Codename Hikage's page

"Not certain, but I think I would also call such a huge ring of fire a portal. At the vary least we should be capable of getting into the camp easier due to this big distraction, no?" Hisui said while looking at the scene playing out in the distance.

Hikage follows after Shao Jian. Wonder what's up this time around, he ponders.

@Berry, haven't marked anything on my sheet yet. Only thing I picked up was the +1 battle axe of the leader, which I'm going to show to Vargo at some point during the conversation. I'll also take one set of Boots of the winterlands. I'd say mark the rest on your sheet and we'll see what we do with it later

Hikage steps forward trying to at least diffuse the situation enough to not have another possible source of information cut off quite abruptly.
"We're not to keen on it either, but she says she saw the error of working with them." Hikage said, making quotation marks with his hands with that last word. "And to your question, no we do not know who she is. Only her name and that she is partly responsible for a mess that happened at the camp we came from. You seem to know more, so care to elaborate as she hasn't been too forthcoming on that."

So brief recap of the situation we're in (big part copied from previous recap) [new info in bold]:
- We were sent to this area to gather information about the big army amassing here and hinder/slow down/destroy if possible.
- When we arrived we saw an enormous army camp (tents, cooking fires, people,...) and were greeted by one of the locals.
- At the same time, something happened at basecamp, our superiors are presumed dead.
- We were informed by the locals about the fate of our previous scouts.

What we have gathered so far about our mission :
- Army camp is located and is quite big.
- Our scouts and a local boy have been mauled and partially eaten by something of the army. The minds of those that survive the mauling get infected with something that slowly consumes the mind. If the infection is left to fester it would presumably turn one in a monster as well.
- The locals have sent scouts out as well, they haven't returned.
- The locals don't know what this army is, but want to know it as badly (or even more) as we do.
- Anowin will hopefully tell us more about this once we get her to a location she thinks she can speak

What we have gathered about what happened back at base camp :
- The brother of Vargo (one of the locals) had come to our camp with the mission of misinforming us about who/what Vargo was, so that we would kill him.
- If they could not convince us of doing this, they would have only 1 or 2 days before something happened.
- They currently aren't monitoring our headpieces, for fear of revealing more of themselves, this is being periodically checked by Hikage.
- Anowin will hopefully tell us more about this once we get her to a location she thinks she can speak

Other important stuff :
- We were attacked in the night by a former family member of Vargo. He is normally still alive & bound and guarded by Vargo's clan/family/...
- When we went to meet with Anowin, we were yet again attacked by people whom I believe were formerly part of Vargo's clan/family/...

So on our to do list is :
- Get Anowin to spill the beans!!!!!!!!!!! I think we can all concur this is top priority ;)
- Question the captured were-person when he wakes up
- Scout from a distance to figure out what disguises/appearances are best used to infiltrate the camp.
- Question Vargo about his brother and why his brother would want him dead.
- Afterwards infiltrate the camp and get intel.

What do you guys think?

"Well there's that big cave we came from, must be a quiet spot in there somewhere." Hikage said.

"Need to ask Vargo about this later", Hikage mutters while hanging the axe on his belt. "You gather the rest of their gear?" he asks Berry before turning back to the others. He waits for Anowin to continue her tale.

"Interesting marking on the leader's axe." Hikage said, meanwhile pondering if he knew anything more about that specific symbol.
Knowledge(local): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Hikage will help with checking the bodies and also watches the surroundings for further interlopers.
Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17

"As good as we can be, all things considered. I do hope no more werebears show up if you continue to speak." Although the last sentence was said half jokingly, one noticed the sincerity of Hikage's words.

I'm fine if we assume we finished the fight. If others feel like continuing, I don't mind, but I don't think it's really necessary.

dot

Codename Hikage reporting for duty :)

I will be waiting for that pm. Was very curious where this was going.
Good luck with whatever is going on.

