[PF] The Reach of Land

[McTurbo]

The central lower market was as busy as always. The floating platform surrounded by the four other platforms of the lower market was full of people either passing through, visiting some of the many general stores of the central platform or simply lounging at the platform's taverns. The small plaza in the middle of the platform served as a small park-esque area for people to relax in and was surprisingly full considering the weather. The sky was covered in clouds and there was a notable amount of wind blowing from the sea. It seemed like a storm was brewing.

[Frog Dragon]

Not once had Ralkar thought that a description such as "within the city of Land's Reach" could be so impossibly vague.

Yet here he was, just recently out of the ship that had brought him here, and it seemed that he was no closer to his goal. The place was bigger than the Silver Fortress, and Kaodar could be anywhere. Still, the fiend had at least implied that Kaodar was well and truly tangled with them already, and demon cults frequently mingled among the less fortunate, where they got less unwanted attention. That narrowed it down, at least a little.

He needed to gather his thoughts. And also a drink. Picking a tavern at random, Ralkar walks through part of the plaza into one of them and approaches the counter. "I need a drink. Something dwarven," he says.

[Tsriel]

The strong winds cut through the links in Janatris's armor like a skillful serpent knowing where to strike. It left an unsettling chill in her bones. Last night was a stormy mess. It looked like today would be more of the same. A warm hearth and comforting brew would be nice, but that would just have to wait until later tonight.

For right now, she was on the hunt for information and a bite to eat. Peg-leg Saul wasn't much of a cook. His establishment is only good for three things; drinking, fighting, and fornicating. Sometimes all in that order. With her sizable shield on her back and her gauntlet protected hand providing cover against the wind, Janatris made her rounds looking through the various street vendors and what they had to offer. She finally settled on one booth that was offering fresh fruits, baked breads, and dried meats. She bought enough for herself to have a hearty travel breakfast.

She picked a reclusive spot in the market to have her meal. She enjoyed the view of the locals, seeing much of the same people enduring against the wind.

Perception

[roll0]

[Nicoli Dalris]

Adrian had been to cities before, yet, each time the word was always new and fresh. Each city was it's own person, so different and vibrant. The city of Land's Reach was a paragon even among an ever shifting list of unique places. So large, and so varied, yet still holding that same wordless order, everyone seemed to know there place in the city, everyone except Adrian, and that was why he was here.

The wet was a welcome help, the clinging water bringing out more natural scents, from the mud to the animal meats, all scents blended together in a dirty mess, covering up a cities usually oppressive stink of humans and their ilk. But such trivialities must be for another time, food and shelter were of utmost importance. A permanent residence would have to wait till later, anything would do for now. Weather it be a reputable inn with a warm meal, or beneath a drain with some ill gotten fruit, either would suit his needs just fine. Though, perhaps it would be best to avoid making a reputation just yet within the confines of his new home. And no home before had had the appeal of Land's Reach.


Adrian Perception:[roll0]
For things such as perception, I plan to be making a roll for my familiar as well, should this be a problem, let me know.
Sanrai Perception:[roll1]

[Nicoli Dalris]

Adrian Perception:[roll0]
For things such as perception, I plan to be making a roll for my familiar as well, should this be a problem, let me know.
Sanrai Perception:[roll1]

[tofucake]

Xane pulls his cloak around him as the howling wind continued to rise. Loose flyers tumble ahead of him as he searches for shelter from the seemingly inevitable storm. The nearest tavern was just around the corner and he decides to take shelter there for the time being.

A hot drink and some dried meats would sure hit the spot before a busy day, Xane thinks to himself. Healing the sick and wounded was taxing business afterall. The tapping of his walking stick was drowned out by the wind and he pulls the hood of his cloak over his white hair as the wind continued to pick up.

Xane perception check [roll0]
Psicrystal perception check [roll1]

[McTurbo]

The bartender smiles at Ralkar. "I know just the right thing for you. Just a lil' moment." The bartender takes an empty pint from under the counter and goes to one of the barrels behind him. After pouring the drink, he brings it to Ralkar. "Here ya go, this be the finest dwarven ale I've ever seen. That'll be two sil..." A sudden shout from the back corner of the tavern interrupts the bartender. "No!"

