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It took Judah a while to pull himself from the trows of panic. Even with things under control he was still scrambling around urging Mathus to help Lorant. It wasn't until Lorant was awake and the Doc said he'd be fine that Judah finally collapsed, leaning hard against the coils of his enormous guardian and breathing heavily. "That... did not go well." he said bitterly after he had a moment to catch his breath.
I can't wait for someone to tell him that. He's going to be so upset. >.<
In another life, Judah would have made a really good cleric. All his instincts are right for the job. He just doesn't have armor, or a god that cares.
Judah followed Lorant, a new wave of panic gripping him as his friend fell unconscious again. He'd used his only healing potion. Maybe Lorant had one? But where? He didn't have time to pat him down and go through every pouch and pocket. Mathus' bomb snapped him back to reality. "Fire. Right. Fire works." "Doc, get your ass over here and get Lorant on his feet!" Judah shouted. "You underground! drag those trolls back up here and keep hold of them so we can light them on fire!" "You!" he snapped, pointing at the elemental. "When the trolls come up from the ground, burn them!" With at least some semblance of a plan, Judah started to move to support Dylan, but then his pit failed. The trollhound raised out of the ground again, right next to Mathus. "F%+&." His plan suddenly out the window, Judah didn't have time to think. He threw himself into harms way to save his friends. Again.
Judah didn't know anything about treating injuries, but it didn't take much to tell that Lorant was hurt bad. He looked up at the troll struggling in the grasp of the terrible serpent, and decided to take a risk. He yanked open one of the pouches on his bandoleer, pulled out a potion, and dumped it into Lorant's mouth.
From the wavering ground near the edge of the extra-dimensional pit where the fabric of reality was thin, smoke coalesced into embers and flame. The thing that pulled itself clear of the pit was like a twisting campfire with clawed limbs and a single bright yellow point that gave the impression of an eye. After looking around for a moment, it locked onto Judah, waiting. "Kill the trolls," Judah whispered angrily. Then he ran. He rounded wide around where his horrid guardian and the troll battled until he could squeeze against the wall near where Lorant had fallen.
If only we had a doctor standing 20 feet away.... GM, can you take over Doc so Lorant doesn't die?
Thanks for the retcon, GM. And sorry for not posting my problem in the discussion thread. Not sure how that mistake got made.
Something doesn't add up, but I'm not sure where it is. It's not obvious which of the two trolls is attacking, but either way attacking me should have required the troll to move. Moving next to the pit requires a reflex save to keep from falling in. Also, Gate has reach and combat reflexes. Neither of those triggered, and I should be out of 5' adjust distance. I moved off the map to give myself room to cast. If I could have gone further, I would have. I probably should have made it clear that I was trying to be out of 5' adjust distance before I started casting. Maybe I got the distances wrong. Am I missing something? I'm willing to eat the attack and lose the spell. Judah is definitely panicking and could have made a mistake. I just don't want to get screwed because of things that got misunderstood or forgotten.
Judah felt like time slowed when Lorant fell. Like he was moving through molasses. He heard someone screaming, and then realized it was him. The pyramid hanging from his belt responded to his anger and fear like pressure valve on a steam engine. It clicked and ratcheted. Red light and smoke spilled from the cracks in the strange polygon, and from the ground in front of the troll. Fire started crawling out of the runescars in the dirt.
The boards look the same to me. That's the important part.
"There's another one? Why is there another one?" Judah complained. He moved to the other side of Mathis and fired his crossbow again.
Checking in
Take care of yourself, GM. Don't worry about us. We'll still be here when you're feeling better.
As Judah closed in with his crossbow he swore and started immediately backpedaling as the troll hauled itself out of the pit. Then Gate surged out of the ground, wrapped around it and dragged it under. He let out a relieved breath and looked around. With his line of fire suddenly clear, he took a shot at one of the goblins in the gatehouse, and then reloaded.
