Aralah T'Forc's page

Sorry for the long silence a lot been going on and after getting pinged on Discord I wanted to drop a note in all my games. I'm actually doing a lot better now, pretty much fully recovered. However, my wife has been really sick, last month she was in the hospital for a week and I'm sitting in the surgery center now waiting to see how things turn out on a few hour procedure she is currently in. Depending on how invasive the surgery is I may be dealing with a lot for at least a month or so taking care of her and the kids and working. On top of that with the holidays coming and the normal delays that revolve around that I am going to say that it's going to be at least January before I look at picking things up again. Maybe if things get better sooner I will try jumping back in before that but I feel like early January is going to be more realistic.

If you need to move on without me I understand feel free to set my character aside or find a replacement if needed and when I check back we can go from there. Sorry for all the absent time, these last few months have just really kicked my butt first physically, then mentally and emotionally. Hope you all are keeping safe and have a good Thanksgiving and Christmas for those who celebrate.

Hey, I wanted to drop in and give all my games an update. I'm still alive, obviously, but I did have COVID. I've managed to stay out of the hospital and off a ventilator. However, I'm still not fully recovered. Even though I'm outside my two week symptomatic/infectious period by over a week there are some lingering issues that are still weighing on me (continued shortness of breath, getting light headed, overall fatigue). I doing my best to push through it but it is barely just enough to get me through work everyday and doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else. I would like to give a hard and fast "I'll be back and up to playing again by this time", but sadly at this point I can't. It could be a couple weeks or it could be a couple months for me to get used to this new (hopefully temporary) norm on top of a few other things going on.

All this to say, I'm ok, I'm trying my best to manage, but I can't give you a hard "this is when I will be back". I understand it has been awhile as it is, between this most recent struggle with COVID and my past slowness with finishing up my graduate stuff so if you need to move on without me I completely understand and I'm just sorry that right as I was getting back into things again this whole virus thing came along and knocked me back down again. I'll check in again once I feel I'm up to playing with everything else I am balancing.

Dropping a note in all my games. Finished up with school yesterday, just waiting on the audit for me to officially be done and graduate even though there are no commencements with the whole virus thing. Wife is doing better after brief stint in the hospital. Looking at starting to get back into my games and get posting again sometime this week. My work is really crazy as first kids were coming back on the 17th but now everything is going to be virtual for an indeterminate amount of time, but teachers are coming back still and there is a lot of questions floating out there so bare with me as I ease into catching up on things and getting back into a regular posting routine again over the next week or so.

Aralah moves ahead scouting the stairs, checking for traps and looking for any immediate threats upstairs before giving the group the all clear.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

No worries, it's a crazy time for us all.

Aralah moves in and starts searching around with the others for anything useful, but quickly turns her attention the next set of doors, knowing their eventual goal is to get to the top floor and find the owners bedroom.

Perception-Room: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17
Perception-North Door: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Before Thras rushes off trying to climb the wall with just his bare strength Aralah stops him and sits her bag down, rummaging through it for a moment. "Here use this, it will help." She pulls out a small satchel, opening it up there are crampons, pitons, rope and other climbing tools that she hands over to Thras to use.

+2 on your climb checks

Aralah holds up her hand to Mith's suggestion "Wait, to we want to mess with the wasps or see if we can circumvent them outside instead? May need Aira's spells for other things as we continue on, if we can just avoid the swarm."

Aralah nods to Mith suggestion "Think we could maybe use the balconies assuming the next room has one. Will just need to see if we can climb up. Do we want to go do that now, or..." She looks to Aira "Do we need to stop for some rest?"

Frowning she notes "Well I'm glad we at least got out of there without anyone getting hurt."

She moves over to the balcony and opens the window hoping to take a look outside and see if there is anyway the could possibly move from balcony to balcony to circumvent the wasp room and get to the room beyond.

