Reign of Winter: The Snows of Summer [IC]

[Ostoril]

Amanu sighs, "You all make it difficult to fight getting in the way." He intones more prayers and gestures letting another ray of light from his hand towards the zombie.

Spoiler: Crunch

Show

[Free] Speak
[Standard] Cast Disrupt Undead Ranged Touch Attack: (1d20+8)[15] for (1d6)[3] damage to undead only. Point Blank shot: +1 hit and damage

[lostsole31]

R2T20: Amanu sighs, "You all make it difficult to fight getting in the way." He intones more prayers and gestures letting another ray of light from his hand towards the zombie, but all the people in the way fouls his shot.

R2T18: The remaining doomed lady-in-waiting swings at Minh, smashing his left hand as he holds the sword for 8.

R2T13: Isolde, what do you do? Do you change Karina's orders?

Karina on deck, Tenzei in the hole ...

[doko239]

"Karina! Watch the area, tell me if any more appear!"

Positioning herself behind the others, Isolde aims another blast at the remaining zombie.

Spoiler: Crunchy

Show

Move action: Move 2 squares south and three squares east

Standard Action: Cold Blast - Ranged Touch Attack (1d20+6)[10] for (2d6+2)[8] cold damage

[lostsole31]

R2T13: "Karina! Watch the area, tell me if any more appear!"

Positioning herself behind the others, Isolde aims another blast at the remaining zombie, completely missing.

R2T9: Karina continues flying around, keeping watch.

R2T8: Tenzei, what do you do?

Griss on deck, Darkhelm in the hole ...

[jss1701]

Griss' hands glow once more as he takes a step (East) to get a better shot, and releases a vortex of light at the remaining undead.

Spoiler: Attack

Show

<roll>1d20+5</roll>(touch) for <roll>2d6</roll>

[Denomar]

Tenzei can see that the crowded choke point at the exit to the cart is more than a little blocked. Times like this call for a little improvisation. Even as Griss moves to the side to unleash destruction Tenzei finds that he is faster. Squeezing past Drina and hopefully past the scrabbling claws of the zombie Tenzei clambers on top of the cart. If he's able to make it up the side then turning around to make eye contact with Minh. He stands ready, waiting for Minh to make their move. If he's not, well then he clambers into the cart instead and thrusts a clawed fist straight into the creatures midsection instead.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Tenzei will use a Move Action through her space towards the cart and make an accelerated climb check to try and get on top of it, this will take me through the threatened area of the zombie, I would attempt an acrobatics check to not provoke, but I want to make absolutely sure I have enough movement available to get on top of the cart. If I am able to make it up top than Tenzei will ready an action to use Aid Another on Minh's next attack by trying to break apart the roof of the cart to provide more easy access for his greatsword at just the right time in order to be surprising.

If I don't make it than just a regular attack.

[Denomar]

This post for the purpose of making rolls.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Accelerated Climb Check at -2. (1d20+5)[17]

Hypothetical Attack vs Zombie. (1d20+7)[20]
Hypothetical Critical Confirmation roll vs Zombie (1d20+7)[18]

Hypothetical Damage vs Zombie on HIT (1d6+5)[11] Bludgeoning Damage
Hypothetical Damage Vs Zombie on CRIT (2d6+10)[15] Bludgeoning Damage

[lostsole31]

R2T8: Tenzei can see that the crowded choke point at the exit to the cart is more than a little blocked. Times like this call for a little improvisation. Even as Griss moves to the side to unleash destruction Tenzei finds that he is faster. Squeezing past Drina and past the scrabbling claws of the zombie, Tenzei clambers on top of the cart. He turns around to make eye contact with Minh.

Spoiler: Crunch Explained

Show

it was a MA just to cross the intervening distance through Drina, and then a separate MA to climb. Your turn is over.

R2T7: Griss' hands glow once more as he takes a step (East) to get a better shot, and releases a vortex of light at the remaining undead, missing.

R2T5: Darkhelm balances while moving along the log, and then turns with her right hand up. Though she doesn't possess eyes, one of the colorful markings near where her left eye would be glow orange and a dark ray shoots forth from her hand. Even with all of the bodies in the way in tight combat, she seems to have as much of a sense for that as Amanu does and the ray hits the zombie in the abdomen, and parts of that corpse turns to dust and sloughs off in hundreds of little flakes (10 damage).

R2T4: Minh, what do you do?

Drina on deck, Amanu in the hole ...

[Toptomcat]

Minh

Amanu sighs, "You all make it difficult to fight getting in the way."

Minh snarls- more in pain from the broken finger then irritation at Amanu, but there's a little of it in there.

"Being between you and it is the plan. But if you insist..."

