Ksenia Frostforge's page

Ksenia clambors onto the ship next to Alexandra. There's a sheen to her skin, a wild glint in her eyes. "Yes!" She bubbles. "A boat is just what we need! Vas-shoggoth is terrifying but despite appearing in the water initially, during the rectification of the Vuldrini, his slayer came as a large and moving Torg, which in the translation means 'ship of souls'. Some might contend it was a sentient ship, with a name like that. But in any case the subtext is clear and this ship will be our salvation!"

Oh I ran a lovely Strange Aeons campaign that I heavily modified -- it died after book 2 or so, but "book 2" lasted for like six months because we really fleshed out and homebrewed a bunch of content for Thrushmoor and added in some Frog God Games cult modules in the hinterlands around it. Such a good start.

I don't know if it works exactly the same but the Laundry Files is based off of the Cthulhu system mostly (modern but with a tongue in cheek take based on some novels), and it had a really fantastic madness mechanic, in which your madness save was related to your mythos knowledge attribute. I.e. to save versus madness you had to roll under your mythos knowledge attribute, so the more you learned the more likely you were to fail madness check. Always thought it was a cool implementation of eldritch knowledge being dangerous.

Ksenia stares in awe at the immense horror towering above them all and applauds how incredible Alexandra's eldritch illusions have gotten over these last few weeks. She turns to grin at Alexandra and instead sees her friend scream and run from the shore. Ksenia's grin falters and she looks at the beast, back at everyone running, and back at the beast.

charisma: 1d20 ⇒ 9

madness: 1d100 ⇒ 90

Ksenia runs screaming away from the creature.

oh I'm sure rolling higher on madness is better :-D

duration: 1d10 ⇒ 9 hours (times 10=90 hours ... I can't figure out how to get it to multiply in the macro itself, probably missing something silly)

With the guards distracted and not physically holding them in the least, Ksenia thumbs her nose at the guard nominally tasked with her execution and springs forward towards the idol, leaping off of the stingray's wing to, where the priestess is under attack from her own father. "The fish rots from the head!" She yells and whips her short sword forward in a wicked stab towards her abdomen.

init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

sword: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

She follows Kalanzar's bolt in, slamming her blade deeply with all her weight.

dmg sneak attack: 1d6 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + (3, 4) + 3 = 11

Ksenia sighs and materializes out of the darkness from behind the Kua, a couple of them jumping at her sudden appearance.

"Alright if we're taking the job, we're taking the job." Ksenia grumbles. She tosses a pair of algae cakes to the famished looking Maddy. "But the victory feast better not be more algae."

Explanation for new players if you haven't meticulously read the whole adventure: a while back we found a short sword that Maddy and I can summon back and forth from each other as a bonus action.

Ksenia concentrates and the short sword blinks from Maddy's bag into her outstretched hand with a slight pop. ::Well, we've got at least one weapon that doesn't need smuggled in.::

Ksenia samples an algae cake and almost gags. Bitter. So bitter. And salty. Will have to think of a way to make these palatable. Maybe the base for a broth? Can make a broth of just about anything.

She listens to the exchange and is highly unenthused about the plan. ::So the first group of Kua wanted to forcibly put us in chains and lead us to be sacrificed. This group wants to politely put us in chains and lead us to sacrifice but trust that actually it's a ruse so we'll fight their civil war for them.::

Ksenia considers this while going back to the jerky. ::I'm not necessarily voting no, I just think we should have some type of collateral or leverage.::

Ksenia puts on a necklace made of serrated teeth like a shark hanging on twine made of dried kelp that she finds on one of the Kuo-toa and upon hearing that there are more creatures incoming slinks behind some boulders a couple of dozen feet away so that she'll be near their backs as they reach the party.

"I don't speak the language and can't negotiate worth a wet shaker of salt in my own language, so I'll be more use as a hidden asset if the need arises."

stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18

Ksenia settles in and starts munching on some of the fish jerky. She watches the interchange as it begins, hand close to her sword if called upon.

