Carrion Crown: The Haunting of Harrowstone, Pt. II [IC]

[Moriar]

Angelo of course stays in the collective.

Then using Tippys echo ability to extend a spell, Angelo will cast mage armor on himself.

Tippy will be in tattoo form for now.

[Ason]

Marius also agrees to the join collective, assuming there is room for him this time. He also drinks an extract of Ant Haul to lighten his own burdens.

Once everyone is properly buffed up, Marius says, "Don't forget that Father Charlatan is still unaccounted for: best to watch our backs, though I suppose that can't be helped for now. Once our light sources are ready, let us descend so we can finally be done with this place."

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru unfolds the newly acquired ladder and drops it down the pit after securing it in place. He then looks at his brother and nods silently before beginning his decent.

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm waits until the front lines are down the ladder before heading down himself.

[Moriar]

With a bit of concern in his eyes he nodded back to Lexi.

Not wanting to be too far from his brother heads down after him.

[Tippnick]

Zauberei descends on his turn in the marching order.

[Ason]

Marius takes up position at the rear of the party, descending last so that he can clumsily transport his polearm down with him.

[lostsole31]

Because of the nature of the folding ladder, nobody will want to be on the ladder at the same time as anyone else.

As long as Lexi is carefuly, he can carefully climb down the ladder which is "free-dangling" since the walls aren't hearby. Then, it is a 10' drop to the floor below, but Lexi doesn't see it.

Wren, for his part, steps to the very edge, turns into a vaporous form of himself - and with his lit lab coat floats down to the bottom, and then over to the side to avoid the large pool of water.

As Lexi is hanging 10' above the water he looks around with the light provided by Wren. This cavernous chamber may have once been an underground cellblock, but it has long since collapsed. The crumbled walls are thick with mold and stained with soot, and heaps of fallen stones and charred wooden beams line the area. Water drips and seeps along the walls, collecting in a dark, murky pool in the middle of the room. To the north, the twisted remains of a wood and iron lift lie in a heap in a shallow portion of the pool. A jagged hole in the roof yawns ten feet above this ruin to your friends above, before the 10' drop to the water. To the west, a partially blocked opening seems to open up after several feet into a dark but stable tunnel.

Wren-mist settles to the side and becomes corporeal again. As soon as this happens, and Wren's midnight-blue illumination shows the room, the room fills with a cacophonous roar of screams and howls, echoes of the cries of those who burned to death in this room. This unsettling manifestation causes no harm, but an instant later, the surface of the dark pool of water begins rippling around the ruined lift as two ectoplasmic spirits rise up, dripping and horrible, to attack.

Begin Round One ...

R1T20: Alexandru, you are suspended 10' in the air, at the bottom of the folding ladder's length, above a pool of water of an unknown depth, and now some spookies have come to play. What do you do?

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru lowers himself to the bottom rung on the ladder to, hopefully, minimise the effects of the drop, then attempts to swing himself to the north, hoping to land as near to the shore as possible and lets go, using whatever dexterity he has to try to land without hurting himself.

"Excelsior!", he shouts as he drops.


He then draws his sword and shield.

Spoiler: Technical Information

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He has no skills to support any of these actions. (Aside from Climb but I don't know how that could help.) So it is as posted above.

[lostsole31]

R1T20: Alexandru lowers himself to the bottom rung on the ladder to hopefully minimize the effects of the drop. He twists around as he dangles, realizing that his weight actually works against a swing, and then just lets go, shouting "Excelsior!" as he drops onto his back for 2 mod NL. He stands on his feet as there's enough water to put him under if he stays on his back, and for now has only his armor and gauntlets to protect him.

Spoiler: Alexandru

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Just barely made the Climb check to "drop" to the final rung (barely), and swinging would actually be more dangerous, as it would create a longer fall and onto a harder surface. The shallower drop and partial water means you took damage as normal (failed Acrobatics to lessen the blow), but it was nonlethal instead. "Dropping" is not moving. It is a FA, but it also means you don't get to draw weapon/shield "on the fall." Water is waist height, meaning you are submerged, so it would be silly to try and do anything other than getting on your feet ... which is why I had you get on your feet rather than draw sword or shield.