Yeah, the grapple rules are kinda crazy, but hey, it beats 1st edition AD&D! Ha! True. In my opinion, Pathfinder's grapple rules would be fine with a couple pretty simple changes. 2) If you are the Controlling Grappler at the start of your round, and succeed on a Grapple check to Injure, you can take a Full Attack as a Move action. 2) Constrict deals damage upon a successful grapple check once per round These aren't playtested, so there's probably some feat interactions I'm not considering, but I think it solves the silliness with all the letting go and re-grabbing, and the problem where the non-controlling grappler is the only one that can full attack.
It is still utterly baffling to me that if you have Grab and start a turn already grappling, the best thing to do is let go. RAW, Maintaining a Grapple is a Standard action, and if you succeed you can choose to Injure as a free action (giving you a single attack with a 1 handed or natural weapon). VS. Letting go as a free action. Taking a full attack (Bite, Bite, Tailslap) with a free Grab if any of them connect. It'll be even dumber when Gate gets Constrict. At that point the most advantageous thing to do would be to let go of an opponent after each attack. Grab gives a free grapple attempt after each successful attack, and Constrict deals damage for a successful grapple. Let go as a free action, rinse, repeat. Letting go between attacks is the difference between 1 attack/grapple a round and 3. I think it's dumb, and I refuse to do it. It's a huge nerf to what Gate could be doing to this troll, and I hope it doesn't get us killed. I guess I could consider it the the balancing factor to being able to bury anything I grapple, but that's kinda specific to this character. The grapple rules are just bad.
"Uh... Judah stalled as his toss went wide, then pulled out his crossbow and moved to see if he could get a shot down into the pit.
Judah did not want to get closer to the massive troll, but he wasn't about to let his friends face them alone. He patted himself down, trying to think of something he could do. His hands found the flask of academical fire they'd found at the chemical factory. Trolls hated fire, right? That's what the stories said. He moved closer until he thought he was close enough, then hauled back and tossed the vial.
He missed horribly. He looked down at his shaking hand like it had betrayed him. Shock, embarrassment and anger overwrote his fear. The polyhedron hanging from his belt clicked into a new configuration. He glared at the troll. "Die."
Is the Trollhound Gate had grappled dead? Whats the floor of the gatehouse? Is it burrow-able?
A couple of map corrections/questions- 1) Gate is Large now. I've changed his size on the map, but i'm not sure exactly where it is under the ground. 2) Judah's pit is still present, but I'm not sure where. (Where the troll-dog is?) It's 10x10'. Anything near it should be making Reflex saves to avoid falling in.
Still hiding, Judah swore under his breath. His nervous fear fed into his connection with the strange polyhedron hanging from his belt. Time got twitchy.
"F!~@," Judah muttered. A pair of yellowish triangles of energy appeared near Judah and began slowly orbiting him.
...immediately afterward the ground dropped out from beneath the second dog.
GM, one of the ability combos I've been building towards has finally come online, so I wanted to talk about it and make sure we're in agreement about how the rules work. In it's Serpentine form Gate has a 15' reach (20 with Enlarge Person up). With Burrow, it can attack from below the ground like a sandworm. It has grab, so it grapples if it hits. The Grapple rules state that a grappled creature is pulled to the closest adjacent space to their attacker. For Gate, that's 10 or 15 feet underground. Burrowing leaves a hole, which collapses after the burrowing creature moves, leaving lose dirt behind. By my read, all that should mean creatures with Burrow and Grapple should be able to bury enemies alive (it's loose dirt, so they can dig themselves out, but if they're fighting while underground they're blind and squeezing). What do you think? Is your ruling different? If you don't like it I can change things up.
"Dylan, lets get a little closer, but try to stay downwind. I'm going to see if I can take them by surprise. When things go off, go ahead and rush in. Hopefully we can take them out before they start drawing attention."
"Me? Uh, alright. Let me see what I can do," Judah said nervously. 'Hey, uh, do you think you can kill those dog things near the bridge as fast and quiet as possible?' Judah silently asked his otherworldly guardian.
