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"Well, it looks like we have a few, at least," Moralane said, gesturing to the newcomers that had joined them. She was also unsure of bringing them along, but it didn't seem right to keep them in the dark if they were going to be risking their lives.
Moralane stood near where she thought the entrance to the Eye's sanctum was. "Around here somewhere, right?"
Honestly, I have no idea where we are. This combat has gotten pretty far outside my understanding of what's going on. I moved myself on the map and took two shots. I'll keep doing that as long as the fight keeps up. Personally, I think you should wrap things up narratively, let us regroup, and nudge us toward some kind of goal if we can't come up with one on our own.
Now I kinda want Beldain to sneak after Miagnik to learn what's going on. :)
Alright, thanks.
Wouldn't figuring out it's strengths and weaknesses be covered under Knowledge Religion, since it's undead?
Does Moralane know if Drowned Maidens have any particular resistances or vulnerabilities beyond ice and fire? It looks like they have DR vs peircing, so I thought I should check what Moralane had already learned before I start experimenting.
I guess since this encounter is a chaotic event, it makes sense that it feels so crazy. It's a little hard to follow the action though. For the new people it must seem extra disjointed and frantic.
Moralane was confused for a moment, and worried about sending Miagnik off alone to speak with the Eye, but maybe he had a point. She wasn't even sure what she would have said, and if Hal's ghost was haunting her, he'd be pissed about talking to the Eye at all. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. She took a deep breath as Miagnik ran off. "Rally on me!" she called out. "We're going to clear these monsters out of the town!" "If you down one, drag it with you! They'll come back. We need to chain them up! Stay clear of the frozen women! Take them down at range!" She started sending arrows towarded the nearest Drowned Maiden.
Moralane nodded and ran along with Miagnik. She wanted to get answers, but she knew the dangers of splitting up a group.
"Hal isn't here!" Moralane shouted. "We don't know where the box is, and the eye might! We don't have the luxury of picking what we will or wont do anymore! The fate of the world is at stake!"
"Miagnik!" What would Hal say... "Remember what the fight is about! They're going to keep coming back. They want the Wedding Gift, but they don't know where it is! We have to find it first!" "We have to talk to the Eye!"
I'd like to get some clarification before I continue in game. GM, how do you see this unfolding? What are our options?
I'm a little confused. Is the chase to see which side finds the chest first?
Moralane nodded quickly and took a shuddering breath, forcing everything she was feeling back down. "Miagnik!" she shouted "Where are you!"
Moralane was heartbroken. The appearance of Hal's ghost mean that Hal had died. "I'm so sorry..." It was all she could think to say. Her heart was lodged in her throat and her eyes began to brim.
I've always wanted to see how an Iron Caster build played. Looking forward to seeing it in action.
Beldain, at the end of an encounter, I will try to go back and identify all the arrows fired by each party member and make a roll to determine how many of those pieces of ammunition are recoverable. During combat I hope you track your own ammunition (say with an ooc note) to be sure you do not run out. My arrows are Durable. They don't break. As long as they don't fly off a cliff or something they should be recoverable.
Moralane winced as the bolt struck her. She needed more silver arrows.
Yup. She also has Produce Flame. There's options.
Another silver-tipped arrow streaked forth, finding a new target as soon as the first one fell.
An important thing to note is that attuned weapons with a +1 or higher bonus count as Magic for the purposes of damage reduction.
BY the way, if I think I understand the automatic progression rules, no one should be running around with any +(anything) magic weapons, but all magic weapons should instead have unique properties. Is this correct? If I understand you right, then yes. The bonuses come from the character and their attunement with their weapon. So the weapon still has bonuses, but they aren't bonuses that stay with the weapon if it gets passed to another person. An Attuned weapon is magical for as long as it is wielded by the person it is attuned to. The second half of your statement is completely correct. Actual enchanted weapons would just have Properties rather than Bonuses.
Moralane launched two more arrows in rapid succession at the vampire she'd already hit.
"They're vampires." Moralane said quietly as she quickly brought up her bow and fired.
