, a city vast and wealthy without peer. Founded by the man-god Aroden over forty centuries ago, it has withstood hundreds of invasions by the envious powers of the Inner Sea. Outside its mighty walls crumbling seige engines litter the landscape as testament to the invaders' countless failures. Yet so great a prize is Absalom, there are those who will not allow even death to stand in their way ...
You and your companions are racing through the flooded streets of the Puddles District in search of the sage Yargos Gil. An eccentric man of poor professional reputation, Yargos nevertheless aided your party in recent successes. Minutes ago he and three of his friends were abducted from a local eatery by a gang of men. Fortunately you were in the neighborhood and were able to follow their muddy tracks (for the streets of the Puddles are always covered in wet filth.)
You are now at the seaside cliffs. Tattooed thugs are about to push Yargos and his friends into the sea. They are shackled together with heavy chains, which will surely drown them should they fall.
Round 1 begins
Please roll initiative and declare your actions.
You may amend your actions after initiatives for all PCs and NPCs have been determined.
Without pause, or approval, Lucian breaks into sprint, drawing his greatsword in stride...
[occ]I charge the leader of the thugs. I assume that is the thug at the top of the line of captives[/occ]
"Oh no you don't!"
Kieran levels his crossbow at the thug nearer the cliff's edge that's between himself and Yargo's group (10 squares away). There is no time to lose if they are to save the lives of Yargo and his friends, so Kieran fires a bolt at the thug.
Init Roll:
Attack Roll:
Attack Roll(Power Attack -1, Charge +2)
Confirm critical(if needed)
Damage (Power Attack +3, Str +6)
Derryn stalks up, taking a short step to the right to get a clear shot at the ugly looking thug in the middle of the pack about to push the hostages over the cliff, and fires a bolt from his light crossbow.
Initiative:
Attack:
Damage:
Tayllon orders his bear to defend Yargos, then casts entangle on the whole mess of men at cliffside.
Init:
Handle Animal:
Bear Init
Thugs' Init
The tall, scarred Lucian charges and runs a thug through with his greatsword.
The man dies silently, hardly believing this sudden turn of events.
Aimo follows Lucian's lead, dealing a greivious wound against another abductor.
The outlaws snap out of their surprise and try to counterattack. The one near the cliff aims his crossbow at Keiran and fires.
Attack Kieran - MISS
Another thug shoves old Yargos off the cliff. The sage's friends desperately pull against their chains
arresting his fall.
Aimo's opponent drops his crossbow and swings out with a spiked glove.
Attack - MISS
Yet another rogue vents his frustration on a helpless prisoner, striking one on the back of the head with a sap. The old man collapses, and Yargos' friends slide perilously forward ...
A thug holding a torch is moving away from the prisoners.
Derryn fires at the thug with the crossbow, but misses.
Tayllon's faithful bear bounds forward. The halfling then calls upon nature herself to help the fight.
Thug #1 save vs entangle - fail
Thug #2 save vs entangle - save
Thug #4 save vs entangle - fail
The grasping plants help secure the prisoners from being dragged forward any further.
The paladin Keiran lets loose a crossbow bolt but misses.
Round 2 begins
Lucian evulses his sword from the dying rogue, and with silent prayer to Milani, charges for the cliff...
Save vs Entangle(DC14)pass
Vines and grasses are torn asunder as Lucian lunges towards the rogues..
Attack thug#2 (power attack -1, charge +2)
Confirm Critical(if needed)
Damage (power attack +3, str +6)
Cleave on adjacent thug (power attack -1)
Confirm Critical(if needed)
Damage (power attack +3, str +6)
Tayllon draws his sling while moving towards the fray, then looses a bullet at the fleeing thug with the torch...
Sling attack
Damage
Ducking under the blow of his opponent, Aimo grins silently and tries to strike a low blow at the now exposed side of the thug.
Scimitar Attack
Damage
Following in Lucien's footsteps, Derryn drops his crossbow and charges forward, swinging a leather-and-iron bound fist at the thug on the edge of the field of entangling foliage.
Attack:
Damage:
Confirming critical hit:
Critical damage:
Seeing that the plant has halted their allies' fall for the moment, Kieran reloads and aims at the nearest clear thug (#2), trying to clear the way to make an effective rescue.
Attack roll with crossbow, damage roll
Stepping lightly through the slithering plant-life, Lucian beheads the two thugs closest to the cliff with a single stroke!
Seeing the sudden, gruesome deaths of half their number, the surviving abductors surrender.
Yargos is pulled up to safety. The old man is drenched in sweat, yet still shivers in fright.
Kieran suggests the party search the surrendered abductors and volunteers to examine Yargos and party for injuries, since he is a good healer.
"I hate to see any animal in chains, Yargos, so it looks like our debt to you is paid. Care to explain why 3 men are dead in your name, though?"
It would seem there are no wounded who are not dead amongst the captors, and since Kieran seems to be aiding the poor fellow who got sapped, I follow his direction and look around for a key to the chains. I then throw the chains off the cliff.
"I hate to see any animal in chains, Yargos, so it looks like our debt to you is paid. Care to explain why 3 men are dead in your name, though?"
The old historian looks at Tayllon desperately.
"Absalom is in danger, and it's all my fault! Please, you must help me get a book back from Nessian the thief-lord, or all will be lost."
