Kingmaker (Pathfinder IC)

[balistafreak]

Charity

"Throw down your weapons!" Charity cries, twirling around the rear end of a horse in Hawke's wake. Even as she does this, she flicks out her rapier at the leader's unprotected kidney - from the side!

Actions

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Charity charges, and attempts to sneak attack whatever bandit is... sneak attack-able. +4 base, +1 from Bard song, +2 from flanking, +2 from charging, for a total of +9.

Base damage 1d6, +1 from Bard song, +1d6 from Sneak Attack, for a total of 2d6+1.

Subtract -2 from attack and -1d6 from damage if flanking cannot be acquired.

Rapier Attack: (1d20+9)[12]
Rapier Damage: (2d6+1)[10]
Critical Confirm: (1d20+9)[11]

Status:

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Charity
HP: 8/8. AC: 14, 12 Touch, 10 Flatfooted.
Saves: +0 Fortitude, +6 Reflex, +0 Will.

[SanguinePenguin]

Upon Krul's second grievous wound dealt to the leader, the man collapses. Charity calls for a surrender, and Krul's seconds this with a booming roar for him massive frame, "Throw down your arms or die!!!"

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Krul intimidate: (1d20)[10] (Nothing charisma is his strength, but his rolls have been outstanding so far!)

Maybe he gets some modifier for killing their leadership... who knows?

[RocketMan]

Zora grimaces in pain as the bolt hits her. Disregarding the pain, and the peaceful messages from Krul and Charity, Zora leaps from the cart and hurtles towards the offending bandit, yelling in her native language - it's not intelligible to lowlanders, but sounds distinctly like a string of curses. Zora attempts to weave through the crowd of horses and bandits to close with her target, axe raised hungrily.

Actions:

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Zora enters rage (stat changes reflected on character sheet) and attempts to charge the bandit who shot her, attacking with her greataxe. If this bandit is dead or unreachable, she'll charge the nearest uninjured bandit.

Rolls:
Acrobatics check to close with bandits this round: (1d20+9)[14]
Attack roll if Zora is able to charge: (1d20+8)[22]
Damage roll if Zora hits: (1d10+8)[10]

[Lost Demiurge]

Kurt attempts to cloud the mind of the bandit nearest Agash, but is having trouble getting the spell to stick... The man takes a swipe at Agash as the creature passes, but misses as his horse keeps rearing. The leader, however is fast enough to duck and parry Agash's claws with a hastily drawn shortsword... Not that it matters as Krul's axe buries itself in his skull, and he falls.

Hawke's slide slashes a wide wound on the bandit on the nervous horse instead. Leg pouring blood he falls off onto the ground and covers his head, yelling "MERCY! MERCY!"

Samantha returns fire at the bandit on the calm horse, who gasps in pain as the arrow perforates his chest. He's pretty badly hurt.

Augens calls upon his goddess, and Zora's wounds heal. She charges past the nearest bandit, who takes a hasty swing at her and misses completely. Zora does NOT miss when she reaches the bowman that is her target, and the man is gutted, falling to the ground in a dead heap.

Sadly, Charity doesn't get to the leader in time, and her rapier attack on the bowman on the calm horse misses as it canters him out of reach.

ROUND 2

The leader lies dead upon the dirt. Next to him lies one dead from Zora's axe. Not far from that, a barely alive bandit whimpers into the ground as he tries to stop his leg from bleeding. The unridden horses have cleared out to the corners of the fort, and hidden behind buildings... The area is no longer full of hundreds of pounds of panicked equine flesh.

The mounted bowman considers Charity, looks up at Samantha, and drops his bow as he raises his hands.

The two bandits with shortswords by the burning storehouse have nowhere to run and an angry halfling to contend with. The half-orc beyond doesn't look too friendly either... They look at each other and try to hack down the halfling before she returns the favor.

If she hadn't charged, Zora could've dodged their attacks. As it is, both manage to stab her while she's recovering her balance from the backswing of the axe.

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Zora takes 9 damage total.

