Sarek turns towards Tenzekil..."Look at how your friends value your life, Tenzekil. You are nothing more than something to be used and then tossed aside."
"I know that there is still good in you Tenzekil. Put aside the hate. Don't throw your life away for nothing."
"Tenzekil. It is I Ylera, daughter of Rhoswen. I have no quarrel with you or with any others here. I will give you this moment to yield the field with honor and escort me and my entourage to my mother's presence. Serve me in this and I pledge my aid in helping you find what has been lost."
Diplomacy (untrained) check
Spriggans point at Sarek and laugh. The clink of coins can be heard as bets are made.
"I am not some slave who fights at your whim!", Sarek yells at the captain. "Enough of this nonsense. Go fetch your queen now!"
Sarek turns towards Tenzekil...
"Look at how your friends value your life, Tenzekil. You are nothing more than something to be used and then tossed aside."
"I know that there is still good in you Tenzekil. Put aside the hate. Don't throw your life away for nothing."
"we can still settle this peacefully, Tenzekil," Lilia adds, hoping to help diffuse the situation.
Diplomacy Aid Another check
Thediar looks around at the spriggans. Ah yes. Fey soldiers. Just as irrational as the courts, but thirstier for blood.
Thediar plays off Tenzekil's self-serving nature. "You might beat us, Braybrittle; I don't know what your resources here are. But we've never gone down without a hard fight, and it would leave you weakened and at their, um, mercy. How would that serve your purposes?"
In Gnomish:
Aid another with Diplomacy:
For a moment the bleachling looks truly at a loss at what to do. Fight for the respect the spriggans or side with his hated enemies? The taunts of the Fellnight fey grow cruder and louder.
"You horrible, miserable, ungrateful creatures! I should have never let any of you out! To me, my bees!
One by one the soldiers stop laughing as they realize Tenzekil has summoned his swarms against them.
Initiative: .
Thediar is intrigued to see how this plays out.
Lilia casts her Haste spell, including the bleachling druid in her area of effect.
Initiative
"Defend yourselves, by all means. But we're guests here, watching an unseemly private row; don't be the first to throw any attack."
Thediar casts sanctuary.
Round 1 begins
One initiative roll for all enemy NPCs :
One Tenzekil:
Every spriggan and worg is being stung by bees, and cannot aim their crossbows.
Three groups of Fellnight fey are being attacked by swarms.
A single giant bee flies over to Tenzekil's side.
Tezekil is casting a spell.
Please state your actions this round, if you haven't already done so.
(I got hung up with trying to choose a map. I ended up extending one that was already given in the module.)
I've stated that Thediar is casting sanctuary, but I never stated who the recipient of the spell would be. Ylera, if you're not planning on casting any offensive spells (summoning elementals would be fair game), you're certainly welcome to the effects of the spell.
I've stated that Thediar is casting sanctuary, but I never stated who the recipient of the spell would be. Ylera, if you're not planning on casting any offensive spells (summoning elementals would be fair game), you're certainly welcome to the effects of the spell.
I welcome such a boon. but I do have spells of potency to use if needed.
Sarek moves to Tenzekil side. As he walks he draws his sword...Iomedae, give me the strength to ward this tortured soul., he whispers. The falchion grows brighter and Sarek can feel power thrumming within it.
"I give all of you one chance! Yield now! You have no hope to defeat us!", he says to their foes as he slowly moves his bright sword in a horizontal arc...pointing to the enemies that surround them.
Thediar comes close to panicking; there is no way we could hope to defeat an army. "Sarek! This is not our fight!"
"I have not attacked them! I will not, however, abandon Tenzekil!"
"Can you open the doors behind you?"
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Tenzekil is an evil gnome who has just chosen to betray his evil allies. He turned on them out of cowardice and fury, not out of remorse. We were perfectly ready to kill him ourselves, if we had caught the bleachling outside the Fellnight.
I'm very interested in seeing what Queen Rhoswen's reaction to all of this will be.
In any case, we came here to see the Queen. Attacking her loyal spriggans here, aside from being suicide, pretty much wipes any chance we'd have of keeping her from going to war. And she has ten times as many troops as the Second World fae.
Thediar would rather find a peaceful solution to all of this. But if we decide to fight, it would be an honor to die alongside you folks, either to the third or fourth wave of spriggans, or by the hand of their mistress.
We could probably fight our way through this if we can stop our selves from killing everyone and focus on getting through. But frankly I think we should let Tenzikel vent his anger a little, it will at least leave the survivor weaker for us to handle.
Maybee he will show remorse when his anger has run through, but as of yet he is still an enemy. The paladin can certainly feel sorry for the poor thing, but Sarek is experienced enough to know that he cannot save everyones soul.
I think we should slip away during the fight and try to gain Roshevens ear while Tenzikel is occupied.
The paladin can certainly feel sorry for the poor thing, but Sarek is experienced enough to know that he cannot save everyones soul.