Don't forget, Shao did non-lethals, might still live ;). @GM, it's the werebear's turn I think

Don't forget he's on the ground. He will have to stand up if it wants to get any chance of getting away, and thus will provoke an attack of opportunity and while provoking in this way, it counts as though he's still laying on the ground. So he gets a -4 on his AC against the attack of opportunity. This is one of the main reasons I knocked him down, the other was so he wouldn't be able to do a withdraw again, as that is a full-round action. Moving double your speed while prone is not that far, 10 ft if i'm not mistaken)

Technically Agurah still had an action after the bear fled, but no certain whether she was going to do anything with it.

"Don't let it get away.", Hikage said while taking a shot at the fleeing werebear.

seeing as partial cover is only a +2 to his touch AC, I think I'm going to chance it with my shot.
Targeting Deed(Legs) vs touch AC: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28
Damage if hit: 1d12 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
like before, target is knocked prone if hit.

Would I still be able to take a shot at him if I used the power of my gloves? Wondering if I can try to not let him get away :)

Was thinking of another buff spell then, you're right he could have moved after casting. Like I said somewhere in this conversation, let's finish this fight and then discuss preferred tactics for next combat ;-)

To touch us all he needed to move between us as part of casting the spell (we were on a line, not all clustered around him) but I could be wrong. But he also did not mention anything about moving more to one side of the combat. It's a good to have a general idea of what we want to do in future combats, no?

Oh, I wasn't saying the to-hit of our melee-ers was bad. It just seemed to me that the AC of our opponents was high and the rolls were below average ;-)

I was referring to last combat where you did 3 attacks, one was a hit and the others missed but he described it as this :

Most of Shao's hits land harmlessly but his second kick lands a solid blow to the man's back.

I honestly believe you missed with your initial strike this combat. As last time around your hit did 25 damage and was described as a solid blow, where this time he said your attack lands but failed to do much damage due to hide/armor/muscles/...

But you are right that it is currently a bit confusing. Still having fun though :-)

Well from what I've seen in this and the previous fight was that you needed quite a number before it was a hit, as most attacks that harmlessly got blocked by their hide meant you probably hit a number within the range of his natural armor, or that is what I read into the descriptions. Might also have been due to the extreme rolls (mostly high and low, almost nothing in between) and the DR is 10 or 5 vs silver, depending on natural lycanthropes or not. So I get you rather want one powerful attack over several smaller ones.

And kidhir wasn't capable of getting away as he used his round 1 to get haste on all of us and thusly couldn't move away that turn.

Don't forget that those things have quite high to hit/damage. They can hit most of us on average or lower.

if her attacks actually drop the bear my shot will obviously have been directed at the still standing bear.

I think there isn't a RAW answer to shoving someone in a sack. Closest I can think of is grapple --> maintain to pin --> shove in sack?

And you are right about us getting more attacks from them then we should have, but if shao hadn't attacked the top one it would have most likely attacked kid hair. Which you also wanted to avoid (and we're bear missed two of his attacks so shao got some extra attacks in). Then there's the fact that most of you have to roll at least above a 10 (if not much more) to even hit them while they were flat footed, let alone when they have their full AC. That's why in round 2 I have opted for the leg shot as it does several things :
- knock the target prone giving you guys a bonus to hit against it (and negliable extra touch AC against me)
- if it wants to attack this turn it will have to choose to either full attack with penalties or get up, provoke Aoo's from berry and agurah at his currently lower AC (as he still counts as prone when the Aoo's happen) and only get one attack in.

This will be my go to tactic against these type of opponents due to their massively high AC (but very low touch AC), which is giving you all so much trouble. Hopefully I'll stel get some crits/kill shots in else I can only do it 4 more times today. (Need to seriously up my grit. Kinda sad that it doesn't Lvl like bardic music or rage, but if that was the case it would probably be a bit to powerful ;-) )

Sorry for the long post, but this is my 2 cents concerning the current battle.

Am I correct in thinking that we are waiting for Shao's action before the bears are up again?

