Kingmaker - Taming the Stolen Lands by DM DoctorEvil

Game Master DM DoctorEvil

Alvis breaks out his medikit and gets to work treating Teela's poisoning by flushing the wounds. "This should help, is there anyone else suffering from the poison now, please get next to me if possible." Alvis treats as many as he can, in the limited time.

Teela barely has time to swallow the antidote as she grunts through her teeth in response to Alvis pouring alchemy over her leg. "Ow! I'm still conscious, you know. For now..." She undoes one of her belts, bends it in half and chomps down on it. She takes a breath and gestures for Alvis to carry on.

As Alvis and Quintessa assist Teela, Velas keeps an eye on their surroundings, wary about more large crawling creatures.

Thinking about it Treat Poison doesn't need to be a secret roll.

Medicine: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22 Treat Poison 1 action.

Technically, we are still in Rounds, and you cannot use unassigned gear during rounds has been a standing rule since I started this game, but I will be benevolent and not enforce that now. It is always better to have communal gear in someone's possession.

Even with the group' only antidote on board, Teela fails to get better from the poison. And this time she succumbs, falling unconscious from the damage.

Alvis is able to give some level of first aid which will assist Teela if she ever regains consciousness.

Teela is at Dying 1 and needs aDC11 Fort to stabilize or fall closer to death. Healing is available to restore her. In either event, she needs another DC21 Fort with a +2 from Treat Poison or still take Stage 3 damage. Recall that taking damage while Dying, is no bueno.

Stage 3 Poison dmg: 2d10 ⇒ (9, 7) = 16

Fort: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 2 = 12
Stabilise: 1d20 ⇒ 11

The seamstress' eyes roll back as she loses consciousness again. The belt she was biting into falls limply into the mud.

Sigh

Others may act here before the next damage roll if they wish.

I have no actions available that can assist, nor any items to use. Someone else in the group must act.

Alvis starts to curse as Teela faints, entering a death spiral, but diverts to a quick prayer as he stabilizes Teela. He then continues to try to halt the poison but, without a miracle, his hope is fading.

Medicine: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13 Treat Poison 1 action.

Stablize 2 actions, Treat Poison 1 action.

Graham curses under his breath and pulls out his potion of minor healing, feeding it to the unconscious Teela.

healing: 1d8 ⇒ 6

Teela's body fights off the poison's deleterious effects and she is stable if not conscious.

Graham is able to force feed her a potion that does bring her back to consciousness but the wracking spasms hit the poor bard anew, and she falls back in the spell of death again.

Alvis is standing by, and while his ministrations don't slow the poison, it does stabilize the withering effects and Teela is safe again.

Fortunately, though she is unconscious and stable, it seems the poison has run is course.

Kind of played with the order of things for best possible outcome but Teela is at 0hp, unconscious and stable at Dying 2 after all is said and done. Healing her will bring her to Wounded 2 and likely consciousness without any more poison effects.

Stage 3 Poison dmg: 2d10 ⇒ (5, 8) = 13

"Come on, Teela. Stay with us." Velas holds his breath as the others tend to Teela. When it appears that Alvis' medicine and the potion from Graham will do just enough to keep Teela alive, Velas exhales loudly. "Phew, that was close. Too close."

With little to do to help Teela, Velas keeps his eyes on their surroundings, wary that the gremlins will come after them.

Not trying to be ungracious, but with steel in his voice, the Scarlet Knight says simply,

"Now will everyone agree we need to depart this place and regroup?"

Alvis draws a shaky breath and says, "The poison seems to have run its course, and Teela is stable for the moment. She may awaken in a while or sleep for a time. She is very weak though, hovering inches from Pharasma's embrace. Be careful as we carry her."

At the Scarlet Knights words, Alvis says, " Yes, I agree. Another such encounter might kill us all, surely at least one."

Alvis will treat her wounds with Battle Medicine so as to take too much time.

Medicine: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26 Battle Medicine

Alvis knows some battlefield tricks for restoring and closing wounds, and with the poison burnt out, he is able to successfully apply his knowledge to Teela's wounds, fully restoring her lost vitality in a matter of moments.

It's a timely critical success. Teela is full at 24hp again, and loses the Wounded condition. However, she is immune to being healed by Battle Medicine again for the entire day.

Teela Treat Wounds, critical success: 4d8 ⇒ (7, 4, 3, 6) = 20

Teela comes to once more, hopefully for good now. Still pale, she itches all over. The motions of her hands reflect that sensation. She looks at Alvis kneeling next to her. "Thanks. I feel like an ox just pushed me out of its assho- posterior." She scratches her forearm. "Plus the itch. Such a fun experience. Moving on?"