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I was thinking about this last night. I was trying to imagine what Sarek would do. He is a paladin, so he doesn follow a code of conduct. Our backstory, however, is that we have known each other and adventured together in the past. From a role persective, Sarek is the gound fighter and one of his roles would be to protect his friends, especially the casters. So the bleachling turns on his former allies. I did make a diplomacy roll that might have influenced that, but does that make Sarek responsible for the bleachlings life? I don’t think so. The gnome has attacked his former comrades, but that does not mean that he is Sarek’s ally or had some “come to Jesus” moment.
Sarek will stay where he his, but ready an action to attack anyone that approaches with hostile intentions.
Is it okay to change my action to this?
Is it okay to change my action to this?
The spriggans roil in pain from thousands of bee-stings as Tenzekil rises into the air. Many try to flee but are picked off by his spells of lightning and flame. Some manage to hit the bleachling with their crossbows, but the bolts bounce off as if his skin were of stone. The worgs with their thick fur fare better against the bees but even they are brought down by Tenzekil's giant bee and Ylera's hound.
Eventually the tide of battle turns when reinforcements arrive with torches, the smoke and flame dispersing the swarms. When the giant bee is cut down by spriggan blades, Tenzekil yells "Fulvid! No!" He points an accusatory finger down at the heroes, who have been watching the battle from the steps to the palace. "Why haven't you fought with me? I'm doing this because of you!"
How injured is Fulvid? Thediar is willing to heal it.
Thediar calls out in a loud voice, "O Majesty! Queen of these Fellnight Lands! Enough! Thou havest well and clearly shown Thy fury and taught Thy vengeance. But dost Thou not have yet another duty for this bleachling to fulfill? He has lost much this day, in daring to oppose Thy will. Dost Thou also demand from him his life? It is of some value to us, for we would wish to see him brought to account in our courts."
(Let's end this, but in a way that does not cause an incident.)
Diplomacy: .
"Treacherous liars, the lot of you! I've sent all my precious bees to their deaths, and for what? Now I have nothing left! Damn you all, damn you and this woeful, miserable world!"
Tears streaking down his chalk-white face, Tenzekil turns to fly away from the battle. Suddenly a fierce winds howls in from the forest, knocking everyone to the ground. All except Tenzekil, who is hurled screaming onto one of the massive thorns jutting from the palace walls. Impaled, the gnome's little body hangs limply near the top of the highest spire.
Thediar picks himself up, helps Ylera to her feet, and awaits the next scene in this drama to unfold.
The wind dies away as suddenly as it came, and for a while all is silent. Dead spriggans lie all around, their bodies swollen and deformed from bee stings. The surviving spriggans do not look much better. From above a woman's laughter can be heard, the sound melodious yet harsh.
A spriggan approaches, his boots crunching on dead bees with every step. So swollen is his face he can barely speak.
"I'm only going to ask just this once: give us your weapons. Or we send you the way you came."
Thediar glances at Ylera, and at Janus and Sarek. He's fine with sticking his own trident in the grass; he has gone entire adventures without needing to clean blood off its tines. But he'll not commit the warriors. And, ultimately, this is Ylera's call to make.
Sarek meets Thediar's glance, but says nothing. He makes no move to relinquish his sword.
I didn't come all this way to this dark place just to hand over my sword. he thinks.
Ylera looks at the impaled body of Tenzekil, grief marring her features until she turns her head to the speaker, to be replaced with a fierce determination.
"We have not come to surrender, nor to be turned away. We will enter in peace if that is possible, but we will neither be stayed, not will we render ourselves helpless. We will enter either with you or through you, but we will enter."
Intimidate
JZ, Thediar has dealt with a lot of situations similar to this. I'm sure that in some cultures, envoys are expected to set aside their weapons, while in other lands, a tribal chieftain might be insulted if we didn't come armed, as if we held our host's puissance in disdain.
Is this a test, or do we really need to hand over our weapons to see the Queen?
Sense Motive: .
Lilia pulls herself to her feet. She let out a muffled shriek when she noticed what had happened to Tenzekil. "I am not keen on giving up my weapons. Look what happened to Tenzekil. I don;t think I know the Queen well enough to trust her, in the event negotiations did not go well."
Sense Motive: 1d20+11.
Yes, you really need to hand over your weapons to see the queen.
"This time, I think, we have to make the choice. I'm going to make the attempt for peace."
Thediar sticks his trident into the ground. To the spriggan: "Leave this here, brave one."
Ylera takes a long and hard look at Thediar. "Very well then." She lays down her crossbow and staff. "I expect these back in the condition I've given them." She says sternly.
Not overly thrilled about the development, Lilia nonetheless follows
Ylera's lead and pulls out her sling and dagger and places them gently on the ground.
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Obviously unsertain about all this, Janus nevertheless follows his fellows lead. Hesitantly he lays his weapons in a pile on the ground, gingerly proping his longbow agains the heap of arms.
"I don't like this one bit." He mumbles as he bothers with his weapons, sliding his cold-iron dagger up his sleave.
Sleight of hands