Drannigan "Doc" Piper's page

Well that's a bummer, but I understand. You've done a great job with this one.

Can you please move this game to Inactive in the campaign tab?

Doc switches up his tactics, lobbing a glue bomb instead of a stink bomb, aiming for the most tightly clustered group of monkeys. "Fightin' ghouls with stink is like tryin' t' out-ugly Grusk."

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Fire Damage: 3d6 + 4 ⇒ (3, 4, 2) + 4 = 13

Direct Hit = DC 15 Ref save or be glued to the ground as Tanglefoot Bag

Splash effect = 5 fire damage and Entangled as per Tanglefoot bag

DC 15 vs. Splash halves the damage and negates the entangle

"Oh, that ain't good..." Doc said, honestly worried.

Ghoul paralysis + swarm autohit = bad news

"Good call. Get ready to light it."

"Aye. That's why this time we're gonna wait fer them t' come at us. Hold th' line an' stay tight."

"Yep."

Doc steps back into the doorway to take advantage of the bottleneck and readies an explosive.

"Form up tight an let them come t' us. I'm gonna make 'em run through hell t' git t' ya."

Readying an action to hit the lead one with a Stink Bomb when it gets within 30 feet. The cloud will linger, and any others that pass through it will have to save against the effect also.

"Last time I saw 'er she asked me for somethin' that might help her with that. Maybe I c'n make somethin' outta ankheg spit. Might not be strong enough, but I gotta start somewhere."

Doc tromps up the middle of the hallway, looking around.

"Looks like it was supposed t' make a body feel small. Lots o' grandeur. Whoever built this wanted whoever came through that door t' be impressed."

Would you rather Doc did it with his -1 perception score?

"Aye. Front door, full steam ahead." Doc says with a grin.

"Grusk, give me a trap scan."

Doc trudges along at the back of the line, lighting a cigar and checking the ammo loaded into his slugthrower.

I think we should try to keep the wagon as close as possible. It looks like we can go around the broken wall and bring the wagon inside through that gap on the left side of the map next to the fort.

"Let's save that fer th' end. Don't wanna take Holmburg outta th' wagon until we know th' areas around the temple are clear."

"Less inviting than th' presence of a giant firebreathing armor-plated wolf an' a pair of acid-spitting bugs? A'right. Gimme a few minutes."

Trapsmith: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17

Rigging up some non-lethal traps designed mostly to scare them. Tossing in Thunderstones and some cloudbursts of the chloro-roofie poison we used to incapacitate the guards during the mansion incursion. It's DC 15/Unconciousness.

"Turn her around an' back the hatch up near those doors. We'll put Holmburg on guard duty wit' the bugs burrowed in. If things git ugly back 'ere, he c'n sound th' horn an' keep 'em busy while we run on back."

"We go inside on foot."

Doc looks at Blaze for confirmation.

"Hah! Lookit 'em run!" Doc laughs. Taking a swig off his flask he sighs away the tense moment. "Right. Let's go git our wayward pup."

I can't believe no one in this party actually has Intimidate...

"Hell if I know. Have Sentis keep things movin' slow. If'n they git a wild hair, they can't exactly claim they dinnae know wha' they were gettin' intae."

"Holmburg, give me a flame burst over their heads. Red lever, right side."

The massive head of the pack wagon swung toward the group of strange creatures. It's jaws swung open and a sixty foot cone of flame shot out just above them.

How's that for an Intimidate check? ;)

"Don't sound like they want a fight." Doc says. "Slow up an' try not t' seem hostile. Maybe they'll let us through t' th' ruin."

How hard would it be to try to convince them that we don't want a fight if we don't have a common language? I can understand what they say, but I can't speak back to them.

Doc downs a shot and shakes off the burning his sinuses as the words the creatures speak become clear to him.

