Way of the Wicked: Knot of Thorns [IC]

[BananaPhone]

Saidens instincts as a fighter were already moving her into a withdrawing step to rescind out of her predicament. As she withdrew, her weapon came about and slashed at the nearest goon, her face a controlled image of discipline. She'd helped her team-mate get out of the hairy situation, now it was time to fall back into a more defensive position.



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Spoiler

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B]Stance:[/B] Scarlet Einhander Stance (+2 AC and +1D6 damage)
AC: 19

Move Action: Taking a single 5 foot step back, to avoid taking an AoO, towards the North-East, putting her next to the '7' on the map.
Standard Action: Red Zephyr's Strike against Green.
-- Attack: (1D20+8)[10]
-- Damage: (1D8)[6] + (1D6)[3] + 3

If Saiden hits, she can take an immediate 10' movement without attracting AoO's. If this happens, she will move 10 feet to the East, putting her just to the right of the Raven.

Reaction: If Saiden is attacked she will use Flowing Creek to avoid it: (1d20+11)[23]

[lostsole31]

R5T9: Saiden's instincts as a fighter were already moving her into a withdrawing step to rescind out of her predicament. As she withdrew, her weapon came about and slashed at the nearest goon, the tip barely scratching its old armor, and her face a controlled image of discipline. She'd helped her team-mate get out of the hairy situation, now it was time to fall back into a more defensive position.

R5T8: Realizing her shuriken just won't cut it (literally), she takes a juking step to face off against brown in a defensive stance and slams her spiked chain against its right foot for 6 mod .... still the wrong "kind" of weapon, but backed up by a lot of momentum.

R5T7: Ved, what do you do? It should be noted that you see the hallway to the west, and a lit room beyond.

Enemies on deck/ in hole, Imogen/ Kyr delaying ...

[Ahus]

Ved moves up behind Kel and pulls a wand from his belt. With a swish of the wand it's begins to tip glow slightly. He then taps her on the shoulder.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Use wand of Cure Light wounds on Kel for (1d8+1)[4]
End movement one space Southeast of Kel.

[lostsole31]

R5T7: Ved moves up behind Kel and pulls a wand from his belt. With a swish of the wand it's begins to tip glow slightly. He then taps her on the shoulder for 4 healing.

R5T6-5: Red still seems to be dealing with some type of self-inflicted mild confusion (funny, being undead and all), and swings wildly at Scathe. Brown actually disengages from Kel and steps to Scathe and swings with power, unable to get through the man's solid breastplate.

End Round 5, Begin Round 6 ...

R6T27: Leonidas, falcata in hand, what do you do?

Green on deck, Scathe in the hole, Imogen/ Kyr delaying ...

[Blackhawk101]

Leonidas will move up to stand next to Saiden. If there is a foe in range of his move, he will position himself to best advantage and attack with his Falcata, ready to parry if an attack comes his way.

Spoiler: crunch

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MA to advance into the room. Pause near Saiden to find a enemy to attack. Try for a flank but preferably keep a defensive position with Saiden.
SwA Spend a Panache point to add precise strike bonus damage +6 to attack.
to hit - (1d20+6)[9]
dam - (1d8+11)[13]
prepare:opportune parry and riposte if attacked (1 pp)

[lostsole31]

R6T27: Leonidas will move up to stand next to Saiden. If there is a foe in range of his move, he will position himself to best advantage and attack with his Falcata, ready to parry if an attack comes his way. His falcat is thrown up too quickly as he sees one of these things as soon as he steps into the room, but at least he recovers quickly enough to parry an incoming attack.

R6T17: Despite Leonidas' stumbling entrance, Green was already focused on the baroness, but she counters with what appears to be a dance maneuver.

R6T12.5: Scathe uses defensive footwork to attempt to cover for a risky attack. His war sword sinks itself into the chest of brown, who falls in upon itself and is destroyed, leaving behind its greataxe and leather armor. Scathe's sword continues on an arc towards Red, hacking into the draugr's left shoulder for 7.

R6T12: Blue steps down to attack Scathe with the axe grazing off the blonde man's armor.

R6T9: Saiden, you used your defense (flowing creek) last round. As of yet, nobody is aware of how to use the spell you gave them. (Well, Ved does, but you don't know that.) Are you going to say anything? What do you do?

Kel on deck, Ved in the hole, Imogen/ Kyr delaying ...