The injury has made a classical two-handed grip untenable, and Minh shifts his hold on the sword from a two-handed one to a one-handed improvisation with his injured limb supporting and strengthening the good one with the heel of his palm on the base of the other's wrist- opting to disorient the thing and keep it focused on him by bashing it in the face with the flat of the blade. Getting proper edge alignment in the middle of switching grips would be tricky anyway.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Standard action: use Angering Smash strike, Expertise for -1 to hit/+1 AC, fighting defensively for -4 to hit/+2 AC. AC 20. This involves making my Armament Shield pseudo-shield bash rather than attacking for slashing damage, for (1d20+3)[22] and (1d3+5)[7] bludgeoning.

If and only if I hit, successfully giving the zombie a -4 penalty to attack anyone but me, I then take a 5' step away to avoid giving our ranged attackers Precise Shot woes.

[lostsole31]

R2T4: Minh snarls- more in pain from the broken finger then irritation at Amanu, but there's a little of it in there. "Being between you and it is the plan. But if you insist..."

The injury has made a classical two-handed grip untenable, and Minh shifts his hold on the sword from a two-handed one to a one-handed improvisation with his injured limb supporting and strengthening the good one with the heel of his palm on the base of the other's wrist, opting to disorient the thing and keep it focused on him by bashing it in the face with the flat of the blade. Getting proper edge alignment in the middle of switching grips would be tricky anyway.

All of that fanciness, however, turns out to be unnecessary, as it ends up being a brilliant critical stroke that destroys the zombie, turning it to ash.

Combat Ends ...

[jss1701]

While the injured get healed, Griss will search the (now unoccupied) coach.

Spoiler: perception

Show

(1d20+9)[22]

[Kvard51]

"Minh, let me look at that hand you are favoring," Drina says, reaching for it. "Let me heal it so you can use it."

Spoiler: Healing

Show

SA: CLW on Minh, if he allows it. (1d8+3)[11]

[Ostoril]

"Well done." Amanu states as he looks around to make sure no other bodies are moving, the invocations resting on his lips to put them to rest.

Spoiler: Crunch

Show

Ready action to cast disrupt undead on anything that looks like it might be undead, severe wounds or strange movements.

[lostsole31]

Drina's magic fully heals Minh.

Meanwhile, Griss (and the rest of the party) find a small jewelry box under the seat that the bandits must have missed. It is not a locked box. Inside are the following:

• A noble's signet ring
• A pair of earrings
• A set of pearl-inlaid bracelets
• Assorted gold and silver necklaces
• One sapphire pendant

There is nothing else of interest in the wagon.

What now?

[jss1701]

"Hopefully, nothing so exciting in the other coach." Griss says, as he heads that way, presuming that the others will join him.

Upon reaching it, he will look for signs of life, or un-life as the case may be.

[lostsole31]

This second carriage is completely wrecked. Bandits already looted this overturned carriage. Two of Lady Argentea’s handmaidens lie dead inside. The broken chests and boxes strewn across the ground contain the handmaidens’ spare clothing, including three courtier’s outfits that look expensive. The party finds nothing else of interest here.

[Denomar]

Tenzei raises his hands and casts the Most Powerful Spell in his repertoire; Double Thumbs Up!

"That was very well done. I have found the trail of those who left this place, if they were as monstrous as those within the carriage we must hurry."

[Toptomcat]

Minh

The nagaji breathes deeply, clenching his newly-healed hand to test the grip and nodding approvingly at Drina when he finds it sound. As the others leap right into investigating again, he takes a moment to calm down by meticulously, meditatively cleaning his blade of the zombie's...fluids...before sheathing it again. It's good practice in general, and doubly so with a borrowed blade.

"That was very well done. I have found the trail of those who left this place, if they were as monstrous as those within the carriage we must hurry."

"Excellent. Well-done on your part."

He picks up his spear from where it's resting on the side of the carriage and swiftly follows.

"Something bothers me. Do fey usually make- ah, jikininki, what did you call them- 'zombies'? Do they just happen? I was expecting cold magic, not...that."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

The time spent meticulously cleaning my blade is my maneuver re-readying period.

[lostsole31]

The group heads out, following the easily-marked trail. It doesn't take long from where it goes from patches of frost to where the weather proves much worse, with temperatures below freezing and falling snow. The snow reduces visibility significantly. A full 6" of snow cover the ground, reducing overland travel by half.

As it enters the full expanse of the Border Wood, the trail passes through a small clearing among the taller trees before continuing uphill and out of sight. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.

[jss1701]

"Stay back while I check it out" says Griss. He then carefully approaches the chest, sweeping snow away from it to get a better view, and checks it for traps.