R1T17: Angelo, at this time there is no danger to which you are aware as your brother didn't send any kind of report. Your brother did what could be expected, which was to minize the drop. His fall showed that the water is waist deep, and he safely stood on his feet. However, it seems he is particularly guarded and staring to the relative south. What do you do?

[Moriar]

Angelo will climb down the ladder and then tumble to land safely north of his brother.

Spoiler: collective

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"What do you see brother?" Angelo asks.

Then will report back if he what he notices once down there

Spoiler: Crunch

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Rusty, just a reminder that in an earlier post I used Tippys echo ability to cast mage armor on Angelo.

Acrobatics roll to reduce the fall: (1d20+9)[12]

Will attempt to land safely and then move to be north of his brother or to land just north of him.

Then will use senses to analyze what he is being cautious about if I see anything and will report back to the collective

[lostsole31]

R1T17: Angelo climbs down the ladder, his feet now at the bottom rung.

R1T14: Zauberei, what do you do?

[Tippnick]

Zauberei moves closer to the ladder. He will be just north of it and waits his turn to go down. "What is the commotion?", Zauberei asks.

Spoiler: ready

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Move action to get close to the ladder and not be in the way. He then readies an action to climb down when it is his turn in the marching order

[lostsole31]

R1T14: Zauberei moves closer to the ladder. He will be just north of it and waits his turn to go down. "What is the commotion?" Zauberei asks.

R1T12: Hargrimm, what do you do?

[SwordChucks]

Unsure of the reason for concern and not wanting to fall on to Alexandru and Angelo, Hargrimm delays.

[lostsole31]

R1T12: Unsure of the reason for concern and not wanting to fall on to Alexandru and Angelo, Hargrimm delays.

R1T11: Paula squeaks nervously, sensing the tension, and delays.

R1T10: Down below, something seems to climb onto the empty air out of the water and close on Lexi. This slimy, shifting mass has the shape of a humanoid, but is made out of what appears to be some form of sticky rope or cloth. Its body lurches jerkily, struggling to maintain its horrid form. It stands only a few inches off the water and it is now right next to Lexi. Zauberei and Angelo, both looking down, can see this thing as it is under the "hole" from above, and outlined by Wren's midnight blue light on his labcoat.

R1T9: Wren calls out, "Ectoplasmic human - undead! Corporeal, but can phase lurch through obstacles briefly, and hard to kill."

He then disappears from view, even though the midnight blue light still emanates from his position. He then carefully makes his way south and west, but makes a bunch of random catcalls at the undead, so while invisible, they know there is something where he is.

R1T6: Marius, your shield is stowed in preparation for your climb, though your polearm is in hand. Zauberei is at the top of the ladder but not climbed down ... but you can't ally-free-move through him and down the ladder, and Angelo is on the ladder anyway. What do you do?

[Ason]

Marius shifts into a defensive posture, holding his polearm in two hands again. He shifts closer to the hole in order to gingerly peer down, before pulling back and attempting to cover the pit's entrance with his polearm.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Swift: Aura of Misfortune stance
Move: walk to a safe square immediately northwest of the pit's entrance (i.e. not in danger of falling in but close enough to interact next turn if need be. It's hard to precisely dictate his movement, as Marius' last position on a map I could see seemed to straddle two different 5 x5 squares)
Free: if Marius is able to see anything down there besides his companions, he'll attempt a knowledge check to identify it
Standard: ready action to attack any hostile creatures that come into range with his polearm

[lostsole31]

R1T6: Marius shifts into a defensive posture, holding his polearm in two hands again. He shifts closer to the hole in order to gingerly peer down, before pulling back and attempting to cover the pit's entrance with his polearm. He sees something disturbing, recognizing for sure what he sees, and another one comes into view ...

R1T2: .... as Red walks up out of but on top of the water like the other one and closes on Lexi.

End Round One, Begin Round 2 ...

R2T20: Lexi, what do you do? Your are waist deep in water, and nothing in hand - neither weapon nor shield.

Angie on deck, Zauberei in the hole ...

[SwordChucks]

Hargrimm moves as far as he can to the north and east, trying to keep Alexandru and Wren's blue light in view. He keeps one hand raised and ready to throw a vortex.

"Keep communicating and make way for the others to come down!"

