This was bad; getting split up in an unknown and potentially dangerous place was a good way of getting someone killed. He quickly turned to his compatriots "C'mon! We have to catch her!" was all he said as he took off after the frighted woman.
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This was bad; getting split up in an unknown and potentially dangerous place was a good way of getting someone killed. He quickly turned to his compatriots "C'mon! We have to catch her!" was all he said as he took off after the frighted woman.
As Illepy ran off in fright, Anai called after her. Wait Illepy! It's just residual memories! Its not real! Just an ectoplasmic phenomenon! Anai gave chase alongside Boru, hoping to catch her friend before she hurt herself.
Worried about Ilepy, and definitely not wanting to be separated from the group herself, Victoria chases after the rest.
The mage dashes off to the right, sprinting the 30ft to bronze gates hanging beneath the arch and barreling through them with a clatter. As she does so the haunted banging on the outer gates ceases, and the rest of you follow through the now open gateway.
You find yourselves on the east side of the house where a large courtyard fills out the the compound lot. To the east, several small stone outbuildings have been built right into the compound’s outer wall. A well stands between two of these outbuildings, opposite a stone table and benches that sit in the shadow of the house. To the west, two sets of steps, both flanked by columns, lead up to doors into the main house. To the northwest, an open doorway leads into an extension of the house, next to a small structure with a domed roof.
Ilepy makes it about a third of the way up the courtyard before she slows to a jog and then stops, a look of bewilderment on her face. Everyone else comes up short behind her so that you're all west of the first building built into the wall of the compound.
Map on Discord.
Illepy.... are you ok? Do you have your wits about you? Anai closed the distance between them slowly, hopping to not scare Illepy again, nor stir any more residual echoes of the manor's former inhabitants.
Boru slows his pace as Illpyis does as well. He keeps his glaive up in case something takes this opportunity to attack
Spoiler: OOCSetting up a patrol for what it's worth.
Victoria coughs. "Well since we're here now, want to check out this building first?" She points to the structure protruding from the wall.
Ilepy catches her breath and looks around before turning to face Anai. Still trying to understand what just happened, she looks herself over checks to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be. Yeah. I believe that I am alright now. I don't really know what came over me she said before concentrating on trying to pinpoint any magic sources. She still wasn't completely sure if she was back in control, but she wanted to try and figure out what just made her run, for seemingly no reason other than the shouting.
SpoilerCast: Detect magic, full 3 rounds if able
Ilepy starts her detect magic spell and does detect an aura, but that may very well have just been a party member with a magic item standing in the way. Boru shrugs and begins to approach the building, but there's a low snarl that stops him dead in his tracks. In a blur of motion, a giant two headed dog leaps from the darkness and attacks!
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]7
One head goes for Ilepy, the other goes for for Boru. Ilepy had been somewhat turned away to cast her spell, and twists as she sees the movement out of the corner of her eye. The enormous dog sinks it's teeth into her arm, threatening to tear it off, but fortunately for her it's hunting style appears to be more of the crunching rather than the chewing type. Ilepy takes 5 points of damage. The other head comes head on at Boru, it's massive maw closing around his midriff and biting down hard, leaving painful puncture wounds (7 points of damage) that fortunately don't seem to have hit anything vital. It tosses Boru slightly, who manages keep his footing as the two headed dog goes in for another attack. As it does, you notice small worms crawling on the creature's hideous body...
ROLL INITIATIVE! Dog has an initiative of 16, those who roll lower than 16 on their initiative check are flat footed for this round against the dog.
Ilepy and Boru both need to make fortitude saves.
Battle Map
EDIT: Boru steps up to keep the other head's attention on himself, and the dog nearly bites his arm off instead, for 5+7 damage. (Boru reduces it to 10)
EDIT 2: Initiative order: Ilepy -> Boru -> Dog -> Anai -> Victoria. Everyone can post actions, I'll resolve them in order.
"It's a death dog! It's an evil magical beast that spreads disease with its bite."
Vic says this as she moves behind Boru and applies a healing touch.
Spoiler: combatStandard action: Spend a spell point to heal Boru.
[roll0]
Boru swung at the infernal canine as soon as it appeared, but in the confusion he wasn't sure if he hit. He did get in the way of it chomping on Illy, though, so that was the important thing. He took a step back takes a more offensive stance than usual and strikes between the things heads.
Spoiler: OOCAoO from earlier. It would have triggered it before it got to Illy, so I'm not using the melee to hit. If you rule I should, this is at -2. [roll0] [roll1]
This turn:
SwA: Using 1 point of Sentinel's reserve to get +6 temp HP
5 foot step northwest. That should put me next to Vic and 10 foot away and directly in front of the beast (I can't move my piece for some reason.)
MA: Start the Aggressive Flanking tactic from the Warleader sphere. As long as at least 2 of party threaten the same foe, they count as flanking.