Dropping a note in all my games. I am hoping things won't change too much, but wanted to forewarn my games that there may be some delays in my posting. My work schedule is usually busiest over the summer months and while it is slow right now I know at some point it will get crazy busy when I start getting shipments in of hundreds of new computers for a rebuild of one of my schools I manage. On top of this I am finishing up my dual MBA/MSIS this summer with three classes in a condensed 8-week semester.

All of this to say, I will do my best to keep up and if I know of major delays I will try to notify people (like when it is finals week), but if I do end up disappearing for a few days here or there just know it won't be long term. All the craziness I have going on over the next couple months should primarily be wrapped up near the end of July.

As always, if you need something quick you can generally ping me on Discord.

Aralah doesn't put up a fight as Mith quickly grabs hold of her and pulls her along.

Aralah nods to Sarela's suggestion. She leaves the balcony door alone though wonders why it may be badly cracked like that. Instead she moves up to the other sliding doors, checks for traps and listens to make sure there isn't an immediate threat on the other side.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

While the others are messing with the deck Aralah moves over to the glass door to look through and see what lies beyond. She will then go over to the closed door and listen to see if there is anything waiting on the other side.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24

While the others are messing with the deck of cards and it is clear the hound is not going to come back to life and try to get them Aralah slowly makes her way over to Aira's side as she whispers to the woman "Sorry I left you alone with the hound earlier. I've never had fear come over me like that before and I would never leave someone behind like that willingly." She looks down to the floor as she finishes, obviously ashamed of how things transpired.

Aralah follows behind the others she gives a nod to Aira when the woman gives her thanks but doesn't say anything in return.

She is clearly frustrated by what happened, never having run away in fear like that before. As they move back into the music room she takes up a position by the door and watches the hounds corpse for a few moments making sure it doesn't come back to try and attack them.

Aralah, finally with her bow back, starts loosing arrows at the beast as quickly as she can.

Attack, RA, PBS: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 13
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 11
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Now that Aira is back up Aralah moves back to retrieve her bow from the entrance of the music room.

Move and pick up weapon

Aralah closes the distance with Aira and reaches down to heal the woman, not only feeling horrible for having fled and leaving her alone with the beast, but also knowing her spells may be needed since everyone dropped their weapons.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Aralah rushes back toward the room and seeing the hand busy with Sarela for now she moves around the table to head toward Aira.

Double Move

I've always played Life Link as needing LoS or LoE even though it doesn't specifically say because I would imagine you still need to target the person and if you can't target them somehow the ability couldn't connect, but it is definitely not very clear and I could see an argument for it just working on someone you knew.

Once the effects of the hound howl wears off Aralah remembers she left Aira there with the beast alone. She bolts back toward the building as quickly as she can, even without her weapon, to try and help Aira shouting out at the creature hoping to maybe draw its attention "I'm coming for you, you stupid mutt!"

Running to move 120ft however close that would get me.

More specifically it says a random path, not a random direction. However, I think the important part is 'flee at top speed from the source of its fear'. IE I read this as you aren't taking the best possible path (to avoid AoO's or traps or whatever), you are just running away as fast as you can from whatever spooked you.

I agree with Thras though, should probably fast forward the rounds since there isn't really anything we can do except panic and run.

Panicked and not thinking straight as the hound corners Aira, Aralah turns and runs the opposite direction toward the others.

Will: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Of course...

Aralah turns to flee thinking Panic and run... panic and run!

Know. Planes, Monster ID: 1d20 + 5 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 5 + 4 = 25

Aralah steps down next to Sarela where she can just she the beast and looses some arrows at it, knowing even if she wanted to there would be no easy way to avoid its howl, hoping her strong will will keep her grounded.

Attack, RA, PBS: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 10
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 15
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Aralah is sure to stay outside the room, her bow at the ready as Thras and Mith go for the stool.

Aralah just shakes her head at all the back and forth "Probably back the way we came where we heard someone or something playing music?"

After the thing is dead Aralah looks at the board for a bit, she can get several combinations of 6 digits to add up to 22 and 24, but not 23. When Aira makes her suggestion Aralah shrugs "I mean that makes sense, the two ones circled together would be a single digit of 11. That seems like the only way to really do it. Though, I wonder what happens if we get it wrong?"