Alvis sags with relief as Teela does an amazing recovery, "Praise to the Mighty Lord Abadar! The poison has left your body, and the lasting damage is small." His body shaking with stress, "I thought I lost you..."

He brightens and helps her up, "Yes, we should move on out of here, we should not tempt fate further. We need to recover in a safer place."

Velas smiles as Teela hasn't lost her wit. "That's a very vivid picture ... that I can't get out of my head."

Happy to move on to other topics, Velas agrees with Alvis. "After such a close call and multiple battles already fought, I think we should find a safe place to rest for the night and finish dealing with these gremlins at our best. I suggest we retrace out steps out of these tunnels and make camp a little ways from this tree."

Though the climbs up and out of the gremlin lair are tricky, with enough patience and time, the group is able to ascend back the surface under the enormous sycamore tree. You find your horses have not been molested while you were under the ground and you see no signs of (living at least) kobolds or mites.

Where do you wish to do to camp? A place you have been or a hex you haven't been to yet?

What does everyone think about sleeping in the Gold Cave we found earlier?

Sounds fine to me.

Gold Cave makes sense to me.

As they make their departure from the caves Alvis suggests, "I think we need to move a bit of distance from here to a defensible position, these creatures clearly can see in darkness as well as I. So perhaps a retreat to the cave where we found the nugget that appears to be of gold, is warranted?"

The ponies do most of the work, dragging the worn, weary and wounded adventurers from the root system of the Old Sycamore, over some craggy hills, and back to the mouth of the cave you found yesterday that seems to have a vein of gold ore running in it. Camp is made, watches are taken, and a solid Night's Rest is had by all. The night is uneventful.

The next day is clear and seasonable with fair skies and abundant sunshine.

Spells are restored and some HP are regained. Any active conditions end this rest. I still show Alvis and Scarlet below full HP but might be off count. Did you want to use any healing on them before the night ends or in the morning? What is your plan for today now?

Faen watched horrified as her friend slowly succumbed to the poison, watching helplessly. Only the sharp command from Alvis prompting her to administer the potion. But, even then it took all of the ministrations of the others to bring Teela back from the brink.

Feeling useless , Faen kept lookout for the emergence of any more centipedes or gremlins, then helped everyone navigate the rooted caves to emerge back into the daylight.

At camp she's extra solicitous with Teela, feeling a bit inadequate.

Teela looks around, noticing the sombre mood of the camp. "Well, damn. You all look like you're sorry I survived." She chuckles. "Lighten up a bit, or you'll attract rainclouds."

She plays a cheerful melody on her harp as she cooks the food over the fire.

After Teela's attempt to lighten the mood, Alvis smiles, saying, "As always, brave and uplighting. You are a bright light of our group, but it came way to close. I do not want to have to peal you off the gateway to the Boneyard again. Perhaps be a little less brave and let the warriors, or at least-," Alvis taps his armor, "-the better protected to take the front."

Talking to the group, "We need a war leader, does any of us have experience or at least training in leading small groups? A sergeant or lieutenant of something? We need better, Um, tactics if we are going to survive to meet our ambitious goals."

The seamstress shrugs. "Past Teela's mistakes, past Teela's problems. Future Teela can learn from it. Maybe." She waves her hand dismissively. "If not me, it would have been someone else. Ultimately, we all pulled through. Together." She stirs the pot as she looks around, then lifts the wooden spoon to smell and taste the contents of the pot. Tilting her head sideways, she considers the taste, but does a little magic before tasting again. She nods. "This flavour-rich, warm, soothing soup will be my thanks to everyone. So, thank you. Dig in."

On the topic of a war leader, Teela shakes her head. "Apparently, I am already a quartermaster. Don't need another chair, so you'll have to fight for it." She does a quiet slurp from her spoon as she leans back against the cave wall. "Sorry. I mean among yourselves."

I would think a battle medicine application is enough to heal me to full.

"We need better, Um, tactics if we are going to survive to meet our ambitious goals."

"Or just less ambitious goals," The Scarlet Knight points out.

He pauses, then sighs and says,
"I've not yet seen signs /
That everyone here would heed /
Orders from one soul."

"As I'm a new arrival, I'm a bystander.
But does only Alvis -- and pardon my candor --
Feel there's a great need for a combat commander?"

