ranged touch vs. Flat-foot AC 13: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9;damage: 1d3 ⇒ 3 miss.

...narrowly missing the tiefling! The chest crashes to the ground and breaks apart with a loud crash!

Actions? Hallidan is about 10 feet away from the open hatch.

I have seen the highlight real on how an Arranea took out a Ulkrith demon, was it called "home alone"? Lets see if we can come to some type of agreement instead.

Whatever or whoever you are good Sir, why do you resort to violence?
diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Aurelius tries his hand at diplomacy.

Amala shakes her head but simultaneously smiles.

"Okay, this is going too far!" she says drawing her bow and reading to shoot at anyone appearing.

longbow: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 71d8 ⇒ 5

"Shouldn't'a done that." Hal jumps back off the ladder and looks up at the trapdoor. "Fish in barrels aren't exactly threatening!" he calls out. "Come on, mates, let's just torch the place."

Fellzir readies an action to shoot his crossbow at anyone who attacks the party.
Crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
damage: 1d8 ⇒ 5

"I have plenty of fire at my disposal, should we require it," Octavonius says to his comrades, though hopefully loud enough for whoever it is upstairs to hear. At the same time he also levels his crossbow at the top of the ladder, reading to fire at any hostile creature that descends.

Readied Crossbow Shot: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Crit Confirm: 1d20 ⇒ 16

damage: 1d8 ⇒ 3
crit additional damage: 1d8 ⇒ 8

As you prepare for whatever decides to show itself, your words echo through the drafty tower floor. Nothing responds to your words, and no one shows themselves.

Actions?

Amala continues to ready to shoot.

Maybe it was a trap they left behind and they are gone? Do we hear any footsteps upstairs? They probably weren't the stealthy type.

I see little recurse but to proceed comrades. Aurelius says to Hallidan as he motions to himself, motions himself climbing up the ladder, motions to Hallidan, motions to the outside and then phantomimes stabbing someone surprised in the back, before slowly approaching the ladder himself.

Octavonius will continue readying to shoot as well.

Hoping he understood the signals correctly, Hallidan exits the tower but stays just outside the door.

As the rest of you take positions to engage whatever lurks above, Aurelius swiftly climbs up the ladder...however as he approaches the top the ladder suddenly breaks away and Aurelius desperately tries to grasp the top of the ledge before plummeting to the floor...

Aurelius: Reflex save DC 20 to avoid falling 20 ft. and taking 2d6 ⇒ (5, 1) = 6 falling damage. The rest of you can declare actions if you wish. Again, no enemy has revealed themselves.

If Fellzir throws himself under Aurelius, will they split the damage or both take six?

Clearly I am not Chaotic Evil.

No need for such heroics

reflex: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (12) + 0 = 12

Aurelius crashes down, his armor making it sound a bit like a panoply of metal tumbling down, swearing prodoundly in Abyssal

Ебаный ад, пусть силы ада нанесут орбитальный удар деревом по дерьмовой деревне, которая тебя породила.

::Abyssal:F!*~ing hell, may the powers of hell conduct an orbital tree strike on the s+$#ty village that spawned you::

Despite the cacophony from the tiefling crashing to the floor, nothing reacts to the noise. Hallidan also sees nothing from his post outside the gate tower.

Actions?

Aurelius scanes a bit with detect magic, still swearing a fair bit. Quite loud even. If you woul feel so inclined, its a great way to learn some Abyssal.

“Get up there?!“ she says to the group.

Interestingly enough, Aurelius discovers a magical aura emanating from the spilled contents of the chest that crashed to the floor - coming from a small leather bag.

"Blast! These devils really want to make this difficult," Octavonius curses. After making sure Aurelius is alright from his fall he wanders over to the ladder to see the state of it and if it could be easily repaired.

"I can cast Mending on the ladder (and later on the chest) but it takes ten minutes to cast. I assume we don't want to wait. Maybe a living pyramid/pile-up to get someone up there?"

As the physically strongest member of our posse I would likely be the base of such an attempt, with Lady Amala on the top perhaps? There is also a degree of magic in the chest, I wonder what precisely it is.

Time to RP his relatively low wisdom and int:)

You arrange yourselves into a pyramid and the 9un)fortunate soul at the top realized the top of the floor can be reached...with difficulty....

Whoever is at the top needs to make an Acrobatics (or Dex) check DC 15, followed by a DC 12 STR check to pull yourself up.

Hal is the most nimble, right?

“Yes! Definitely! Hal, you got this!!“

I guess we're all pretty similar weights, give or take, so yea I'm probably the most acrobatic.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
Strength: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

Hallidan takes three nimble steps up the human-tiefling pyramid and vaults up to the second story, barely managing to pull himself up the rest of the way.

"If you're attacked, stay within my sight and I can heal you from here. If you're not, maybe tie off a rope?"

Hallidan manages to clamber up to the second floor of the tower...yet his respite is brief as a ball of flame flies out from the shadows to strike the tiefling!

Ranged Touch vs. flat-footed AC 13: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20; Fire damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7 Hallidan takes 7 points of Fire damage

Even as he shields his face from the flames his keen eyesight scan the floor...yet even his keen eyes fail to pick up the source of the attack!

Round 1 Status:

Amala 21/21 hp
Aurelius 11/17 hp
Fellzir 17/17 hp
Hallidan 9/16 hp
Octavonius 10/10 hp

??: ?? hp

_____________________

Current Effects: Morning time. (none)

Current MAP.

Everyone is UP! Hallidan: you do not see any targets to attack here.

Amala immediately tries to get up.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (14) + 4 = 18
Strength: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8

Fellzir winces sympathetically as Hal gets hit, remembering that HE was the one who suggested Hal go first. He knows his role, though.

Channel 1: 1d6 ⇒ 2

"Did that help? Do you see anything?"

In Malacodas name we shall endure!

Party wide fast healing 1 for the rest of the combat.

Octavonius curses from the pain of being part of a human pyramid then in surprise as Hallidan is attacked. "I won't be able to do much from down here. Be careful, blast it!"

Without many more options Octavonius simply casts Mage Armor upon himself.

"Ow! No, I don't see anything up here, but something definitely sees me!" Hallidan moves to the center of the room, hoping to spot whoever-- or whatever-- is doing the attacking.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14