Comprehend languages

I can mix potions and stuff in batches. During the two hours it took to make Grusk's potion I could theoretically have cooked up a lot of alchemical stuff. I make mundane alchemy stuff super fast and cheep. It's pretty safe to say that anything you want, you can probably get. As far as real magic goes, I don't have anything else for you.

Doc watches the sentry take off and curses.

"That ain't a good sign. Let's move, Lads!"

Sentis, you're driving. Take it away.

...I really don't know what the plan is at this point. I thought Grusk was doing recon and coming back.

"He's about outta sneaky juice now." Doc says to Blaze. "What now?"

Doc brews up a potion as quick as he can and passes it to Grusk. "Ye be careful."

I guess we can just cut forward to Grusk's stealth scene.

"Ah c'n whip up an invisibility brew, but it'll take me two hours. Can't do nothin' bout his smell though."

"Fine. Go 'head. I'll stay here an' git all th' systems fully loaded."

Doc takes a swig. And then a bit more than a swig. Then he finishes of the flask and hands it back, scowling a little less.

"Buncha ingrates." he grumbles.

"A'right, how's this fer a plan- We're gonna pull the 'wagon right up t' th' gate, then Sentis 's gonna try t' talk to 'em an' tell 'em we don't mean 'em no harm an' that we're just passin' through t' investigate them ruins. If they're nice, no problem. If they ain't nice, we hook the winches t' their nice gate an drag th' whole thing down while Holmburg an' I rain hell down on 'em."

"Ah'm a g#*&!$n doctor! A ship's doctor. I was damn good at it to. Figured tha' was gonna be mah life until our cannoneer went town wit' blindin' sickness. Ah had t' start measurin' an' mixin' all th' powder for 'im, on top o' treatin' the crew fer scurvy an' bootrot. Ye numbskulls think I jus' started pourin' chemicals together one day?"

"Ah c'n still patch ye up wit' the best o' 'em, I jus' can't compete wit' magic. Ain't no doctor anywhere tha' can. Lucky fer you lot, I ain't just a doctor."

"I'm a g%##!@n surgeon with dynamite."

Doc raises an eyebrow. "Ye think I ain't a real doctor?"

"Yer mom jus' said that so ye wouldn't think she was enjoyin' it. Victims don' usually keep comin' back like that."

"Every time." Doc says mournfully while lighting a cigar. "Can't say I blame 'em. Once th' Doc makes a housecall, nothin' else'll do. It's mah curse."

Scratching a lose outline of what he could make out into the dirt while he lamented his prowess as a lover, Doc used stones to mark the sentries.

"Someone wanna climb up somethin' and git a good look 'round? We should get layout and numbers before we commit t' this."

"Might crimp our style if these things start followin' us around all heartbroke an' sappy." Doc says with a shrug.

"Quiet ain't exactly my strong suit. I'd say that if'n ye want t' take 'em out quiet so they don't have time t' run or sound an alarm, we could send in Team Green. I might be able t' mix up some choakin' powder an' mix it in with some tanglefoot glue t' make up a bomb that'd stick 'em down an' make 'em too busy coughin' t' call fer help. What d' ye think?"

"If'n ye ain't concerned 'bout noise, well, then we c'n do this th' easy way."

Doc blinks and looks at the others "On top 'o what?"

"Ain't any kinda smoke Ah've ever seen. Too oily. It's like ash, but wet. Lemme try somethin'."

Taking a few moments to light a torch, Doc tested whether the oily smoke could be burned off by fire. Then he waved a clean white cloth through the air a few times like a butterfly net to see if the smoke would stick to the cloth.

Alchemy to determine substance properties: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

"Ah got nothin'. Gonna need more time t' figure this out. Ah think that portcullis is a more immediate problem though. Either we c'n climb over an' look for the winch, or Ah c'n try t' rig up some sort of lever-pully t' yank it up."

"Ah ain't drivin'. Talk t' Sentis. Better yet, if'n ye happen t' look back an' see a giant metal wolf being pulled by a couple ox sized bugs right on yer heels, go ahead and step outta th' way."