The one left standing nearest Augens runs at him swinging his sword wildly. "OPEN THE GATE! OPEN THE GATE HOLY MAN OR I'LL SEND YOU TO YOUR GODS!" He manages to graze Augens, getting in over his guard.

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Augens takes 7 damage.

[SanguinePenguin]

Krul's eyes flit about the battlefield. There are only three attacking still, two dead, two direly wounded, and surrendering. He looks to the two attacking Zola... the halfling looks about ready to tear their heads off. He looks to the priest... eh, he can heal himself. Krul moves quickly at one of two attacking Zola and lets his axe down hard at the man.

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Attack: (1d20+8)[15] I say +8 because he will flank if possible, if not, charge. If charge flanks, make it +10
(1d8+7)[9]

OOPS! I forgot... ranger! If these are humans, Krul gets an additional +2 to both attack and damage!

[Blackfish]

Samantha Harlan

Samantha shifts her focus to the two bandits that attacked Zora, sending two arrows in quick succession at one of them. She does not stop her singing.

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Bardic Music: Inspire Courage (2/6 rounds used)

(Samantha is targeting the bandit that Krul is not attacking)

Ranged Attack 1 (Rapid Shot): (1d20+3)[14]
Ranged Attack 2 (Rapid Shot): (1d20+3)[17]
Ranged Damage 1 (Rapid Shot): (1d6+1)[4]
Ranged Damage 2 (Rapid Shot): (1d6+1)[5]

[Leviathan]

Augens

The priest grits his teeth as the bandit slashes him. He stands his ground, however, and states, as calmly as he can, that "you must repent, my child, and give up your hate, or else face your own destruction." As he says this, he raises his holy symbol again, displaying to the bandit the futility of his actions – healing light floods the courtyard.

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Diplomacy check to persuade the bandit to surrender (if applicable): (1d20+7)[21]
Channel energy amount healed: (1d8)[7]
-this channel energy should hit Samantha (who is above the gate, I believe), Zora, and Augens.

[RocketMan]

Zora

Blood splatters on the halfling's face as she wrenches her axe out of the red heap. It's hard to tell it was once a man. Still frenzied, Zora licks her lips. Samantha and Krul have joined her in combat with her two new assailants, and Zora nods approvingly at them in recognition. It is fortunate that these companions are warriors of honour.

As her axe comes free of the bandit, Zora swings wildly hoping for further bloodshed.

Actions:

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Zora will attack the same bandit as Samantha, unless this bandit is dead. If it's dead, she'll attack the one Krul attacked. If they're both dead Zora will again charge the next closest uninjured bandit.

Rolls:
Attack [roll]1d20+9[/roll] (add +2 if Zora ends up with option #3 and charges)
Damage [roll]1d10+8[/roll]

[RocketMan]

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So apparently my rolls didn't work. So let's try them again.

Zora will attack the same bandit as Samantha, unless this bandit is dead. If it's dead, she'll attack the one Krul attacked. If they're both dead Zora will again charge the next closest uninjured bandit.

Rolls:
Attack (1d20+9)[16] (add +2 if Zora ends up with option #3 and charges)
Damage (1d10+8)[16]

[Lost Demiurge]

The fight ends as swiftly as it began. Samantha feathers one bandit by Zora with two arrows, and he falls, gurgling. Krul chops the other one down.

The one screaming at the priest falls silent suddenly, and drops limp to the ground. Zora stands over him, her great axe spraying blood on the priest as she finishes the arc.

Then all is silent save the sobbing of the bleeding bandit on the ground, the snorting of the horses around the courtyard, and the gentle crackle of the small fire on the storehouse wall.

The mounted bandit glances over, then back. "You know, if you scrape that stuff off with a sword or axe, then douse what remains, it's not hard to put out."

[SanguinePenguin]

A little surprised that the bandit volunteered assistance, Krul says, "thanks!" Then he shouts to his allies, "check for survivors," and immediately sets to putting out the fire by scraping off the goo with his short sword.

[Blackfish]

Samantha Harlan

Samantha ceases her singing and stows her bow, hopping nimbly down from the top of the gate.

