A Dark and Stormy Knight IC [3.5]

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk whistles and tosses the sword to Aareon
"Any good for you, elf?"

He then moves to advance into the room the creature had come from.

[Jopustopin]

Aareon catches the blade out of the air and examines it closely.

[zlefin]

Aareon can see that the blade is well made and of excellent quality.

There are no threats found as you check the room. And the room is a dead end, the only way out being the way you came in.

There is a large stone table dominating the center of the room, from which the creature rose. Likely a resting place of prominence. There are a number of coins scattered about the floor.

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk scratches his head. "Guess he was sleeping. Maybe the storm woke him up - or the goblinmen."

He collects as much of the coinage as he can, piling it onto the bier in the middle of the room to count it.

[Jopustopin]

The elf muttered to himself, he doesn't seem to be in the greatest mood. "Thanks for the healing." He says to the priest before beginning to collect the scattered coins.

Spoiler

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Is the blade of masterwork quality? I'm assuming it's at least materwork, but just want to make sure.

[Morof Stonehands]

"Not at all what I was expecting to find in this tower today. Was just expecting some others taking shelter like us!" Lars exclaimed. "Undead though, that's a surprise indeed!" While the others pick up coins, Lars moves carefully ahead down the hallway to the side, just checking to make sure everything is gone in the area.

[zlefin]

The weapon is indeed masterwork.
The coinage totals 250 once you've gathered and counted it all.

Lars moves part way down the side hallway. It runs about 60 feet, and you can see that at the end it opens up into a small room; the door to that room has rotted away and clearly fell off long ago, it now lies on the floor.

[Jopustopin]

Aareon ties his old shortsword to his backpack and arms himself with the superior blade.

"Two hundred and fifty gold coins. We'll split it over some ale. This place is haunted though, not sure if I'm going to drink that much now." The elf doesn't look happy about recent events.

[Mr Adventurer]

"Not at all what I was expecting to find in this tower today. Was just expecting some others taking shelter like us!" Lars exclaimed. "Undead though, that's a surprise indeed!"

"Still dunno what them goblin-men were doing," Torokk observes.

"Hey - thanks for the gong just then. Good stuff!"

"Two hundred and fifty gold coins. We'll split it over some ale. This place is haunted though, not sure if I'm going to drink that much now." The elf doesn't look happy about recent events.

"Ale! Now you're talking!" Torokk is visibly excited by the prospect, "and two hunnerd fifty must be a LOT!" he grins toothily.

[Morof Stonehands]

"That last thing has got my nerves on edge," Lars says. "Best to be careful here." With a flick of the wrist and some finger wiggling and funny words, Lars tosses a small piece of the rotten door into the middle of the room to see if anything reacts to it.

Spoiler: OOC

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Casting mage hand, and tossing a small chunk of door into the room to draw anything out just in case.

[zlefin]

As the piece of door is thrown through the doorway Lars notices a perturbation; it looks as if there was something in the doorway; suddenly a spider as large as a man rushes out of the room! you must have disturbed its web across the doorway.

Spoiler: ooc notes about decision process

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not entirely sure how best to adjudicate the situation with respect to surprise/initiative; you were being careful; you made the spot check to notice the web due to a circumstance bonus for having tossed something through it, but not the check to see the spider who has a huge hide bonus. the spider could sense you the whole time with its tremorsense even before you neared its web. it just seems odd to give it an entire surprise round, then possibly winning initiative in the next round as well, when Lars was being careful and ready; the rest of the party of course is going to be unaware of this until Lars' screams for help, as they're still in the other room with the coins.
PS I made a bunch of spot checks offline to see how all that stuff goes.

PPS as i'm writing up this post, I realize I should give the rest of the party round 1 listen checks to see if they hear the commotion or not; and I'm not quite sure how to adjudicate all the variables involved with that. since they don't need to just hear the sound, but recognize that it's something other than Lars walking around. at least I can calc the distance modifier right (it's going to be 60ft, at least by the end of the spiders' first action)

Round 1 surprise round; only the spider gets to act.
It rushes out from the room, getting a mere 10 feet away from Lars!

Round 2; initiative rolled now; only the spider and Lars get to act (rest of party will get to act in round 3 after they've been alerted. for the rest of the party, this is the surprise round so to speak) edit adjust: Aareon can also act, he's the only member of the rest of the party to make the listen roll to notice a problem, he won't yet know what it is until Lars gets to say something, but he'll know that something's up.
party init:
(1d20+2)[17]

spider init:
(1d20+3)[7]

the party's action! Lars and Aareon can take their actions now. Aareon is of course still in the other room, about 50 feet away from Lars; including turning around one corner.

