Milo hears nothing behind the door, so stands back so that Menudo and Theron can try to force it. The pair put their weight and strength into it; the door audibly groans, but doesn't break.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
As the larger folk strain at the door, Milo pulls out his crossbow in anticipation of danger once they get inside.
male human fighter 4, HP 40, AC 21; T 13; FF 18; F +6, R +5, W +, Init. +4, Perc. +6
Enough wasting time...clear out! the brute says as he drops his morning star and grabs his sword in two meaty fists and hits the door with it furiously.
Note: you automatically hit with a full-round action. Since nobody (at this level) has multiple attacks yet, there's no need to roll to hit (nobody has more than 1 attack per round anyway, so no reason to not use the full round action to auto-hit). Go ahead and just roll a few rounds of damage; I'll figure out from that how many rounds it took you to break through.
One other party member may join Theron in attacking the door. Though, if Milo (or anyone else) is going to attempt to climb it, you may not want to strike the door while someone is climbing it.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
Milo gives the door and the surrounding walls a dubious look. "Only with a grapple and line. Which I have," he replies, reaching for his pack. "But it's unlikely to save us any time."
He will stow the crossbow and pull out his grappling hook, which is attached to a knotted silk rope. If it looks like it will take more than a couple rounds to break in the door, he'll try to use the grapple to climb the wall of the gatehouse.
ranged attack with grappling hook:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9 Still good enough to hit AC 5 if the tower isn't more than 30 ft. tall.
Iladora blasts the gate into splinters with her adamantine blade.
One dead guard lies slumped against the inside of the remains of the gate, another is facedown about 20 feet away, and the remains of two others--likely civilian employees, by their dress--lie messily draped over the shrubs.
Heal DC 15:
The bodies appear to have been physically torn apart! The fallen guards both have flakes of golden dust caked along the edges of their wounds.
Heal DC 15 or Knowledge (arcana) DC 15:
Spoiler:
You can positively identify this as shed skin from someone suffering from aurum death. Further, the way in which the golden tinge seems to have spread from the wound suggests that these bodies are now afflicted with aurum death and could rise as undead within a matter of hours.
All of the doors leading from the courtyard are closed, however, a set of bloody footprints leads to one of the doors (marked with a red arrow).
Perception DC 16:
You hear frantic shouting of two or three people from the manor’s west wing. I will identify the closest door on the map with a blue arrow once I see that a PC has made this check.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
Milo stows his rope and hook and takes a firm grip on his crossbow as the party enters the courtyard.
The Calistrian's paranoia tells him plenty despite his lack of formal medical training. "Something ripped these poor bastards apart," he whispers as he glances over the bodies. He points out the gold flakes with the bolt loaded into his weapon. "One of those 'aurum death' undead, I'd wager. Stay alert."
LN (she/her) gnome cleric of Abadar 2 | HP 13 | AC 21/12/20; -6 ACP | Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +6; +2 vs. illusions | Perc +5 (low-light vision) | Stealth +5 | Speed 30 | Spells: 1st 3/4 |
Zim looks around, slightly sick to her stomach. While she has medical training, dissection was not something she spent any time on, preferring to spend her energies on comforting the afflicted. As long as there weren't bodily functions involved.
Perception:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
Drawing her crossbow, she carefully picks her way across the courtyard as she follows the blood towards whatever lies beyond.
Female Human Ranger 4 | AC: 20/14/17 | HP: 36/36| Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2 | CMB +8 (+2 sunder), CMD 20 (+2 vs sunder) | Init +2 | Perc +8 (+2 FT)
Iladora ignores the sounds coming from the west for the present, rushing toward the soon-to-be undead creatures. "No local authorities getting in the way this time. I'll dispatch these myself." She joins Menudo in dismembering the corpses.
Total of 2 bodies that look infected, 5 strikes per body is 10 combined rounds of effort to dismember heads, arms, and legs. I'll rule movement to be trivial, so I just need to know how many are working on dismembering bodies to figure out how many rounds that takes. Currently, that looks like Menudo and Iladora.
Spellcraft DC 18:
While you don't know if aurum death is any different, you know that the traditional animate dead spell requires "a mostly intact corpse" to create a zombie. You think that just chopping off heads wouldn't be enough, but complete dismemberment (all 5) probably would.
Go ahead and update your token position with your next post to indicate whether you're dismembering corpses (by the gate is good for this), or investigating the doors with the blue or red arrows.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
Spellcraft:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Milo advises his companions that removing the limbs as well should prevent the bodies from rising as undead. However, he lacks a suitable weapon to assist with such butchery, so follows the Red Reverend towards the door where the Urgathoan heard shouting.
2 rounds of movement at halfling-speed to get near the blue-arrow door, leaving space for Red to lead the way.
Okay, I've updated everyone's position on the map based on their most recent post. Red and Milo are at the blue door, Zim and Theron are at the red door, and Menudo and Iladora are at the gate dismembering.
A single set of bloody footprints trails from one of the corpses lying between two sets of hedges through the eastern door of the stable. The footprints continue 25 feet to the west within the stable and then appear
to stop and turn around, as if the person exited from where they came. The stall the footprints stop in front of contains several decks of cards.
Unfortunately, investigating the cards or the stall is made much more difficult by the panicked stallion in the stall. You can barely make out a small child crouched into the hay in one corner behind the angry horse.
male human fighter 4, HP 40, AC 21; T 13; FF 18; F +6, R +5, W +, Init. +4, Perc. +6
Whoa there, big fella...easy now...Zim, let's get the others...that kid is in danger of catching a hoof in the face if he gets riled up... Theron holds up his hands to show the horse he's no threat. he backs away slwly.