As Xane enters the tavern, while looking around he notices something quite peculiar: a figure clad in black hiding under one of the empty tables in the corner. The figure turns its masked face towards Xane and after shortly locking eyes with him, springs out from under the table before anyone can react. The figure swiftly draws some sort of black sword from its back and quickly dashes towards the table next to it; a table occupied by two people. The other of the table's occupants is stout and dressed in fine clothing while the other seems to be dressed in some sort of leather armor. The assailant quickly dashes at the finely dressed man, slashing him with the blade. "No!" The man's abdomen is cut open, spurting blood on the table, the floor and the attacker.

The other man watches in shock as his companion falls down on the floor. Despite his apparent shock, he's already drawing his sword. "You won't get away with this..."ROLLS:Stealth: [roll0]
Initiative: [roll1]
Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]
Sneak Attack: [roll4]
Save: [roll5]
As you might have noticed, I'm not giving you the modifiers of my NPCs' checks. :smalltongue:

And now for your characters' initiative:
Xane: [roll6]
Adrian: [roll7]
Janatris: [roll8]
Ralkar: [roll9]

COMBAT TIME! Yes, this soon in the game.
Surprise round initiative order:
Attacker
Xane

Initiative order:
Attacker
Man drawing his sword
Xane
Ralkar
Janatris
Adrian

[tofucake]

Xane reaches out with his mind rapidly, extending his psyche out to the attacked swordsman, the mortally wounded man (fails if dead) and the masked attacker. Time was of the essence here, especially for the wounded one.

Xane attempts to add the three of them to his collective.
The masked assailant gets a will save DC 16 to avoid getting added and a -2 penalty on his rolls to collective effects (basically dc 18 for now)

[McTurbo]

As Xane reaches out to the wounded man, he notices the lack of life force indicating that he has already passed on. He manages to reach his mind out to both the swordsman and the assailant, connecting into their minds.

After felling the man, the assailant turns to the swordsman who has at this point drawn his sword and shield. The assailant opens with an elbow strike, continuing with two spinning kicks, the second of which misses and finally attempting to punch the swordsman with the empty hand but being blocked by the shield.

The swordsman is left battered and seems quite staggered by this sudden assault, but responds to the attack by slashing at the attacker with his longsword, missing by mere inches.

The tavern is starting to get chaotic as people start to realize what's going on. The chaos generated by people shouting and trying to get away from the fight is beginning to get loud enough to be heard into the plaza.
Will save: [roll0]
Wow. Just wow.
I made the attack and damage rolls in the OOC thread for the assailant and the swordsman. The assailant is about 20 feet from the doorway which seems to be the only entrance to the tavern. Xane is in front of the entrance and Ralkar is about 10 feet from the entrance to the other direction. I'd say that Janatris and Adrian are both about 40 feet away from the tavern and are aware of the commotion by now.

[tofucake]

Xane had hoped the swordsman would be able to handle himself but the exchange made it clear that it was becoming an increasingly high possibility that he would, in fact, get away with it. He sidesteps away from the door, leaving the exit open deliberately before drawing on his psionic abilities. A flash of blue flits across his eyes and his hands tremble lightly, as though the hum of an electrical current was running through them. The swordsman's injuries seal at an accelerated pace as similar wounds and bruises appear on his assailant.

As the flashy display takes place, a small crystal pokes out from his pocket, mostly hidden within his cloak. Ax, be ready to follow him when he escapes. Xane telepathically communicates to his psicrystal.

Xane uses Drain Health: 14 empathic damage to masked assailant, will DC 18 for half damage. Swordsman heals for the same amount.
Lingering Pain causes 2 bleed damage to masked assailant, fort DC 16 to negate.

Ax the psicrystal stealth [roll0]

[Frog Dragon]

Ralkar hears the sound and turns, almost knocking over his mug of fine dwarven ale before even getting a sip of it. It wasn't hard to discern what had happened, even if he had not quite seen it himself. A masked man with a sword, and another lying in a pool of blood. An assassin. He leaps to the exit, drawing his bow, but he does not nock an arrow. Instead, having blocked the exit, he shifts the bow to his right hand and raises his left.

The movements of his fingers create a golden ephemeral spiderweb pattern in the air. "Apologies for the inconvenience," he merely says before the ephemeral web shoots out, the strands reaching for various corners and the edges of windows before becoming corporeal, snapping into place with a chittering screech. Then, he nocks an arrow. "Stand down, murderer!"

Move in front of the exit, drawing bow. Then, cast web. I'll try to anchor it to cover the corner the assassin is in, but without reaching the exit. Anchoring to all the windows within the area, so the assassin will have a harder time getting through them.