Spoiler: post check

Show

If a trap is detected, attempt to disable it.
If no trap detected, or trap disabled, open the chest.

[Denomar]

Tenzei drops his bag and stops reaching in to pull out the extra pieces of his winter clothing and beginning to don it. This didn't seem like typical weather and while he may not be as bothered as most by the sub zero temperatures he still layered on what he could.

[lostsole31]

Tenzei gets dressed into his cold weather clothing?

Does anyone else take this time to do a wardrobe change?

---

Meanwhile, Griss does indeed find that this oh-too-obvious duck decoy is trapped, finding some line around the bottom of it tied to the chest and going under the snow in two different directions. He tries to do a bypass tie-around to maintain tension on the opposing points of the "rope sphincter" so that the chest could be removed without having to cut the tension on the line to the trap. Unfortunately, Griss didn't realize how cold he was as his fingers shake and trip the trap.

The good news is that Griss made sure to be well ahead and ward the others back 30'. The bad is that a spiked log trap rockets out to hit the catfolk, the brunt of if in the left shoulder for 7.

But, the trap is sprung and is no longer a danger to anyone else.

Griss opens the chest, finding that it is empty.

[jss1701]

"Ow!" Griss looks into the chest, seeing it empty. "A trap on an empty chest? Either someone is expecting to be followed, or ..."
Griss will search it more thoroughly.

[lostsole31]

Griss will find that there IS treasure, just not in the chest. On the other hand, it isn't something easily portable, either, as it appears to be the majority of weapons and armor that were stripped from Lady Argentea's guards, including:

• (5) sets of leather armor
• (3) sets of studded leather armor
• (1) masterwork chain shirt
• (1) light wooden shields
• (7) longswords
• (2) spears
• (3) light crossbows
• (15) bolts, total

<"If it is okay,"> comes Darkhelm's tepe to the party, <"I don't have a problem returning something because of the markings of property, but for now I would like to borrow one of the shields for protection?">

What does the party do?

[jss1701]

"I wouldn't mind putting some of those crossbow bolts in my pack, and I rather think the previous owners of this equipment would approve of us using it to avenge them, but I think it would be well to return what we can't use to town. Perhaps the wagon back there is still usable, to make the trip easier?" Griss reaches for the crossbow bolts.

Spoiler

Show

Griss will take 10, adding them to the 10 already stowed with his crossbow.

[Ostoril]

Amanu looks around, "While it would be nice to return the property of the dead, preventing more damage should be our priority. Let us mark this spot and worry about it's return later."
Turning to Darkhelm he nods. "I see no reason to not use whatever you need."
He turns to Griss. "How is that injury? Can you continue? Nature has granted me the gift to heal an injury once a day."

[jss1701]

Griss shrugs. "I can keep up, but another couple of hit like that'll be enough to put me out of action."

[lostsole31]

Does anyone else want to take anything?

[Toptomcat]

Minh

"Ow!" Griss looks into the chest, seeing it empty. "A trap on an empty chest? Either someone is expecting to be followed, or ..."

The big snakeman makes a thoughtful noise.

"Twice, maybe. One swinging log and one carriageful of zombies."

He spends a bit of time sorting through the goods that have been found, neatly stacking what he sees into sorted piles. He pauses to admire the workmanship of a keen, narrow dagger- then blinks, takes another look at what he's assembled, and narrows his eyes.

"...why did they attack the carriage, I wonder? It can't have been for money: what they've left here could buy quite a lot. Even if they were small, just this knife would be an easy prize to carry- and even if they had no eye at all for its workmanship, you'd have to be very dull to miss that there's a silver decoration pattern-welded into the hilt that would fetch half a gold or so for the metal alone.

That leaves...what? Politics?"

Shaking his head in puzzlement as he hooks the knife onto his belt, he turns to go.

"...I will return it if there's someone to return it to, or use it to pay for their burial if there isn't. But I've too much respect for good craftsmanship to leave an artwork like this rusting in an open field, and unlike the rest of it, it's light enough that it won't slow us down."

[Denomar]

The change would appear miraculous. As Griss examines his shoulder a sheen of light covers the wound. The light solidifies into golden scales that fade into new flesh. There's still a bit of a bruise around the former injury but it feels significantly better.

Tenzei on the other hand suppresses a shudder as bright pain engulfs his shoulder. No blood seeps into his clothes but the wind is almost knocked from him as the spiritual echo of the log trap smashes into him. Saying nothing Tenzei finishes putting on the last of his winter gear. He now looks less like a monk and more like a guy in a parka.

"I have no need for any of these things. Perhaps if..." he winces, lets out a slow breath. "If we find something edible than we should take it."