Moralane picked up her pace, mentally kicking herself for not having anticipated the possibility of being followed.
"I'm going to ask that we stick together. If I'm just being paranoid, we'll have lost nothing. If I'm right in my worries, we will be much safer as a group." Moralane headed toward the fire at a jog, an arrow notched to her bow.
Take your time. That's a good reason to be away for a while.
"Alright." Moralane said. "Hopefully this is nothing and I'm just being paranoid." She strung her bow and walked out into the darkness, surprised at the number of people following her but trying not to show it.
"Something is on fire. Abut the size of a small cart. Is that normal here? Is there a bonfire out the south road?" Moralane asked no one in particular.
With Terquem's upcoming return, what do you guys think will be harassing the town? Any wagers out there? If it's anything like we've seen before, it will be horrible self-reanimating undead. A lot of them.
I have a feeling I know what's coming, and it is going to be real bad...
Moralane's nerves had been on edge and never relaxed even after leaving the crypts. She whirled to the door, pulling her bow and an arrow into her hand and running to the side of a window so she could glance outside. Were we followed?
Terquem can go to the campaign info tab and edit it so your GM alias isn't an active character anymore. That should help too.
Moralane nodded slowly at Dinura's enthusiasm. "You remind me of a friend of mine." she said with a small, slightly sad smile. "Show up tomorrow morning at the park." Glancing to the bulky newcomer she said "Yes, that is the plan. No apologies necessary. I'm just glad I'm being listened to at all."
Moralane eyed the talkative young woman for a while, thinking, then asked "Are you willing to risk death to rescue someone you don't know?"
Moralane gave the bartender a slightly surprised look. She seemed a bit judgemental but in truth she was happy for the distraction. "Wait... you own a drinking establishment, your patrons are wanting a particular drink, and the person who makes it is right in front of you..." she trailed off, hoping the barkeep would fill in the blanks himself. "I suppose how you run your business is none of mine." she shrugged. Hal's locked up somewhere in that hell hole and I'm slumming it up in a tavern having drinks and playing middleman between a brewer and a bartender who seem to be in competition for who is the island's worst businessman.
Moralane glanced at the dwarf buying her a drink. She seemed grim and distracted. She put the mug to her lips with a quiet word of thanks and took a long pull. Her brows raised and she looked at the dwarf with the beer again. "This is exquisite." She took another drink and a great deal of the tension she was carrying left her body. Now she mostly looked sad. Unshed tears welled in her eyes but never quite spilled. "Necromancers," she finally answered. "I'm afraid I won't go into more detail than that until tomorrow morning. This is jot the right setting for that discussion. Thank you for the drink."
There was something about the woman who darkened the door of the Miner's Lantern. She was attractive, but not a breathtaking beauty. She looked a bit ragged, but not in distress. She was armed, but didn't look like she was looking for a fight. It was her bearing. She stood square and tall and moved with the effortless grace of someone who'd had to practice the art of being graceful for her entire life. She looked like she'd been living on the trail for weeks, but there was no mistaking her nobility. It took her a moment to notice that the noise of the tavern had slowly quieted and that most eyes were on her. Coming to a decision in her mind, she moved to the small makeshift stage and stepped up onto it. "My name is Moralane Vessocho, daughter of Sir Henri Vessocho. I seek capable warriors, hunters, explorers, priests and sages to aid me in a rescue attempt. A brave vassal of my father, one Halliser Silverspike has been captured by dark forces. I will be leaving at noon tomorrow. Should you choose to join me, your life will most assuredly be in danger. Any who go with me will be offered coin, and the gratitude of my House, upon our return." "Anyone interested should meet Three Willow Park at dawn. Come prepared to show off your skills and ready to leave if you are chosen." Then she held up a paper flier, stuck it to the wall with a dart pulled from the dartboard, and made her way through the crowd to order a drink.