Ksenia looks on at the injured friends, paces back and forth as those with healing knowledge get to work on triage. She mutters to herself "Can't swim very well and don't know a thing about medicine. But granddad always said if you aren't being useful, you ain't looking hard enough."

Ksenia moves to help search the bodies for anything that might be useful. She knows little about healing and so would have an eye out for anything that looks edible - food has been scarce in the Underdark - in addition to any other equipment so that we can move on as quickly as possible before any more patrols come.

Ksenia looks in horror at the still waters, and her mind's eye pokes at where Stool's connection used to be, like a missing tooth. She takes in the scene around her: dead and dying creatures breathing their last, her own sword dripping crimson, the milling confusion of their party. And always the feeling of pursuit from somewhere behind them in the darkness.

She has no idea what to do about finding Stool, but she sees that their friends from the Underdark, the ones with whom they shared no tongue but that Stool provided, are suddenly uncertain, frightened. They speak but the words no longer translate in her head. With Zayad and others dead along the way, and now Stool gone, their fellowship was fracturing before her eyes.

Ksenia stumbles over to Shuushaar, Jimjar, and Sarith. "Without Stool we cannot touch minds. But we are still friends and will find a way forward. Do we have any language between us that Shuushaar speaks?"

If I'm remembering correctly, we've definitely spoken aloud to Sarith, I can't quite remember about Jimjar, and am pretty sure that Shuushaar doesn't speak common".

@Angie, just doublechecking: the Kuo whom Alexandra and I were flanking and offered the chance to surrender refused and got killed right?

Ksenia blinks the negative purples seered into her retinas and glances from the smoking remains of the fleeing Kuo and back to the one flanked by her and Alexandra.

"But whatever you decide to do, I think it's fair to warn you that our drow is half lightning elemental on his dad's side."

Seeing Alexandra flanking the last non-entangled fighter standing, Ksenia catches its eye, points at it with her short sword, and then motions as if dropping the short sword to the ground. She then readies her blade.

"Drop your weapon, friend." Ksenia says. "There has been enough blood spilled today but if there is to be more it will be yours."

If it decides to keep fighting, here is an attack and damage role if relevant to allow things to keep moving.

attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

damage: 1d6 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + (1, 6) + 3 = 14

@Alexandra: your damage looks like it was 1d26 instead of .. 2d6 maybe?

I for one am partial to Gyloumari, eating fried devil tentacles has a certain revolutionary aspect for me.Yzalina breaks the 4th wall and informs the party of her nutritional "seafood" preferences.

I don't know what a Glue Mary is, Ksenia chirps into the Stool collective. But if they're anything like Nimbral calamari, the key is using rice flour mixed with the flour to get the crisp just right.

If you attack any of the three enemies in Entangle radius, and if they fail their saves, you will get advantage to your attacks, so perhaps make a second roll just in case?

Oh thanks, I didn't catch that, here's a second attack roll then if the leader does fail its save.

attack with advantage because of entanglement: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

Ooh! Damage was rolled above: 15.

With Hue tossed away, the badly injured Kuo in front of Ksenia can bring its full attention to her and shifting back and forth on her toes she realizes that it will be difficult to bring down. Over its shoulder though, she sees Alexandra land a terrible blow on the hulking leader -- and takes Kalanzar's words to heart.

She feints right, and then rolls left, past the wounded Kuo to slash at the leader while it is paying attention to Alexandra, trying to finish it before it can do any more damage.

stabbing at leader: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11

that probably misses, but...: 1d6 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + (5, 5) + 3 = 15

Mechanically: Ksenia won't get sneak attack on the first Kuo since there is no one left adjacent to it, so she uses cunning action to disengage as a bonus action -- i.e. can move without provoking for the turn -- to move past it and stab at the leader instead since Alexandra being in melee flips on the ability to sneak attack. But, probably missed anyway.

No worries on the bag of stones! I was just doing it for color since I had the action available and thought in character annoying her enemy would be something Ksenia would do! I'll look forward to seeing if there's anything interesting about them.

