[3.P] Shadows of War [IC]

[RFLS]

Shadows of War


The world of Belis is on the brink of destruction. Seven years ago, the necromantic mage Azmaveth unleashed his horde of undead and mechanical monstrosities on the world. Rotting creatures, the likes of which had never been seen, descended on the towns and cities of the world. Strange constructs burrowed and flew at their sides, providing thoroughness to the carnage. Even in the places where the hordes of undead were beaten back, plagues soon followed, often leveling the town on their own. City after city fell to the horde. Vertsilver. Lorhurst. Swynston. Byrell. One by one, the bastions of the civilized were leveled, their occupants murdered and added to the growing horde.

Now, only the coastal kingdom of Aelshore remains. Protected by its phalanxes of paladins and clerics, backed by the mechanical might of its artificers, it has held out against the undead far longer than anyone expected. A wary truce has descended; Azmaveth has focused his attentions on recovering the arcane lore of the world, while the armies of Aelshore cannot push back the undead. The feeling of its citizens is one of acceptance. Many of them see no hope for their kingdom, and have resigned themselves to their fate.

Recently, a new plan has arisen among the commanders of the military. They've been forming a top secret special ops group, designed to gather information, cut supply lines, and disrupt the enemy as much as possible, with minimal cost. These warriors, the Frontier Scouts, are not always of standard military stock. Indeed, many of them are seen as renegades, dangerous to others, rebellious, or otherwise unsuitable for normal military service. Nevertheless, they will be performing a vital role in the defense of Aelshore. You, the players, are members of the Frontier Scouts. You've been tasked with taking back a small keep, just outside the borders of Aelshore. Undead are particularly concentrated in the area, and command is convinced that taking the keep will be a key point in breaking their lines.



Player
Character
Alignment/Race/Class
Languages
Init./Perc.


Bluydee
Macellido (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=951200)
NN Human Alchemist//Barbarian
Necril, Goblin
+2/+5


Keledrath
Beyleg (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=950848)
NN Illumian Occultist//Binder
Common
+0/+0


AngryCyc
Tessara (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=923664)
CN Elf Witch//Magus
Elven, Orc, Gnoll
+3/+14


questionmark963
Rilyn (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952485)
NG Human Warblade//Factotum
Unlisted
+4/+6(?)


Nevershutup
Caroaran (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952884)
NG Aasimar Paladin//Sorcerer
Celestial, Elven, Sylvan, Draconic, Abyssal, Infernal, Undercommon, Ignan
+4/+0


NotScaryBats
Samantha (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=953878)
NG Human Alchemist//Gunslinger
Unlisted
+4/+7(?)


NekoIncardine
Therora (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952496)
NG Elf Artificer//Rogue
Elven
+3/+7


Escheton
Hallrun (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=784469)
NN Elf Lore Warden//Psion
Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, Celestial, Giant
+8/+10





Player
Character
Alignment/Race/Class
Init./Perc.


AngryCyc
Herbes (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=923665)
NN Witch's Familiar 2
+7/+15


Nevershutup
Aedail (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=954211)(SkyBlue)
NG Psuedodragon 2
+2/+6


Escheton
Pet Rock (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=961326) (Cursive Grey)
NN Psicrystal 2
+2/+6(40ft.)





Player
Character
Saves (F/R/W)
AC/Touch/FF
CMD/FCMD
Special Defences


Bluydee
Macellido (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=951200)
+6/+5/+2
13/12/11
17/15
DR3/- vs piercing ammo


Keledrath
Beyleg (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=950848)
+5/+1/+3
19/10/19
14/14
DR 1/piercing


AngryCyc
Tessara (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=923664)
+5/+3/+5
14/13/11
15/12
Sleep Immunity, +2 vs enchantment


questionmark963
Rilyn (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952485)
+5/+5/+1
16/12/14
16/14
-


Nevershutup
Caroaran (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952884)
+9/+6/+7
13/11/12
14/14
-


NotScaryBats
Samantha (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=953878)
+4/+7/+2
18/15/13
17/13
-


NekoIncardine
Therora (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=952496)
+1/+6/+4
16/13/13
14/11
Sleep Immunity, +2 vs enchantment