Aralah tries to be careful not to hit Thras as she launches more arrows at the strange creature.

Attack, RA, PBS: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 12
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 15
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Know. Planes, Monster ID: 1d20 + 5 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 5 + 4 = 24

Seeing the thing Aralah notes to the others "This is one of those sakhil the painting was talking about. It will try and grab a hold of you and lash out at you with claws."

She would relate anything else she knows about its defenses or special abilities.

After explaining to the others she takes aim with her bow and fires.

Forgot my will
Will: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Attack, RA, PBS: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 13
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 10
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

As Thras moves in close and draws her attention back to the tracks she looks at them a little closer and then shrugs but points to the northwest corner of the room as she calls out to Mith "Wait! Whatever made these, might still be here. Over there."

Survival: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18

Aralah follows the others and looks at the tracks but she is distracted as Mith makes a move for the chalkboard, keeping her eyes peeled for any threats.

Opening the door and finding nothing but grey mist Aralah promptly closes and looks back at the others "Is this even the right side of the building? Maybe we needed to go the other way?"

So turned around... We are trying to get to the garden though.

Aralah makes note to Thras of what she has found and suggest "If we are looking for the garden, probably the east door I think, if we want to cover our backs, should probably see what is making that noise to the east."

Aralah goes to check each of the doors, suspecting the heavy door may lead out the garden, but wanting to make sure nothing is waiting on the other side.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

Seeing no threats Aralah goes to check the other doors. She hears the music from the other side of the north door, but then spots a secret door just to the right of the main northern door, pointing it out to the others. Before doing anything she checks all the doors for traps, then looks to the others "Which door do we want to try?"

Aralah looses two quick shots one after the other at the bug.

Attack, RA, PBS: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 8
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 13
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Aralah nods, her bow at the ready, stepping to where she can clearly see into the room once the door is opened. She jokes "It's unlocked..." as Thras moves toward the door.

Aralah points to the door at the bottom of the staircase on their right.

Aralah shrugs as no one seems to concerned with the corpse or bugs that are eating it she mentioned and follows the others to find the garden, more to help if there is any trouble than to play some silly game a painting is giving them.

Aralah quietly closes both doors before reporting back to the others. "That door on the left appears to be empty, but the one on the right has a corpse in it with several flying insects eating the corpse. Not sure if we want to just leave it or deal with that before moving on with these puzzles?"

While the others play around with the puzzles Aralah will peek into the two doors just to ensure there are no threats waiting on the other side.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16
Stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

Aralah lets out a sigh and rolls her eyes, but doesn't immediately go for the door up the stairs, instead she checks the two doors below to make sure they don't leave anything behind themselves as they advance.

Perception-Door1: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19
Perception-Door2: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

DD: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21 If needed

As Thras is bashing at the door and it is evident the portrait isn't some sort of trap Aralah moves up behind him just as he tries kicking it in and she notes "You know I could try and unlock it..."

She looks back to the others and the other two unopened doors as she continues "Should we not check those other doors first to not leave potential dangers behind us?"

With everything they've seen, specifically furniture already attacking them, Aralah keeps her bow trained on the painting as the others ask questions ready in case something else tries to kill them.

Aralah launches more arrows hoping to help the others before they are drained of all their blood.

Attack, RA, PBS, Bless: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 26
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 12
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Aralah tumbles back to make some space.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Away from the huge mosquieto looking things Aralah takes aim and shoots.

Attack, RA, PBS, Bless: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 10
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 9
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

But with the things buzzing about and everyone in her way she can't get a clear shot.

With everyone out of the room Aralah opens fire at the closest of the two.

Attack, RA, PBS, Guidance: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 22
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Flurry: 1d20 + 4 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 2 + 1 = 17
Damage, PBS: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Aralah waits to act as she yells to everyone "Space out and get away from those things!"