Into the Keep on the Shadowfell IC

[Starbuck_II]

Zishu tries to dodge the spear attack but it lightly slices into his side.
"Counterattack time!" (Bond of Retribution again)

Spoiler

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4 Temp -7 means I took 3 actual damage this encounter.
Since they are still Oathed, I melee roll attack twice, choosing better of two.
attack - (1d20+9)[25]
attack - (1d20+9)[19]

dam - (1d10+7)[8]

Deals 5 radiant damage if an enemy other than the target hits or misses the me before the end of the user's next turn.

[TurboGhast]

Zishu's strike takes down the last goblin visibly aware of your presence. A tense minute or so later, it becomes clear that despite all the noise you made nobody's entering the room to continue this fight.

Spoiler: OOC: Conclusion of Combat

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With all the enemies brought to 0 hit points, you've won the combat. All of you gain 104 experience points (625 divided evenly between 6 people, rounded down).

Whether the finishing blows were lethal or not is up to you, which is why the rest of this post says that the goblins were defeated without saying whether that means killed or knocked unconscious.

There are circumstances where I'll call fights as your victory even though there are conscious enemies, the first ones that come to mind being those enemies choosing to surrender or successfully retreating. This will give the same amount of experience as winning by bringing every enemy to 0 hp.

Without the pressure of combat, you're free to strategize about what to do next, which could include taking a short rest, searching the defeated goblins for items, choosing which room to go to next, and taking actions within this room that help you learn about adjacent ones, among many other things.

[Phantom Genius]

Search the goblins, toss them in the pit, heal Gagan?

[sandmote]

"Not the worst fight I've seen," Vuthan seems a bit expectant after taking a breather. "Anyone sense anything behind the door?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception and Dungeoneering have the same bonus, but I'd prefer dungeoneering if it applies:
(1d20+9)[19]

[TurboGhast]

You're able to do some post-fight healing, search your enemies' bodies, and take a short rest without interference.

The goblins had 50 sp (8 sp per person, 2 sp remainder) between them, while the hobgoblin has a minor motherload. In terms of money, he had 55 gp (9 gp per person, 1 gp remainder), but, more importantly, his hide armor has magic woven in.

Spoiler: Armor Stats

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+1 Bloodcut Hide Armor
Provides a +1 enchantment bonus to AC.
Power (Healing Surge): Minor action. While you are bloodied, the armor can be used to gain resist 10 to all damage until the end of your next turn.

Bear in mind that since the hobgoblin used the armor's power while fighting you, if you put the armor on now you'll have to wait until after an extended rest in order to use that power yourself.

"Not the worst fight I've seen," Vuthan seems a bit expectant after taking a breather. "Anyone sense anything behind the door?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception and Dungeoneering have the same bonus, but I'd prefer dungeoneering if it applies:
[roll0]

(I'm taking it as a perception roll since the door's rather ordinary, while hearing through it has interesting consequences.)

Nothing about the door leading out of the area to the east seems particularly unusual to you. It may have seen better days, but it's still functional, appears not to be trapped, and isn't in a particularly good location for a trapped door anyway.

Through the door, Vuthan hears what seems to be an argument. Words are getting thrown around at high velocity with an enraged tone, but none of them are words you recognize from Common or Giant.

[Phantom Genius]

Drang stops to listen at the conversation and nods his head as if he understands. {He doesn't.}

[Rakaydos]

Sarathi shaked the hobgoblin out of his armor, and starts trying to figure out how stretchy it is and whether she could incorporate it into her armor somehow.

[sandmote]

Vuthan puts his finger to his lips, and motions to the party to keep quiet.

[TurboGhast]

Sarathi shaked the hobgoblin out of his armor, and starts trying to figure out how stretchy it is and whether she could incorporate it into her armor somehow.

Since the orange-skinned goblin was closer to Sarathi's height than any of his goblin allies, it only takes a little finagling to make his armor wearable.

(OOC: The orange one was medium, instead of small like the rest.)

[Dimers]

Gagan uses his staff to steady himself as he gets up from the floor -- quietly! -- and he goes to the door where Vuthan is standing. He puts his ear-frill softly against the wood.

Spoiler: languages

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Gagan knows Common, Draconic and Deep Speech.