Escheton
Hallrun (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=784469)
+4/+4/+4
17/15/13
19/15
Resist cold5, fire 5. Roll 2x vs mind-effecting. +1 CMD vs sunder/disarm





Player
Character
Saves (F/R/W)
AC/Touch/FF
CMD/FCMD
Special Defences[/TD]


AngryCyc
Herbes (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=923665)
+3/+5/+5
17/15/14
10/7
Magical Beast. Improved Evasion


Nevershutup
Aedail (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=954211)(SkyBlue)
+4/+5/+4
16/14/14
10/8
Magical Beast. Improved Evasion


Escheton
Pet Rock (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=961326) (Cursive Grey)
+4/+4/+4
16/16/14
3/1
Construct. Hardness 8. Improved Evasion




Your merry group of misfits is camped three miles from the enemy fort. You've spent the last two weeks trekking carefully across the damaged landscape. Twisted, burnt trees mark where verdant groves once stood. The ground is cracked and bare in most places. Strange insects and small reptiles scurry furtively about. The entire land is is cloudy and the air thick with fog or rain. Undead monstrosities prowl across the area. Much of your time has been spent avoiding what you could, or destroying what you couldn't. Two of your team, Varell and Ismur, have already died. Ismur was a cleric of the church of Pelor, and your group has heavily felt his loss in the past few days as the wounds have mounted.

You arrived three days ago, and healed yourselves as best you could without Ismur. You are in a small grove to the south of the fort, and thirty miles from the border of Aelshore. As best you can tell, the fort is lightly guarded, but is being used to stockpile bodies from the surrounding towns. You've already seen fivescore corpses dragged within the confines of the wall, and there are who knows how many already in there. The fort is a simple affair, with four walls and a north-facing gate. A small keep rises from the south-east corner, and several wooden buildings, including a stable, are within the confines of the walls. The fort is devoid of cover on all approaches for a hundred yards, but until then, it is possible to approach unseen.

Light is fading from the sky already, though it only a few hours past noon. You have a small, guarded fire crackling in the persistent drizzle. For three days, you have discussed how best to breach the walls and destroy the undead within.

Begin discussion of how you wish to go about your task. I'll keep things moving along as best I can, but the ultimate decision lies on you. Feel free to come to an OoC decision as well, as long as it's reflected in the IC chat. I've found that, as long as all the viewpoints are represented IC, this can keep things moving reasonably quickly, as players are almost always more reasonable than their characters.

[AngryCyc]

Tessara sits to the side with her bird, stroking its feathers. She's sent it a half dozen times to fly high above the fort, looking closely down below it... But her attempts to get it to "Just draw what you saw!" with its talon in the dirt have not proved very fruitful. She's also grown a bit weary of her idea not being well received amongst the group.

"I'm saying it one last time. We just wait Til we see any of them leave the fort, smash the lot of 'em, wear their undead leftovers over our bodies, and just walk into the fort like we were one of them!"

She has resigned to just repeating that yes, Herbes can fight quite well on his own against anything up on the towers, and that her bow skills are adequate for the frontal assault method.

[Vhaidara]

Beyleg, in his heavy plate mail, looks at the witch.
Why bother adorning ourselves with corpses? If it isn't going to stop their arrows, it's just dead weight.
He laughs at the unintentional pun.

[Nevershutup]

"If Aedail is willing, we can have her take an over head view of the fort, and see if that can provide more information. As for getting in, perhaps we should just wait until they come out of the gate. In fact, I know a spell that could do just that..." Caroaran trails off and starts thinking about the effects of his spell.

"Caroaran, I don't think I wanna go flying over some enemy base full of corpses, no matter how high I'm flying." Aedail telepathically sends this meassage to the entire party, while she sits on Caroaran's shoulder, staring into the fire.

[Escheton]

Hallrún spent the time Herbes spent scouting doing the same. Circling the structure from forest-cover studying. He spends a long while in thought back at camp, processing the structure and surroundings and considering the implications and options, whilst nodding and distractedly affirming the dialog with an "uhuh" or soft-spoken "right" and/or "yeah".


