The Bowson heads over to a table taking a seat putting his feet up and thrusting forward an open ledger, filled with rows of scrawled signatures and marks. He nods to a quill and looks up expectantly. A cursory inspection reveals it to be a crew manifest, and it seems to be more a place to keep track of share entitlements than a contract.
Five minutes later Captain Lanteri strides in with a cocked pistol rammed painfully into the base of a familiar half orc's neck, "People tell me this vermin and his friends impersonated my crew and earned themselves a thrashing. So me and Squealer here had a little conversation and decided it would only be fair if he and his fatheaded cronies handed over all of their valuables to the victors as a little apology. Hand them over Squealer."
Gritting his teeth in pain the half orc limps forward and places a bundle of items at Lhinneth's feet.
The macabre corpse still wears a suit of sturdy chainmail, and his pockets hold a wand, a fine silver dagger worth 160 gp, a red gold holy symbol that appears to show a bloody waraxe worth 60 gp, and ten black onyx gems (worth 25 gp each. From the smell and bloating it is clear the corpse has been here for days.
"Trunauan! Most of Trunau wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire you horse f+&%er! Get that fleabag away from me I don't know no stinking fox wolf! You'd best let me go I got powerful friends! just you wait, I'm gonna be someone when... Get off of me!" Daktani bellows thrashing wildly as he is attached to the saddle and attempting to bite at anyone and anything that comes close.
Okay, back and feeling closer to human, goblin maybe? Still likely to be a bit foggy headed for a few days so if you see something odd just ask and I shall explain the nature of my cock up :)
Outside of the tavern a small crowd of racers have gathered discussing the fighting going on inside and obviously leary of plunging into a brawl. Arven ignores them and pushes on through and is just in time to see the last half orc spit on the floor and wordlessly turn away grabbing each of his companions by the collar and hauling them away to the side of the room.
As Arven enters a bald heavily tattooed man stands from the shadows of the small stairwell behind Lhinneth grunting to draw the groups attention,
"You'll do," he raps his chest with his knuckles, "Yamtisy, Bowson. Good fight. Up here," so saying he turns and heads upstairs.
LOL, thanks, so basically you all need to be on alert for extra helpings of dumb from me and Grok! Good luck with the surgery Grok, no biggie I am sure, but still, and enjoy those painkillers :)
Forgive me if I missed it, but is he gagged or not?
It does not take long for the half orc to awaken, and it is swiftly obvious that he is not thrilled with his current predicament. Thrashing and twisting he struggles against his bonds.
[dice=Knowledge LocaL DC 18]This half orc is named Daktani purportedly a thief and a near-do well. He is the kind of half orc stereotype that much of Trunau considers the norm.[/spoiler]
A few acid splashes eventually stem the troll's healing, soon she lies still her twisted form somehow even more hideous in death. The half orc's frantic scramblings have shifted more rubble and the rotting form of a dead orc is now revealed beneath.
The bodies exposed hand has been mentioned 2 or 3 times, but don't think anyone picked up on it.
Working together the group are able to pry the bear trap from Brin's leg, quickly binding the wound and helping the injured Skald to hobble free.
Sorry guys this flu/fever whatever is kicking my butt, spending far too long staring at posts and not processing and feeling dreadful. Headed to the Doctor tomorrow and anticipating a day or two without posting - see picture on slides for a 100% accurate depiction of my sufferings.
Extremely sorry folks, but I am going to need to take a day or 2 off. I've had some odd fever, flu maybe? For a couple of days and it seems to be worsening, spending a lot of time staring at posts, not really processing and feeling generally awful. Headed to the Doctor tomorrow so hopefully ought to get sorted ASAP.
I know I would generally be thinking oh here we go as a PBPer, but I pinky swear I'm just dying on my arse :)
With the troll down, but regenerating, and the half orc snoring the group are victorious for the moment, but will need to act quickly to secure their foes.
Eyes darting wildly the half orc attempts to dodge back away from Grok, but stumbles leaving an opening for the ranger, but dodging the falchion slash. Then the half orc simply runs for the door,
"You shouldn't be fighting me Blood Traitor!" He hisses at Grok.
As Zove's magic takes effect this time the half orc slumps and falls snoring to the floor.
Acrobatics:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (3) + 13 = 16 Grok aoo vs Half Orc:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14 Will Save vs Sleep:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
More just being a bit fuzzy headed and not realizing I was up, post incoming and my apologies.
