Erik's intended target lives for at least another few seconds as his slice is intercepted by a vine which floats loose as a soft fetid draft from further down the cavern causes the plant appendage to sway.
However, the prone mite tries to scramble away on all fours and Erik's instinctive slash nicks an artery in the mite's leg. It cries out as it flees, its movement now hampered and a moment later it has bled out (technically post combat, but it never gets out of your line of sight).
Adela attempts to end its suffering, but the bolt digs in to the cavern floor a few feet away.
The remaining mite shrieks in anger and tries to stab Erik again with its pitiful spear.
Erik and Adela now have their opportunity to finish off the cruel mite tormentors.
Old Sycamaore & combat:
–2 penalty on all melee and non-magical ranged attack rolls made within the lair as a result. Characters making ranged attacks may use a Swift action to avoid this penalty
Movement in combat is reduced by 5ft while running distance is halved.
All combatants AC is increased by 1 point.
Neither Rhiann or Alyssa manage to get a hit on the other mite. It jumps as Rhiann's deadly looking fauchard gets briefly tangled in a vine deflecting it past the mite's head. Then when a magical glob of acid strikes the stalagmite just to its left it gasps at the sizzling chemical reaction the substance has with the rock before the spell vanishes into magical vapor.
Quite terrified it drops its stick and turns to flee. But its abject terror causes it not to be very careful and forget its footing.
Acrobatics DC 10:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Mite 6 trips on a vine falls in a tangle of limbs.
My heartfelt apologies. I've been so involved in the election results and discussions surrounding them, I realized yesterday, I hadn't even looked at the Paizo forums going on a week.
I will definitely get us moving, but today is the day after a holiday, so work is a little full. I will try to get something later this afternoon/evening to get the next section of the battle going.
Wife's mom had a birthday thing this weekend as well, plus election shenanigans and debating virtues of ballot items with family and friends has stolen my attention.
As they party descends to the bottom of the shaft, cries of anguish and torment make their way to everyone's ears. The vines and earth had muffled the sounds from being heard above. It is easy enough to drop down to the ground from the shaft's opening as again the ceiling and floor are relatively close together. Bundles of vines and groups of stalactites/stalagmites obscure the view of the room well enough that unless one is looking, those entering or descending from the shaft would not be easily noticed.
Erik finds the body of the dead mite easily enough, a pile of gore hidden from sight behind the earthen formations. When the body struck the ground, the screams must have covered the splat! from the those occupying the room.
Just a ways beyond six mites are seen taking turns cruelly jabbing a kobold with the same sooty coloring as the ones previously encountered hangs from the ceiling by its arms which have been lashed to a stalactite with vines. Its cries of pain echo throughout the small chamber. Three other kobolds are also hanging throughout the room, but they do not move. Their bloody bodies hang limply, and they do not seem to be breathing.
What would you like to do? The mites and kobold have not noticed your presence. You can choose to make yourselves known in whatever fashion you wish, or you can choose to reascend the shaft if you prefer.
The chakram splits the mite into pieces as the bladed edge slices through its upper abdomen and part of its head. The pieces and accompanying gore fall down into the darkness.
Combat is officially ended. You may continue descending or return to the initial chamber and take the other path out (no climbing needed) if you prefer.
Erik's chakram misses the mite and embeds into a root above its big blue head causing it to squawk in alarm. It begins descending faster clearly more afraid of the party then falling.
Climb:1d20 ⇒ 20
Everyone who is Taking 10 will make it to the bottom without issue, but it is not a speedy descent as you carefully pick your way down using the roots and other handholds. The DC is only 5, so if any of you want to abandon your caution and roll a straight Climb check to get down faster, go ahead now. As it stands, the mite's roll means he is about to leave all of you behind and get away since Taking 10 (10 + Str bonus + ACP, no roll needed) will not be the quick descent needed to catch it.
