"If you can pull this Shaman out, we can just get him but I think we maybe ought to pull back a bit." Gregary says. "This approach seems prohibitively difficult for people of our stature."
Then, he points his hand and lets loose magic missiles.
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It's a cave that goes in, with a hole that goes down. The xvart with the spellcasting is floating up from the hole. Right?
Yeah, Gregary goes dead last, so...
Gregary stays outside of the cavern for now, waiting for the rubble to be cleared before he rushes in to help. He casts dancing lights and directs two of the lights to rush in to the head of the cave, to aid in sight for his human allies.
"I'm for luring them out somehow if we can. Even if only some of the xvarts emerge we'll be breaking up their forces into smaller numbers, and we have the advantage out here. We'll be able to determine our positioning at will, also." says Gregary. "Scouts are welcome, of course, to go in - I have no experience at being quiet so I'll stay out here."
"We'd need to build it inside the cave itself, but if we're willing to risk the danger I'm okay with using smoke." Gregary wraps his face up in consternation. "There is a problem, though - they have kobold slaves. If we smoke them out we may suffocate the creatures."
"Do we want to attract attention?" Gregary asks while Cutie paws his way around the area. "Raggo can make some serious noise, you know." He raises an eyebrow.
Gregary will stick back with the others as well, waiting for any answers to his questions. "Apparently not, I should assume?"
Gregary quietly studies his spellbook inside his tent when he gets up, although he's slightly displeased that Terra slipped out so quickly. What else should be have expected from a Calistrian, though? ... When they arrive at the cave at the end of a decent day's journey, he strokes his chin, hand on his falcata's hilt. "I see three options before us - scout for information, charge in, and lure the enemies out to us. In terms of safety, setting up a defensible position first and then luring the enemies out into our fortifications. Does anybody have a reach weapon? Or a shovel? An easy way to dig a trench or build a magical wall?"
Terra:
Gregary smiles widely when he realizes who it is and why she's here, and unbuckles his weapon-belt, laying it on the ground. "No reward is necessary for whatever I've done for you, but... that doesn't mean I'd balk at entertaining you for a night."
He beckons her towards his bedroll, grinning. It's quite a difficult night to sleep for everybody, and whomever is on first watch is quite uncomfortable as intimate noises emanate from Gregary's tent, beginning about ninety minutes after bedtime. It continues for about an hour before finally subsiding. Anyone who thinks there might have been peace, however, discovers something different during the second watch, when the sounds begin again. The third leg of the night goes without incident, though. Gregary and Terra sleep in late the next morning.
Terra: Gregary takes a long self-hygiene break at the beginning and end of every day. In terms of this circumstance, it means that instead of sleeping, he's dry-shampooing and shaving when he hears a rustling noise nearby. He makes sure to quickly wipe his face of shaving cream and get up, snatching up his sheathed falcata and binding it around his waist - an advantage of being Gregary is that he has no need for armor, so his battle preparation time is very low.
He goes to check out the sound he'd heard.
Gregary holds Terra gingerly at first, but then he gives her a real hug. "Killing that creature would have been a mercy for its wretched existence, not worthy of the word "murder", nor of your tears." he murmurs into her ears. He holds her while her cries, and strokes her hair, and whispers "shhh" until Aerodus and Wulfrun get back.
"Hah, that's right, you'd better run! Bring the fear back to your masters!" shouts Gregary, waving his falcata around intimidatingly while the final xvart flees.
Then, he heads over towards Terra when she goes to play. "Were you serious when you mentioned getting the military involved in this? Or were we gonna... Oh, Terra." he places a hand on her shoulder, kneeling beside her. "Are you alright?"
Gregary, who had been fighting the same xvart, looms over him while Terra tries to get answers out of it. He nods appreciatively at her while she heals him, and all of his wounds close up. When she begins to speak, he kneels down, his falcata at the ready. "If you know what's good for you, you'll tell this woman who sent you. You don't want to see what she's capable of if provoked." He draws a line across his throat suggestively. "I've seen her do...terrible things."
Gregary goes in for a pommel smash on the tripped Xvart, hoping that his martial training finally kicks in.
Growling with frustration, Gregary takes a step forward towards the xvarts attacking Terra. He and Wulfrun were having a poor time of it keeping the creatures off of their cleric, but that was going to change soon enough. He steps forward and he lunges at one of the xvarts with his falcata.
Gregary appears near Wulfrun and Terra with a flash of steel from his falcata.
Deciding that he's having very little luck with striking them manually, Gregary decides to cast another spell - he holds his hands out and chants for a few moments, and then a pair of purple bolts of energy fly from his hands to one of the xvarts attacking Wulfrun.