Probably guilty of responsive posting quite often so if I fail to post giving one of the threads a quick bump will often draw my absent minded attention :)
Face contorting in anger and pain the injured half orc staggers sideways, away from the elemental and out of the flanking position and slams a fist into Serenna's stomach.
Salty rushes in and tries to sinks his teeth into the nearest orc's scalp, but only gets a mouthful of hair,
"The Hells you tryin' to do crazy, you want to make things bloody! We can do bloody!" snarls the half orc.
Lhinneth is up! And gets +2 to hit the injured Half Orc
Half Orc 1 AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 37/37. Faint DC 14.
Half Orc 2 AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 29/37 24 Non-lethal damage. Faint DC 14
Not sure how you can read them so it does not provoke Serenna?
The half orc lashes out at Seranna, but she is able to block his blow with her tankard and land a kick.
Huldren snaps around startled at the earth elemental's appearance and strike it his blow sending the elemental's trip attempt off course.
Huldren and one of the half orcs move to flank the elemental the half orc's fist sending clods of earth flying as the earthern being falls and vanishes. Huldren seeing his blow is not need pulls a small vial from a pocket.
Damage taken from an aoo on a combat maneuver is applied as a penalty to you maneuver check I am afraid. So the 17 becomes an 11 in this case.
Lhinneth is up!
Huldren AC 14/10/14, CMD 16, HP 49/49 35 Non-lethal damage. Faint DC 15.
Half Orc 1 AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 37/37. Faint DC 14.
Half Orc 1 AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 37/37 8 Non-lethal damage. Faint DC 14.
@Atrazar we are still in the very early stages so I do not mind you guys making character tweaks. Maybe you could consider dropping a rank in handle animal and putting it into linguistics for one of the elemental languages? An elemental you can talk to can do pretty much anything a PC could.
Not really Atrazar how do you communicate that to an eagle? Outside of many hours of training with a treat based reward system or some such I would say you really cannot.
Well you need to direct them but with standard animal int and no language dirty tricks probably are not going to happen, open to debate, but I don't see how you could direct it to do that especially when it would cause them to provoke. Generally speaking I would say you would need to be able to speak to a summon to get it to do something complex like that.
Basically you control your summons, and roll and describe their actions, but if you cannot speak to them they are pretty limited. Handle animal will allow you to get them to perform tricks, but without them knowing the trick you need to Push which is DC 25 and impossible. You can give the same special whistle code a falconer gives his trained eagle, but if the eagle does not know that code you are just making random noises at it. Open to clever workaround, but I cannot see anyway a summon would not use "lethal" attacks. Generally speaking I pick up the elemental languages ASAP so I can direct elementals when I need more summon versatility.
No probs Serenna, early stages are for all of us to work the kinks out, so I tend to be more pedantic than the norm for a while in order to get across expectations, etc.
Just as the second half orc steps up and kicks Lhinneth in the side hard enough to leave a bruise Atrazar arrives, not at the bosun's table, but at the scene of the front runners in what appears to be a full on brawl with some burly types he is sure were never ahead of him.
One of the half orcs punches at Lhinneth, but is easily dodged, growling he steps aside and Huldren steps into his place the group acting in careful coordination. But despite maximizing his advantages a shaken Huldren, who keeps shooting glances at the squashed balls, is unable to hammer his sap hard enough to penetrate his half elf foe's armor.
Lhinneth is up!
Huldren AC 14/10/14, CMD 16, HP 49/49 35 Non-lethal damage. Faint DC 15. Shaken.
Half Orcs AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 37/37. Faint DC 14.
Serenna not seeing any intimidate save for the roll, if you want to intimidate you have to explain what you are doing that is intimidating. I'll post something here, but in future just a roll will always fail - I generally think intimidate is a great RP provoker, and that combat is much more fun with a bit of banter. I also do not think you have the movement to flank Huldren, see the map you were directly in front of the door, so I have placed you flanking the closest half orc.
Serenna is easily able to snatch up a heavy pewter tankard, grinning at Huldren as she glances at his crotch she smashes the heavy base down upon a pair of abandoned friend sea urchin balls. The big man blinks looking distinctly worried,
"Here now play fair, we aren't aiming to kill nobody, but if you want to step things up we'll match you with steel."
Also its a move action to snatch something up, but it seems reasonable to allow it like drawing a weapon as part of movement, but if you wanted two you would need to either do the same thing enxt turn or spend a move action.
