The Red Hand of Doom (3.5)

[danielxcutter]

"Well, they can't be much worse than a dragon," said Arendi, cracking his neck. "So yeah, that sounds good. Come here, I've got plenty of healing items. I've used most of my own spells, but that's why I came prepared."

Spoiler: OOC

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Arendi will use as many charges of Lesser Vigor to bring the party back up to full.

[A.A.King]

"I'm not sure I like the sound of them sending out a messanger. I would be much happier with the idea that our victory hear remains a secret to the larger army." Alastor said as Arendi touched him with his wand of lesser vigor for 1 charge. "While I agree that going back to finish the job is the right idea, I don't have any more beasts to bring to the party. The bat was the last one I could call today, and I haven't had time yet to train permanent replacements for the ones lost early. All I have left is Libby..."

"And I don't fight! (gawk)" Libby said assertively

[danielxcutter]

"Well, wasn't the dragon their messenger?" the greywarden asked. "Any goblin messenger would probably be far slower than a flying dragon, so that gives us time... and they'd figure it out eventually, when the army arrives at the bridge or when the dragon doesn't show up and they investigate."

[Toliudar]

Chatty

As the healing process concludes, Chatty erases her previous words on the grounds and adds new ones.

Right. Vokon, Arendi and me in front, moving fast? Kedi and Jim taking out the archer?

[Aracor]

Sounds good. Let's finish this battle and deal with the bridge. Then we need to get back to Drellin's Ferry and let them know what's happening.

[Toliudar]

Chatty

Hearing no arguments to the contrary, Chatty erases her words, waits for her colleagues' wounds to heal, then scampers down out of the tree and back out onto the road. Once the others signals their readiness, she jogs back toward the bridge.

[Toliudar]

Chatty

She may have only known the quirky frog-man for a day, but already the pair moved as if they had scrounged together, hunted together, for years. She trusted the others to follow at a safe distance.

Chatty shifted from shrub to bush, staying close to the ground until they got to the edge of the woods and could scope out what changes, if any, the hobgoblins had made.

Spoiler: OOC

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Hide (1d20+22)[23]
Move Silently (1d20+18)[30]
Listen (1d20+5)[7]
Spot (1d20+15)[26]

[Dexam]

Keda carefully approached the towers of bridge, endeavouring to stalk in a path parallel with the rat-woman, but maintaining a distance close enough so that they could rush to each other's aid, should it prove necessary. It felt good to be hunting again, instead of being a slave and bodyguard fighting for the amusement of the Red Wizard.

Crouched low in the foliage, with bow in hand and annulats within easy reach, he surveyed the scene at the clearing, and peered up at the tops of the towers for any signs of archers.

Spoiler: OOC

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Hide: (1d20+11)[23]
Move Silently: (1d20+11)[30]
Spot: (1d20+11)[25]
Listen: (1d20+9)[15]

[Saintheart]

Skull Gorge Bridge
Shaareach Forest, Cannath Vale
An Hour Past Dawn, the Eleventh of Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Dice: 2 of 6

Getting within sight range of the bridge was a lot easier this time round. Ozyrrandion's corpse still lay where they'd taken it out, the thing already starting to give off that undescribable, not-quite-meaty smell that dead magical beasts of its kind gave. A raptor lazily circled in the sky far above, though it didn't seem keen on coming down to see what could be bitten off. Apart from the stink and the rising heat of the day, it could almost be described as peaceful.

Crouched at the treeline once more, on opposite sides of the Dawn Way, wererat and neraphim could pretty clearly see the situation. The hobgoblins, it seemed, had pulled back to the far side of the Gorge. Three of the
ones that had come at Chatty were now standing on the battlements of the northern two towers, along with the last archer, who looked a lot healthier than he had earlier in the day. That left two unaccounted for, and not visible from where the two scouts crouched. It was perhaps understandable that they'd done that; the hobgoblins had nothing to fear coming from behind them, and anyone wanting to close to the reach of blade and claw would have to cross the whole bridge to get there, presumably under a shower of arrows the whole way across. It didn't seem that they'd been reinforced, but the two hobgoblins missing from Chatty and Keda's informal headcount could mean either that they'd gone as messengers, or that they simply weren't visible at that moment.

[Toliudar]

Chatty

The wererat took in the hobgoblins' defensive arrangements and nodded slightly. The hobgoblins were smart, making the best use of terrain and circumstances that they could, but it was clear that their defenses were nearly exhausted.

She glanced up, and a large blue chevron appeared on the trunk of tree she was hiding behind, on the side facing away from the bridge. Hopefully her colleagues would be able to see it and take it for the sign to advance that the group had established the day before.