In hindsight, the current status of my party members is more important and Berry might go down if the bear hits her again. So will direct a shot in that direction

"Apologies, was making certain I wasn't getting mauled by a bear. Hope this helps."

Hikage turned around and took aim at the legs of the werebear standing between Agurah and Berry.

Targeting Deed(Legs) vs touch AC: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 32
damage if hit: 1d12 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19
Target is knocked prone if hit

btw, does everyone have name they would like to be called when not being addressed with their real name?

I've been calling Kidhir "Sandman".
Hikage usually makes clear what name he's using whenever he changes "costumes" (this time it was "Walks-in-Shadow")
So I still need names for Shao, Berry & Agurah.

Was kind of wondering if I can make out how damaged both bears look? Just to have an idea where to best direct my musket this time around :)

Crit confirm at highest attack bonus -5 (vs flatfooted touch AC): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
Damage: 8d12 + 40 ⇒ (8, 2, 12, 10, 12, 4, 2, 12) + 40 = 102

A powerful shot came forth from Hikage's musket, dispelling the glamer from his Hat of Disguise. After the smoke cleared he quickly loaded his musket with another round.
free action reload

Critting on dead shot is powerful ^_^

Quite the sticky situation we got ourselves in here ... Hikage, thought looking at the were bears and Anowin. He then regripped his "walking stick" and held it like one would a musket.

Every shot counts, every shot counts went through Hikage's head when he leveled the sights of his old musket at the were bear to the north of him, seeing that Berry was taking good care of the one to the south.

Deadly Aim Deadshot (+1 to attack from Haste, +1 to attack/damage from point blank shot, only get my attacks from BAB)
Attack rolls (vs flatfooted touch AC): 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (19) + 13 = 321d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Agurah is so stealthy, she isn't even on the map ;)

Initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Hikage walked forward and greeted Anowin, "So we finally meet face to face. As you may suspect we have many questions, but I think it's best to start from the beginning. Who are you? Why did you want us to kill Vargo? And why are you now seemingly going against the plan you were following?"

So I assume she said in the communications that she didn't mind the rest being there and that we told Vargo we needed to meet someone before we could go scout?

"If she makes me take my communicator off, then I'll ask her to do the same. I would advise you to not put yours on unless I have to take mine off. Don't want her to look through yours and see herself, if you know what I mean."

Was kind of waiting for the others to voice their opinions on whether we tell Vargo or not. But I'll continue I guess :)
"You know what, when I contact her a few minutes from now I'll ask if you all are allowed to come to the meeting. If she doesn't object, so much the better. If she does, I'll go alone with Agurah covering me from the shadows and if you want to hear what she's saying to check whether she's truthful, I'll be wearing my headpiece at the meeting, I advise you do the same. After we know how the meeting will go we still have some minutes to decide what exactly we say to Vargo and maybe more importantly how we will say it."

"Kidhir, my apologies if I confused you further with the way I communicated things. When I said she is in the area, I meant she is somewhere near the village, not in the enemy camp. I told her I would communicate back in about 10 minutes. And as I understand it, the offer of getting us in is to somehow disrupt the enemy camp from within, which was our original goal, no?" Hikage replied calmly to Kidhir.

"So if no-one objects I will meet her in the village while being followed by Agurah. But if we are to do this, we will have to notify Vargo of it, as he is ready to go scout the enemy camp. So I ask again, what will we tell him and ask him? Will we tell him that I believe his brother and some of the other people he mentioned were missing have some dark plan which involves killing Vargo?"
Hikage then rummaged through his backpack, taking out a book. He then continued, "With this portrait book, I should be able to give apt descriptions of the people I saw. If they are who I think, it will most likely be proof to Vargo that I am not lying, as he has not described them to me, other than in name."

Hikage started leafing through the book, trying to find some good base portraits to start his drawings from. He then chuckled a bit. "I almost forgot. Those of you who actually need to eat, might want to do that. We have quite a day ahead of us I'm certain."

