Bolkin Reid's page

Oh boy, I knew I kept forgetting something. At least Zeb was gracious enough to shoot me a warning before I got NPC'd proper. Hopefully these lapses in posting become less frequent in the near future.

Knowing that trying to bring the fight directly to the wolves across the river was a poor idea without a bow of some sort, Bolkin moved to Amadea, far enough to not obstruct her aim, but close enough to provide assistance should the beasts decide she was the bigger threat.

Bolkin moves to O12 and readies a trip if a Wolf manages to get within attacking range

As Bolkin weighed his options in dealing with the primary threat to the group, he decided that some old-fashioned brutality would be the most appropriate course of action in the current situation. His mind made up, he moved in to take a swing at Egarthis.

Move to Q10 and make a two-handed attack against Egarthis.

Seeing the priests start to back away from the encroaching party, Bolkin decided to leap over the pew next to him to intercept the nearby priest and make another attempt to trip his foe.

Move to N7, followed by a Trip attack against P1.

Not wanting to be caught between a large burning dog and an armed opponent, Bolkin quickly stepped between the pews, but not before taking a swipe at the priest's weapon while the owner was distracted, both by Bolkin's own moves and by dealing with Morthos.

Bolkin attempts Improved Feint and Improved Disarm on P1 before taking a 5-foot step to L7.

Bolkin threw his mask to the ground as the priests started to draw their weapons. "I don't know about making a good member, honestly, but I can agree with the part where you end up regretting this."

As he spoke, he ran into the fray (not as fast as he had hoped though, as a raging Morthos had already beaten him there), drawing his weapon as he moved. When he got there, he made a swipe at the legs of one of the priests.

As Egarthis gave his order, Bolkin realized that regardless of whether or not they accepted, their cover would soon be blown. On top of that, unlocking the armory door would allow the priests on the other side to join the imminent battle.

Taking a brief pause to think, he turned to Amadaea, seemingly to discuss the order with her. As he did, he whispered to her, "It looks like this is about as far as our act is going to go, and Egarthis probably has answers we want. We can confront them now or play along a little bit more and draw them over here so the others can ambush them. One way or another though, I don't see us getting any further without a fight. Get ready."

"S-sir!" Bolkin spoke in a terrified squeak (or at least his best impression of one) as the senior priest began to interrogate him. "The prisoners...they didn't agree with our...um...initiation methods. Krant and us heard some commotion and we went to investigate..." As he stammered out his next words he began to visibly tremble, "By Razmir, these weren't your ordinary riffraff. They managed to escape their cells, they overpowered Krant and several of our fellow acolytes who were woken up by the chaos...It was a coward thing to do, but we barely escaped with our lives!"

Bolkin gestured back toward the meeting room, "They holed up downstairs, said they were going to take the survivors as hostages, they likely don't plan to go anywhere until their terms are met. Their archer, the one who bested Krant, she saw us escape through the meeting room. They'll likely be keeping a close eye on that entrance to shoot anyone that comes through unannounced. Go through the other entrance and you might catch them off guard." He paused briefly to point to the room opposite the one his allies were hiding in, then to the two guards at the top of the stairs. "It might be a good idea to bring those two as well. These...maniacs aren't to be taken lightly, and you'll need the numbers."

Bolkin initially shrugged at the suggestion that he disguise as a guard, but after brief consideration, he nodded. "Doesn't hurt to give it a try," he answered, "worst case scenario we beat them up anyway. Plus, bluffing my way past some cultists sounds like fun. Alright, hand me some robes."

With the acolytes growing increasingly unnerved by the ferocity of the party, Bolkin decided to focus on the one who still posed an actual threat. Nimbly stepping past one of the acolytes, he made a quick motion with his flail in order to both throw Krant off guard and build up momentum for an upward swing.

Five-foot step to E6, use Improved Feint on Krant, and follow up with a two-handed strike (which he expends Guidance for).

Hey Garik, don't forget you have Guidance on you. You might have another chance to use it coming up real soon if things go right.

Bolkin moved to get into the fray as fast as he could only to find that Morthos had gotten there first, already landing the first hit. He watched as the Dwarf got flanked almost immediately afterwards and shrugged off a couple hits on the noggin. "You need my help? Probably not but what the heck," he exclaimed as he lashed his flail out at the legs of the acolyte to his right.