Erik's strike on the strange melting Mu-223 has an almost expected unexpected affect. The creature cries out as it throws up its hands to ward the blow, but when's Erik's blade sinks into its flesh, its body suddenly loses cohesion and simply collapses in a rush of messy blue fluid. Aside from the strange puddle it leaves behind, all traces of its original appearance are gone.
Rhiann manages to slash one of the newcomers deeply, and it falls to the root and caltrop covered floor with a gurgle.
Adela and Alyssa's attacks unfortunately miss as they have trouble accounting for the cramped quarters and hanging obstacles.
Seeing its comrade killed so easily, the other newcomer turns and drops out of sight. Just beyond here is another root laced opening similar to the one the party entered to reach the caves. The mite swiftly begins to descend.
Tau-75 is horrified by the sight of Mu-223 liquifying and takes a step backward only to trip over a root and fall on its butt roughly. It covers its face with its hands and cowers in terror.
Combat can continue if you give chase to the fleeing mite or it can end for now if you choose.
There is a squawk from the darkness where Tau-75 disappeared. Two rather normal—if ugly— blue-skinned creature with unfortunate noses and droopy pointed-ears holding weapons and stare at the party in shock and alarm.
One points at the group and yells something at Mu-223 in a tongue not currently understood. Mu-223's drooping face jerks up in surprise, and it replies in the same language more fumblingly. Then it's melting eyes swivel towards the everyone in horror, and it leaps to its feet. Tau-75 appears behind the two newcomers looking both annoyed and confused.
Then the two mites attack brandishing well-worn blades.
Edit: Forgot to remind you about the combat modifiers and the caltrop littered ground. Red oval on the map signifies squares affected by caltrops. For the purposes of this fight, we will not use true caltrops rules, just treat the squares as difficult terrain.
Combat and movement in the Old Sycamore caverns:
–2 penalty on all melee and non-magical ranged attack rolls made within the lair as a result. Characters making ranged attacks may use a Swift action to avoid this penalty
Movement in combat is reduced by 5ft while running distance is halved.
All combatants AC is increased by 1 point.
I'm terribly sorry about the delay. Work has been kicking my ass. Apparently it got the memo I actually wanted to get posts up and decided to crush my dreams.
I'm not ready to throw in the towel as long as you guys want to keep going, but I think I'm going to reevaluate what I had planned to do with this game. I have always wanted to run a Kingmaker which incorporated character stories and new ideas into the spaces left by the basic hexploration blurbs, but trying to navigate between the bits I'm wanting to incorporate and the making sure I'm balancing the story between them successfully makes my posting require so much more planning than I feel I'm currently able to contribute time.
I think I'm going to have to abandon some of that and just run the AP as written for the most part and only make adjustments as your characters create them. This should enable me to post more frequently...which of course will also be limited to how often you guys post. I know it's my fault we're running slowly right now, and I've set the cadence for this but I'm working to change that. Just be aware that going forward, I hope to be more reliable allowing you to post more often as well.
Holy smokes, I thought I responded to those last gameplay posts. Ugh, must have been sitting on a tab that got closed after getting distracted at work. Sorry for the delay. I'll have it up by tomorrow.
Tau-75 mouth hangs open grotesquely as its brow furrows in what might be confusion or maybe deep thought. Mu-223 strokes its chin, and the way its fingers move the nearly liquid skin causes weird ripples which are nauseating to watch.
"A finger shiny? Might have seen something like that, but really we're looking for kobolds. Do you have any? Assuming you aren't kobolds like you claim." Mu-223 drawls; its eyes moving in unfortunate ways as it squints at the party like egg yolks sliding through the whites.
Tau-75 snaps its mouth shut and then snaps it blocky fingers. "We should ask Dingletooth and Uurch. They know kobolds and the shinies."
Mu-223 grunts, "Bleh, you go on then. I don't want to get up." The creature lazily reaches for a caltrop from a pile next to him and places it into the toy catapult, and begins to wind back the mechanism.
Tau-75 begins walking towards the opening closest to him.