First he takes 10 on all knowledges, resulting in DC15 results. No action required for his top-of-the-head knowledge.
As he is looking for more complicated results I count that as a failure. Then he spends a minute each using call to mind(+2 bonus) (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-powers/c/call-to-mind)
Knowledge (Arcana): [roll0], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll1]
Knowledge (Dungeoneering): [roll2], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll3]
Knowledge (Engineering): [roll4], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll5]
Knowledge (Geography): [roll6], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll7]
Knowledge (History): [roll8], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll9]
Knowledge (Local): [roll10], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll11]
Knowledge (Nature): [roll12], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll13]
Knowledge (Nobility): [roll14], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll15]
Knowledge (Planes): [roll16], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll17]
Knowledge (Religion): [roll18], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll19]
Knowledge (Psionics): [roll20], Pet Rock Aid another (DC 10 for +2):[roll21]

[questionmark693]

Look everybody, we've been here for three days. The way I see it, we have two options. We can try to sneak in, but there isn't really any cover for that, or we can assault from head on. I think we can take it if we assault it. Aren't you some kind of fire creature's descendant? Rilyn turned to Caroaran with that last, hoping he was right-because if they had the ability to burn the place down, they could easily use that to their advantage.

[Nevershutup]

"Eh... I am, but I'm unusual from my kin. I could burn something down, but only if I had another source of fire." Caraoran shrugs a little while he says this, and starts performing small tricks with presdigitation.

[questionmark693]

Rilyn looked pointedly at the fire they had burning, without saying anything out loud.

[Nevershutup]

"Let me rephrase that; I have no special abilities with fire."

[AngryCyc]

"Yes, that'll be really effective for utilizing the fort ourself later. I'm sure a smoldering pile of ash will be very useful."

[NotScaryBats]

Samantha reiterates the points she feels are most important. "As we know, undead see well in the dark, and we do not (necessarily). I think we should bring the fight to the enemy in daylight. Secondarily, our enemies do not sleep or grow bored, so it behooves us to fight when we are rested and at our best, rather than trying to find a hole in their routine." The alchemist has deep bags under her icy blue eyes.

Her musket is in her lap, and her armor is on.

[Bluydee]

Macellido shifted awkwardly from side to side. He looked noticeably uncomforted with both the idea of a full-on assault and the idea of wearing the undead.

"Er, I say we should sneak in. Fighting a full-on assault is suicide! We can't fight all those undead, can we?"

[Escheton]

Macellido's question seem to pull the Psion from his thoughts. "Sure we can. We heal, they don't. Just a matter of making sure we retreat and do so early enough. Diminish their forces until a head-on assault is viable. Takes skill to do properly."
Hallrún takes a moment to size up the man. "As long as we keep the bulwark at our rear it will work."

[NotScaryBats]

"I am open to the idea of sneaking in, but how? I could perhaps rig a small explosion on one side of the keep with gunpowder and a long fuse, but I do not know how many would rush to investigate it."

[Nevershutup]

"The hardest part would be the gate. If we can get it open, we can hold the gate until enemies stop running at us, while I heal any injured if need be. I'm certain that we have sufficient skills here to do that. If we can't hold it, well, we just need to damage as many undead as possible to make them unusable for re-undead-ness." Caroaran states all of this with complete confidence in his companions.

Aedail flies off, stating that she is hungry.
Survival: [roll0]

Aedail comes back in ten or so minutes with a lizard of some sort (fine size?) and eats it at the edge of camp.

[NekoIncardine]

Therora's normally chipper attitude has visibly faded over the last few days; being away from town has made her favor quiet significantly more than usual, especially with two of the group slain.

Turning away from the group long enough to pull her mask down and take a good swig of water, she turned back and piped up. "Our best way in without ritual magic is going to be forcing the gate open - or getting them to open the gate. Well, one better might be digging our way in from beneath, but we don't have the resources to pull that off, and we'd have just as many undead to fight once we came out inside."