SA: Attack [roll2]. Since Illy is also threatening the thing (remember, she rolled higher on init and therefore goes before me, so she's not flat footed, so she still threatens), I am including my tactic's bonus
AoO: Use Active Defense from the Shield sphere. My AC at this point is 21. Also, since I moved no more than 5 feet, I get +2 CMD, for a total of 18.
Ilepy initially caught off guard when Boru blocked the incoming bite, immediately finished turning around to face the beast. Grabbing her Khopesh with both hands she swung at the beast
Spoiler: Combat
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
Both Ilepy and Boru manage to respond to the death dog's assault, dealing deep gashes with their respective blades. The dog just snarls louder and keeps after them.
v Ilepy [roll0]
v Boru [roll1]
v Ilepy [roll2]
v Boru [roll3]
Trip v Ilepy [roll4]
Trip v Boru [roll5]
The death dog's right head snaps at Ilepy, but she manages to dance out of it's way. Boru is less fortunate however; the right head tasted blood on it's first attack and seems eager for more.It clamps it's jaws around Boru's thigh for 8 points of damage and again tries to toss him to the ground, jerking its head upward in a sudden motion, but Boru manages to retain his footing. Those gashes do NOT look sanitary though. Just as Boru starts to think that he probably won't be feeling too good when his adrenaline goes back down, Victoria comes up behind him with a healing touch, almost fully healing his wounds.
Boru needs to make a fortitude save.
As Ilepy dodges out of the way of the dog, she hears a distinct hissing noise behind her... see battle map.
Anai is up next though everyone is welcome to post actions for the next round (well, Victoria might want to wait but if you want to post go for it).
Anai yelped in surprise as the creature struck at her friends. It's a Death Dog but its not dead?! Anai moved forward, drawing her new Falchion and brought it to bare on the disgusting canine.
Spoiler[roll0]
[roll]2d4+6[/roll
Feeling better from Vic's healing, he slams the bicephalous basset again before swinging his glaive around to deal with the new threat.
Spoiler: OOCYou might have missed it, but I shouldn't have been hit with that last strike, as I got +2 AC from using Active Defense. I will now be bolding whenever I use it so this so you notice the important change
Swift: Maintain Aggressive Flanking
5-foot step northwest, making me 10 feet from each.
Standard: Attack the doggo: [roll0] [roll1]
Move: Expend martial focus to set up a patrol. Add +2 if they are adjacent to an ally
[roll2] [roll3]
[roll4] [roll5]
[roll6] [roll7]
AoO: Expend one AoO to use Active Defense for +2 AC This puts my AC at 21. Since I didn't move more than 5 feet, my CMD also goes up by 2, for a total of 18.
Ilepy seeing Boru focusing on the new threat, raises her sword again and swings at the death dog, with all of her might.
Spoiler: Combat
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
As Boru approaches the asp it hisses angrily, clearly displeased that anyone got closer than they already were and strikes out at Boru from it's coiled spot near the table. As it elongates it immediately becomes apparent that this is one of the biggest venomous snakes you've ever seen, easily longer than 6ft.
[roll6]
[roll7]
It clears the distance in an instant, sinking it's fangs deep into Boru's thigh for 4 points of damage.
Ilepy's blade strikes the death dog's neck, or one of them anyway, drawing blood and causing the dog to stumble slightly from the loss of blood. It recovers itself, enraged, and goes after Ilepy with one head and now Anai with the other.
v Ilepy [roll0]
v Anai [roll1]
Trip v Ilepy [roll2]
Trip v Anai [roll3]
Damage v Ilepy [roll4]
Damage v Anai [roll5]
The right head wildly snaps at Ilepy who attempts to push away the head with her boot. It works, but the death dog very nearly gets a hold on it to swing her skyward. Anai is not so fortunate and the dog attempts to grab her arm, but Boru somehow manages to get the dog to go for him instead, dealing 5 points of damage. It tries to swing him but unsuccessfully, and Boru remains standing... for now.
Boru needs to make 2 fortitude saves, and we are on to the next round.
Convenient map link is convenient
Boru hisses at the snake; he has bigger problems than reptiles at the moment, so he focused his assault on the twin-headed terrier.
Spoiler: OOCMove: Maintain tactic
Standard: Attack the doggo [roll0] [roll1]
Swift: Used for last turn's defend other
5 foot step south
Rolling AoO's in case anything triggers, +2 if anything else threatens it:
[roll2] [roll3]
[roll 1d20+7[/roll] [roll4]
[roll5] [roll6]
AoO: Expend one AoO to use Active Defense for +2 AC This puts my AC at 21. Since I didn't move more than 5 feet, my CMD also goes up by 2, for a total of 18.
+As Boru slays the dog, Anai whirls around towards the snake. She felt a pang of regret. It was just trying to hide, poor thing. There was no need to kill it. Hefting her blade she rushed forward, bringing the blade down with extra force, but angling the blade for a shallow cut.
SpoilerBlade of Mercy allows me to inflict Non-Lethal (NL) damage with a slashing weapon at no penalty (and a nifty +1 damage bonus). So I'll be doing that along with Power Attack.
Also charging.