"Hey, what the- OW!" Judah yelped, grabbing his head. Vertigo swam over him as his vision split between two different places and sights. He promptly sat down in the dirt to avoid falling over. "F+@$ me, that is really unpleasant," he muttered. "I see... uh, big dogs?" he said, rubbing his eyes. "A bridge. A waterfall. Two goblins, and uh, trolls? I think? Another dog and troll on the other side of the bridge."
Finally got around to leveling up Judah. He didn't get a very big upgrade, but holy f#!# did Gate get better. I somehow managed to forget to level him up at 5th level, so he jumped from 4th to 6th. So now our favorite freaky monster is awesome. His burrowing serpentine form is Large with a 15 foot reach, and has a +23 Grapple and Grab. When things are grappled they get pulled into an adjacent square. So he can pop out, bite someone, yank them underground with him and then let go. If they don't have Burrow, they're buried. His flying, pouncing, combat form is also Large, and hits like a truck. Claw/Claw/Bite, with Rend, all at 1d6+11 His so-far-unrevealed sneaky form has a +19 Stealth with a 50% miss chance, DR5/Lawful, with Ghost Touch and +1d6 Bleed damage with his claws.
"Judah, Dylan, can your 'friends' scout ahead to see what might await us in the gatehouse?" "Mmm, sure. Give me a minute," Judah said. | "Scout, report back, keep out of sight, don't hurt anything," Judah said, being very careful with his instructions and wording.
This game's 10 year anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks.
Did I miss a level up at some point? Currently I'm 5th. Should I jump straight to 7th?
Judah nearly choked when he looked into the bag. He tucked it away with mumbled thanks and slightly trembling hands. He didn't feel like he was much closer to understanding his own condition, but at least his money problems were over. "Where's Slosscarmak?" he asked, butchering the pronunciation.
Judah made himself scarce. He had no desire to be in the sights of an angry mob. Who know what his terrifying protector would do if they turned on him. It really wouldn't matter what the thing did. Judah would be labeled a monster just the same. It would be far too easy to end up in the same situation as the Beast.
Judah snorted. "So you can be trained."
"And why would someone who can do that" Judah said, gesturing to the demolished door, "Let himself be taken in by a few guards, while taking care not to injure them, and not have the thing he supposedly stole on him?" "Where did that effigy end up?"
Judah wandered through the mess, eyeing everything on display, and the impressive display of strength it must have taken to batter down the door. "He was caught here? Red handed?"
"So Doc, if you have a little time, we could use some help. Professor Lorrimer's last wishes have, uh, snowballed a bit, so now we're the ones who are supposed to be investigating the Beast of Lepisdat." Judah gestured around the messy workshop. "Do you know anyone who was here when this happened?"
"Hmm. Did we ever figured out what he was doing at the university in teh first place," Judah mused. "Seems like a pretty stupid place for him to go under any circumstances."
"There is a connecting thread here." Judah said, tapping his chin in thought. "Those surgery tools we found in the swamp, where all those people were skinned. They lead us to Vorstagg and Grine, and they definitely have connections to someone else we haven't found yet." "Mister Kappel, which crime did the Beast get accused of first?" Judah asked the Barrister.
T'is the season...
You really nailed that last question, Lorant. Nice work.
"Stuff like this makes me wonder why the Magistrate's office doesn't keep a priest or a diviner on retainer." Judah muttered quietly. "Seems like a lot of this could have been skipped that way." "I guess the longer the trial drags on, the more the barristers and the judge get paid."
Judah snorted himself awake as tension and noise began to build in the courtroom. He tried to pretend he hadn't fallen asleep in his chair and hoped nobody noticed. It seemed like things were getting interesting.
Birthy Happday!
Checking in again.
"Speaking as this crew's token rube, the Doc ain't wrong," Judah shrugged. "If we can use that to help Beastie here, great."
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