Ideally I would agree, but I would rather not force it, and its difficult to know at this point how often times will align favourably. Generally I think we can play it by ear and correct as necessary until we find our groove - always happy to listen to suggestions so if you think something would work better holler and I will at least consider it :)
I think we go with what you feel comfortable with, I am fine with posting ahead, but obviously you risk having something change if you do so. Big things are fine to redo, say if you took a great deal of damager I would probably ask if you wished to alter an offensive action for a defensive one, etc.
Posts happen in the order they are posted within the same initiative block, unless otherwise specified by the poster, to prevent,
"I killed it!"
"No I go over and kill, it redo your post."
To be clear the half orc is not prone, the second climb check was not an move/standard, but the free catch yourself check, entirely my bad for not being clear - or even mentioning it.
The half orc's foot slips from beneath him just as he is about to reach the surface and he fails to catch himself descending in a cascade of water and rubble! But perhaps because of his raw cuts and scrapes he is able to resist Zove's soporific spell.
The troll meanwhile, snarls and moves to corner Grok a single claw again raking across his flesh painfully.
Lhinneth if you are feinting please try to show how in your description, even if its something as simple as jinking one way and then lashing out the other :).
With a grin Huldren pulls a sap steps forward pulling out a kosh with a feral grin and lashing out, but luckily his blow is clumsy and fails to penetrate Lhinneth's armor.
One of the half orcs moves up besides huldren and hurls a punch, which just catches the edge of the half elf's sleeve deflecting harmlessly away.
Huldren makes to dodge Lhinneth's fist leaving himself unprepared for an intimate meeting with her boot!
The second half orc seeing Huldren's pain and evidently deciding to take things seriously moves around to flank, but with her guard up Lhinneth is able to fend off his punch despite the distraction.
Roaring in pain Huldren cracks the half elf across the cheek with his sap, a powerful stinging blow that leaves a clear red mark in its wake. Lhinneth fends off a half orc fist and feints again before sucker punching Huldren right under the jaw!
Spinning she blocks the other half orcs's blow on her shield.
Huldren AC 14/10/14, CMD 16, HP 49/49 35 Non-lethal damage. Faint DC 15.
Half Orcs AC 16/11/15, CMD 18, HP 37/37. Faint DC 14.
There are three bear traps all interlinked with wires according to the entry, no mention of them being attached to the floor as such. Do you have light cast BTW, I note it is one of your spells known but cannot recall if you used it? If you did what is it cast on?
The God’s Revel Inn is a two-story building made of old but sturdy wood and the occasional bit of tarnished brass. The interior is brightly lit with oil lamps and smells strongly of unwashed bodies and smoky fires.
Benches are scattered around mismatched tables and crates.
In the center of the main room’s floor is a recessed circle of hardpacked earth, ringed by a series of heavy posts connected by fraying rope. A second-floor balcony overlooks the ring and part of the main floor. A wide stairway leads up to a small landing near the earthen ring, then continues up to the second floor.
Lhinneth is the first to arrive with the next closest racers a good ten seconds behind her as she enters the Inn a huge muscular man covered ins cars approaches flanked by two burly half orcs,
"I'm Huldren, the last challenge in Captain Lanteri’s race, and anyone who wants to go upstairs has to go through me and the boys here," the scarred man says, cracking his knuckles and giving Lhinneth a threatening leer. The threes low self congratulatory chuckling lend his words the lie.
Lhinneth you have 2 rounds of interaction time before Serenna shows up if you wish to make use of it.
At this point Serenna arrives alongside another lean rat faced man who takes one look at Huldren and slinks away.
Arven said posting will be patchy so going to do his Mad Dash for him to move things a long.
Arven races forward ducking through a gap and racing out of the lumberyard. Spotting a break in the crowd and a promising alley that he is sure could cut off a corner he attempts to push his way through the crowd, but instead ends up smashed against the wall by a surge of burly sailors. Trying again this time he succeeds pushing through and racing down the alley to rejoin the race, seeing the two bridges he elects to leap across the broken one, easily clearing it and surging onwards.
Unfortunately he arrives at just the wrong time as the brawl is in full force and looses precious seconds being knocked about before finally throwing back an opponent and clearing the mellee. Reaching the cliff with a large part of the runners he ends up in a struggle with a wiry man both seeking to fling the other into the sea, and only on his third try is he able to douse the fellow.
Finally he easily dodges around the drunks and arrives at the Inn, but knows he is far off the pace...
Brin, Cromwin, Zove, yes I believe you were a round behind.
Cromwin and Zove are both able to pick their way through the revealed bear traps along the small fifteen foot section of corridor.