Ksenia plucks a small leather pouch off of the Kua-Toa's belt as it's distracted and feels it is filled with small hard objects of some sort. With a flick of her wrist she snaps it open and finds it filled with a variety of pebbles. Not one is the same but all are smooth and glossy as if from a stream bed, and each sparkles with a bit of different color, turquoises and azures and crimson splashed throughout.

She cocks her head at the Kuo-Tua in front of her, "Pretty!" She says to him brightly, but then glowers, pulls herself by the shaft of his spear and thrusts her sword forward. "But refugees are not shishkabobs."

sword thrust: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

damage if that hits: 1d6 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + (4, 3) + 3 = 12

Yeah, we came in peace looking for help and these guys ended up having a dwarf in chains and attacked us unprovoked. Ksenia will not be enslaved again, and will die or flee back into the Underdark to avoid it.

As the net settles upon her, Ksenia reflexively swipes her short sword up to cut it to pieces.

slash the net: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

dmg: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

She shrugs out of the net and glares at the Kuo-Toa in front of her. Ksenia waves her sword wildly and then as it is distracted darts her free hand forward to snatch anything that catches her eye hanging on its person.

sleight of hand: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Ksenia is using her brand new third level rogue ability Fast Hands: Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, use your thieves' tools to disarm a trap or open a lock, or take the Use an Object action.

Welcome Precious and Hue!

Ksenia went with the Thief archetype at level 3. She intends shenanigans will be had with Fast Hands!

Ksenia's gut rolls over seeing another dwarf in chains, and she wraps her hand tightly around her short sword as the conversation begins via Stool.

"I've yet to meet a dwarf down in these depths whose story isn't "and then a monster slapped me in irons". I am Ksenia of the Frostforge clan, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance and it will be my honor to strike the bonds from an Ironeater."

Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Hearing the Kuo-Toa shout, Ksenia whips out her sword and spins behind her. "But first, we have witches to handle!" Ksenia cries out. Finding no threat, she completes the spin to return facing forward, with a jaunty shuffle of her feet that she imagines makes it look intentional.

Having lost the initiative, she licks her lips and braces for the enemy's move. "A witch! Slavers who look like a trout and a dead frog had a baby shouldn't be throwing insults around so freely."

[dice=Ksenia's madness]1d3

Ksenia started to laugh. It started as a giggle, but quickly turned into a big, dwarven belly-laugh. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she laughed and snorted and tried to speak. "Of course the moss killed him! Giant scorpions, drow poison, no problem! Melting demons, we can elude them! But the moss! Oh, we're all going to die down here." Slowly the laughter burbled itself out, and the dwarf became quiet, trying to catch her breath.

And just as Ksenia catches her breath and thinks she can think again, Alex unleashes hell on the moss. She falls over again, cackling, "And now we're fighting moss! And when we are victorious, we shall storm the algae and massacre the lichen! We are become death, destroyer of fungi!"

cha or wis? Why not dump both?: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Minutes: 1d10 ⇒ 1

Madness: 1d100 ⇒ 28

Ksenia is fine with that watch order.

Ksenia's stomach rumbles at the thought of omelets ... and has conflicted emotions about the lizards being friendly, and therefore their eggs are off limits.

Constitution: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Hi all, sorry for being absentee for a bit, as I said before my absence I was having a cascade of family health emergencies. I think we're in the clear now, or at least as clear as it will be.

I'm enjoying the campaign quite a bit and would like to keep playing, thank you for botting Ksenia a bit while I was out. Sorry to see Ziyad go, but I appreciate their letting us know and think the idea of SURPRISE dramatic death is a good one.

In any case, I'll slide back in with a post after bit.

My apologies, I've had some personal emergencies this week and haven't been able to be on here as much as I'd like. I'll try to post this weekend. I am still greatly enjoying this campaign, but if you need to bot me or move the action along otherwise in the next few days, I will understand.

Ksenia holds her breath as the drow pass, squeezing her eyes shut as they pass near enough to touch, their gray cloaks whispering in the darkness.