"Well don't that look promising." Doc said sarcastically over his breakfast of some kind of granola made of dried potatoes, peppers and jerky soaking in a bowl of beer.

"We got lucky. How's Baran?" Doc said, already making to reload the various ammunition containers from the storage drum mounted beneath the main hold and in the Packwagon's tail.

"Gimme a hand folks. Ye all are gonna need t' learn how t' do this."

Our original squad concept was something along the lines of "the guys who get hired to clear and survey dangerous places" Which is really just a reason to be able to move from one stand-alone dungeon to another.

Going back to the serial dungeon crawl format might make things easier on our GM.

Are you kidding? Give me a few weeks and I could turn the Wagon into boat. Maybe even a submarine. :)

Seawolf.

Or, I could turn it into a Zepplin and we could be sky-pirates.

Airwolf.

Functionally, the Wagon, the Zepplin, The Submarine and the Boat are the exact same narrative device. They're a mobile base of operations.

In a normal adventure, you go to a dungeon and then back to your base of operations. In a naval adventure, you take your base of operations from adventure to adventure. (the Star Trek formula)

So it doesn't really matter. The end result is the same. It's just a matter of flavor.

I'd be up for anything, really. Whatever inspires the GM.

We could even find a Spelljammer Helm and become Spacewolves. :)

I was mostly talking about the "bury yourself" trick. That seems like something they might really want to do.

As for spitting acid, I guess we'll just have to see if they decide to do that on their own.

Voice, rules clarification/question-

I'm pretty sure that you don't have to make a handle animal check to get an animal to do a trick it's already trained to do. You just have to use a move action to give it an order.

If needing to roll for each direction is in the skill description, I missed it.

Looking to his right at the giant that had suddenly appeared next to them, he cursed.

"Blaze, git those bugs attackin' or buried! We need all the help we c'n git!"

Not sure what the range on their acid spray is, but we should be taking advantage of it.

A good attack routine would be: Bugs spit acid then bury themselves, then the main gun fires. Next round, bugs pop up and spit acid, and the gun is reloaded. Rinse repeat.

That's a Blaze question. He's driving.

Doc raises his eyebrow in amazement as the smoke slears around the other wagon and shows the unexpected lack of damage.

"Tough Sonofab~#&+."

With nothing much to do but keep firing, Doc adjust his aim on the Trident Launcher and fires...

As a note, Doc is actually in the Rear gunner's seat. He should be at the back of the wagon, not the front. I think Blaze is in the driver's seat, and Holmburg is basically directly above him in the head.

From the Driver's seat, yeah, unless they're behind us and I hadn't noticed.

"Mortar mark III, standard shot. I call that a successful test." Doc says to himself with a grin.

"How you doin' Holmburg?"

Right now the main way in and out is the rear hatch, which raises and lowers like a draw bridge.

There's also a hatch underneath it for you sneaky folks. It's basically a secret entrance that only unlocks with a special magnetic key (Doc gave you all one before heading out), or can be opened easily from the inside.

If you climbed up on top you could get in through the rear gunner's hatch (where Doc currently is), which is up on the wolf's rump.

I should probably put a hatch in the front in the wolf's chest, but at the moment there isn't one. Something to fix later.

Right now, Grusk would probably be slipping under the wagon and entering through the belly hatch.

The driver's weapons, which are the main cannon (big ol' scatter gun, fixed fire straight forward) and the two grapple launchers. Without someone in the hold to reload the cannon you've pretty much only got one shot. It'll go over the Ankheg's heads, but it might scare the acid out of them. Whoever fires it should probably have an impressive Handle Animal score until we get them Combat Trained.

How's someone who's been crucified supposed to make a reflex save?

"Yuck. That fellow def'nitly looks like he'd be better off dead." Doc says. "Pack wagon field-test one, here we go."

"Holmburg! Line up the sights down the nose with the hand levers. The thumb buttons trigger the bolt-throwers!"