There are many things which a humanoid could wear which could have a sparkle especially to those who spend most of their time in unlighted, unshiny places. Armor, jewelry, eyeglasses, polished or painted scales of some reptilian races. Your minds spin with the possibilities.
Specifically, the kobolds you saw before would have been wearing leather and hide armors, perhaps a bone helmet made from a skull. Their scales would have had had some reflective qualities. Nothing as lustrous as a gemstone or a mirror but a dull twinkle nonetheless.
When Alyssa's magic light spreads throughout the space, the cavern's appearance is very earthen and moist. Packed earth laced with trace minerals and roots make the walls that surround the group, and more roots and stalactites and their matching stalagmites litter the space. The ceiling is low already, but the added dangling items make movement and visibility a bit of a challenge. Woe to those blessed with height. Shadows dance in all directions making the darkness at the edge of the light appear to be reaching tendrils across the space in all directions. There appear to be two exits in different directions leading into darkness past the lighted bolt's range.
The space between the party and the creatures is littered with caltrops. The greater density appear surrounding the creature which spoke. And...creature is certainly a word for it. It reminds the group of the wooden blocks everyone plays with as a child, often with colorful faces including letters and numbers. If those colors had all been shades of blue, and if someone had stacked thousands of these blocks the size of sugar cubes in the shape of a small humanoid that resembled a goblin or something and then put some kind of rags on it. Yes...that could explain its appearance.
The block creature regards Alyssa with what must be incredulity and scratches its head. Its finger brushes against the caltrop impaled in its forehead, and unsticks it with an audible pop! while trickles of blood continue to stream down the side of its enormous blocky nose. Examining the caltrop intensely, it speaks again. The perfectly crisp cadence and refined accent in Common no less startling now that its speaker has magical torchlight on its face.
"Not kobolds...it says kobolds are quite a bit different." It pops the caltrops in its mouth and swallow sit one gulp. "Didn't you claim to have seen a kobold once, Mu-223? What do you think of these not-kobolds?"
Mu-223 must be the other creature, and like its fellow, it is very unusual. While the first creature appears to be made up of small blue blocks, this one is melting. Yes, that is the best way to imagine it. If it was possible for a creature to simply turn into the depressing sight attributed to cold treats left out on a summer day or a wax figure exposed to heat and then frantically returned to the icebox, this would be Mu-223. While its blue skin doesn't actually appearing to be dripping off of its body, there's no mistaking it looks like several puddles got together to play humanoid.
"Hmm...hmm. Mayhap, Tau-75, mayhap." From its seated position, Mu-223 blinks its dripping eyes at the group barely visible behind the bulbous ice cream scoop of a nose. "I just remember that one they got locked up is shiny. That one's got some shine to it." It melts a finger in Rhiann's direction as Alyssa's light twinkles across the chain shirt she's wearing.
Sorry for the delay. As I've decided to make some changes to this scene (whole dungeon), I'm making sure I've accounted for everything before posting the creatures' responses. Heading to a concert tonight, so post will probably be tomorrow.
Is the penalty to attack just for melee, or ranged as well?
The book's wording leads me to believe yes, which does make sense when you imagine someone using a bow in the traditional style (vertical) or a sling while horizontal-shooting (non-traditional bow & crossbow) would seem less likely to be impeded.
We'll add this to the situational rule: "A player can drop to one knee and raise from one knee as a swift action to avoid the penalty to Ranged attacks. Magical ranged attacks are unaffected by the penalty."
Thus anyone making ranged attacks that aren't magical only has to give up their Swift action to avoid the penalty.
The way I treat darkvision is like shapes and the obvious gradients of gray scaling from whitest to blackness. While not a perfect example, I found this image on the web, and I feel it sufficiently illustrates my perspective on darkvision.
This image has a lot of white as obviously it represents a camera flash on the surface of things in the dark. If you scale down the white, you're left with a whole of featureless shapes which make judging detail and distance/depth much more difficult. Please consider this how any description I give based on darkvision will operate going forward. Please let me know if you have any questions, but we can move it to Discussion.