Move to F7 and attempt a Trip maneuver on A2

"Well, you know me," Bolkin spoke up as the group formulated a plan, "I'm up for any plan where step 2 is 'beat stuff up', especially if we can learn something from it. Step 1, though, should be making sure the odds are in our favor as much as possible. I vote we go see about setting up that barricade and see where that gets us."

Bolkin whistled as he sat staring at the nearby wall in his cell. The sound of battle rang briefly before everything went (relatively) quiet. He didn't even need to peek out of his cell to figure out who had won. "Well that's certainly one way to get through 'initiation'. Please tell me we're getting to the fun part soon."

He continued speaking as he quickly sprang to his feet and began to stretch in anticipation. "They certainly made getting our stuff back an easy job. If I ever find myself running one of these places, remind me to stash the gear on the other side of a pit filled with spikes or something," he commented in jest as the others opened the cell and he started to don his armor.

Bolkin started coming to his senses a good several minutes or so after Drosk. "Ugh," He groaned as he rubbed his temple, "I only had a couple sips. I'm not THAT much of a lightweight, am-" Bolkin looked around at his surroundings with mild annoyance.

"Man, can I not pass out in a bar ONE time without waking up in a jail cell?" Bolkin recalled the days where he and a few other co-workers would lock up their fellow guards who blacked out from too much drink as a prank, usually for an hour or two after the victim awoke. He had been on both the giving and receiving end of such mean-spirited acts in the past, and either way it usually resulted in a reprimand from the captain.

"So can any of you think of a way to pass the time until SOMEONE busts us out of here?" The tone of his voice made it apparent that he didn't particularly care if "someone" was Telperion or the owners of the cells they were in.

Having had more than his fill of drinks previously, Bolkin took no more of a few sips of the ale he was offered. He instead chose to indulge in the food sitting before him. He was too preoccupied with the food in front of him to notice the others' thoughts and words, and while he didn't quite gorge himself, he ate a generous amount.

I haven't been super-active myself (for myriad reasons, let's just say my medical bill got much bigger over these past couple months) but I still pay attention to what's going on in the adventure. Sparse as I may be at times I don't intend to actually abandon ship anytime soon.

Bolkin casually took a seat at a different table from the others, figuring they (or at the very least, he) would draw less suspicion if they weren't obviously banded together. He pretended not to notice as the other individual came in, instead focusing on drinking his ale. The way he thought it, he wouldn't have trouble blending in if the others were as boorish-looking at this fellow was.

It wasn't until the others began engaging him in conversation that he finally looked away from his drink for more than a brief instant and spoke up, "If you wanna know, I figured this was the chance for nobodies to get together and become somebody. I was sick of toiling away in the middle of nowhere for no reason but to live, so I saved up, made my way here, and now here I am." Bolkin wasn't speaking entirely in falsehood; life in Kassen had recently started to bore him. Of course, he would almost certainly hate working here for the rest of his life as well, but he figured it at least made a convincing tale.

Alright, I'm here. Sorry about the long absence, but the last month or so has kept me quite busy. Hopefully we can all get to posting again soon.

Bolkin listened in on the conversation as the group argued about infiltrating the cult. He eventually spoke up, "I sorta agree with Raven's plan. Even if you all force yourselves to go, it might be a problem if you're not completely committed." After a brief moment of pondering a solution, he continued, "You think the town guard might be up to something, right? Maybe our more conscientious comrades can work their way into there. As for me, I've certainly got the job experience, but really, how many more chances am I going to get to infiltrate an evil cult? I hope at the very least I get to wear an ominous robe."

Bolkin nodded at Garik's proposition to spend the rest of the night drinking. "He'll probably be there tomorrow anyway." As he took a swig from his mug he proceeded to look over at his company. He could certainly drink more than most men, but keeping up with a bunch of dwarves would be quite a daunting challenge. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) for him, he was usually up for challenges.

"Far as I'm concerned, I'm off duty," Bolkin commented at the invitation to go to the marshal's office. Though his career as a guard in Kassen was hardly full of action, putting criminals away was never as exciting to him as catching them. "I think I'll just take it easy tonight and go drinking."