Even now, she could manage a bit of humor. And then a thought. "A big enough blast to crack a hole in a wall would put them entirely off-guard. But with a hundred yards clear from each direction, I'm not sure how we'd get a big enough powderkeg over there to do th... Ow, one second."

And she turned away again. Therora rather liked being in a group where no one had seen her jaw, for the moment.

[AngryCyc]

"The problem is... Why on earth would anyone just OPEN the gate for 8 people trying to attack a full fort? If there's a single intelligence amongst then ordering them, they won't even think of opening the gate. They'll pepper us with arrows and spells and watch us die while feebly pounding on an unbudging gate. Blowing a hole might be an option, but that again just leaves is with a fort with a huge hole in it.

Even if some of us can't sneak around very well, it's still foolish for all of us to simply charge the hate and hope they open it for us, or to stand around getting filled with arrows while we try to blow a hole through the wall, thus negating a large portion of the benefit of taking back a fort.

If we can't trick our way inside, we should at the very least have a few of our number attempt to scale the wall and get inside to sneakily open the gate the easier way... Mayhaps while another contingent approaches it from a more obvious and attention-drawing direction."

[NotScaryBats]

"Another option is using ropes or a ladder to climb the outer walls," Samantha adds.

[Vhaidara]

I say we just wait for them to open the gate, and take it.
Beyleg stubbornly insists.

[NekoIncardine]

Therora simply quietly glanced around the group, as if looking for better ideas... She herself was drawing a blank, as made obvious by her not speaking up further...

[Vhaidara]

Beyleg stands, stretching his arms. He draws his sword, and gives it a few practice swings.
Now, if you lot want to go and get that gate open, I'll get ready to storm the place.

[NotScaryBats]

"I am ready to go with you," Samantha says to Beyleg grimly. Her dark eyes are steeled and her musket is in her arms.

[Escheton]

After a while, the absentminded Viking returns from his thoughts, seemingly having to drawn a blank. "I should be able to scale the wall in mere moments, and given my experience as a guardsmen it shouldn't take to long to find and operate the gate-mechanism. So I say we patrol the fort today, to cut off any new approaches, and attack after first light as suggested." He looks around to make sure all are paying attention. "We gather at the forest edge. I change form and run for it, quickly scaling the wall and opening the gate. Once it starts to draw, everyone else runs for the gate. For I do not know how long I can defend the mechanism on my own."

[NotScaryBats]

"Well, that plan sounds as good as any, supposing you are confident you can make it to the mechanism and activate it without being overrun." Samantha is willing to go along with this plan.

[Escheton]

Hallrún looks confidant, focused yet relaxed as he meets Samantha's eyes."I am a competent swordsman. But more importantly, I will have changed my physical appearance to resemble one of the walking corpses. Which should buy me some time."

[NekoIncardine]

A quiet nod and a sip of water...

"I don't know if that'll fool them long... but my knack for stealth should let me follow you and work the mechanism. We'll want a distraction, big and flashy, to a side separate from our sneak-in and the frontal assault, if possible. Any ideas there?"

[NotScaryBats]

"Let me think..."

RFLS? Can I rig like 10 shots worth of gunpowder to explode with my Craft (Alchemy) to serve as a distraction?

[Bluydee]

Macellido sighed, but prepared an extract of growth and shield, along with his mutagen.

[Nevershutup]

"I will accept whatever you decide. I do not have the best defenses, but if need be, I can provide a distraction." This he says to no one in particular.

[Escheton]

Inured to the weather, the bare-chested Frost-elf picks off the spider-legged rock that has been climbing on his person and perching on his shoulders and starts to sharpen his blade with it. After a minute or so he remarks "The question is more when, rather than how. Do we delay a day to ensure our fittest form, not knowing what is happening to the collected corpses inside while we tarry? Or do we strike soon as able, ensuring the exclusion of the possibility that they have swelled in numbers."
Regardless of reactions, he continues to sharpen his longblade. Pausing at times and showing facial expressions concurrent with conversation. Though he does not speak, he seems to conclude areas needs special tending as he focuses his attention before returning to broad strokes.

[NekoIncardine]

Therora nodded at the second idea to indicate her personal preference, beginning to check her gear slowly...