Assuming the people at the door open it a crack to get a report from Demona, she casts another message spell and whispers, "No luck with the ... objects. Creatures are summoned demons. Crossbows might not be effective. Creatures can't reach you at door. Shall we attack?"
In response to Demonoa's message he says. "Evil must be banished, count to 30 then strike"
to the other with him "be ready, calatin open the door on my mark" and begins his 30 count. He trains his crossbow on the door, motioning for Rufus to follow suit.
OK, if everyone is going to work with Jack, can you give me initiative rolls and actions for once he opens the door please.
Initiative:
Heavy Crossbow (with light spell on it) attack:
Damage:
Foggy loads his sling with a bullet and stands ready.
Initiative
If the demons can't reach her, he'll step out too and try an attack.
Sling Attack .. damage
If the demons can reach her he will try something else depending on what happens to her.
Rufus will move so that he has a clear shot, when he gets the chance.
Firing into the dim room seems to be a bit trickier than expected.
[ooc] crossbow attack damage
When he reahes zero jack flings open the door "Now!"
Silenty reaching the end of his count, Jack flings open the door, taking an immediate step back to level his crossbow. The creatures hurl themselves forward, their demonic shapes made even more hideous and frightening by the shadows which conceal most of their bulk. Once again, they are brought to a gurgling, wrenching stop by the iron chains around their necks. This time however, as they jerk to a halt, both Foggy and Demona feel something in the fabric of the house shift slightly, as if whatever tethers the other end of the creatures' chains is beginning to give way.
Jack levels his crossbow and pulls the trigger in one smooth motion. The quarrel flies true, striking one of the creatures, yet the iron tip seems barely to scratch its foul hide.
Behind him, Rufus swings his strange jury-rigged contraption to bear, but the weighting if off, and Rufus's quarrel thuds loudly into the doorframe.
Once the two of them have fired, Calatin steps forward, the man's pudgy hands already moving in spellcasting. With a quick syllable, he summons a cone of fire which blasts out towards the creatures, bathing them in its flame. The two creatures stand unmoved, making liquid chortling noises that sound like they are amused. Smoke rises from the scortched carpet, which begins to smoulder in a few places.
Behind them, Demona looses her bolt towards the back of one of the creatures. The gloom, suddenly punctuated by the glare of Calatin's spell, throws her aim and the bolt thuds into the floor beside one of the creature's feet. However, the light spell on the end of it now clearly illuminates the hallway, revealing the creatures in their full horror.
Behind her, Foggy hurls his sling forward, loosing a stone at the demons, which ricochets off one of their blubbery hides.
The only attack that seems to have done some damage was Jack's crossbow quarrel.
Finding themselves attacked from both sides, yet unable to reach the three attackers beyond the front door, the creatures roar in frustration. The one that Jack wounded hurls itself at the doorway, heaving all its strength to break its chain, and again Foggy and Demona feel something give.
The second creature turns, and fixes Foggy with its gaze, before opening its jaws impossibly wide and producing a terrible, terrifying howl.
Demona designates the uninjured beast as her focus, getting +2 to attack and damage against it.
"Those chains aren't going to hold!" she hollars at Jack.
Attack:
Damage:
Will save
"It looks like we can't hurt them!" Foggy shouts frantically.
Nevertheless, he reloads his sling and tries again.
Sling Attack .. damage
After firing, the crossbow automatically readies the next bolt. "Demons? There are demons inside there? I think we may want to try a different approach."
Stalwart in the face of evil, Jack cocks his crossbow, allows a bolt to fall into place, and then unloads it at the screaming, slavering creature before him. Again, the bolt sinks into the beast's flesh, as green ichor seeps from the wound. The groups' weapons may be less effective than normal against the demons, but they can wound them with a good shot.
Beside him, Rufus grapples with his strange customized crossbow, eventually bringing it under control to fire another quarrel at the same target. Again, the bolt hits, eliciting another roar from the creature.
His magic seemingly ineffective, Calatin scrambles out of the way.
Demona too fires her crossbow, this time at the creature now at the foot of the stairs. It howls in anger as her bolt sinks into its shoulder. Beside her, Foggy, his shaking hands unable to control his sling, cannot bring enough strength to bear to damage it further.
The demon by the door, now sprouting three crossbow bolts, hurls itself again against its chain. There is the destinct sound of splintering wood, and the entire staircase shifts slightly underneath Demona and Foggy's feet. It seems like the teather will not hold for long.
The other demon spits a gobbet of vile ichor at the pair standing on the landing, which lands at Demona's feet. Immediately, choking clouds of thick, vile smoke begin to roil up it, obscuring vision and making the pair cough and retch.
Save
As the smoke billows up Foggy covers his mouth and nose with his sleeve. Blinded in the smoke, he reaches out for Demona while he prays for his lady's help.
Fort save:
"Sarge, we have to pull back."
Demona takes a 5 foot step back off the landing and spends the full round reloading her crossbow.
"Calatin, unless you tell me these things die horribly in fire, I'm getting out of here," Rufus loads another bolt and starts to move farther away. "A normal beast doesn't take three bolts and start tearing out a staircase."