Glancing over at Keda beside her, Chatty carefully pointed toward the archer on the tower, and then to Keda. She then pointed to herself and used two fingers wiggling to demonstrate running. As soon as the neraph signals comprehension, Chatty is off like a spark starting a forest fire, dashing for the cover provided by the nearer of the southern towers.

Spoiler: OOC

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Using prestidigitation to mark the tree. Unless Keda shows an objection to Chatty's proposal, she'll start by executing a run action to go 120' forward, trying to put the nearer of the southern towers in between her and the remaining archer.

[Dexam]

Keda nods in agreement as Chatty's gestures. He pulls an arrow from his quiver and nocks it to the bowstring. Crouched in the foliage, he bends the bow, aimed and ready to release at the hobgoblin archer the moment there's any sign that Chatty has been spotted making her dash across the open space to the southern towers.

[Saintheart]

Skull Gorge Bridge
Shaareach Forest, Cannath Vale
An Hour Past Dawn, the Eleventh of Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Dice: 2 of 6

As it turned out, Chatty's movement was quick enough that she picked a moment when the hobgoblins on the northwestern tower weren't looking. She arrowed across the open ground between the treeline and the southeastern tower without being spotted, pulling up unseen against the southernmost stones of the tower's circular wall.

Spoiler: OOC

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Spot checks failed, what can I say.

[Toliudar]

Chatty

Pausing, her breath coming fast, Chatty took a moment to signal 'come on' to anyone behind her who might be watching, and then started out across the bridge. She stayed low and zigzagged a bit, hoping to make the archer(s?)'s job as hard as possible.

Spoiler: OOC

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Swift action to enter flame's Blessing stance, giving her fire resistance 5.

Double move to head 60' toward the far side of the bridge.

[Saintheart]

Skull Gorge Bridge
Shaareach Forest, Cannath Vale
An Hour Past Dawn, the Eleventh of Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Dice: 2 of 6

Between the two of them, they made a fast job of it.

The first arrows came whipping through the air as Chatty made her sprint across the gap, over the gorge hundreds of feet below. That, in turn, gave Keda an opening to turn, raise, aim, and loose, and his own shaft went clean through one of the hobgoblin's throats. And by that point Chatty was within range of the tower, and she reached ... and with a flickering of black smoke, vanished from the span and onto the roof of the tower. The two hobgoblins there had some time to scream, but little else. A hobgoblin from the far tower turned toward her, but another arrow from Keda's bow caught him through the eye, and the second one that started towards him got another through the throat.

That left one more. He'd chosen well, Chatty had to admit. Retreated inside the doorway of the tower and blocked the entrance with his tower shield. A decent strategem, if one wasn't coming at the hobgoblin from the darkness inside the tower.

Keda heard one scream ring out. The neraphim nodded to himself as he tasted the silence that followed. It was like that in Home, too, after the clan had brought something down. That long passage of silence was one way Clan Frostmoon referred to the pale god that Arendi followed and whose symbol he wore.

Chatty came walking nonchalantly back across the bridge, a small, furry wererat in the morning sun between rails of stone. There wasn't a lot of blood on her claws, but there was enough nonetheless. And that was about the time the rest of the circus arrived at the scene, and they had a chance now to review the situation; Skull Gorge Bridge was theirs, with three projected days before the Red Hand would arrive at the bridge. The tents all still seemed to be on the north side of the bridge (though Chatty and Keda were all but certain they'd empited), and one hobgoblin was unaccounted for, but it perhaps stood to reason that a messenger was being sent back to Cinder Hill. And the circus still had the long road back to Drellin's Ferry under a steadily-warming sky and jungle canopy.

Spoiler: OOC

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That's 125 XP each for the party. Now what, guys?

[danielxcutter]

Arendi looked around at the carnage. "You know what, there’s six of us and I think Chatty did half the job."

[A.A.King]

"Well done, well done indeed!" Alastor said bosterously as the rest of the circus joined up with Chatty and Keda. "Clearly they were not prepared for the two of you coming back so quickly after our initial retreat. Absolutely marvelous."

"We should search their bodies. It may be a long shot, but they could be caring orders with them. We are still lacking in information and now that there is a good chance that the missing hobgoblin has been sent out as a replacement messenger..." Alastor quickly looks over of the body of the dragon who was supposedly the old messenger "... we may also have given up the element of surprise that we've had up until this point. I don't think we have the means neccesary to try and intercept him, so from now on we'll have to assume that the Red Hand is aware of the fact that at least some people are aware of them. People who are strong enough to take down a dragon. That could mean trouble later, trouble indeed.

