Mac's head turns on a swivel when the creature pops out of the dark pond.
"Whoa....It doesn't look friendly, friends. To battle!"
At the first sight of the frog-beast, Jon has barely registered the threat before his gunslinger's reflexes have him drawing his double-barreled pistol in one hand and whip in the other.
Round 1: Creature
The tusked frog-like creature steps toward Penflower, since this is its natural terrain and not considered difficult ground for it.
◆ Step ◆ Attack ◆ Attack
The creature tries to bury its tusk in the elf's chest, but Penflower blocks the blow with his shield just in time, as the tusk scrapes off the shield, covering a portion of it with its slime. The creature then turns its attention to Mac, but also misses the stout dwarf.
Told them. There's beasts out there.
While Willorn tries to get a better look at the creature, he doesn't hesitate to draw his crossbow and fire a shot at it, before it can close the distance.
Round 1: Mac
"Slimy bastard!" Mac yells as he dodges out of the way of the beast's tusk. He grips his halberd and unleashes a powerful blow aimed the creature's midsection, that leaves him a little unsteady! 'I'm sure that hurt, ya frog wanna-be!" Mac chuckles to himself as he savors the flow of battle. His second halberd strike is way off.
◆◆Vicious swing ◆ Attack
Willorn's crossbow shot is off the mark.
Mac's first attack with the spike head of his halberd pierces the creature's abdomen, causing a grievous bloody wound. It lets out a croak of pain as it is now quite pissed. Mac's second attack misses the frog-beast.
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Seeing his shield being useful, Penflower jumps into action and quickly focuses on a spell. He begins chanting but instead of moving his hands as if casting a spell, he swings his sword at the frog creature. As it approaches the enemy, the tip of the sword burns with arcane fire. Then he puts his shield between himself and the creature.
** spoiler omitted **
Seeing his shield being useful, Penflower jumps into action and quickly focuses on a spell. He begins chanting but instead of moving his hands as if casting a spell, he swings his sword at the frog creature. As it approaches the enemy, the tip of the sword burns with arcane fire. Then he puts his shield between himself and the creature.
[dice=Spellstrike]1d20+7
[dice=Damage]1d8+4
[dice=Fire damage]2d6
Penflower's flaming sword cuts and then cauterizes a savage wound on the creature's body, as it croaks even louder than before. It looks severely wounded.
Jon ◇jogs behind the others to get to Penflower's side, then ◆fires one barrel of his pistol at the frog.
Jon then lashes out with his whip at the frog.
He deftly uses his whip hand to pour powder and a bullet into the barrel, then uses the haft of the whip as a ramrod to shove it in.
Jon ◆flicks his whip again at the frog's leg and attempts to trip it.
The whip wraps around the frog's leg, but the frog yanks back with surprising strength, and Jon drops the whip before he's pulled off-balance himself.
Harry waits to see if the beast was still standing. If it was he casts Bless on the group for the next round of attacks. If it is down, the dwarf saves his spell.
Jon's pistol shot strikes the creature ().
The whip strikes and inflicts nonlethal damage.
Hagrym is up and the creature is wobbling, trying to stay up.
With the creature looking to be on its last legs, Hagrym tries to summon Torag’s holy blessings and fire them in a direct line at it.
Attack
Damage
The slurk screams its last croak as Hagrym's beam of divine energy strikes it and it collapses into the pond.
Somebody either slogs through the pond or leaps the gap to the other side of the island. The corpse of a dead kobold lies on the pond’s north bank. The gear on the kobold’s body is mostly ruined with the exception of 4 gp in one rotten belt pouch and a spike snare bundled securely in a little backpack.
From the kobold corpse, you can see a drawbridge leads to a set of double doors that lead further into the ruins.
A wooden drawbridge, its timbers gray with age and decay, spans the twenty-foot gap between the outbuilding and sprawling ruin on the island. Rusty iron chains hang from the ruin’s northern wall to the drawbridge’s southern side. The chains look ready to fall apart, giving the drawbridge’s structural integrity an extra layer of dubiousness.
After acquiring the treasure, where to now? You can head across the drawbridge one at a time, you can head into the initial entrance or you can continue traveling along the outer skirts of the ruins.
Mac cheers on when the slurk dies, "Way to go, cuz! Nice shot! Best to conserve spells while you can. May be a long day."
Jon picks up his whip and wipes it on his duster to get the muck off. "Excellent spellwork, Hagrym and Penflower! And great shooting, Willorn. Shall we cross the bridge?"
Willorn raises an eyebrow as the only comment on Jon's obvious irony.
"Wonder what that kobold was doing here. Hope they don't have a lair within because that would probably mean tons of ugly traps.They can be devious like that."
He casts a doubtful eye at the drawbridge.
"I just hope that thing is more stable than it looks. But I also don't see any other entrance, so let's go find out."
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Penflower cleans his sword and shield with some of the water. He is suddenly disappointed he didn't prepare Prestidigitation.
The elf comments on Willorn's note on kobolds "If there are any inside, we should make an effort to see them before they see us. It would make sense to make a lair out of a ruined fortress. However, if they did make a lair here, they must have a way in and out that doesn't rely on a dubious drawbridge."
He looks to the others and concludes "In my opinion, there either aren't more kobolds inside, or there is another, safer entry. Maybe even a part of the wall that's easy to collapse so we can make an entrance. In any case, I am not keen on trying to fall into... that!" he says, pointing at the way down under the drawbridge.