Reflex 18.

[Tsriel]

Hearing a commotion from a nearby establishment while at her position on the street, Janatris stood up with a mouthful of bread.

What in 'da blue blazed be goin' on?!

She rushed over into the doorway, inadvertently blocking any means of escape. The scene was shocking. Blood had been spilled on the ground. There was a body slumped over the table. There were cries of battle. For her own safety, she withdrew her shield from her back.

"Someone call 'th watch! It be a real bloodbath in 'ere!" Janatris called out from over her shoulder and back out into the streets. She would impede exit for anyone inside in hope that the city guard would be arriving soon.

[Nicoli Dalris]

Adrian wasn't too surprised to hear such a commotion so soon upon arriving. It was moments before Adrian was inside the tavern and standing at the edge of the magical web. The aggressor was obvious, with a fallen corpse and only one man with blood on his blade. He pointed towards the the assailant and spoke towards his pocket, "Impede the aggressor's movement dear Sanrai, though keep an eye on the other."

The tiny sprite within Adrian's pocket suddenly popped its shoulders above the lip and points its own finger towards the assailant. A thin stream of sparks zipping from her tip to the man within the web.


Sanrai has used her spell like ability daze. The assailant needs to make a DC 10 will check or be unable to act next round. Adrian has taken a double move action. As a side note, my sprite can detect good and evil auras.

[McTurbo]

The assassin, now stuck in the webbing and unaffected by the stream of sparks, turns the masked face towards Ralkar and answer the request in a clearly feminine voice "No."

Suddenly the assassin is shrouded in a cloud of what seems like shadows given form. The cloud shrinks and disappears, leaving no trace of the assassin. Outside of the tavern, a few feet away from the people grouped at the doorway, a similar cloud appears but this time the assassin appears from it, dropping down on all fours. "I will not stand down."

From her position, the assassin leaps on top of the tavern's roof, again landing on her feet and hands alike, affectively making the building itself block her out of view from the people below.

Inside the tavern, the swordsman struggles to break himself free of the magical webbing, but fails to do so. The swordsman seems desperate. "No! Don't let her escape!"

The assassin is immune to Daze since it only affects targets of 4 or less HD. Sanrai detects the assassin as evil and Ralkar as good. The swordsman seems to be neutral.
The tavern has a flat roof and it's about 10 feet high up.
Assassin:
Perception check (to notice Ax): [roll0]
Acrobatics check (jump): [roll1]
Swordsman:
Combat maneuver check: [roll2]
Combat maneuver check: [roll3]

[tofucake]

Xane spins around and pushes past Ralkar as he chases after the escaping assassin. "The best laid schemes of mice and men.." he mutters under his breath as he rushes out of the tavern just in time to see her leap onto the roof and away from line of sight.

Be discreet, he instructs Ax as it grows an array of spidery, ectoplasmic legs resembling the doodlings of a stick figure's legs by a child. After tapping its "feet" on the wall several times, Ax climbs up the wall of the tavern after the assassin. Meanwhile, Xane looks around at the infrastructure around the tavern to try and guess what direction the assassin might escape to from the roof.

Xane uses Self-Propulsion, Ax gains move speed 30', climb speed 20' and tries to climb up the wall.

Ax's climb check [roll0]
Xane's perception ? [roll1]

[Frog Dragon]

"Nine hells," Ralkar mutters and waves his hand, the web fading out of existence. Then, he steps outside and looks up. The jump was quite doable for him. "I'll follow her," he says and leaps, trying to at the very least get his arms on top of the roof itself so that he might climb up more easily.

Standard Action: Dismiss Web
Move action. Move outside just far enough that I can jump up the roof, then high jump.
Acrobatics check to high jump on top of the roof: [roll0]
Forgot the +5 from the monk's High Jump ability. That means end result 20, for 5ft of vertical movement. Is this still enough to grab onto to edge of the roof?

[Tsriel]

She rushed over into the doorway, inadvertently blocking any means of escape. The scene was shocking. Blood had been spilled on the ground. There was a body slumped over the table. There were cries of battle. For her own safety, she withdrew her shield from her back.


From her position, the assassin leaps on top of the tavern's roof, again landing on her feet and hands alike, affectively making the building itself block her out of view from the people below.

OOC: Gotta resolve an OA before I can take my actual turn. I will be lucky if this succeeds. :smallbiggrin:

Unexpecting of any rogue trickery, Janatris's eyes widened in wonder. She quickly regained her composure and tried to grab the assassin with her free hand as quickly as she could.