1) It isn't at all a necessary thing, but if any of you want to have some sort of backstory tie to Sir Henri and the Vessocho family , or to Hallister himself, we could work that out. As background, Sir Henri is a decent fellow who cares about his people. He has an awful lot of problems on his plate, so his attention is stretched thin. His usual solution is to send one of his Bondsmen off to investigate and deal with whatever is going on, or to bring back more information. That's who Hallister is. Basically, he's a troubleshooter for the guy who runs the show in this area. He was a lot more prominent about 5 years ago, but then fell off the map for some reason. His older adventures involved things like hunting down ghoul nests, routing out cults, and investigating tombs. He's kind of a Dwarven Van Helsing. Every time Sir Henri sends him out his usual protocol is to gather a small group of competent people, promise them Sir Henri's money, and then go kill monsters. So, he has a decent sized list of people who have worked with him before. 2) Another option since there are quite a few new characters is that some of you are an existing adventuring party who know each other already. If any one of you is honor-sworn to Sir Henri, or has worked with Hal before, that might be a good way to hook the rest of your group into the fun. Thoughts?
And we're off!
"I think you're right, Miagnik. The goblins have their own problems right now, and most of the ones who we might have been able to ask for help were just wiped out." "Three Springs is still technically part of my father's territory. I might be able to invoke his name and get results. I've been really not wanting to do that, but that's because I wanted to be able to tell him that we did it all without his help. Right now, we need all the help we can get." "There's a couple places we can ask around once we get to Three Springs. For the sake of speed, I think we should split up. I'll go to the Miner's Lantern. Chuffer, are you comfortable going to the Porker's Pants? It's not the most reputable place, but it's worth checking. I'll write you up a contract to offer that will hopefully get people's attention. " "Miagnik, Mixz, you two can decide which of you is going with which of us."
Two weeks. It felt like five years. She felt so much older. It had been easy to follow Hal. He had been right. She didn't understand the situation when she'd decided to join him. Hal was sworn to Sir Henri and had always been a faithful follower, but he couldn't exactly advertise that. Her presence had made things more legitimate. At least, that's how she justified things. If she was being honest, she mostly wanted to get out of the stronghold and see a bit of the world. The way Sir Guisse had talked about the whole thing it was a great big fuss over nothing. So why not go? When she had first joined them she had immediately tried to set the pecking order in it's rightful place. She made no attempt to hide who she was. Why would she? They should have been grateful to have her along after all. Hal had given her the worst dressing down of her life. Nobody had ever spoken to her that way. Not even her father at his most angry. He made her feel like a foolish child who understood nothing. She hated him for a while and was absolutely determined to out him for the arrogant fool he clearly was. He was right. She hadn't understood at all. She'd been a fool then. She could have had a whole battalion accompany her if she'd wanted to. She should have. Maybe then they would have had a chance. Now, she was out in the middle of nowhere. No soldiers anywhere near. Only xenophobic goblins and rugged dwarves living out on the ragged edge of the land, blissfully unaware of the horrors only a few hours away. She wanted to tell them. To warn them. She knew firsthand how useless that would be. The entire island was in danger, and she was the only Dwarf who knew it. Now she knew what Hal must have felt like a few weeks and a lifetime ago. She still only barely understood what was going on, and now the only person she trusted to make sense of it all was captured. Her only companions left were a gnome and two goblins. She knew that the goblins had their own stake in the fight, having to do with some kind of conflict between the goblin gods and the legacy of dead goblin kings, but that had little to do with her or her people. Her people didn't care about goblin superstitions. Ancient legacies, heroes in need of rescue, and the promise of gold, though. Dwarves cared a great deal about those things. Hopefully she could find a few decent ones and convince them to follow her back into the dark.
With a party this size, I really hope we have a Bard or Skald. Or both.
Hal's a very dwarfy old dwarf, so he has an accent. Moralane is younger with more education and refinement, so she doesn't have one.
I meant Hal's personal axe. I don't think he was carrying the new one. I don't remember it being given to him. I copied the name from your NPC Alias in the Characters tab. Is that incorrect? Can you open the Gameplay tab for us to dot-and-delete?
I think Moralane is ready to go. Terquem, did she have any special gear I should be aware of? Also, would you be alright with Hal having tossed Moralane his axe and a book through the bars of the cage before the retreat? |