Grok sees the half orc struggling to pull himself up onto the floor above, as does the troll which hisses over its shoulder. Distracted by its retreating companion the troll's attacks are clumsy and easily avoided by the ranger. Now Grok sees the slash he inflicted heal completely flesh knitting before his eyes.
As Brin steps forward into the intersection a series of cleverly concealed steel bear traps spring into life as he steps into the middle of one! The steel teeth bite into his calf to the bone sending blood gushing forth and pinning the Skald in place!
Brin takes 14 damage and must make a DC 20 Disable Device
check, DC 22 Escape Artist check, or DC 26 Strength check to escape. Others can aid or make these checks in his place, etc.
Grok and Maurie both would the troll, though some of their damage heals over before their eyes as the hideous thing shrieks and claws at Maurie. Both claws sink into halfling flesh and tear viciously through into her shoulders emerging slick with blood as Maurie collapses to the floor!
Emerging into the room Brin fell into previously you see the half orc scrambling up the rubble, about a third of the way up, while the troll is attempting to do the same, but has yet to make any real progress. Closer to the hideous creature you can make out a pair of thin dangling breasts that suggest the troll is female.
Grok again:
The half orc attempts to climb further, but with the rain and flow of water he looses his grip and grabs only a loose piece of timber as he tries to recover falling back in an undignified heap and groaning.
With a snarl the troll turns to Grok displaying all of her yellowed fangs before pouncing upon him, one claw tears a bloody slash across the side of his neck as the stench of the creature, like a stagnant pool filled with long dead things, hits him.
Take 8 damage - stench is just fluff.
Maurie is up from last round - judged would not have a significant effect. Then everyone is up!
Let me know if there is any confusion over the chase folks :) Basically what I am looking for is your experience feel free to embellish and invent within the scope of things, and if you have an inventive workaround for something let me know and I will try to adjudicate ASAP. The rules do not really allow for assisting one another, but if you spend a full round you may attempt a single check twice to allow a companion to progress with you.
Feel free to split these into several posts as I appreciate it is quite involved :)
Probably easiest to go look at the nicely laid out chase on slides, but I will put each set of obstacles in a spoiler below. Essentially you get two choices try to beat one of the two checks a round, or try to beat both which if successful gives you a chance at trying a single check to pass the next obstacle. So trying to double up can let you overcome 2 obstacles, but means a greater likelihood of failing to progress.
Chase Rules:
Everyone begins on the Taryn’s Planks card. The PCs must try to overcome obstacles and advance through the cards by attempting various types of checks.
As a standard action, a PC can attempt to overcome one of the two obstacles on the card the character is currently on. If successful, the character exits the card and moves on to the next one. Failing a check to overcome an obstacle means
that a character stops moving for that round and must face the obstacles on the same card again on the next round.
As a full-round action, a PC can attempt both obstacles on his card. If the PC successfully overcomes both obstacles,
the character can exit to the next card and attempt one of its obstacles immediately (allowing the PC to potentially exit two cards in 1 round). If the PC fails either of the obstacles on the initial card, the character stops moving
for that round.
The town’s crowded streets keep the faster racers from being able to push their advantage too much, and characters with base speeds of 20 feet to 40 feet are all on even footing.
Obstacle 1:
Taryn’s Planks
So many hopeful pirates begin running that a crowd immediately forms and blocks the route.
Bellow and Push Through: Intimidate DC 12
and/or
Duck through a Gap: Reflex DC 10
Obstacle 2:
Choke Point
Narrow streets form a choke point in the race.
Notice a Shortcut: Perception DC 14
and/or
Make Your Own Shortcut: Strength DC 13
Obstacle 3:
Bridges
The racers must choose to either push through the crowded main bridge or try to span the gap of a broken bridge.
Crowded Bridge
Scramble over the Railing: Climb DC 14
and/or
Everybody Move!: Bluff DC 14
Broken Bridge
Jump It!: Acrobatics DC 15
and/or
Swim It!: Swim DC 14
Obstacle 4:
Founders’ Square
Brawlers try to eliminate the competition.
Sense an Ambush: Sense Motive DC 16
and/or
Knock Them into the Bay: Bull Rush CMD 16
Obstacle 5:
Running along the Cliff
Competitors try to push each other into the harbor.
No, You First!: Trip CMD 14
and/or
Look behind You!: Bluff DC 13
Obstacle 6:
Final Sprint to the Inn
The entrance to the God’s Revel Inn is a short ramp packed with drunken patrons.