[TurboGhast]

Gagan's also unable to recognize the language.

Spoiler: For those who know Goblin

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The voices appear to be arguing about whether the room they're in contains any treasure. One's complaining that they've dug for weeks but found nothing, another says they have found a shiny trinket, and a third discounts said trinket as worthless.

[Archemist]

Elmo also listens for a moment but doesn't recognize the language of the arguers, other than that it seems to be an argument. He motions to the others to be ready to barge in, placing one hand on the doorknob and giving a little countdown with his other hand, lowering fingers from 5..4..3..2..

Spoiler: OOC

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If this is ok with the rest of the group, of course - Elmo's got decent saves and is happy staying back as the rest of you go through the door in any order you choose.

[Rakaydos]

By this point the gnoll had put on the oddly stretchy hide armor.

(pretty sure that with +1 magic, there's no change to my AC)

[Phantom Genius]

Ready to barge. Do we want to just open with the blast of fire?

[TurboGhast]

Elmo, and anybody else who follows him, opens the door to reveal downward staircase and following hallway. To the right, a gash in the wall reveals some bare rock. The room at the hallway's end looks like a complete disaster. Ahead, the floor drops out 10 feet into excavation. What's left of the original floor juts upwards in a series of scattered plateaus, connected via narrow wooden planks. The voices of argument get clearer, and are joined by the sound of metal against rock.

(OOC: I've updated the battle map for the new room. Note that we're not in combat yet, even though I've made enemy defenses and HP visible.)

[sandmote]

Vuthan shuffles as quietly as he can and takes a peek down the additional stairwell.

Spoiler: Perception, if necessary

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[roll]1d20-2/roll] if I need stealth. Edit: see OOC thread for a reroll.
(1d20+9)[27] for perception to see what's further down.

[TurboGhast]

Through the hole in the wall, the constructed stairs and flagstones of the dungeon quickly give way to a wide, natural cavern. Dozens of stalactites drip from the ceiling, while stalagmites and loose rocks make the floor uneven. Thicker scattered rocks block your view eastward and westward, and you can see large rats darting in and out of cover. Chittering noises imply more rats are present than you can see.

The goblins appear too preoccupied with their argument to get anywhere close to noticing Vuthan's presence.

[Rakaydos]

Sarathi brought up the rear, watching the hole carefully for any potential attackers.

[sandmote]

Vuthan gives the okay sign for the party, motioning there doesn't appear to be an immediate threat down the stairs. At the very least, he doubts the rats will join in fighting up here.

He then motions "one" to the room with the pits and sounds of goblin, and "two" downstairs (whoever has been arguing would likely investigate the noise of fighting) and then shrugs, hoping the others realize he's trying to suggest an order of attack.

[Dimers]

Gagan comes further down the stairs into the rough chamber and whispers to Vuthan, "Attack now?"

Spoiler: mechanics

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Stealth check for the movement, as low as it can get without rolled stats: (d20)[9]

[Archemist]

Elmo replies, "I can try to slow down the reptile in the corner while you deal with any others. Let's do this."

[Phantom Genius]

Drang nods encouragingly.

[TurboGhast]

The goblins are distracted enough that any last second preparations for attack work without a hitch. Your entry into the room completely blindsides the goblins, but the guard reptiles aren't as lax.

Spoiler: Game Actions - Battle Begins

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A battle has begun with your successful ambush! Link to the initiative rolls.

Thus, things kick off with a surprise round. Everyone will start at a location of their choice to the south and west of the green dashed line. The people who beat the enemy initiative roll (everybody but Drang) will take just a standard action (or replace it with a move or minor action) and as many free actions as they like, then D1 and D2 will do the same. After that, Drang's surprise round action followed by everybody else's normal turns will occur. The usual alternation between enemy and player phases will follow that.

Spoiler: Terrain Features

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Excavated Area: The excavated area is 10 feet below the level of the original floor. Anyone who falls off a plank or off the edge of a raised area into the excavation takes 1d10 damage and becomes prone. The walls are bare earth, and scaling them in either direction requires a DC 15 Athletics check. However, on any such attempt to ascend or descend a wall, there is a 50% chance (a roll of 1–10 on 1d20) that the earth crumbles and sends the character sliding down to the floor. A character who falls in this fashion becomes prone in the square where they began their movement but takes no damage.