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Do I need to roll anything for jumping from the gate 10' to the ground?

She makes her way toward Krul, pulling the rapier from it's sheathe on her belt and using it to help scrape the burning alchemical substance off of the storehouse before any real damage is done.

Looking back over her shoulder, she calls out to Augens. "Preacher, could you please make sure our new friends don't bleed to death?"

[balistafreak]

Hawke

Hawke seems to be strangely missing -

"Oleg! Where's your well?! Fire! Fire! Water, water, quick!"

... never mind, then. The shout is punctuated by pounding on the door that Oleg last disappeared through.

Charity

Still with her rapier pointed at the mounted bandit, she raises an eyebrow in surprise. "Generous of you to offer that. Now, why don't you get off your horse and move beside your... friend..." she says slowly, not sure if the sobbing bandit was really in a position for anyone to call friend. "That arrow looks like it hit pretty hard. Our priest can see to it if you dismount."

At Hawke's shouting, she rolls her eyes, and shouts right back, "Don't worry! It's not big! Just some alchemist's fire, it's under control!"

[RocketMan]

Zora

Zora glares from bandits to her companions. "What you are doing, speaking like this? You are dishonoured." She moves towards the wounded bandit. "Get yourself up!" she barks. "Surrender is to be dishonored; you must fight! Go on! Fight!" Her small hand wraps around the injured man's sword, trying to make him take it.

Then Zora rounds on her fellows shrilly. "It is done this way in your lands, you dishonor warriors by accepting surrender? They will not go to the Great Hall of the Ancestors this way!" She shakes her bloody head grimly, muttering about lowlander customs.

[Leviathan]

Augens

Augens wipes the blood from his face; what remains on his robes is a lost cause. He strides over to the wounded bandit, and touches his wounded side. He gives Zora a cold look – the first you have yet seen from him.

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He'll use rebuke death to stabilize the bandit and make sure he's okay generally.
Rebuke death amount healed: (1d4)[1]

"You'll survive. Now, I must see to the dead.""

The priest walks solemnly amongst the corpses, bending down over each. He closes their eyes, and murmurs softly. "...We commit the body of this man and his spirit that resides within unto you, Goddess. Take him to your side and show him mercy; as you forgive his sins, so do we commit his body to the flames, in the knowledge that our impure bodies are but vessels of our immortal souls." Finishing his brief ritual, he draws his circular sigil over each fallen bandit. Then he stands.

"We must have wood for a funeral pyre."

[Lost Demiurge]

Samantha makes it down from the gate easily, since she can jump to the cart blocking it, and then the ground next.

The mounted bandit dismounts, and heads over to the bandit sobbing on the ground.

On closer examination, the sobbing bandit's a youth of barely 16. The taller one has the look of the south about him, slightly coffee colored skin and a Murderer's brand across his face.

Keeping a flat gaze on Zora, he tears off cloth from his cloak and bandages first himself and then the youth. "What do you want, woman? You're stronger than we are. If you want to kill us, just kill us. That's how the world works."

Augens stabilizes the remaining bandit. Besides the two conscious, the one that Samantha shot is still breathing, just unconscious.

Hawke's pounding brings Oleg running out of the door, with a pot in hand. He takes a look around, looks a little impressed at all the bodies, then goes to inspect the storehouse. He douses the last few flickers of flames, and grunts. "Just some scarring. Good work." He nods to Krul and Samantha, who are probably busy extinguishing their blades.

Crows are starting to gather overhead. A fine meal for a spring day...

[RocketMan]

Zora

"Lowlanders!" Zora hisses. "They not understand the workings of these things. To kill you in such a way - not fighting back - is not the way: it is not bringing honour." Zora pauses, scowling at the helpless pair. "You fight, you die, you regain honour. This is the way of my country, but not to the people of this flat country. People of no honour." The halfling is half-pouting - she is honestly confused as to why her foes would not want to die honourably.