The drow have passed me, they're still following you. The demon thing followed Kalanzar, so there are only three drow tracking you, and one of them is injured now. He tripped and just about broke his leg! And they say dwarves are clumsy!

She pauses, thinking, and then continues. Do you want to stage an ambush -- you from their front, and I fall on their backs?

Ksenia sucks air in over and over again, her lungs on fire. She already was falling behind everyone even dashing as fast as she could, they were just a bit faster than her and it kept adding up over and over. Ducking the splatter that sails over her head, Ksenia grimaces and makes a decision.

::Run friends! Slow and steady I'll watch the rear!::

Ksenia moves slowly, trying to catch her breath and slink through the shadows of the cavern to slip the gaze of the pursuing drow, to catch them unawares if they catch up.

stealth with disadvantage: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

stealth with disadvantage: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

single move instead of dashing, she can't keep this up and will watch the backs of everyone

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 6

dexterity: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Ksenia looks back over shoulder just in time to see the demon mist roil over Shuushar. She moans in both fear and rage at herself for not turning back to help the poor sweet man who wouldn't spill blood even in this nightmare of an underworld. But her knives, she knew, her knives were but metal and would do nothing to demons turned into clouds through horrible unknown magics.

The distraction made her miss the tangle of fungal vines sprouting out of the faerzress, and for one terrible moment it is looped tight around an ankle, about to send her sprawling ... but Ksenia flings herself forward, tumbling so that her foot pulls back and free even as she launch into a forward roll, that unfolds back into a running dwarf perfectly in stride.

Her effort is just enough to get her to the beginning of the passage, and lungs heaving, she steps to the side and waves anyone behind her through.

:: Got it! Right and down it is! :: Ksenia mentally chirps, trusting the drow to know the best tactics for running from drow in the underdark.

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 1

But as she turns to do so, a low hanging stalactite looms down out of the darkness ...

acrobatics: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

... but she deftly twists lower to avoid it!

insight to notice Kalanzar's house reference: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Going to assume that's too low to have picked up on the slip!

Ksenia glances over her shoulder at Jimjar's shout.

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 16

Her eyes widen and her legs keep pumping, and she wheezes her way another fifty feet, avoiding any obstacles.

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 19

No complication! Ksenia curses her stubby legs while praising her continued luck and makes it another 50 ft.

Got it, makes sense!

Huh, I totally forgot that rogues have that.

Angie H: would Ksenia be allowed to use that in the chase (each round she can use a bonus action to move her speed again, effectively allowing rogues to triple move with a dash rather than double)? I know we're not in combat rounds per se, so it's fair if not.

Ksenia dashes, running as fast as she can, realizing that she is slightly slower than the others and is going to be left behind...

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 19

Her fear fuels her luck and she avoids tripping or otherwise encountering disaster, moving another 50 ft.

Ksenia runs for her life, visions of the horrors of the drow enslavement flashing before her eyes. She concentrates only on forging forward, making sure the way is clear for her friends.

So she's dashing with her whole turn, I incremented her # of dashes to 1 on the spreadsheet -- and yes, her stat line looks correct!

complication: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Now that she is out of the water, just how freezing it was hits her like a hammer right between the eyes, but she finds some warmth in the running and manages to not slip or fall even as she splashes ahead.

That's my understanding as well.

Ksenia would definitely be running - tripping would be bad, but imminent overwhelming drow attack would outweigh the risk in her head.

Ksenia shakes water off herself like a sodden blink hound and grabs the pack and weapons of the drow she hamstrung.

Has Maddy always glowed? Ksenia asks the group via Stool. Nevermind, no time for that. Maddy, love, your radiance will pull them after us like moths to a campfire, might want to cover up while we run. She pulls the drow's cloak off and tosses it to Maddy.

She then rolls the body into the deep channel of water and takes off at a run in the direction they'd been heading. I'll take point and scout ahead! She enthuses.