So yeah, information! If it is still here, we need it. And, if they have anything else of value, we might as well take that too. Not like they need it now, do they?"

[Aracor]

Agreed. And we need to prioritize the far side of the gorge. Once that's done, Chatty and I should be able to take the bridge down.

Vokon turns words to actions as he strides out and jogs to the bridge. He'll slow down as he crosses the bridge, seeing if he can find anything that looks like a likely place to hit in order to fell it.

[Toliudar]

Chatty

Words appear at Chatty's feet.

Before you take down the bridge, talk about which side of it we should end up on.

Nodding to her colleagues, the extremely bloody Chatty points down toward the water below, then changes into her rat form to scurry down to the river to clean up. From there, she swims across the river, climbs up the far side, and transforms back into her hybrid form to better examine the contents of the tents.

Spoiler: OOC

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Sadly, Chatty will not likely be of much help in taking down the bridge, as I stupidly neglected to take Mountain Hammer. But I'm confident that Vokon and Arendi can handle it.

Spot and search when looking around the tents: (1d20+15)[32], (1d20)[11]

[danielxcutter]

"Well they'll probably send more reinforcements in a day or two I imagine, but I learned a few tricks about cracking stone and such," said the greywarden, absentmindedly toying with the hilt of Reason.

[A.A.King]

"We should end up on the side we came on" said Alastor "because after we destroy this thing, we want to had back to Drellin's Ferry"

"I suggest therefor that we all go and search the other side of the bridge first, the towers, the tents, the remains, the usual routine. Once we're certain there is nothing of value to learn or loot left on the that side, then those of us with the skills and strength needed to destroy this thing"

Alastor stamps on the bridge a few times to show what he meant

"will start working on that while the rest of us start searching the side we came from"

Spoiler: OOC

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Alastor Spot: (1d20+15)[23]
Alastor Search: (1d20+4)[11]

Libby Spot: (1d20+11)[18]

[Dexam]

Keda retrieves the annulats he used in the fight against the dragon and hell hounds; in all his time in This Place he had not seen any others, so always endeavoured to recover his when possible.

Crossing the bridge, he swiftly scouts the area surrounding the camp, looking for signs of the unaccounted-for hobgoblin; he knew now that these hobgoblins were not as swift has he...

"If I leave now, I may be able run down the remaining hobgoblin, before it reaches aid," he tells the others. "But if I am to do so, we must decide quickly."

Spoiler: OOC

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Survival / tracking check: (1d20+9)[20]

[Toliudar]

Chatty

A cleaner, wetter Chatty clambers up the other side of the gorge and begins to rifle through the tents. When Keda suggests going after the hobgoblin, Chatty shrugs and nods her assent to his plan.

[A.A.King]

"Yes, please, go!" Alastor says excitedly in response to Keda "If you think you can catch their messenger before it informs the hoard of our success then do it! I believe it would be greatly to our advantage if we manage to keep our capture of the bridge a secret for as long as possible!"

[Dexam]

"If I do not return before the sun passes directly overhead, assume that some harm has befallen or delayed me."

Annulat in hand and without a backwards glance, Keda sets off at a steady lope along the Dawn Way, his strangely patterned armour flickering oddly in the early morning shadows of the jungle.

Spoiler: OOC

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Assuming that Keda will be hustling for at least 3 hours there and back in the rising heat is going to require hourly Fort saves:
Hour 1: (1d20+8)[27]
Hour 2: (1d20+8)[26]
Hour 3: (1d20+8)[17]

Also, pre-emptive Spot & Listen, just in case.
Spot: (1d20+11)[22]
Listen: (1d20+9)[11]

Plan is to close with the hobgoblin messenger, and try to take it out with Skirmish/Neraph Camouflage annulat throw. If he hasn't caught up with the runner in 2 hours, he'll head back to the bridge.

[Saintheart]

Skull Gorge Bridge
Shaareach Forest, Cannath Vale
Two Hours Past Dawn, the Eleventh of Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Dice: 3 of 6

At least the hobgoblins had done some of their work for them. Those that had already been killed on their first encounter with the circus had been stacked in a pile near one of the tents, and their gear was half-piled by another. The tents themselves stunk of goblin sweat and the lingering reek of the bitter food they'd been eating. In one of them something akin to a game of Watch Me had been left abandoned, wooden discs representing the Emperor, Empress, Knave, and Tens scattered around.

Apart from that, the camp was as spartan as one might expect from an advance camp. During her inspection Chatty was making a silent count of the rations the hobgoblins had left; four days' worth or so. That certainly suggested the Red Hand had planned on arrival in the timeframe they'd been told about. Which in turn gave more confirmation to the unsettling hypothesis that the Hand army was indeed organised and had a plan of assault timed down to the dawn and dusk.