[BananaPhone]

With her shoulder near that of Leonidas so that the two formed a protective barrier against the undead monsters, Saiden stabbed out with her weapon while yelling to the group - "Greatness is within you if only you use it!"

ooc:

Spoiler

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Stance: Scarlet Einhander Stance (+2 AC and +1D6 damage)
AC: 19

I'm not sure how to tell others about the spell without getting metagamey, so that is my attempt to do so.

Standard Action: Red Attack against Green.
-- Attack: (1D20+8)[21]
-- Damage: (1D8+3)[10] + (1D6)[1]

[lostsole31]

R6T9: With her shoulder near that of Leonidas so that the two formed a protective barrier against the undead monsters, Saiden stabbed out with her weapon while yelling to the group: "Greatness is within you if only you use it!"

Her outward stab met with no success, but once she decided to slash with the slashing weapon, she hit the creature in a blow along the temple for 11.

R6T8: Kel steps forth, and continuing to fight defensively, her spiked chain hitting the monster's lower right arm for 8 mod, catching it and throwing the monster to the ground ... hard enough to destroy it!

R6T7: Ved, you feel that bit of greatness inspired in you by Saiden (moment of greatness). What do you do?

Red on deck, Leonidas in the hole ....

[Ahus]

Ved stores his wand on his belt. Raising his bow above his head while chanting arcane syllabi. Arcane power pulses into his bow.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Stow wand
Cast Gravity Bow.

[lostsole31]

R6T7: Ved stores his wand on his belt. Raising his bow above his head while chanting arcane syllabi, arcane power pulses into his bow.

R6T6: Red attacks Scathe, but is blocked.

End Round 6, Begin Round 7 ...

R7T27: Leonidas, what do you do?

Green on deck, Scathe in the hole, Imogen/ Kyr delaying ...

[Blackhawk101]

Leonidas steps five feet to his right and slashes at the undead.
“Ha! Avast ye’ water logged corpse!”

Spoiler

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five foot step
Risky Strike
SwA: spend one Panache Pt. For +6 damage Precise Strike
to hit - (1d20+5)[23]
to dam - (1d8+13)[17]
prepare parry riposte 1PP

[lostsole31]

R7T27: Leonidas steps five feet to his right and slashes at the undead, his falcata cutting into rusted chain link and deep into its chest for 13. “Ha! Avast ye’ water logged corpse!”

R7T26: Imogen (you wanted to come out of delay), what do you do? What do you have Kyr do? You sense something within you that could guide you to victory if used (moment of greatness).

Green on deck, Scathe in the hole ...

[Endrak]

Imogen takes a quick step to the southwest, leaning into the feeling of greatness that's come over her while she extends her dark power over her opponent. She jabs both her knives into the creature before her, while Kyr swoops in from the other side to deliver a blow to its exposed flank.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Imogen five foot steps toward the Green enemy and Claims it. Kyr moves into flanking position, using Acrobatics to avoid the AoO. They both attack.

[lostsole31]

R7T26-25.9: Imogen takes a quick step to the southwest, leaning into the feeling of greatness that's come over her while she extends her dark power over her opponent. Kyr swoops in from the far side to deliver a blow to its exposed flank for 6, as Endrak then takes a quick step to the southwest, leaning into the feeling of greatness that's come over her while she extend her dark power over her opponent. She jabs her knife into the creature's lower leg. The monster is hobbled and falls, and in doing so it is finally destroyed. Only one draugr remains.

R7T12.5: A split second later, Scathe's sword smashes through red's chest, destroying the last enemy.

Combat Ends ...

[Ahus]

"Before we move on, is anyone seriously injured? "
Ved asks, particularly focusing on Scathe and Saiden.

[BananaPhone]

The tall knight shook her head. In actuality, she had been.

"I am unscathed," she winked.

"Do they have any useful items upon their persons?"

ooc:

Spoiler

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Saiden will spend standard actions to restore her spent maneuvers.

[Ahus]

"Good to hear, but Scathe seems to be quite, well, scathed." Ved retorts. Then moving to Scathe's side, he calls out to their dark lord to empower and restore his faithful, and places his hand on Scathe's most grievous injuries.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Casting Cure Light for (1d8+3)[5]

[lostsole31]

The drowned each had normal greataxes on them, and rusted, broken chain shirts.

Do you leave the items (because it's a weight issue on both counts)? What does the party do now in this room?

[Endrak]

Imogen rubs the bridge of her nose. "I'm... fine. Kyr's a bit scratched up, but he'll be okay if you don't have the juice for more healing."

As she speaks, her face flushes a few times, but returns to normal after a deep breath. Once the episode has passed, she meets the eyes of the other party members. "That was decidedly not a stealthy approach. We have to assume that everything left in this place heard that screaming and knows we're coming."