Gregary tumbles away from the Xvarts, moving towards Terra Minora and the Xvart that she's in combat with. He trusts in his invisibility to keep him safe, and he's somewhat sorry that these creatures will be unoccupied and go to attack somebody new.
Gregary easily sweeps aside the blow of the first Xvart, his blade running the length of its sword and delivering a powerful blow of his own in response. He takes another step out of flanking position and attempts to deliver another blow to the Xvart whose blow he parried. While he swird, his voice builds up in volume, quickly speaking arcane formulae.
His sword attack goes far wide and he curses at the end of his arcane formula. Just as he pulls back into his defensive stance, he vanishes from view.
Gregary thinks for a moment while observing the fight. "There's an invisible enemy out there! Everybody be careful!" he shouts, pointing towards the Xvart that Terra enchanted. "He's attacking thin air - there must be something there!"
Gregary dances out to the side of one of the creatures, drawing his falcata and leaping back into a fighting pose, holding his sword out defensively in front of him. He laughs, "Little slaver goblins! We're not dealing with devils at all, but greedy xvarts!" "Good news," he says, while taking a step forward and thrusting at the xvart with his sword. "We probably don't have to deal with a bunch of imps." "Bad news, they could be working with the demonic cult we learned about earlier. Somebody go and help Wulfrun!"
- - -
If an attack is directed at me: ...Then Gregary will use opportune parry and riposte, an AoO and an arcane pool point to try and deflect it.
Gregary, who is checking the horses and not around the fire like the rest of the group, is not targeted by any of the xvarts (likely because they didn't notice him) turns to see his allies getting attacked by a number of blue-skinned goblinoids. He narrows his eyes and his hand goes to his sword-hilt.
"Wulfrun, the point is that the two occurences are connected." says Gregary for the fourth time during their journey. The cavalier had objected several times to their new decision, and didn't quite get why they were doing it. "I and the rest of your compatriots are theorizing that this...Egg and these darkfolk are connected to the little devils. Something new is happening and these things are part of it."
"Based off of the information that Rudwilla is giving up, it seems like a more effective use of our time to visit this...Abraxas Egg." says Gregary, to Aliesah's question. "We know that there are worshippers of thees dieties in the region, and we know that they're being active, obviously. And the Egg is close to where we're expecting the 'devils' to be." he finishes, even using air-quotes. "Wouldn't it make sense to visit the Egg and search around it?"
On the other hand, Aerodus, your rules might bring up the following situation: "I, Gregary, have just defeated a foe and looted him! Oh, he carries a very nice falcata, my specialized weapon! Excellent, I will use this fine weapon." -two days later, we return to town- "Alas, I cannot afford this nice weapon that I've been using to vanquish foes for two days that nobody else can use. I must relinquish it to the party fund!" I propose a system in which we: 1.) Keep track of how much wealth we have individually
Gregary leans over and reads it over Aerodus' shoulder, actually chuckling a couple of times. From what casting he had seen of Rudwilla, she was a fairly powerful witch indeed, and apparently formidable amongst demon lords. "And what did you do to get the enmity of a demon lord's cult?"
If nobody else will, Gregary will accept one of Rudwilla's spell-casts. He'll even be a bit derisive of the others - "I understand that all of you are being selfless and all, but...sometimes, you just need to accept help."
Rudwilla's spell restores his damaged lungs and he nods his head respectfully at the witch. He thanks her kindly for letting them all sleep in her house, though he does not have a bedroll. He tries to find a comfortable place to lay, but he cannot, so he leans himself up against a corner during the night and nods off into his knees.
Gregary narrows his eyes, but he recognizes at least that this creature likely isn't going to tell him anything else that he wants to know, so he drops the little thing and proceeds outside. Somebody called for help. When he sees the situation - the witch coming back, the girl calling for help, seven armed individuals standing near her house...well, s$%!. This could go poorly. Gregary sheathes his weapon.
"Where did these creatures come from?" says Gregary, gesturing to the corpses around him. "From what I hear from my friends outside, there aren't any tracks outside from these creatures. Did they come from underground? Were they created or housed here?"
"I found this tiny creature spying on me." Gregary says, indicating the quivering gremlin in his hands. "It must have been in the house for awhile. It's likely that it knows what happened to Rudwilla and these stalkers."
Gregary strides over to the tiny creature and tries to lift it up by its collarbone. "I'm speaking to you, gremlin. And you will tell me what I want to know." He's got his sword in one hand, ready for any...mischief.