Bolkin watched as Raven and Drosk tried to discourage the prisoners and decided to join in.

"That is to say nothing of her magic, of course," he interjected. "She can burn a hole through a man's skull from fifty paces! I would not give her a reason to, were I in their shoes..."

Bolkin scratched his head as he watched the group argue over the fate of the attackers. "I don't really care what happens to them in the end, but there's no thrill in killing someone who lacks the ability or will to fight back. Even I'm not that bloodthirsty."

He decided to make himself useful by helping to restrain the survivors with whatever materials he had handy as he continued, "Let's just let Amadea have her justice today. It won't bode well if we're at each other's throats before we even step off the boat. Who knows, we might even be able to extract some information from them."

Bolkin took a brief moment from admiring Morthos' swing to make a quick, if ineffective strike at the leader.

They both provoked, so you have to choose which one to attack unless you have Combat Reflexes. The crossbowman is listed as first in the initiative order so he'd probably be the first to provoke, though it'd hard to say for sure since they're so close on the initiative.

That would hit the crossbowman, Garik, since he only has 15 AC. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have been so worried about disarming him, but with a natural 5 it's not like the alternatives would have worked out anyway.

Bolkin quickly rose to attention as he heard the leader's words as he caught a glimpse of the man next to him preparing to throw something. Acting almost out of instinct, he lashed the head of his flail at the man's hand, hoping they would drop whatever they were holding before it caused him any more problems.

Bolkin will use the Disarm Maneuver against Crossbowman 3 as his Attack of Opportunity.

With gusto, Bolkin quickly discarded his crossbow once he saw the boat pull up. He drew his flail as he rushed into the fray as quickly as he could. Once he was in position, he took a quick yet careful swipe at the legs of the apparent leader. As the flail seemed to connect with a solid blow, he started to boast, "So much for them having their sea legs, eh?"

Bolkin drops the crossbow as a Free Action, moves to G8 (or any other available square adjacent to the leader) while drawing his flail as a Move Action, and makes a single trip attempt with Combat Expertise against the Leader as a Standard Action.

If for whatever reason the Privateer Leader falls before Bolkin's turn comes up, the attack will be directed at the Helmsman.

I was going to post a day or two ago but then I realized that half my college assignments were due yesterday and those ended up taking priority.

"I doubt our crew here's worked up because we're about to be invited to tea," Bolkin muttered, "and I for one agree with them. Who tries to sneak up on a boat at night with good intentions?" Once Bolkin was sure he has a decent chance at hitting them, he let the first bolt fly. Even if it didn't hit, he was sure it'd help serve as a warning. He quickly loaded a second bolt into the crossbow as he prepared to fire again.

Bolkin uses a standard action to fire at one of the crossbow-wielders, and reloads his crossbow as a move action.

Bolkin was helping around on deck to alleviate the boredom of travel. However, he was only paying a small amount of attention to what was happening on the lake. Because of this, he was glad that the ever-alert Telperion managed to spot something suspicious coming toward them, both out of wishing for excitement and slight annoyance of someone trying to get the drop on him.

Thankfully, years of serving in the guard had trained Bolkin to always keep himself equipped even during calm periods (he also took the time to chuckle to himself as Amadea frantically rushed to get her armor on). Before he could reach for his weapons, however, Raven had thrust a crossbow in his arms with instructions to use it. "I can give it a shot. Not like I never took lessons or anything..." he responded as he accepted her gift. "But if they board, we'll be needing some light. I'll let you handle that, alright?" With those parting words, he took position to aim at anyone who got close.

Bolkin will sell his old flail and one of his daggers, since he's been getting weighed down by all the new weapons.

"Glad to see you're all enthusiastic about this," Bolkin chimed in, "but I have three days of preparations to take care of, and by preparations I mean hitting the bar." He decided not to worry too much about the lingering questions regarding Iramine since he only knew the parts about Kassen and Asar to begin with, and after the business with the crypt, all he wanted to do was spend some leisure time. "I should probably also make sure the other guards won't fall apart in my absence."

"Well, I don't know what the people of Kassen would do without me..." Bolkin pondered aloud, although it was clear to everyone that it was just more of his hero act rather than actual concern for the village's well-being. In reality, the opportunity for adventure, fame, and riches was far too tempting for him to pass up.