"Keep firing" yells Jack, cranking back his crossbow yet another time. "There are innocents in this street who will die if these things get loose. Try something other than fire if you have it."
"If you say so, Jack," chimes Rufus while taking aim and firing. "Gonna have to make some cold iron bolts when I get the chance..."
"What now?" Foggy asks Demona.
Jack focuses on his crossbow, chanting softly to himself, and the weapons begins to shimmer and glow slightly in the dim light. Then he snaps it down, releases the trigger, and fires a quarrel directly at the beast in front of him.
Despite his added invocation, the quarrel seems hardly to damage the beast.
Jack curses grimly, and yells "Keep firing - Demona and Foggy, secure your position - we're coming for you."
Behind him, Rufus finishes cocking his strange crossbow, and fires. The shot is better, causing a spray of ichor to fly from the creature's flesh.
Up on the landing, Demona and Foggy cough their way out of the noxious cloud. They can no longer see the creature at the foot of the stairs, although they can still hear it. They have a good view of the other creature, now wounded from several crossbow bolts, which twists and strains at it chain, but seems unable to yank it free at the moment. It howls with rage and frustration.
Finished loading her crossbow, Demona fires at the one she can see, waiting for the cloud of gas to disperse.
Attack:
Damage:
With Jack gone and you doing breathing exercises, I'll wait to post until you check in again.
Please see note in the OOC forum.
The entryhall to the house is now a dreadful battleground. Smoke from the small fires started by Calatin's spell mingle with the demonic vapours summoned by the dretch. The steady glow from Foggy's spell casts warped, elongated shadows across the wrecked room and out into the street where Jack, Calatin and Rufus stand.
One of the creatures, its vile flesh scarred by multiple crossbow bolts, stands in the doorway, roaring in frustration as it heaves and tugs against the chain that holds it. Somewhere on the fog shrouded stairway, its companion growls quietly as it pads up the steps towards the landing where Foggy and Demona crouch.
The street outside is silent, as if the whole neighbourhood is holding its breath to see the outcome of the battle. Through the silence cuts a voice: calm, resolute, determined. Jack cocks his crossbow and orders "Keep firing".
Demona continues to assault the dretches with crossbow fire. She'd prefer to target the mostly uninjured one, as she selected that one with her hunter's focus ability, but if she can't see it due to the gas cloud, she'll fire at the other one.
Demona finishes the full-round action to reload her heavy crossbow this round and fires. If she can target her focus dretch, add 2 to both rolls.
Attack:
Damage:
Waiting on the landing, Foggy hears the stairs creak under the dretches weight. He prepares a dangerous gambit.
"Desmona, it's coming up the stairs. I think I can freeze him in place for a moment so you can attack without fear, but you will only get a swing or maybe two before it wears off."
WMS:
Touch attack roll: -2 for strength if you think it applies to a touch attack. In which case I should consider weapon finesse at the next opportunity.
Dazing Touch (Sp): You can cause a living creature to become dazed for 1 round as a melee touch attack. Creatures with more Hit Dice than your cleric level are unaffected. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
PRD definition, Dazed: The creature is unable to act normally. A dazed creature can take no actions, but has no penalty to AC.
Jack calmly fires his crossbow again at the howling beast in front of him,
although the dancing shadows throw his aim off, and the shot goes wild. The creatures sneers an evil grin at Jack, which lasts just a second before Demona's crossbow bolt slams into the side of its head, toppling it sideways, to lay still on the smouldering carpet.
As the cloud on the stairs begins to clear, Foggy gets a glimpse of the bulk of the second creature through the thinning smoke. He darts forward, touching the creature with his outstretched hand. A look of confusion comes over the creatures's twisted face. It peers at Foggy, then at its feet, then at the wall.
"Up and at it" yells Jack. "Demona and Foggy, hold the line".
Demona pulls out her trident as she moves back to give the dretch some charging room. She drops her crossbow and braces the trident against her foot.
"Foggy, get behind me."
Attack: (guidance)
Damage:
Extra damage if it charged:
Rufus steps forward and unleashes another bolt from the fine tuned crossbow.
Foggy scampers behind Demona. "I can't freeze him again," he thinks sourly.
He prays for His Lady's help.
I don't know if you rule that if the dretch only moves and attacks rather than "charges", her readied action is wasted.
Touch attack roll: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11 -2 for strength if you think it applies to a touch attack. In which case I should consider weapon finesse at the next opportunity.
Self evidently, my life is not in a fit state to run this game at the moment - I've barely sat down in front of a computer in over 3 weeks, and things don't look like changing soon.
This is extremely unfortunate, and I can't apologize enough. If someone else wants to take this over they have my blessing, but I'm afraid I can't continue.
Best wishes.
I hope things work out. If/when you want to run a game here again, please count me in.
Best of luck.
That's too bad. It was a very enjoyable game, but I understand that things happen. If I didn't have so many pbps on the go at the moment, I'd offer to take over. As it is, I love the concept, and when my load lightens a bit, I may try running something like this myself (perhaps a spin-off in Magnimar, like the idea's namesake).
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all and good gaming.
Haha, I love the idea of a spin-off.
Don't worry wayne, it happens to all of us. I had to set aside several of my PBPs as well because of family issue.