[roll0]
[roll1]
Boru's blade hits nearly the same spot on the dog's neck that was hit before and it's right side collapses as the head goes unconscious from the loss of blood. A moment later, the other head falls unconscious too and the other side of the death dog collapses as well.
Anai makes a weird maneuver with her blade, slicing with the blade to gain speed, then angling it at the last moment so that the flat of the falchion wallops the snake on the side of the head with a loud thunk. The asp hisses angrily but takes off at top speed underneath the table to get away. It slinks over the back wall, scaling it with surprising ease.
All is silent in the courtyard.
Ilepy finally able to catch her breath looks around the courtyard still trying to piece everything that just happened together. She looks at the dog by her feet before stepping closer to Anai and sighs. Grabbing the bridge of her nose, she started thinking over the encounter before looking up at her comrades. Can someone explain to me what just happened? The last thing I remember clearly is that we were standing outside the gate and then the next thing I knew we were fighting that Asp and this...whatever it is. she said as the adrenaline was still preventing her from focusing and thinking a hundred percent clearly.
Boru checked himself for injuries and found a long narrow scratch on his forearm. Not dangerous enough to worry about healing, he still wraps it up after pouring some water from his canteen Still, he should answer Illy's question. "Near as a I can figure, something happened back there left an emotional imprint on the place itself. You got hit with the those memories and acted like they were happening to you, so you ran. And once you were far enough away, you left the memory-charged area, so it stopped working." He then turned to Anai. "That about cover it?"
Vic nods along to Boru's explanation. "Sounds right to me."
"Now then, are any of you feeling ill? The diseases these death dogs can spread are awful. As a matter of fact, we should burn this corpse so carrion feeders don't contract anything."
SpoilerVic uses invigorate on Boru to grant up to 2 temp HP (up to max HP).
Even as Vic asks, Boru clutches his leg where the snake bit him. He can feel a rapidly spreading pain down his leg, and his thigh experiences severe edema. He takes 4 points of constitution damage from the residual venom, and while the snake bite is painful it doesn't appear to be causing any danger of fatality.
Boru grimaces as the pain goes coursing through his arm. Leaning against the wall, it took a few seconds for the poison run through, but he was able to shake it off soon thereafter. Turning to his teammates, "I'll be fine. Once we settle in this evening I'll want you", he gestures to Vic, "to give me the once over, but I'd rather not waste that energy in the mean time in case we need it."
Anai gives a small, relieved smile as Illepy finally calms down. Boru has it right, Illepy. Everything is fine. Relatively speaking. She casts a sideways glance as Vic tends to Boru's wound. If everyone is ready, lets check these outer buildings first. I doubt we'll find much of note but it's worth trying. If we come across that snake again, just give it a wide berth. We've made our point, it should leave us alone.
When you venture into the death dog's den you immediately notice that much of the floor has been dug up, though this appears to have once been a servant's or guard's quarters. Careful not to touch much for fear of getting the dog's awful worms, you notice a glistening from the north east corner of the room. Brushing aside some dirt reveals 7 gold scarabs, 3 silver pieces, and 12 copper pieces. There's also a small turquoise earring.
Nothing else seems to stand out in hut; anything that hadn't been disintegrated by time seems to have been done in by the dog.
I suppose we shouldn't get our hopes up, I suppose. Lets check the other outer buildings and then enter the main building after ensuring the grounds are safe. Anai approaches the next outer building to the north, eye open for the Asp's return. Assuming it doesn't rear its head, she opens the door and examines its interior.
Spoiler: Percpetion checksUse however many you need.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
You pass the slightly decrepit well and head to the next building. No death dogs lurk inside, in fact it doesn't look like much of anything has been in here except the occasional vermin. Random bits of debris and piles of sand fill the room. Anai goes in and kicks over a few of the piles, scavenging around the room, but apparently if there were any valuables in here they are long gone.
This entry and the next one you try appear to lead to the same building, but in the old room you saw no indication that they connect on the interior. You look in the entry of the room and see death, yet oddly do not smell it. A few skeletons of what were probably cats lie in the corner, and two humanoid skeletons lie leaning against the walls. As soon as you set foot in the room, their heads snap to look at you, and they rise to their bony feet.
Roll Initiative!
[roll0]
[roll1]
Boru recognized the skeletons and mentally kicked himself for not picking up a sidearm to deal with this possibility. While his glaive would be less effective against beings without flesh, he was reasonably certain it would be more effective than trying to hit it with his shield. He saw Vic's quarterstaff, "Can you lend me that?" he said to her as he slammed the nearest skeleton and stepped into a defensive stance once more.
Spoiler: OOC5 foot step closer
SA: Attack nearest skeleton [roll0] [roll1]
MA: Set up tactic
SwA: Sentinel's Reserve
AoO's if triggered:
[roll2] [roll3]
[roll4] [roll5]
[roll6] [roll7]
AoO: Expend one AoO to use Active Defense for +2 AC This puts my AC at 21. Since I didn't move more than 5 feet, my CMD also goes up by 2, for a total of 18.