"Of course, I know for a fact that these brave adventurers would not make it very far without me. Consider it a deal!" As he let the rest of the group talk amongst each other, he scoped out the newest addition to the team. "I say more company is always a great idea. Anyone else interested in joining us?"

At first, Bolkin was less interested in reminiscing with the other chosen (there would be plenty of time for that later) than he was in taking part in the festivities. He frequently alternated between stuffing his face and trying his hardest to look important. He also made a habit of interjecting himself into the tales and rumors going around to clarify that he only took a hit from the arrow trap to protect his more fragile comrades, and to comment on the nuanced tactics involved in letting a large wooden statue smack him in the face with a shield as he struggled to climb atop it.

Finally Bolkin decided he had enough of mingling with the commonfolk and decided to have a seat near where Garik was recounting their adventure. He decided to speak up once the Dwarf had begun to fall silent, "Why Garik, don't tell me you forgot the monstrous frogs as well? Things were nearly big enough to swallow a man whole. Of course, I practically took them all on myself, with...maybe...a teensy bit of help..."

He noticed a few glances from the others at the table and realized that they somehow might not have immediately caught on to who we was. "Right. I'm Bolkin of the town guard. I believe Garik was just telling you about my heated duel with the undead bandit king Asar? He was just as cruel and vicious as the stories say, but of course I never lost my cool, and was always a step ahead of him." He stopped for a second to take a bite of food before continuing with his mouth partly-full, "It takes more than some centuries-old bonehead to outsmart me, you see."

I will also take this opportunity to make that local check from earlier.

"Well, Cap'n," Bolkin addressed Captain Wisslo as he began his report of what happened, "a bit of a...situation arose in the crypt." He went into detail about Asar and the undead, as well as accounting for all the villagers both living and fallen that the group had come across. He also made sure to mention Kassen's ghost and the key pieces that were taken from the crypt.

"Of course, I played no small part in making sure everyone made it back safe and sound," Bolkin boasted in his usual fashion as he went into a (slightly embellished) recounting of the fight with Asar. "And, of course, we didn't forget the Everflame," he added as he finally presented the lantern to the mayor and Captain Wisslo.

Bolkin's archetype somewhat precludes sword-and-board, so go ahead and take it.

Bolkin pieced together the evidence aloud once Drosk finished speaking. "So some guys who worship this 'living god' or whatever came in here about three months ago and took some parts of a vault key. Am I getting that right?"

"Well," he continued as he staggered around a bit under the weight of the new sword on his belt (making a mental note to get rid of some excess gear at town), "I suppose it's as good as we're liable to get for our first lead. Once we get back to town we can think about what to do next."

Since Bolkin's the only one who's proficient with Longswords (besides Garik, of course), he'll take it as a backup weapon for the baddies he can't really disarm.

After glancing over the spoils of battle and rewards from Kassen, Bolkin decided to take the longsword for himself. "Not sure how well I'd do with a sword, but man do I feel like a real adventurer now." Taking a moment to practice a couple thrusts and swings, he quickly remembered they were in the middle of something.

"Anyway, thanks for the generosity," Bolkin said with a quick bow to Kassen, "but we should probably let everyone back in town know we saved Dmira and retrieved the Everflame."

A bit late in chiming in, but I'd be up for continuing as well. I'm also okay with recruiting a couple more members just in case.

I thought I posted a couple days ago, but apparently it didn't go through somehow. Sorry about that.

"Even if we did have the time to go looking for this vault," Bolkin responded bluntly, "do we even know the first place to look?" Despite his discouraging words, it was obvious that he was just as interested at the thoughts of treasure as Telperion. "Wouldn't it be something if we did find it, though? It'd sure beat doing the captain's drills every morning."

"Speaking of the captain," Bolkin continued pondering, "he'd probably give me an earful if we put Dmira in any more danger than is necessary. The sooner we get her back, the better."

With part of his mind still on the treasure, however, he quickly excused himself from the conversation to thumb through his book to see if he had recorded any local legends about a vault. Unfortunately, by the time he reached the end of the pages, he could only shake his head dejectedly. "I wonder if anyone back in town would know about the vault. It might be a long shot, but if Kassen can't tell us anything else, we don't have much else to go on."