Impassable Terrain: The pile of dirt in the northwest corner of the room is completely impassible and tall enough to reach the ceiling, so treat it as a wall.

Planks: Any Medium creature attempting to move along a plank must make a successful DC 20 Acrobatics check or fall into the pit.

The planks are not secured to the raised areas that they connect. As a minor action, a character adjacent to the end of an unoccupied plank can push it down into the excavation (This will require some image manipulation to resolve). If someone is standing on a plank, pushing it requires a DC 15 Strength check if the creature is Small or a DC 20 Strength check if the creature is Medium.

In addition, you can try to rock a plank to knock a creature into the excavation. This requires a standard action and a Strength check against the creature’s Reflex defense. On a success, the creature falls into the excavation.

Ladders: Anyone climbing up or down a ladder moves at half speed, using 4 squares of movement to travel 10 feet. As a standard action, you can topple a ladder so that it falls into the excavation. A fallen ladder can be picked up and repositioned by taking a standard action and succeeding on a DC 10 Strength check. (I'll make better images for them later, when making separate images for the planks.)

Ramp: The square along the south wall of this chamber that is adjacent to the raised area has been only partially dug up, so that it serves as a ramp between the original floor and the excavation. It's shallow enough to be considered normal terrain.

Spoiler: If someone wearing heavy armor moves onto a plank...

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it snaps in half, sending the broken pieces and the character into the excavated area. This will take some image editing to resolve.

[Archemist]

Elmo comes around the corner and sees the goblins have crossbows. He does a little quick threat re-assessment and says to the others, "New plan - you get between me and the lizards and I'll try to keep the goblins off the high ground."

He nocks an arrow and fires at the furthest goblin, adding, "Maybe that's their leader."

Spoiler: OOC - Grappling Spirits

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(1d20+7)[24] vs. G1's AC, for (1d10+5)[13] damage. And the goblin is slowed, can't shift until next turn, etc.

The arrow flies true and smacks right into the goblin's leg, and tendrils of wispy spirit magic reach towards the ground from the wound as if to drag the goblin down. Elmo's longbow emits a faint greenish glow.

[Dimers]

Gagan moves in, squints at Elmo's target across the large room, and joins in the assault. The goblin makes a loud croak and falls.

Spoiler: mechanics

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With CA, my elemental bolt is (d20+11)[28] vs Reflex 16, damage (d12)[10] + (d6+10)[11]. Tack on hellfire heart (which is not an action) if necessary to make a kill.

[TurboGhast]

(OOC: You two appear to be forgetting about the surprise round limited action rule. Specifically, those who act in a surprise round only get one standard action, without the move and minor actions a normal turn would have. Thinking about it further, I'm going to resolve the inconsistency by changing the legal starting locations, because my original choice seems somewhat illogically restrictive now, but be sure to keep this in mind next time we have a surprise round.)

[sandmote]

Vuthan hurls a javelin at the nearest Goblin, which seems to just be within a comfortable range.

Spoiler: Attack

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(1d20+7)[24] for (1d6+4)[8] on a hit.

[Starbuck_II]

Zishu acts quickly moving near corner, not fast enough to attack yet, getting ready. (since surprise only grants one action, I just move up)

[Rakaydos]

Sarathi will also just move up. (run 8 spaces, grant CA)

[TurboGhast]

Spoiler: OOC

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I can't tell if Drang has placed his token or not. To keep the game moving, I'll resolve the enemy phase now and give him the option to start his turn from any location within the dotted line.

The guard drakes begin moving to fight you, while the goblins find themselves too confused to act.

Spoiler: Game Actions

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G2, G3
Cannot act because they're surprised.

D1's Turn
Standard: Walk one space east, then five spaces south.

D2's Turn
Standard: Walk one space south, another space southwest, then four spaces west.

Drang will move his token somewhere both east and south of the dotted line and take his surprise round action, then everybody else will take their turn. After than, the enemies will take their turns.

Spoiler: If someone wearing heavy armor moves onto a plank...

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it snaps in half, sending the broken pieces and the character into the excavated area. This will take some image editing to resolve.

Spoiler: If someone misses a melee attack against G2 or G3...

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they shift one space away from you.