Spoiler: Combat

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Move action: Move 10ft east and 10ft north.
Standard action: If the ectoplasmic human becomes visible, then attack with Banelight Vortices, else ready an attack with same against the next creature matching that description that comes into range.

[lostsole31]

R2T21: Hargrimm moves as far as he can to the north and east, trying to keep Alexandru and Wren's blue light in view. He keeps one hand raised and ready to throw a vortex. "Keep communicating and make way for the others to come down!"

He gets an opening, and completely obliterates an ectoplasmic human.

R2T20: Lexi, now it is just one of these undead. What do you do?

Angie on deck, Zauberei in the hole ...

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru draws his sword and, using a two handed grip, slashes out at the entity in front of him.

Spoiler: Technical Information

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MA: Draw sword

Attack: Risky Strike (1d20+8)[26]

Damage: (1d8+11)[15]

Undead Exterminator (Ex): +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, & Survival checks when dealing w/ creatures of the undead type
* +2 bonus on weapon attack & damage rolls vs. undead.

[lostsole31]

R2T20: Alexandru draws his sword and, using a two handed grip, slashes out at the entity in front of him, cleaving through its upper arm and into its chest. Lexi roughly pulls his sword out even as the creature combusts to ash from the inside, the ash falling into a carboniferous slurry on the water.

Combat Ends!

[BuckGodot]

Alexandru skitters backwards out of the water.

[lostsole31]

For his part, Wren turns visible again.

Okay, Angelo. You are on the ladder, and it's a 10' drop to the water below. What do you do?

[Moriar]

Angelo will tumble down below and then move out of the water to be near his brother. Then will look around to examine the room.

"Are you ok Lexi? Sorry that I didn't get a chance to talk to your new friends before they left."

Spoiler: crunch

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Acrobatics roll to reduce the fall: (1d20+9)[29]

[BuckGodot]

"I am fine, brother. Nothing we haven't seen before. But I hate being wet..."he replies as he shakes his hands and stamps his feet.

[SwordChucks]

Seeing how deep the water is on the taller members of the group, Hargrimm wraps his beard around his neck like a scarf to keep it dry. He starts to climb down once the way is clear, dropping straight down the last 10 feet.

"Knowing our luck, we'll find some towels down here and they'll be haunted."

[lostsole31]

Angelo drops deftly into the water, onto his feet and without pain.

Hargrimm has to drop his staff into the water before heading down. Then, he gets onto the ladder, and manages to climb halfway down before he falls with a big splash for only 1 NL.

Zauberei and Marius are left, and each also have to drop down staff and polearm, respectively.

[Tippnick]

Zauberei drops his staff down the hole and begins to climb down. As he gets to bottom rung he drops the rest of the way. He attempts to land safely.

Spoiler: acrobatics

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(d20-1)[11]

[Ason]

Marius drops his fighting stance at the sound of combat ending. He watches Zauberei climb down the ladder and then drop the final few feet.

"You all safe down there?" he calls down, "If we have a moment, I think it safer if I toss a second rope down alongside the ladder for our return trip. If we can haul ourselves up the first few feet on said rope, the ladder should get us out the rest of the way."

Marius will proceed to do exactly what he said. He loops his silk rope three times around the highest two rungs of the ladder, slowly feeds rope through those loops to shimmy one end of the rope down to just touch the waterline, and then tightens the loops to snugly grip the ladder's top rungs. Holding onto the remaining length of rope that he did not feed through the loops down into the pit, Marius then lashes the rope to the sturdiest and heaviest anchor point within reach or, failing that, ties it in a knot, so that either way the rope should hold fast and rest alongside the ladder.

His preparations made, Marius slowly lowers his lucerne hammer into the pit, hammer-end down to lessen the odds of it twirling. "While I don't want to lose my weapon in the muck, I don't want to give anyone a concussion either. Please stand back as I drop this down." Holding on to the butt of the polearm as it dangles into the pit, Marius drops it the rest of the way, attempting to aim it away from his friends. Then he descends the ladder himself at last, and Marius imitates Zauberei by climbing down from the last rung with his feet dangling before dropping the rest of the way himself and then retrieving his hammer.

"Sorry for the delay," he says to the group, "I'm ready to proceed now."

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Acrobatics: (1d20+10)[18]