When Vargo has left the room, Hikage puts his headpiece off and waits with speaking untill anyone in the room who had theirs on does the same.
I think only Agurah had put on hers, but I'm stating it for certainty

The part below only happens if all headpieces are off, but posting already because I'm not certain how my posting will be later on today. And don't want you all waiting on me.
"Anowin contacted me again. From what I can tell she is either trying a new tactic or the plan she was a part of went past what her own moral compass can endure. She is in the area and wants to meet with me. She says she can get us in the camp and give us much needed answers. She also claimed that if "they" stay on track there won't be a village here come next week." Hikage paused for a bit, collecting his thoughts, before he continued.
"I believe some of the people Vargo mentioned were part of the group that I saw through Anowin's headpiece. I think we need to inform him of this fact, as he seemed to be a very important piece in the plan. And a warned man fights twice as fierce. If we do this, I also think, I need to meet with Anowin and hear what she has to say. Obviously I don't want to do this alone, yet I do want to make it seem that way. What do you all think?"

"Would you mind if we take a small breakfast first? We've probably got quite a trip ahead of us."
Bluff to deliver secret message : take 10 + 10 = 20

Hikage looked like he was pondering about something.

This is getting more convoluted by the minute, I like ;)

For the record Shao, I'll keep track of the amount of uses the CLW wand still has left on my character sheet under tracked resources, but seeing as you're the only one who can use it without needing UMD, it's best you keep it on your person in game.

After Shao was done tying up the bear man, Hikage checked if he had anything else on his person other than the axe he had used in combat.
"If you need any healing, take this." At this point, Hikage tosses a wand to Shao.

In the morning ...

"He apparently thought it would be a good idea to give us a rough awakening. Luckily, he didn't catch us of guard. It's a were bear from what I could tell, but he seemed unusually aggressive compared to what I heard about such people", Hikage said while glancing at the still unconscious man in the corner.

does that mean I didn't get hit?
Hikage moved to the furry man and tried to stabilise his wounds so that he would not bleed to death. heal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

Is everyone in one piece? Then let's tie him up and find out why he was here.

If he is successful in stopping the bleeding, he procures rope from his robe to tie up the man. he can draw 10 ft of rope per round. Others can already start using it to begin the tying up.

Fortitude save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Had to open my big mouth about not getting bit :p Other question though, don't my allies get attacks of Opportunity on him, seeing as he rushed out from between them?

"It's a were creature. Tough hide. Don't get bit. And if you got any, use silver." Hikage said quickly while moving to a better position to take a shot at the furry man.

Moving to a position that the furry isn't getting soft cover by one of my allies. Free action to reload musket, Standard action to shoot.
Deadly Aim Musket Point Blank Shot: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Damage if hit: 1d12 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

He then turns to Kidhir, "Hey Sandman, got anything that hinders this lumbering thing?"
Bluff to deliver secret messages: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Knowledge(Local): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Surprise round
Hikage started aiming at the skulking furry man closing in on their position.
He is starting the full-round action Dead Shot, one of the lvl 7 gunslinger deeds.

Round 1
Hikage waits with pulling the trigger until the man shows a sign of aggression towards his allies.
Readying a standard action to finish Dead Shot on the skulking man, if he behaves aggressively towards us. As I assume he can see most of my allies, his intentions should be clear to me on his turn. I'll make the rolls for the attack already as I'm not certain if I'll be able to post later and I don't want to make people wait on my actions.

Deadly Aim Deadshot
musket attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 301d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23 Should normally be against Touch AC, 40 ft normal range + 50 ft from the gloves
damage: 2d12 + 9 ⇒ (1, 2) + 9 = 12 [ooc]If only 1 hits, substract second die from damage. If he has moved within 30 ft before I get my shot of, +1 to the attack rolls and the damage roll.

Initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24
Stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36 +1 extra if he can use his Highlander trait

How much distance is there between him and us?

Hikage tried to rouse the others one by one. When the person woke up, Hikage whispered Possible hostile inbound. Get up and prepare to fight.
While he was busy with this he readied his musket.