What Erik sees:
Erik drops down into the cavern and witnesses the sight of two...creatures playing some kind of absurd game. One has what appears to be a toy catapult in between its outstretched legs while the other stands across the space near the far wall. The one standing is surrounded by what could either be jacks from the children's game or caltrops; it's difficult to be sure especially since the creatures are about child-sized. Even as Erik surveys them, the two creatures blink uncertainly at him. The rest of his party noisily descends behind him, the one with catapult triggers the device or stops holding its tension or whatever and a jack/caltrop shoots across the room. The one standing isn't paying any attention to its fellow, and the small pointy thing lodges with a quiet squitch into its forehead. The creature doesn't react to this in the slightest, and a small dark line begins snaking its way down the creature face. Erik can presume this is blood or some other liquid now leaking from the where the thing has struck.
The two creatures are very difficult to discern aside from their general small humanoid shape. Erik can see two pointy ears jutting horizontally from their heads, but their features are indistinct without light. They may have bulbous noses or snouts or just really big warts in the center of their faces, and there are definitely indents where most humanoids have eyes, but Erik cannot make out more than that.
After a few beats, eventually one of them says, in perfect, refined Common, "Pardon me, but do you happen to be kobolds?"
A tone of the heroic party totally curb stomps their enemies. Finding lots of gold and magic items? ;)
Lol, I don't really have a problem with that honestly. I could give you my opinions of wealth-by-level, spells/ability uses per day, and magic item slot restrictions, but I'm sure it would cause a ruckus. :P
And that's what happens when the GM takes forever to post. I had this whole thing written out about what you guys see...only to realize no one can actually see it! No light! LOL!
Ah, well. Next post probably assuming one of you brightens things up.
Despite the racket (or perhaps because of the complete lack of anything resembling an attempt to be quiet), when the party drops one by one into the low ceilinged chamber, the cavern's occupants (of which those with low-light vision can only just make out in the dark) seem to stop moving around and stare at the newcomers. After a few beats, eventually one of them says, in perfect, refined Common, "Pardon me, but do you happen to be kobolds?"
Alyssa and Erik can just make out some short shapes in the dim light coming in from the shaded opening above. Best guess, 2? Maybe 3?
Combat and movement in the Old Sycamore caverns:
Ceiling height is rarely over 5 feet high, with much of the upper foot a tangle of roots and thin stalactites. Medium creatures in these caves are forced to stoop over or adjust the swing of their weapons, and suffer a –2 penalty on all attack rolls made within the lair as a result. Movement in combat is reduced by 5ft while running distance is halved. All combatants AC is increased by 1 point due to the stalactites/stalagmites and hanging roots which sporadically dot the terrain and interfere with precision strikes.
OK, the day got away from me. Should have expected that after a holiday. Lots of work follow up. I expect to have time in the morning, however. I will make time to post. I’m already writing it in my head, and I’ve figured out the tone I want.
He looks around the small ruins and towards the trees beyond with apprehension. "I-I will try to stay on their good side, I g-guess."
He bends down to pat Malki's head gently. "Try not to be too mean if they come around, little Malki...who knows how they'll react to growls."
@Erik: No obvious signs your approach has been noticed. The previous sounds continue to recur unabated. As best as Erik can determine, the scratching and clanking noises are often followed by excited utterances, but he cannot make out the words or if they are words at all and not some sort of grunting.
Roderick nods seriously at Erik's advice. He seems relieved that Malki is remaining with him and reaches down to scratch the mutt's ears.
"We'll do our best to remain out of sight and as inconspicuous as possible. But if anything comes around looking for a fight, I'll keep everything safe unless there's just no chance." Roderick glances at his feet. "Honestly, if those owls show up again...I'll probably just run."