The hobgoblins' bodies on closer inspection did bear some differences from those at Vraath Keep. These ones all seemed to have faces daubed with the same pattern of yellow clay: two stripes from right ear to right corner of the mouth, two yellow spots on the left cheek. It might have been a tribal pattern, but there was something in Chatty's mind that kept murmuring that it could well have been a sort of unit insignia ... which in turn might have its own nasty implications about how organised the tribes were, if they'd been convinced to forego their identities as tribes and instead assume the identity of parts of a larger whole.

The tower shields were what they seemed. So too the short swords each of the hobgoblins had wielded. All decent gear, all accustomed to heavy use. Chatty might have been able to stand for long crucial seconds against a line of them, but the discipline of these creatures was evident, as was the efficiency of their defences. There was, she could see, very little way any small pack of town militia could stand against this. Indeed her fur flattened reflexively thinking back to the four or five farmers-with-weapons-in-their-hands they'd seen when they first came to Drellin's Ferry, and imagining the likely result if they came up against a platoon of these hobgoblins.

Alastor was confirmed in his view when he found the meagre stash of goods that had belonged to the hobgoblins' caster. There was a finely-made drum, five or six javelins, and a longsword that didn't look to be anything special. His chain shirt and a steel shield finished off the picture. The bowmen also had mundane-looking bows and arrows.

But there were, nonetheless, things that looked much more impressive amongst the gear. More iron rings, for a start, and with different types of runes attached to them. And then there was the small pile of goods laid to one side in one of the tents. Chatty's sensitive nose picked up the faint acrid odour still lingering on them; these, she guessed, had belonged perhaps to the dragon whose corpse lay rotting in the sun on the south side of the gorge. There were a couple of potion bottles, an amulet, and a set of bracers that surely must have sized up or down magically. And lastly, six pearls, lying with bits of green scale on them - the hobgoblins must have picked them out of the dragon's dead hide.

As for the bridge itself, Vokon and Arendi made a decent study of it in between and after turning over the hobgoblins' camp and the bodies. It was dwarven-made, and like most dwarven-made bridges likely would last another hundred years or so if undisturbed - but there was a flaw. At the juncture where the southeast tower met the span, there was a clear, and still opening, crack in the stonework. It didn't take dwarven instinct for architecture to realise that some solid blows there would quickly put the bridge through a critical failure, though there was no immediate risk to anyone crossing it right this second. Indeed, Vokon had a feeling that the Hammer of Selune he now carried might be enough to do the job if he was surgical with the blows.

The sun climbed further into the sky. Even with the light breeze afforded by the channel of the gorge and the moving water far below, the heat of the day continued to build. It would be nightmarish travelling in this, and most of the circus could only wonder what was happening north of the span.


Eventually, Libby gave a warning whistle from her perch atop the northwestern tower, and the circus gathered to see what was happening.

It was Keda. The neraph was still holding to his easy, effortless lope as he rounded a bend in the path, his shadow shrinking behind him, the strange colours of his armour shimmering in the day. His red skin seemed to be shimmering along with it; their newest companion was sweating freely and had a drawn look to him.

But he still came jogging in to the north side of the span, and without a word tossed a crudely-made longsword to the pile of gear they'd recovered. The weapon clattered to the ground and lay still. The hobgoblin had run about as well as could be expected, but he simply wasn't any match for a hunter of Home. Two annulats, singing in the wind as they launched through the air, had been enough to bring the last one down, and Keda had turned south again.

Spoiler: OOC

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To sum up the gear found, with an asterisk for the stuff that seems to be radiating magic:

Amulet *
Bracers *
Potion (clear bottle of iridescent blue liquid) *
Potion (black bottle of thick liquid) *
6 pearls
1 Rune of 1 type *
1 Rune of second type *
6 x runes of third type *
3 x runes of fourth type (these look a lot like the runes of True Strike the circus has seen before) *
Masterwork war drum
5 x javelins
2 x longswords
4 x composite longbows +2
8 x tower shields
1 x light steel shield
8 x short swords
6 x scale mail
1 x chain shirt
4x 4-man stinking tents

[Toliudar]

Chatty

Waiting for Keda

Chatty helped gather the variety of discoveries in the bag and lay them out for the magicky folks to figure them out. Something to keep them busy, she supposed.

Chatty, in turn, kept busy, first, by dragging the hound and stripped hobgoblins to the middle of the bridge and tossing them over.