Grapple (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Grapple)


1d20 + 5 BAB + 3 STR Mod - 4 (grappling one handed)
[roll0] vs Assassin's CMD


OOC: OK, a decent roll... DM?

[McTurbo]

As Janatris tries to get hold of the assassin, the assassin swiftly retaliates with a kick which fails to bypass her defenses, continuing the jump unaffected by the distraction.

Well, apparently in Pathfinder you can't initiate a grapple as an attack of opportunity, so...
Houserule: you can initiate a grapple as an attack of opportunity. There we go, problem fixed. I really don't see why they even changed that in the first place.

In any case, the grapple failed miserably. And since Janatris doesn't have Improved Grapple, the assassin gets an attack of opportunity as well.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
And it missed.

[Tsriel]

In a flailing of hands and feet between the two, the assassin manages to create enough of a gap to allow a jump onto the roof. Frustrated and dismayed, she knew there would be no way to keep up with the assailant by way of rooftop. Not in her mudder's armor.

The only thing she could do was to try to keep up and not lose the target from the ground level.

Perception
[roll0]

[McTurbo]

As Ralkar is still climbing on to the roof, the assassin turns around and looks at him. "I don't have time for this."

The assassin suddenly draws a small black sphere from a hidden pocket and throws it at her feet. A cloud of white smoke spreads from the point of impact, covering most of the roof, spreading a few feet over the edge and concealing her out of Ralkar's sight and even slightly obscuring Ralkar out of sight.

The swordsman, now free from the magical webbing, runs outside and looks at the smoke cloud in horror. "This can't be happening..."
The assassin was roughly 10 feet from the edge of the roof, so she was unable to be seen by anyone else than Ralkar and Ax (and people further away from the tavern, obviously). The cloud is giving her total concealment and is also giving Ralkar concealment.

Okay, so I guess I should describe the place. The tavern is on the eastern edge of the plaza. The plaza is lined with buildings on either side of the tavern and to the east of them, away from the plaza are more buildings, mainly small shops and storage buildings. The buildings are all roughly the same height and are about 5 feet apart from each other, and the spaces between them are for the most part clear of obstruction. The edge of the platform is 60 feet to the east and there's a 10 feet gap between the central and the eastern platform (and there's a 5 feet gap on both sides between the buildings and the edges of the platforms).

I might have forgotten to mention something, so if there's something on your mind, feel free to ask.

Stealth: [roll0]
You can make perception checks.

[tofucake]

":smallsigh: I was hoping it wouldn't come to this." Xane sighs when he hears from Ax that the assassin was no where to be seen and wisps of smoke drifted over the top of the building. He runs towards the side of the building where she had jumped towards, hoping to catch a glimpse of her escape route. He briefly tested the psychic connection. She was still there, somewhere within 150 feet of him.

He sighed again, he wasn't a fan of using his power this way, especially when the circumstances behind the attack were not entirely clear. Psionic energy flared to life around his eyes and hands once more. Ax, look out for a blood trail and follow them if you can.

Xane uses Drain Health: 14 empathic damage to assassin, will DC 18 for half damage
Lingering Pain also causes 2 bleed damage, fort DC 16 to negate.
Perception for blood trail on the roof if the smoke has cleared enough, assuming any of the lingering pain effects succeeded [roll0]

[Frog Dragon]

Ralkar curses and runs out of the cloud, directly away from the edge of the roof he climbed up on. Then he looks around.

If Ralkar can see any sign at all of where she might have gone, he follows, jumping if necessary. If not, he casts mage armor.

[Tsriel]

Janatris' eyes locked in a furloughed gaze at the smoke from the roof. It wasn't fire, just more trickery. In a bolt, she sprinted towards the back side of the building hoping to catch a glimpse of where to go next.

[Nicoli Dalris]

Following after Jantris, Adrian rushed out the back, his finger digging into his breast pocket as he scooped Sanrai from her usual place and gave her these instructions, "Get up there and keep an eye on that man we saw disappear, Keep your light flashing and changing so I can follow you, but make sure not to get too close, no closer than 40 ft." With that, he tossed her skyward to fly after the murderer.


Sanrai has a perfect maneuverability flight speed of 60, that should be more than enough to keep up with our culprit. Sprites can also change the color and intensity of their illumination at will, so following after her shouldn't be hard. Worst comes to worst, I can always locate her with my empathic link.