Dodge the Drunks: Acrobatics DC 12
and/or
Scale the Ramp: Climb DC 14
The parade takes nearly an hour and a half to wind its way through Lilywhite with various establishments having manufactured set piece shows that halt the entire affair; What seems to be a fabric store produces a giant octopus, made from carefully shaped orange fabric over a wicker frame and controlled by a dozen, not particularly well coordinated dancers which the "slaves" dodge past with their acrobatics, and then battle the "slavers" shooting forth gallons of black ink as the whips thrash at it; also of note are a group of illusionists who cover the center of the streer in surging illusionary sea from which swim forth a great silent serpent that swims back and forth winking at the crowd.
Those that care to pay attention can garner the history of the festival from the parade, once the more fanciful elements are removed.
History of the Rum Punch Festival:
The Rum Punch Festival is an annual religious tradition honoring Cayden Cailean that is celebrated primarily along the western coast of Garund. It commemorates a Sargavan slave escape that occurred in 4686 AR at the port of Crown’s End. The escape involved three large slaver ships crammed full of slaves captured from Sargavan docks and the Bandu Hills, bound for sale at the slave markets of Bloodcove. Prior to setting sail, the crews of the ships gathered for a celebratory drink, each consuming a few mugs of rum. Surprisingly, the crews of all three ships got roaringly drunk despite consuming
no more rum than usual. Many slavers fell unconscious in positions that left their key rings dangling within reach of the slaves in the ships’ holds. As the slaves freed themselves, five small seabirds flew past the ship. A few worshipers of the Lucky Drunk among the escapees took the amazing potency of the rum as a sign that Cayden Cailean had intervened to give them a chance to free themselves, and believed the five birds had been sent by his herald Thais. As a result, the escaped slaves followed the birds and eventually found a small beached ship that they managed to launch and sail to the Shackles. The story spread, and Cayden’s faithful began celebrating the anniversary of the escape a few years later. As the tradition grew, it came to be named for the power of the rum that had given the escapees their chance at freedom. The festival is still most common in the Shackles, though it has begun to slowly spread elsewhere in the Inner Sea.
By the time you reach the Parade's end the sun has begin to set and fireworks fill the skies bathing the scene in vivid multicoloured hues. The Lumberyard is abuzz with hundreds of workers, revelers, and actors, all gathered before a small wooden stage. Suddenly, a gunshot rings across the crowded square, and attention snaps to the sharp-dressed woman standing on the stage, holding a still-smoking pistol.
Now certain she has the attention of all present, she addresses the crowd. “I’m Captain Varossa Lanteri of the Magpie Princess and I have a business proposition. I’ve recently discovered the secret to finding the lost treasure of Captain Jemma Redclaw, and I’m looking for a few strong hands to help me secure it. The first to reach my bosun’s table on the second floor of the God’s Revel Inn down by the harbor will have the opportunity to receive an officer’s share of old Captain Redclaw’s gold. If you’ve been waiting for your chance at fame and fortune, it’s finally here!” She fires her pistol over the heads of the crowd a second time, and shouts,
“Now hop to!” A moment of shocked silence is followed by a riot of shouts as dozens of people rush out of the lumberyard.
The Mad Dash uses the Chase Rules which I will post shortly, I will also put the chase cards up on slides so you can see what you must do - so please wait until my next post before actively participating in the chase.
Grok's arrow thumps home, but moments later pops out of the troll's side the puckered flesh writhing and healing over. Then the troll to vanishes through the door.
Both troll and half orc, spin to the door, and both clearly notice Grok's shaft smash into the wall behind them. With shockingly fast reflexes both of your foes turn and bolt for the door of the statue filled room where you fought the strange ghost rats. Reaching it first the troll yanks the door open and the orc rushes past it out of sight.
Party is up!
Maurie they certainly noticed the open door, but they did not seem to notice you as such.
So just to let everyone know my basic process for character checking is to put everyone's details into herolab. I will be doing this in the next week or so, and I'll bring up any niggles. I am well aware that herolab is not perfect, and the Monkey Domain is just one example, but it seems to work quite well and it has proven handy to have copies of characters previously.
The module does not seem to give me a clear layout of Lilywhite, but basically the parade is taking you from outside Cayden's Keg to the Lumberyard by a roundabout route. You do need to come along for the adventure hook I am afraid - choochoo! :) I have posted the map of Lilywhite in the google slides listed under my profile for Plunder and Peril combat maps will also be handled on here as well as NPCs pics, etc.