[Blackfish]

Samantha Harlan

Samantha pats the flames from her blade and wipes it on the shirt of one of the dead bandits, ridding it of the sticky alchemical substance. She then sets about trying to find her three arrows.

[balistafreak]

Hawke

The young man returns in Oleg's wake, smiling and glad that the fire was minor. He gravitates towards the prisoners just in time to hear:

Keeping a flat gaze on Zora, he tears off cloth from his cloak and bandages first himself and then the youth. "What do you want, woman? You're stronger than we are. If you want to kill us, just kill us. That's how the world works."

"Lowlanders!" Zora hisses. "They not understand the workings of these things. To kill you in such a way - not fighting back - is not the way: it is not bringing honour." Zora pauses, scowling at the helpless pair. "You fight, you die, you regain honour. This is the way of my country, but not to the people of this flat country. People of no honour." The halfling is half-pouting - she is honestly confused as to why her foes would not want to die honourably.

"Honor? What do you mean by honor?" Hawke looks confused. "Honor is life. Life is honor. Whenever you take another breath, you honor the world. When you offer your life for - " he struggles, " - something good, that is 'honor'." He frowns. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

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"The world doesn't work that way, anyways," he goes on, still confused. "Just because we're stronger, doesn't mean we want to kill you. I mean, just think about gods." He gives his bloody knife a glance - almost ashamedly, he cleans it off on the bandit leader's shirt. "Sorry, mate. You didn't give up soon enough..."

Suddenly, something catches his eye: the silver stag amulet. Curious, he works it off the body. "Erastil? What are you doing here?" he asks aloud.

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Detect Evil on the three survivors, by the way. Just out of curiosity.

[Leviathan]

Augens

Augens shakes his head sadly, looking back and forth at the defiant bandit and outraged halfling.
"You are both wrong," he says calmly. He turns to the bandits. "Strength does not equate to power without responsibility, for in the end are we not all judged before powers far beyond our poor comprehension?" Then, directed at Zora, he continues. "But nor is there any honour to be found in warfare. War does not prove one to be greater than another; it proves only that the mortal body is fragile and its soul easily corrupted towards evil ends." The priest smiles as Hawke says his piece. "There, I think Master Hawke has captured the essence of it, so I won't lecture."

Augens also moves over to Hawke's side to look at the amulet he has found.

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Knowledge (religion) to see if it's in fact an amulet of Erastil (it seems odd that a bandit would have a LG god's symbol. [roll]1d20+5[/roll]

[Leviathan]

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Trying that roll again...
Knowledge (religion) on the amulet: (1d20+5)[8]

[Lost Demiurge]

The murder-marked bandit shrugs. The youth keeps silent, watching you carefully.

Hawke

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The bandit with the murderer-mark on his face is evil. The youth is not.

Augens

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You do not recognize the amulet as having any religious significance

Oleg wanders around, collecting the horses before they trample too much. He stables them, then goes and pulls out a few hay bales, and starts throwing down straw to soak up the blood.

He pauses to glare down at the leader's remains, then sighs. Opening the storehouse he pulls out a shovel.

"Well, this is gonna be a long day."

[Blackfish]

Samantha Harlan

After recovering her three used arrows and carving a small line into each one below the fletching, Samantha rolls her eyes and attempts to steer the group's focus away from their debate.

"Maybe we can save this conversation for another time, because if you hadn't noticed, this went pretty well." She then crouches down by the murderer and the youth. "So, you two are now our prisoners. If you tell us everything you know about your leader and about this region, I'm sure I can keep you two from being executed. Does that sound fair?"

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Diplomacy check if one is needed: [roll]1d20+6[/roll]

All the while she tightly holds the bow she found by the bandit leader to her chest, her body language suggesting that she desperately wishes she were spending her time testing it out. Every so often her eyes drop quickly to the bow, before returning just as quickly to the bandits in front of her.

[Lost Demiurge]

Samantha Harlan

Samantha rolls her eyes and attempts to steer the group's focus from the honor of battle.