Guys..we have a trapped kid in here...and one seriously angry horse...
Female Human Ranger 4 | AC: 20/14/17 | HP: 36/36| Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2 | CMB +8 (+2 sunder), CMD 20 (+2 vs sunder) | Init +2 | Perc +8 (+2 FT)
Iladora pulls her sword out of one of the gold-dusted corpses and turns. They need me?
At the door, it takes no time to survey both the situation and the need. Instinctively she holds out a hand, palm outward. "Calm," she commands, though her words come out in a braying sound rather than any human language. "We're here for him, not you. Be calm. You, boy," she says in the Common tongue, not taking her eyes off the horse, "come on out. You're safe now."
Casting speak with animals, so the horse can understand me.
Wild Empathy (because it doesn't say you can't do both!):1d20 + 4 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 4 - 2 = 18
Iladora tries to calm the horse down, but it's extremely agitated; it rears on its hind legs and kicks at her wildly. Iladora, please make a Reflex save to avoid its kicks.
The horse is currently hostile; Wild Empathy uses the Diplomacy rules for adjusting attitude; you're currently targeting the highest DC under those rules. The scenario gives you a Handle Animal option with a much easier DC to reach; I recommend trying that.
The child looks nervously at Zim, and then the kicking horse that separates her from you. She shakes her head vigorously; it doesn't take a child to see that trying to move past the rearing, agitated horse is probably not safe.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
Milo moves forward, listening for where the voices the Red Reverend heard are coming from.
Perception:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18
If the door they need next is unlocked, he'll open it so R.R. can move in and act on what they find.
Milo can hear the sounds of struggle, accompanied with cries for help, from the other side of the wall. It's unclear which of the two doors might ultimately lead that way.
CN Male Halfling Cleric of Calistria 1/Rogue 1 | HP 15/15 | AC 18, touch 13, FF 16 | Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. fear | Init +2 | Speed 20 ft | Perception +9 (+10 traps), Sense Motive +7 | Spells: 0 - 3, 1st - 3/3 | Channel 3/3 | Bit of Luck 3/6, Copycat 6/6 | Active Conditions: none | Reroll used
"Wings or stings?" Milo mutters quasi-piously under his breath, then opens the door to his left.
Female Human Ranger 4 | AC: 20/14/17 | HP: 36/36| Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2 | CMB +8 (+2 sunder), CMD 20 (+2 vs sunder) | Init +2 | Perc +8 (+2 FT)
Reflex:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
Iladora dodges to one side to avoid the blows.”None of that! We’re trying to help you. If you can avoid attacking us, we’ll all make it out of this in one piece.”
LN (she/her) gnome cleric of Abadar 2 | HP 13 | AC 21/12/20; -6 ACP | Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +6; +2 vs. illusions | Perc +5 (low-light vision) | Stealth +5 | Speed 30 | Spells: 1st 3/4 |
Zim realizes there's nothing she can do to help this issue (plus it's all kinds of dirty in there) and exits the stable to see where everyone else is. She heads for Red to see what she can see.
would it be possible for Theron to go in and get the kid using himself as a human shield? like a CMB roll or something?
It would necessarily disrupt any of Iladora's efforts to calm the horse, but you can try anything you like. If all you're trying to do is move past it, then Acrobatics to move through an enemy's square is likely the rule we'd use. (Edit: you can't use Acrobatics this way in medium armor; Theron would need to doff his armor to attempt to move past the horse. Note: Theron's sheet currently shows a 30 ft movement speed; it's reduced to 20 ft in chainmail; please edit this to correct the error (or point out what ability Theron has that preserves his speed in medium armor).) In the realm of combat maneuvers, trying to Grapple to pin is one approach you might try, or trying to Reposition the horse out of the stall could be another approach. Obviously, if you don't have the Improved feat for your combat maneuver, trying it will provoke an Attack of Opportunity (as does failing an Acrobatics attempt).
The horse at present isn't responding to Iladora's attempts to calm it, and it lashes out at the ranger once again. Another Reflex save, please.
You can make one more attempt to calm the horse before <<something else>> happens.
"Wings or stings?" Milo mutters quasi-piously under his breath, then opens the door to his left.
Milo finds what appears to be a small workroom/supply closet with a variety of gardening tools. Zim appears and gives the room a good once-over, finding nothing unusual.
male human fighter 4, HP 40, AC 21; T 13; FF 18; F +6, R +5, W +, Init. +4, Perc. +6
armour training...fighter ability...keep full move in medium armour...ok..going with a reposition...
Theron puts his sword in its sheath.
Iladora, I'm going to try to move the horse out of the way...when I do, grab the kid...don't worry about me, got it? I've been beat on by horses before... he says before trying to shove the horse out of the way.
armour training...fighter ability...keep full move in medium armour...
Can you get these kinds of class abilities listed somewhere on the character sheet in your profile for clarity, please? I know it's the corest of the core classes, but I don't store the whole rulebook in my head; having "armor training" listed somewhere as an ability your PC possesses will prevent me from thinking you have an error on your sheet. Thanks!
male human fighter 4, HP 40, AC 21; T 13; FF 18; F +6, R +5, W +, Init. +4, Perc. +6
huh...just realized it wasn't there..my bad...i copy/pasted my sheet when i updated it last...must have accidentally cut the class abilities part out...will adjust later...and revise actions as necessary..