Before the group is a root-lined shaft leading down into the darkness. The roots of the Old Sycamore are gnarled and thick; climbing down should be a very easy task for those with upper body strength. There are some faint noises coming up from the bottom, a mixture of possibly voices and the scrape of metal or stone every so often.
The climb down requires a Climb DC 5 check. This can likely be further mitigated by your own craftiness or planning.
I don't think you have to have Knowledge (nature) to have suspicions unless you feel Adela would otherwise have no incidental or circumstantial knowledge that things covered by Knowledge (nature) exist at all.
Your characters live in a fantasy world. Unless you're playing someone innocent and naive of only the people/creatures/experiences they have personally encountered and no others, I fully anticipate you can say whatever you want about the fantasy world and its environment.
Also, consider that Knowledge (nature) is only the factual information. Perhaps Adela has Knowledge (hearsay/rumor/completely fabricated) and has no problem speaking her mind about such things. Characters who have flaws such as believing wholly fictional things about their own world should exist in Golarion just as much as they do in the real world in which we exist.
The campsite turns out to be very comfortable weather wise, even if the ground is little harder and less comfortable without padding. Most of the party ends up laying their blankets under them to add some cushion when sleeping.
The night watch goes uneventful except for one time when Malki barks at something unseen in the dark briefly, but the canine calms down quickly enough.
Toilday, 26 Gozran, 4710 AR
The morning comes, and the party readies for their foray into exploring the domain of the mites. First however, one must divine the means to enter it. According to the stories told by the bandits, the old sycamore should house some tunnels or caverns beneath it. There must be an entrance...
Fortunately, several of the party have some eagle eyes and space leading into the earth is discovered among several of the massive tree's large exposed roots. A few meters in is a shaft which drops down into the darkness below the trunk.
Please describe what you do upon waking today. Also, please provide a spoiler of what items you are bringing from your inventories. Anything not listed will be assumed left with Roderick and the wagon in camp.
Alright, I think I've got the map scaled to my preference. You will see some gray lines on the map image. Please ignore and reference the red gridline squares which your tokens should snap to automatically when you're moving around.
I don't know what the original designer was thinking. The original scale of the provided map is tiny. The first room is barely big enough to fit the four of you let alone anything else happens there.
Please feel free to continue engaging with the current scene as you wish or whatever other actions/investigations/exploration you'd like to do. The northern Greenbelt is your oyster.
Edit: Once we're there story wise. I won't reveal the map until we are in the Sycamore dungeon area.
"Excellent work, Roderick! Great recon, and a solid report." Rhiann remarks as she helps him prepare the camp. "I like the flowers by the way. Always nice to enjoy the beauty of nature around you when you can." she says with a smile.
Roderick inflates slightly from the praise, but a quizzical look appears on his face.
"Flowers?" He glances around at where some wild flowers grow along the edge of the stone remains. "Yeah, I guess they do add...something." He gives Rhiann a sure-thing-boss glance and continues pouring dough onto a skillet for a journey bread not knowing what else to say.
@Erik: Whatever this structure was, there doesn't appear to be anything left to hide. After tramping around a bit, Erik's pretty certain no cellar or other underground store room is hidden from view. The last place to look would be in the chute of the chimney itself, but as it starts to narrow, someone much smaller than standard humanoid would probably be needed to traverse the entire shaft to its top.
Roderick continues to behave normally as if he either doesn't give a damn what any of you think of the pink flowers, or perhaps as if he doesn't know they are there whatsoever.
"Well, it's not like a ruin to explore exactly. It's just a ruin of a single building possibly?" Roderick shakes his head. "You'll understand when we get there."
Roderick leads the way to the proposed campsite, using a hatchet to cut back some of the growth which would prevent the wagon's passing. A few faint stones appearing to have been cut and placed suggesting this may have been a paved path, if one squinted hard and imagined several more in a sequence.