And then there was the body of the dragon. Chatty was no expert in magicky armour stuff, but she had seen her share of heroes wearing scaled...stuff. Maybe there was a chance to capitalize on this herself. Pulling one of her daggers out and testing the edge on on of the smaller scales, Chatty quickly becomes engrossed in the intriguing and macabre challenge of working around her own slash marks, loosening the incredibly tough skin of the green monstrosity. Waste not, want not.

Keda Returns

Chatty raises a hand dripping with dragon blood in greeting, as Keda walks back to the bridge. Chatty does her best to bundle the larger chunks of dragonskin into the bag of holding.

[Saintheart]

Skull Gorge Bridge
Shaareach Forest, Cannath Vale
Two Hours Past Dawn, the Eleventh of Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Dice: 3 of 6

(Chatty's knifework was careful and helped by the fact she didn't really have anyone around bothering her as she worked. Ozyrrandion's corpse looked even worse now than the last time she'd cut it - a fine little greeter on this side of the gorge for the Red Hand - but she was able to extract the vast majority of the dragon's hide without crucial damage being made. The hide recovered from the dragon was significant, and while it stunk of both acid and blood, she managed to load all of it into the uncomplaining Bag of Holding just as Keda returned. She also threw in, almost as an afterthought, one of Ozyrrandion's massive-looking thigh bones.)

Spoiler: OOC

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The hide you've recovered has enough material for pretty well any armorcrafter to make a single Medium-sized Hide armor, or a single Small-sized Scale armor. If made by a normal armorsmith (magical or not), green dragonhide armor looks great, a gleaming green specimen of armor, but doesn't confer any special qualities, and isn't masterwork. There's also enough left over for two heavy or light armor shields. Same deal, not magical.

By contrast, if you can find someone with the Dragoncraft feat, it's a different story. You can still make a Medium-sized Hide armor or a Small-sized Scale armor, and again have enough left over for two Medium shields ... but the armor would confer 5 resistance against [acid], and would be treated as one weight category lighter (heavy becomes medium, medium becomes light.) Armor Check Penalties are reduced by 2, including the 1 point reduction for masterwork. Still has the same Max DEX bonus rating. Prices are 3,000 for Light armor, 6,000 gp for Medium armor.

And the thigh bone, again if it's someone with the Dragoncraft feat, can be made into a Dragonbone bow, with the STR rating set by the crafter. This sucker has a +20 foot range increment longer than normal, i.e. 130 feet for a composite longbow. Price is a composite bow +100 gp.

Lastly, in passing, there's dragonfang weapons, made from the claws and teeth of the dragon, which don't add a lot: +1 point of [acid] energy damage, and +1 to attack from the masterwork quality. There's enough material on Ozyrrandion to make 12 Medium one-handed piercing or slashing weapons (or 12 Small two-handed piercing or slashing weapons). Light weapons could also be made. Price is 300 gp each weapon.

[A.A.King]

"An absolutely amazing performance!!!" Alastor shouts when he sees Keda drop the weapon of the now dead messenger "That is one less thing to worry about! Without advanced warning that the bridge has been captured, the Red Hand has no reason to change up their plans and so our delay tactics shall be at their maximum usefulness. Now we can prepare in peace not having to fear a second advanced guard coming to interupt us! Well done Keda!

[danielxcutter]

"Good," said Arendi, nodding. "Now let's see about bringing this bridge down. Vokon?"

The greywarden pulled out his blade and cracked his neck in anticipation of cracking the bridge in half.

[Aracor]

As long as we're satisfied that everything on this side has been taken care of, then yes. Let's bring this bridge down.

Vokon spits on his hands and picks up the Hammer of Selune, then walks to the flaw in the southeast tower.

He lines himself up, and does his best to make his first strike count as well as possible to judge how long it will take to widen that crack. In some ways, Mountain Hammer is unnecessary since the Hammer of Selune is already adamantine and will drill through the stone anyway, especially when powered by Vokon's strength, but he'll still start with it.

Spoiler: Actions

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Mountain Hammer with a full power attack! I'm going to assume that hitting the broadside of a barn doesn't actually require an attack roll. Feel free to roll it if necessary. (5d6+22)[47] ignoring hardness.

Second round will be a simple full attack. (3d6+22)[30] plus (3d6+22)[34] Pretty sure that will be more damage overall.
Round 3: (3d6+22)[30] plus (3d6+22)[31]
4: (3d6+22)[30] plus (3d6+22)[31]
5: (3d6+22)[33] plus (3d6+22)[30]

Not sure how long it will actually take, but that's a decent start, I think.

Huh...nearly 300 damage in 30 seconds. That seems solid.