See Maddy strike a mighty blow at one of the drow, Ksenia surges up out of the water and swipes her short sword across the back of its knees trying to finish it off:

shortsword: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

shortsword with advantage: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

dmg w/ sneak attack since adjacent to Maddy: 1d6 + 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + (5) + 3 = 14

I rolled the attack with advantage since I rolled to sneak under the water, and they moved past me without attacking me so I assume it succeeded? If not, only use the first attack roll.

Oh! Sorry! I read across the line wrong and read her as init 10

Ksenia slides into the deep part of the water and with a hand on the ledge, half swims, half hand glides her way to the edge of the mist. Spotting the drow, she ducks her head under the water and swims a few feet further, holding her breath and preparing to strike from behind if any of them move up to the mist.

stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Dash action for a double move, swimming is at half speed, so she can move 25 feet that way, since she was more or less at the center of the cloud, that should put her about ten feet outside it now, underwater.

Ksenia immediately drops flat into the water, only her head poking out, trying to angle that behind some floating mushrooms that look oddly like a dwarf's head.

stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

What if one of us on this side of the drop gets their attention and draws them after us? They fall into the hidden hole like Shuushar did and then the rest of us jump on them. She sends to the group.

As the party considers departing, Ksenia assesses their diminished numbers. "We are four less than before, but all four marched in the middle of our line, so I see no reason to change that today." She hesitates before going on, "But as exhausting as the prospect may be, I may argue in favor of pushing on as fast as we can manage this day. Who knows if Buppido has friends somewhere in the darkness, or left some surprises that would make us easier to track."

Ksenia votes in favor of fast pace today.

Ksenia leaves the explanations to others and gingerly approaches Alara's corpse. She closes her eyes, weighting them with pebbles, and crosses her hands across her chest. Into her palms she tucks a slender piece of rock that reminds her of the handle of a tool.

"I don't know the burial customs of your people, but dwarves are always laid to rest with a tool in hand. And we can't afford to leave you what tools we have, so take the closest rock I can find to one."

She looks around, frowning at the cavern. "We should bury you in rock, but there's none loose and no time to carve any free in our flight, so this cavern will have to do as a cairn. The whole underdark is your tomb, lass, and I'm sorry we couldn't have done you better."

Ksenia closes her eyes and sings quietly in Dwarven:

Världen är grå, bergen gamla
Smedjans eld är askkall
Ingen harpa är fel, ingen hammare faller
Gör ditt hem nu i gravade salar

At Ziyad's words, Ksenia's eyes widen, and she snatches her dagger from the cavern floor and flings it end over end with a flick of her wrist at Buppido's eye.

ranged dagger: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

She blinks at the after images of fire bolts, eldritch blasts, and guiding bolts. "Am I only the one who can't shoot fire out of my finger tips?"

Between the still wet blood she noticed on Buppido's hands, and the eruption of commotion, Ksenia is done with subtlety. She whips her sword up in front of her, ready for combat, staring unblinking at Buppido.

Ksenia is in the midst of laying out her bloodless (I presume!) dagger, short sword, and cooking knife when she takes in Buppido for the first time as he speaks and holds his hands out. Her hand slides back down to rest on the hilt of the short sword, frozen.

"Buppido," she says gently aloud, but enunciating every syllable. "Did you come upon any other beasts after escaping the spiders? It must have been a long and dark trek by yourself in these tunnels."

conference ... family medical stuff ... oof, sorry for dropping off so long.

I also could be the killer! Ksenia chirps into the collective brightly. After all, I use a bladed weapon, and you only have my word that the twins were there and Alora was alive on my shift.

There is a long pause. That was meant to make you feel better Alexandra. NOT to confess to murder. Because I didn't.

Ksenia wakes from nightmares of the drow prison hissing, she rolls clear of her meagre blankets before she is even awake, whipping her sword out as she does. She doesn't wait to assess the situation or look for enemies and instead dives towards the nearest cover of stalagmites and inches her way around the darkness surrounding their camp.

stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

Where are they? How many are there? she asks into the mental network.