The so-called ruin turns out to be the remains of a single building. Two connected stone walls at a right angle with a low wall several meters opposite one of them. It was most likely a part of the building this once was, but is no longer connected by the fallen stonework. A small triangular section is all that remains of a second floor about 3 meters off the ground in the right-angle's junction. Surprisingly, in the middle of the space between the walls is what appears to be a rather solid chimney, the fireplace is open on two sides and rounds down into a very solid base which is about twice a wide as the chute at the top. Roderick's instincts seems to be right on target for this to be a good defensible camping spot.
"I already checked the chimney. No evidence anything has been burned in it at all. Some of what may be ancient soot stains could just be dirt from weather or the soil of animals. It's possible the mites or kobolds or whatever else that lives around here doesn't even know what it is, so they aren't using it as such."
He waves his hand to indicate the side without any walls he's driving the wagon into. "I'll unhitch our draft horse and turn the wagon sideways to help block of this side which means we will pretty much have defenses on all sides with only a few approaches. From things that walk above the ground, of course. Things that fly or burrow are still threat." He points to the low wall. "I'll turn the horses loose outside the wall here. Plenty of space for them to move and rest, but they won't be in our way if we are attacked inside the space. They will have the freedom to force their way through the trees and foliage if the danger is too great."
He begins to setup the tents under the remnant of the second floor overhang. Roderick manages to use that to extend the coverage of the tent covers and tarps he has over top of them making it look as if the tents are inside a larger pavilion. He sets up a cooking fire on the opposite side of the space near the low wall, and also gets a blaze going in the chimney. Soon the entire area is warm taking the chill off the night air. The copses of surrounding trees and the stone walls buffer the area of the usually cool evening breeze.
As technically, the day was spent exploring the hex, we'll pick up the approach/infiltration of the Sycamore on the following Golarion date. Feel free to roleplay any activity in the campsite or muse on your theories on what's happening around here. I will definitely post again tomorrow with the advance of the next day. I need to get the Sycamore maps all ready to go for the dungeon exploration, and we will pretty much start in combat actions regardless if you actually fight.
Sorry for running a little quiet. I was all set to post again last night, but had an unexpected trip to the ER when a family member had a little food trouble. Not life threatening, just uncomfortable. All's well now.
Roderick looks at the kobold bodies with annoyance as they have more or less ruined the best spot he'd found so far. He tramps out into the trees and continues searching for a good spot
Survival:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15
After an hour or so, the young man returns to the clearing. Propping his loaded crossbow onto his shoulder, and his other hand on his hip above his short sword, he almost looks the part of the dashing adventurer...if one ignores the small pink flowers which seem to be tucked into locks of his hair which were not there before.
"I found another suitable location," he announces. "It's a bit of a surprise as well. Some kind of ancient ruin."
Taking Malki with him, Erik starts sweeping around the perimeter of the clearing (going counter-clockwise), looking for tracks ...
Survival, Malki: 17:
Malki definitely locates some scent and after several paces, it's clear to Erik that Malki is tracking in the general direction of the large sycamore looming over the area.
Survival, Erik look for tracks: 8:
While Erik easily spots the signs of recent game tracks, what must have been a wild chaotic fight seems to have masked the traces of the victors' exit whether man, fey, beast, or worse.
Adela Anastasia wrote:
Adela was already moving towards the dead Kobolds. She studies them as she is preparing to send them on properly.
Heal: 17:
Several puncture wounds and dried blood heavily suggest a battle with slashing and piercing weapons employed. Adela finds evidence some small carnivores have picked at the corpses, but nothing larger than a medium size dog. Adela estimates the bodies have been here less than 24 hours.
Alyssa Feuilindë wrote:
Also rolling to see what Alyssa knows about mites.
K Nature: 25:
Descended from even smaller fey, the mites are among the most pitiful and craven dwellers of the dark. Hideously ugly, even goblins have been known to mock mites for their homely appearances. Their traditional enemies are dwarves and gnomes for which they hold a deep hatred due to centuries of (possibly only perceived abuse). Like most dwellers of the deeps under the earth, mites typically speak Undercommon.