The party decides to go ahead and use the drawbridge to enter the ruins. One by one, you cross over and though the bridge creaks a little, it does not collapse and you enter through the rotting door. Ahead you see:
Piles of rotting timbers and loose stones lie in heaps throughout this large, L-shaped hall. Clumps of moss and tangled vines spill down from gaps in the wooden ceiling above each pile of rubble. Several doors lead out to all sides, most barely clinging to their hinges and frames. Debris completely blocks a wooden stairwell that leads up to a large hole in the ceiling. Here and there, the stone walls bear the scars of fire or damage from an ancient battle.
Rubble has mostly buried a door to the east. On the western wall, there are two doors. In the distance to the north, you see a door that you calculate leads to the actual lighthouse.
”Do we want to get straight to the lighthouse,” Hagrym says as it points to that particular door. ”Theres plenty of other options, looks like,” he muttered as he looked at all the other options available. ”Whatever door we pick, we need someone to check it for traps, though…”
"Aye, might be a good idea to be careful anyways. I'd rather we be thorough, though. Might come to bite us in our arses otherwise on our way out."
Without trying to open them so as not to forego any decision, Willorn checks on the doors to the left in search of something suspicious.
”I don’t feel like digging through rubble right now so we should check the first door to the left,” Mac follows Penflower as before with same exploration activity.
Jon holsters his weapons, then uses his arcane sense to check for magical auras at the first door on the left.
Willorn checks the first door on the left and it is barely hanging on, with no traps detected. Jon detects no magic in the nearby vicinity. You open the door to reveal:
A collapsed wooden staircase in the northeastern corner of this room winds up to a moss-shrouded hole. The expanse of the Fogfen is visible through a total collapse in a stone wall to the west. A dead frog the size of a horse lies sprawled in this collapse, its back legs bitten off at the hips.
There is the dead frog and two exits from this room - N and S.
”I don’t really fancy finding out what kind of creature could eat the legs off of a frog that size! I’m sure they were delicious and all, but that’s a lot,” he adds with almost admiration in his voice. ”But we might want to check out that room anyway…”
"Delicious?" Willorn shudders, while proceding to the southern of the two doors, checking again for any traps, before looking back at his companions.
"Ready?"
"Let's go," Jon agrees, "Time to eat the next course."
Mac grips his halberd and looks at Willorn, ”Ready to rock!”
As you pass by the giant frog's corpse to head to the southern door, two giant maggots burst suddenly from the carcass to attack!
Round 1: Mac
Seeing the maggots pop out, Mac looks in disgust at the creatures. He unleashes a mighty swing at the blue maggot with 10' reach.
◆◆
If still alive, Mac swings again with his 3rd action:
◆
Mac's first halberd strike pierces the blue maggot's soft hide with a critical strike, killing it instantly!
Harm moves to the remaining maggot and swings his warhammer at the creature.
Attack
Damage
Hagrym strikes the maggot, inflicting damage. The giant maggot regurgitates its rancid, foul meal. A wave of nausea threatens to overcome Hagrym.
Round 1: Maggot
The maggot tries to bite Hagrym with its mandibles three times, but fails to connect.
Jon draws his pistol and whip and takes a ◇few steps forward. "On second thought, let's not eat the next course."
Jon fires his pistol◆ at the giant maggot.
He then flicks his whip at the maggot and then reloads◆.
Cursing, he goes for another ◆strike with the whip.
The maggot gets struck by Jon's pistol shot, but the two whip attacks miss.
Fort save
The waves of nausea strike the cleric hard as he loses his mettle from the scent.
Willorn lets go of the door, and, drawing his Axe and, swinging it with both hands, jumps forward only to strike at the remaining maggot.
◆draw weapon
◆Step next to the maggot
◆
Penflower's flaming blade ends the maggot's life as it sears the slimy creature's body in two!
As Willorn looks on the battle with the maggot, the door before him opens, revealing three (3) 3' tall blue-skinned gremlins, wielding shortswords in one hand and darts in the other, standing there, with an awe of curiosity turning to anger. Behind them a giant fly buzzes!
Round 1: Mac
Upon seeing the gremlins and realizing Willorn may be in trouble, Mac strides toward the open door and takes a mighty swing on the red gremlin!
◆ Stride ◆◆Vicious Swing
Mac's blow decapitates the gremlin's head, which goes flying into the room. The other gremlins' eyes bulge out of fear. They look back and with fear in their voices, they look at the giant fly, yelling in unison in squeaky voices. "Avenge us, Buzzybuzz, kill them all!"
Round 1: Giant Fly
A magnificent, green-and-blue fly the size of a pony with massive compound eyes, flies out, provoking a reactionary strike from Mac, if he wants to take it, and his reach weapon.
◆ Stride ◆ Attack ◆ Stride
The giant fly then proceeds to try and bite Mac with its mandibles, but its bite does not penetrate the dwarf's armor!
The giant insect then flies up 15' near the 20' ceiling in this room, to stay out of the melee range of the party.
Jon slogs through the maggot corpses to get in front of Pendragon to face the giant fly. He levels his pistol at the bug and fires◆.
Frowning at his missed shot, he then grins◆. "Hey pipsqueak! That was a warning shot. Surrender and I won't fire on you."
Then for good measure, he cracks his whip at the fly, then reloads◆.
"Doesn't look impressed, Jon". Willorn shouts, while stepping next to Mac wildly swinging his axe.
◆step
◆
◆
Mac's reactionary strike lands on the fly, inflicting 12 damage.
Jon's attack misses but he critically demoralizes the green gremlin.
Willorn steps under the fly and kills the 2 mitflits with his greataxe.
Only the wounded fly near the ceiling, out of melee range, remains.
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Penflower is impressed with the dwarves' skill in battle as they work in unison cutting down the gremlins. He sees the wasp flying out of range. He adjusts his stance and swings his sword aimed at the fly chanting an arcane word. The wind that comes out of the sword's tip cuts through the air in its direction.