"Maybe we can save this debate for another day, because if you hadn't noticed, this went pretty well." She then crouches down by the murderer and the youth. "So, you two are now our prisoners. If you tell us everything you know about your leader and about this region, I'm sure I can keep you two from being executed. Does that sound fair?"

All the while she tightly holds the bow she found by the bandit leader to her chest, her body language suggesting that she desperately wishes she were spending her time testing it out. Every so often her eyes drop quickly to the bow, before returning just as quickly to the bandits in front of her.

The murder-marked bandit does most of the talking.

"Not much to say. No laws out here, no guards. Good place for men with nothing to lose. Came here at the beginning of winter and ran into some like minded folks. Told me if I wanted to make real money, to go see Kressel. Kressel turned out to be a tough woman with a mean streak the size of the Thorn river. That's her bed buddy over there, Happs." He nods at the leader's remains. "Well, was, anyway."
He shrugs. "Kressel's camp is in the woods southwest of here, about 20 miles. There's more of us coming and going all the time. So I couldn't tell you who'd be in or how many."
He pauses, looks the group over, then continues.

"Overheard her talkin' about someone called the Stag Lord once, and the guys who'd been there longest looked frightened and changed the subject real quick."

"Far as the rest of the region goes... Don't know it. Woods, plains, monsters n' crap."

[RocketMan]

Zora

The halfling, who has been muttering darkly about the superiority of Bratsk warrior codes, perks up as Samantha speaks. She hurries over to where the group stands gathered around the two bandits.

"Yes, ask questions of them," Zora urges the bard. "This way they may refuse. Great honour to be had in revealing nothing during torture. Real honour," Zora emphasizes, shooting a slightly-malicious glance at Hawke.

[Lost Demiurge]

"Um." Says the youth. "What else do you want to know?"

[Leviathan]

Augens

Augens steps into the conversation quickly to cut off whatever questions Zora has planned. "Is this amulet a sign of this Stag Lord?"

Then, he turns away to talk to Oleg. He takes the man aside. "These bodies should be burnt. This allows their souls to reach the heavens. However, I suspect you are a practical man. Consider then that digging graves for these men will allow any of their companions to guess exactly what has happened to them."

[Blackfish]

Samantha Harlan

Samantha glares at Zora. "We aren't torturing them, no matter what."

She waits until after Augens asks his question and gets his response before continuing, shifting her gaze between the murderer and the now-speaking youth.

"Do you know what kinds creatures can be found around here? Also, do you think either of you could draw us a map, at least of the areas you do know?"

She clears her throat.

"As for your bandit camp, how big is it? How many buildings are there and what arrangement are they in?"

[SanguinePenguin]

Krul enjoyed the battle greatly. It was his first real taste of combat. He was proud at well, he had trained himself. He made three swings with the intent to connect, and three times he drew blood. He killed two bandits. Using his short sword he puts two tiny marks into the haft of his axe. The first of many he supposes.

While the others question the bandits, he keeps to himself. He knows to keep quiet in times when a harsh tongue can ruin things. He instead watched his companions and thought, Augens - long-winded bore. Hawke - dim-witted simpleton. Zora - the wild one. She seems mad, but perhaps that is the sort of mentality on needs for their coming task. Gnome and his... thing - forget their names, no bother. What a strange pair, though. Samantha - she... well, she seems to love that new bow. That's something at least. Charity - what a silly name, perhaps my initial impression was right, she doesn't seem cut out for this.

As they talked about battle, strength and honor, Krul reflected on his own battle philosophy. He could place his own somewhere between the simpleton's and the madwoman's. His mind set to defining precisely what his philosophy is... or perhaps should be.

[balistafreak]

Hawke

As if in a daze, Hawke examines the silver stag amulet further, his eyes locked upon it to the exclusion of everything else around him - probably for the better, as he might have had a tantrum at Zora's latest suggestion. Despite the fact that he literally just stripped it from a corpse a minute ago, he... puts it on. It glimmers a bit, and then -

- if likenesses of animals could look pleased, well, this amulet did.

"There you go, Old Deadeye. You don't have to be with the bad man anymore," he smiles to himself.