Whoever needs healing, Teela wound also Treat Wounds for 2d8 every hour until they're up to snuff.

What's your plan after rising the next day?

Alvis replies, "The least goal for me is too bring the banditry low enough for proper trade to revive. For many here it is to build a domain to towards their ideals or at least benefit. Both ambitious for our numbers."

He waves his hand to indicate all of them. "We need to fight together better, to have a plan rather than react to what we do as individuals. A squad leader is one way but I'm open to any other reasonable way. In any event we need to return to that area and finish what we started, to a prepared foe; I hope they do not have another such beast. It was large so likely hard to feed. But they will have made some preparations for another assault, I do not think them fools."

At morning light, after breakfast is consumed and some discussion had, you leave the relative security of the Gold Cave, and set back out for the Old Sycamore. After about a half days' travel through a glorious spring morning, you see the towering tree once again. Getting closer, you soon see the opening between exposed roots that leads down into the mite lair below.

It's single file down into the lair again. Who goes in what order, and any other tactical preparation before descending?

We do any and all things we can do to reduce the DC of the numerous Athletic checks we have to make, and/or to avoid Athletic checks altogether.

Agreed with Scarlet - we want to make the climb down as easy as possible.

As the group gets closer to the sycamore tree, Velas considers how to make their climbs down into the roots of the tree easier than last time. "Perhaps I could try to craft a makeshift ladder to make our approach into the root system easier than last time."

Velas looks at the nearby trees for long, thin branches that could serve as either side of the ladder.

Crafting(?): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26 +4 Perception if that's more appropriate

Taking some time, Velas is able to craft a makeshift ladder from nearby branches and rope. He feels like this will fit in the initial descent easily enough, and should make climbing down (and up) easy, if if under fire.

No checks needed for this initial descent. Just how you carry the ladder through the narrow tunnels inside, since there are more descents under the ground, is probably going to require some explanations.

Alvis endorses Velas' idea, "Not a bad plan, we we may need some more, how about we take all our rope and carry some more branches and make ladders as we need them? And with a small laugh Alvis says," I'll see to the horses' needs, is there anything on them we should take with us. Now is the time or they might as well be in Oleg's place."

He continues in the same way, rummaging through the saddlebags, "Teela take the other tincture for illness. We have one more signal whistle, a wood axe, and OH a set of climbing tools, that should not have been left behind. And maybe the cookware as well, I can handle it. Look everything over and take anything that may be of use."

Everyone look over the loot tracker and take whatever.

"I mean I'm not planning to be a meatshield again. You sure someone else shouldn't have it?" Teela tilts her head as she looks at Alvis.

She picks up a small wood axe. "For chopping. I can carry it, I guess.", she shrugs, looking through the saddlebags for anything else that could be handy. She pulls out the signal whistle and hands it to Scarlet. "Here ya go, Scarlet Knight. In case you need help. I think you've proven yourself at this point." She pats him on the shoulder as she walks past slowly, careful not to step on slippery rocks or roots.

Alvis blinks and then says, Oh! No, um, we do have some more potions of healing injuries and all of them should be taken by everyone but mostly our front-line warriors." Alvis takes out the other potion of Anti-Plague and urges, "I meant that you should carry this treatment for Plague as the other best trained healer in the group." Alvis holds it so Teela can take it but no so close as to be pushy about it.

She looks at the potion, raises an eyebrow, and smiles after a second. "I know you have a lot on your plate, Alvis. I'll cover this." She reaches for the flask and stores it on her belt.

”Ah, yes, a rope ladder will be much more flexible and easier to manage underground. We have to have enough rope between us to manage that.”

Velas sets about making the rope ladder after given the improved idea. With help from the group, he feels like the work went well and the ladder is sturdy enough for even the armored members of the party.

Recall that if items are in the Communal status, it can be imagined they are carried by the party, but they MUST be assigned to a specific individual if you want to use them during combat rounds. Might not matter for firewood, but it could matter for things like healing potions. Act accordingly.

The rope ladder seems like it will do the trick but it is still a bit tricky to navigate in a crunch, and the length is just enough to navigate one 10' shaft so it may have to be repositioned.

Will be DC5 Climb checks (as opposed to 10 without) and would substitute Acrobatics. No checks needed out of combat rounds. Need a descent and marching order as you plan to go down.

I need to get a healing potion assigned in the tracker to SK, but once that is done - and only after that's done - he will be fine to head down first.

I'll forgo the DC 5 Athletics checks because his minimum skill result is 8.