Gregary finishes identifying the first group of items and moves on to the sinspawn's items - he stands up and begins to walk over to the sinspawn's corpse, but while checking it out he sees movement. He looks up to see a tiny creature lying on the ground, eyes squeezed tightly shut, and his face contorts with frustration. Gremlins. "You!" he shouts, "You're going to tell me what happened here and you're going to tell me right now."
Taking Cayosin's word (and a nod to the dragonborn) he sits cross-legged on the floor in front of their pile of new loot and begins to scan and attempt to identify each item that's garnered.
Spellcraft Rolls:
What about when we're rolling more than one dice? Do we re-roll all 1s or the whole set of dice?
Cast cure serious wounds, rolls 3d8:
Total healing: 5+5+3+CL (when at first I rolled 1s? Also, I had to roll three times for a cure spell?) In terms of IC versus OOC knowledge: I prefer to not be given any information that my PC doesn't have. I already have a lot of OOC knowledge that my PCs don't have, just from being a DM who looks stuff up a lot. I don't like more than that. Also, I find it's easier to wait for everybody to roll before stating results: It really cuts down on posts.
It's a buff, I'm not going to complain about it. It's not something I use at my tables, though.
"So..." says Gregary, holding his torso and grimacing with pain. His throat and lungs hurt - that smoke had dealt some damage to him, even if he had managed to resist it twice. "Rudwilla's gone. Any of you trackers? And are any of you very hurt? We could stand to use a couple of those potions." "Not that we should take any more than we need right now - the lesser restorations and maybe a couple of the cure lights could be useful, though."
Gregary coughs as the last dark stalker falls to the greatswords of his allies and the acid enhancement fades on his weapon. He feels relatively useless, but at least the creatures fell... Perhaps he'll have to prepare magic missile more in the future. Between hacking fits, he asks, "Is everyone alright? Those creatures were noxious but not, I think, particularly strong." he turns around to see where the girl had been laying. "Where did that girl go? Who has her?"
I personally prefer the posts happening in order and the GM posting for the enemies' actions rather that summarizing the PCs actions - my Wrath game's GM does it very well. Then again, I'm concerned with aesthetic quite a lot. It's a stylistic choice, and as long as I know when it's my turn then I'm satisfied.
When Gregary sees that Terra's dragged the girl far enough away, he lashes out with his acid-bubbling sword again, hoping to end the life of this foul creature.
Gregary adopts a defensive posture, holding back with his sword for the moment while Cayosin and the dark slayer spar. "Be careful, Cayosin. And don't strike just yet. Perhaps try to subdue the creature." His sword still is bubbling with acid, and the occasional drop falls to sizzle on the ground, and he is prepared to parry a blow. If an Attack is directed at Gregary:
the heavy horse is statted out, and the only difference between that and a combat-trained one is that the hoof attacks of a combat-trained horse gain +5 to hit.
Having done whatever he can for Cora, Gregary jumps up and maneuvers carefully into the combat, closing with the dark slayer Khalylrok. His sword flashes with a blaze of arcane power, bubbling with acid as he swings it towards his opponent.
If an attack is directed at me: Gregary expends a point from his arcane pool to use opportune parry and riposte.
Gregary parries expertly with his falcata, swiping at the attack that's levied towards him.
I apparently lack your tact, Aerodus. If you want a leveled animal to bring along with you, I suggest investing a couple of feats and gaining animal ally.
I'm struggling to understand what you meant by this. A light horse (the kind you buy) has 2 HD, and you don't just get to add HD - that's just how much HD horses have.
Gregary coughs as the smoke envelops a large area around them, although he leans down to try and shield the girl beneath him from whatever he can, folding his body over hers.
Gregary looks at the little girl. "You ok?" He has confidence that Wulfrun, Raggo and Aerodus all together can defeat the three sinspawn, but he can be there for them in a moment if he's wrong. "What did they do to you? Where did all of this...glue come from?"
Gregary uncorks the vial of troll styptic in his hand and begins to spread it on the unconscious girl at his feet, trying to ensure that she wakes and is okay as soon as possible.
Gregary casts light on his own falcata and takes a couple steps into the room, kneeling at the side of the downed (and glued) girl. "Occupy the sinspawn! And somebody get farther into the inner sanctum! Raggo?" He then looks at the girl at his feet. "Are you okay?" he murmurs, digging in his backpack for a vial of one of his alchemical remedies.
Not if there are actions that we don't have control of in between the PCs actions. In this example, the sinspawn acts in the middle of the initiative order. I dunno about you, but what my action is would be different depending on what the enemy's actions are. |