[lostsole31]

Kel shrugs, because she was towards the back.

Scathe on the other hand, speaks up. "Everybody knew that trickery was the order of the day. I'd be upset if it wasn't. There was even a lot of care taken regarding the light we had. For some reason, the big mushroom still detected me, still made a noise, and what can you do? I'm also still wounded, as you can see, but we do going forward what we did in the past. Take what care we can with what we know; accept the consequences and deal with the scenario we find ourselves in when things don't go our way.

"Does anyone know what type of strange mushroom that was? Ved?"

[Ahus]

"Scathe, here let me patch you up a bit more." Ved says whilst withdrawing his wand from his belt.
"The spell that I cast to channel my bower through this bow, will only last a few minutes so we should get a move on.

Spoiler: crunch

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Cure Light wounds from wand for [roll]1d8 +1[/roll]

Prompt for knowledge check RE: the mushroom thing probably Nature or Dungeoneering +14/ea.

"The large mushroom was a fungus known as a "shrieker." The aptly named fungus has ventrils which quickly use bellows-like motion to draw air through it to a highly restricted exit for the high-pithed noise. A shrieker is completely harmless physically, otherwise. A shrieker is affected by any motion it senses w/in 10' of it. Really, there was no way we could have avoided it. "

[lostsole31]

"Well, we've already had one way opened towards us," says Scathe (who was healed 5). "If we are preserving battle magicks, we can hold off searching around in here and come back if needed, but let's go the way the monsters came."

With that, the party gets back into formation, with Scathe and Imogen checking for traps. Though the door is opened, out of amusement Scathe shuts it slightly to read the "expected" message. Sure enough, there is a plaque there that says:

"Beware the fallen for they may rise once more to threaten you."

This square stone chamber is lit by a small oil lantern that hangs (attached, like the others) from the center ceiling. It has eight battered wooden coffins that are encrusted with salt brine, barnacles and dried sea weed. Four of these coffins are as yet unopened. Another four of the coffins have been smashed open, and likely contained those dead sailors, arisen from their sea grave through necromantic magic.

There is no immediately visible treasure in those burst open coffins. But, you are not here to sightsee now, are you? The concern of conserving active battle magics still on your mind. What do you do? There is one door to the west.

[BananaPhone]

Saiden narrowed her eyes at the arrangement before them.

"Perhaps we triggered two rooms at once..." she mentions, given that they had not gone through the mushroom antechamber yet.

"Maybe the mushrooms shrieking was the trigger for their re-animation," she gestures to the burst open coffins, keeping her voice low, barely above a whisper.

[lostsole31]

"So, do we want to check the other coffins, then?" asks Kel, "or beat feat out the door?"

[Blackhawk101]

Incredulous, Leonidas scoffs. “Ya think there be treasure in yon rotted boxes? More dead sailors, me thinks! Let us be ‘bout our business.”
He sheathes his sword and gets ready to move out to the West.

[Ahus]

"Assuming we inadvertently triggered this room, we should make sure that all of the bodies remain inanimate. Also, assuming that the Mistress spoke true, there are but 2 rooms remaining to be investigated. Let us quickly, and sequentially, open these remaining sarcophagi and deal with their inhabitants.
That said time is fleetingon my empowered bow." Ved shares with the group.

[lostsole31]

"I am not dinging my shield or chipping my sword trying to make my weapons take the place of the tools they are not. And I don't have a hammer, so nothing subtle for pulling nails," says Scathe.

Meanwhile, Kel does a few slow hand measurements in an arc and then hammer fists one of the lids of the coffins ... not to make a whole, but at the reinforced area where it meets the lid is nailed to the main frame of the coffin. It's a poor blow, that when it thumps, has loads of dust flying off and into her eyes .... blinding her for a good 3 rounds before she clears her eyes again. "Okay, maybe a combined effort of careful prying that bashing it," she says, still tearing a little.

[Ahus]

"Well, if that didn't awakenthe resident of the coffin, I doubt highly that anythingwe do in the next room will." Ved says to Kel, moving to the coffin to take a listen for any stirring within.

Spoiler: Crunch

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Prompt for Perception +10

[lostsole31]

Ved doesn't hear anything stirring, scratching, chanting, belting, farting, or otherwise in way making conscious or involuntary noises from with the coffin.

[Endrak]

"Let's just get this over with," says Imogen. "I'm sure we're capable of fighting whatever's left, if anything is." She braces herself against the nearest coffin, and waits for the rest of the party to help her.