Bolkin was a bit startled by the apparition, but given recent events he wasn't particularly surprised. Looking back and forth between the ghost and the contents of the coffin, he was only half-listening to Kassen's words. Raven's question brought him to attention, however.

Jokingly he replied, "You'd think if he had risen in the past and was dealt with, the would-be adventurers who defeated him would have taken his stuff. You know, like you seem to be doing." Pointing at the skeleton's belongings in Raven's hands and letting out a chuckle, his voice quickly took on a more thoughtful tone.

In a lowered voice, he mused aloud, "But I wonder, why would he wait so long to come back like that? Did he want revenge against the town that badly, even hundreds of years later?" Bolkin continued to think, although he wasn't necessarily expecting to come to an answer. For now, he was satisfied just knowing they had succeeded in retrieving the Everflame.

"Nice shooting, Raven!" Bolkin cheered as Asar seemed to crumble away. He was also pleased to get praise in return, to which he responded, "It was just something I thought I'd try in the heat of the moment. I'm surprised it actually worked myself. Bastard was more slippery than I gave him credit for."

He felt a little relieved to see Dmira alive, although he excused himself from the conversation briefly to approach the Everflame. "Make sure Dmira's okay, I've got this." Remembering why they came to the crypt in the first place, Bolkin retrieved the silver lantern from his backpack (thankful that the contents of which were mostly spared from the mess he made of himself earlier) and worked to light it with the flickering flame.

Telperion is correct. In any case, assuming Asar moved up to hit Bolkin, his next move will depend on Asar's current location.

Bolkin quickly dodged the hasty assault, satisfied that at least someone was able to take advantage of his opening. He quickly took the opportunity to sweep his flail under Asar's feet, but after getting used to the new flail, he found his old one just hard enough to control that the head bounced erratically across the floor.

Muttering under his breath, he moved to create another opening for Telperion.

Trip attempt as a Standard Action. If Asar moved to L-58 to swing at Bolkin, he stays where he is. If Asar moved to L-57, Bolkin will five-foot step up to M-56.

Remember that Asar is deprived of his armor and natural armor bonuses due to Scorching Ray being a touch attack, as well as being deprived of his DEX and dodge bonuses due to being blind, and also suffers a -2 penalty to AC on top of all that. Short of having a +11 Deflection Bonus or something like that, I would assume it hits even with firing into melee.

Bolkin began to worry a bit as the skeleton in front of him began advancing on the rest of the party, but he was prepared to put his plan into action regardless.

"Hey, bone-face," Bolkin called out to Asar while gesturing to his flail, "You want this thing so bad?" Having gotten the skeleton's attention, he grasped both the head and handle of his flail in each hand and lunged at the monster. With a vicious downward swing, Bolkin jammed the handle of his flail into one eye socket, and the head into the other.

Bolkin attempts another Dirty Trick maneuver as a standard action to blind Asar.

Since this roll cuts it really close, I'll present the outcome for both scenarios.

---

If the maneuver's successful...

"You can have it!" Bolkin shouted as he worked to keep the weapon in place. Although the handle fit inside with relative ease, the head was too big to fit the whole thing inside. Nevertheless, he was able to get some of the protruding spikes to catch inside the skull cavity, holding the head in place.

Bolkin let go of the flail when he was sure it wouldn't fall out. With his work done, he lept back, pointed at Asar, and shouted "Tel, go for the spine!" Just in case his plan wasn't enough to finish the job, he made sure to ready his old flail.

In this scenario, Bolkin takes a 5-foot step to M-57 and uses his move action to draw his other flail. Asar is now blinded (taking a -2 penalty to AC on top of losing his DEX bonus) and no longer in melee.

---

If the maneuver fails...

Unfortunately, a quick jerk of Asar's head caused the flail to come loose. "Damn!" Bolkin cursed to himself as he briefly fumbled with the flail.

Despite his plan ending in failure, he lept back to give Telperion a clear shot with his last stone. He pointed at Asar and shouted "Fire!"

In this scenario, Bolkin takes a 5-foot step to M-57. Asar is no longer in melee.