Kieran looks up at that. "A book that puts all Absalom in danger? What have you been trafficking in, Yargos?" Kieran asks.
Diplomacy roll to get more information out of Yargos
Tayllon shrugs at the possible threat--the fate of the city is nothing to him. A single book with that much power, however, is something that perhaps should not be burdening the natural world.
He plays with his bear, but listens intently to the conversation regardless, knowing that Kieran will entangle them in this business due to his strange sense of duty towards people who he has never so much as broken bread with.
"What are you on about old man? You've helped us before and we've saved yer bacon this time, Yargos, so out with it. You want us to help ya, but what's in it fer us?"
Local knowledge check?
Intrigued by Yargos' claim and frustrated by his silence...Lucian turns to the "surrendered" thugs...drawing his dagger.."So..which one of you boys wants to talk about your boss Nessian, and which one wants to die...slowly?"
Intimidate
Kieran turns to Lucien at his threat to the prisoners. As a Paladin, he cannot allow prisoners who have not broken their surrender to be harmed. However, knowing that fear might loosen their tongues, he does not interrupt Lucian's bluff. If it becomes more than a bluff, however, Kieran knows he will be forced to intercede.
"The more we know, the better we will be able to help, Yargos," Kieran says to the sage.
"It's a long story, but you must believe me when I say there's an
undead army at the bottom of the bay. For centuries they've been waiting to invade the city. I know, I know, you think I've gone mad. But my friends bear witness to the five skeletal fiends that climbed out of the sea earlier tonight."
Yargos' companions nod gravely at his words.
"Nessian stole from me the book with instructions on how to signal the attack, so I beg you, we must get it back!"
"So..which one of you boys wants to talk about your boss Nessian, and which one wants to die...slowly?"
"Whatever you do to us, Nessian can do much, much worse if we betray him," sputters a fat thug.
At the mention of undead, Aimo's head turns quickly to Yargos.
"Undead? Here? Where did these abominations come ashore? Where did they go?"
"They crawled up onto a beach not far from here. I know that they have gone to poison the city granary. We must go and stop them before anyone gets hurt!"
Aimo looks back and forth between the thugs and Yargos and his companions.
"I say this undead threat is a more immediate concern. If we truss these ruffians up well enough, can we trust you to get them to the authorities, Yargos?"
Tayllon rolls his eyes at Aimo's eagerness--and here he thought Kieran would be the one to drag them into this mess!
Regardless, undead are an abomination against nature and must be destroyed. If that peripherally involves saving Absalom, so be it... maybe they'll dedicate a new park to their saviors?
"Fat chance." He mutters to himself and prepares to head out after his friends.
"Those thugs are also captives in their own way, we should release them. Yargos even admitted it was his own fault."
"Oh, my friends will make sure these rapscallions go to jail. I'll take you to the granary I think the undead saboteurs are at. It's an ancient building, but still the largest reserve granary in town."
After leaving the bound thugs with Yargos' friends, the party follows the high-strung historian to the granary. They are there within minutes. There are no watchmen at the granary doors.
Derryn gives the doors and the ground around them a quick scan, searching for any signs of footprints or anything else suspicious, and to see if the granary doors are locked.
Perception check:
"I wonder what happened to the guards," Keiran says, adjusting his halberd in his hands. He waits to see what Derryn finds out, eager to eradicate the vile undead.
The doors are unlocked. They swing easily open, revealing the fate of the guards. Bloody footprints lead away from the front room through a set of inner doors, which are ajar. The room beyond is dark ...
Yargos stays outside the granary, obviously very frightened.
(Obscured by my shading is another set of double doors to the left.)
"Splendid..." mutters Lucian as he slowly enters...sword drawn.
Lucian pausing briefly to examine the bodies for anything that may prove useful and to see how long they have been dead. He then moves, as quietly as possible, to peer through the double doors.
perception (search bodies)
stealth
perception (peer through doors)
Tayllon follows Lucian, wincing all the while at the noise his companion makes. If only these warrior types would leave the sneaking to those with a little training...
¨How odd that these undead should be so clearly hunting for something, as if they are driven by some force other than their own foul desires.¨
Stealth
Perception
"Splendid..." mutters Lucian as he slowly enters...sword drawn.
Lucian pausing briefly to examine the bodies for anything that may prove useful and to see how long they have been dead. He then moves, as quietly as possible, to peer through the double doors.
The guards were slashed to death by very long blades. The bodies are still warm.
Tayllon follows Lucian, wincing all the while at the noise his companion makes. If only these warrior types would leave the sneaking to those with a little training...
Carefully peering into the next room, the halfing sees that there is nothing awaiting them there, but for piles of grain.
Derryn silently slips through the doors into the next room. Flitting between piles of grain, he sneaks into the room to see what he can see.
Stealth:
Keiran says a quick prayer to Iomedae for the souls of the two guards, then follows into the granary with his halberd at the ready.
The rogue enters, discovering entrances to other chambers to the west and north. There are stairs up. The trail of blood continues north.
OOC:
Each brown quare marked with grain is difficult terrain.
If you make a successful strength check, you can move across a single square as though it were normal terrain.
The 10-foot-high ceiling is covered with flow hatches (marked on the map as white squares).
"Well, lets get on with it then...." says Lucian to Keiran as he moves straight to the north, stopping in the western doorway to peer into the west room.
perception
Lucian finds no sign of intruders in the adjoining silo.