Note this isn't actually an in-turn action, as Bolkin's merely speaking/gesturing.

HP: 15/22 Conditions: Magic Weapon, Protection Vs. Evil, Bless

Although Bolkin's attempt to recover his weapon didn't go quite according to plan, as the new marks on his arm painfully taught him, watching a magic stone bounce off a nearby pillar and across the floor gave him an idea. He held out his free hand toward Telperion as if telling the elf to wait, and called out just loud enough to hear over the noises of battle, "On my mark..."

Bolkin tries to ask Telperion to delay his initiative after Bolkin's in the hopes of creating an opportunity.

After a brief moment of surprise at losing his weapon, Bolkin began speaking even more fiercely. "Heh. Alright, now this is my kind of fight!" He made a move to distract the skeleton by jamming his fingers into its eye sockets as he grabbed his flail. However, this plan didn't quite work out for him as the monster moved its head to the side. The guard decided to take his chance anyway, and quickly ducked to grab his flail, hoping Drosk's magic would make up for his lack of caution.

Bolkin attempts a Dirty Trick to blind as a Standard Action, and picks up his flail as a Move Action.

"Keep your guard up. There might be more of them," Bolkin warned the party before moving to meet the talking skeleton.

"Let me tell you something, you bag of bones," he spoke loudly as he began twirling his flail about. "I don't know what you're doing here, or if you care to tell us, but that's not important to me." Bolkin's voice at this point had taken on an uncharacteristically serious tone. "What's important to me..." With a swift swing of his flail, the head found itself wrapped firmly around the skeleton's sword. "...is that you and your 'army' get out of our sight, one way or another."

With a decisive jerk, the skeleton's sword was ripped firmly out of its hands and landed on the floor in a clatter. Bolkin could only give a satisfied smirk at this development.

Bolkin moves to L-58 and uses the Disarm maneuver on the skeleton.

Since it's pretty much the end of the semester here, I'll hopefully be less sparse for the coming fight.

Conditions: Magic Weapon, Protection vs. Evil, Bless

Bolkin gave Drosk a quick nod of appreciation as he made his way to the door with Telperion "Can't let all this magic go to waste, can we?".

"We've made it this far," Bolkin uttered with a self-assured grin, "might as well go in there and see if we can't become heroes for real!" With his flail at the ready, and Drosk's blessings at his side, he was prepared to take on whatever was waiting beyond the door.

If need be, Bolkin will take the front.

Bolkin lagged slightly more behind Telperion to glance down the pit before starting to make his way across the bridge, not noticing anything in particular.

Bolkin couldn't help but stare at the skeleton under him as he crossed the bridge back to the group.

"Well, I think I've had my share of swimming for now, so I'm certainly not going in after it." However, Bolkin stopped for a second to think as he reached the other side. "Not that we'd need to fight it on its terms when Drosk could just shine that light on it," he pondered aloud before shrugging his shoulders. "But first thing's first, let's try to prevent more dead people before worrying about the ones who already are."

Bolkin will be sure to let Telperion lead the way. He's fallen into enough pits today, and will stay close behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine. With everything else that happened today, I'm not gonna let a bit of water be what gets me," Bolkin responded assuringly to Drosk as he made sure he had a steady footing on the floor. He slowly made his way to the device on the other end of the room, occasionally stopping to shake off or pour water out of his belongings. "At least it washed away most of of the smell," he muttered as he brushed off some of the leftover bits of zombie.

As he finally reached the wheel, he started to have second thoughts about using it. However, he didn't see many other options left. "I'm gonna turn this thing as hard as I can. Just be ready in case it drops a hundred more of those frogs from the ceiling or something." He thought about it, and decided he'd rather deal with the bats than more of those.

With a solid heave or two, Bolkin started to turn the wheel, occasionally glancing around when he thought he heard a noise.

"Uhh, Telperion," Bolkin began to ask as he started to pass the elf, "what's gotten into yoooOOOWHOAH!" With a sudden splash, Bolkin seemed to vanish through the floor as he fell into the watery pit. Thankfully, the guard had taken enough swimming lessons to stay afloat even with his armor weighing him down.

"Thanks for the *cough* warning," Bolkin sputtered at Telperion as he reached for a handhold to pull himself up onto solid ground.