[Jopustopin]

"Aye, it is alo..." Aareon starts to say in response to Torek but trails off as he looks around slowly with a confused look on his face. Suddenly the elf drops the bag of coin and begins to move quickly towards where he last saw Lars.

Spoiler

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Double move towards where I last heard Lars.

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk looks confused, the expression crossing his face like a cloud scudding across a blue and empty sky. He glances at Govanan, "He musta heard somethin' with his elf ears!"

He grabs up his weapons and makes to lumber after the swifter Aareon...

Spoiler: OOC

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Just filling the time until Torokk can act! :D

For the sake of it, when he does get a turn, Torokk will make all haste to catch up; sadly his Speed is only 20 feet, so he'll only move the first 40 feet in the first round!

[zlefin]

(haven't heard from lars' player; and sent him a pm a day ago. so gonna ghost Lars to move the game along)

Lars will back up; meeting Aareon at the intersection; and ready an action to attack the spider as it approaches.

[zlefin]

The spider skitters forward 30 feet, now 10 feet away from both Lars and Aareon; it then shoots a web at Lars!
(1d20+4)[23]

Lars is covered by the webbing, and has difficulty moving!
(it applies the entangled effect)

It is now Round 3; party's turn: all party members may act.

[Jopustopin]

Spoiler

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Move Action: Pull out light hammer
Standard Action: throw Light Hammer (1d20+4)[11] for 1d4+4[/roll]

The elf pulls out a hammer and throws it narrowly missing the spider.

[Morof Stonehands]

"Damn this place to the Abyss!" Lars says. He tries to draw a dagger to cut himself loose from the web

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk clanks around the corner - and sees the monstrous spider! He tightens his grip on his glaive as he moves up alongside his allies, bringing it up horizontally over his head to flick the blade down in a powerful chop!

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: get into position
Swift: adopt Powerful Stance
Standard: make an attack

Attack roll: (1d20+6)[25]
Damage: (1d10+5)[6]

AC is 14 while in Powerful Stance

[zlefin]

Govanan will join Torokk near the corner, and throw a dart at the spider
(1d20+1)[4]
(1d4+1)[3]
(technically there's probably a penalty for the dart's being sized ofr a medium creature rather than Govanan's small; and I'm not sure I ever figured out what size the darts are in the first place; but I do'nt feel like figuring it out, and it shan't matter that much)

[zlefin]

Lars tries to get out of the webbing:
(rules are a bit unclear here; the spider entry has rules for escape check, and a break check; and rules for the webbing when it's setup beforehand in a square, but not for how to clear it off a creature when the webbing is thrown; it's probably the same though, hp6 with dr 5/- in this case. seems odd, you'd think slashing weapons would work better on it; and that impaling weapons wouldn't be of much use. I'll just call it an escape check with a circumstance bonus of oh, +2; which counters the dex penalty from being entangled))

(1d20+1)[17] trying to beat dc: 12
Lars is able to free from himself from the webbing!

[zlefin]

Torokk's glaive of course hit with a roll like that; and caused a deep wound in the spider, it's now badly hurt.

that's all the player actions, now for the spider's turn!
it takes a 5 ft step forward into melee range and viciously bites at Lars!
(1d20+4)[12]
(1d6)[1]
the spider's bite fails to penetrate Lars's chain shirt!

It is now the party's turn again, I rather doubt the spider will survive this turn.

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk could back up to keep the thing at the end of his glaive; but then he'd be fighting around his allies - an awkward proposition! He's not the sharpest nail in the plank by any means, but his tactical acumen is at least passable, and he lets go of his glaive to smash the spider with a spiked gauntlet with the same downward power with which he had chopped with the glaive just a moment ago.

Spoiler: OOC

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Attack roll: (1d20+6)[22]
Damage: (1d4+5)[7] plus (1d6)[2]

[zlefin]

(nobody else seems interested in posting a turn/taking an action; so i'll just skip them)
Torokk's gauntlet smashes through the spider, killing it. It's definitely the largest spider he's squished, and the mess is quite a lot worse than the next largest one was.
No other threats appear afterward.

[Mr Adventurer]

Torokk's been in blood and guts before, but not like this. His ugly face twists into an expression of revulsion. "Gah. Shoulda used the hammer."

He glances longwise at the others. "You OK?"

Presuming responses in the positive, he asks, "Shall we grab up the coins and stuff from back there - and then, then what?"

[Jopustopin]

The elf goes and picks up his hammer with a sour look on his face, "Then I suppose we finish searching this gods forsaken place and wait the storm out."

[Morof Stonehands]

Aye, indeed. For what we endured in this silly place, I think a few coins are good compensation, Lars says. He gives the room they are in a good once over, just to make sure they didn't miss anything.

Spoiler: OOC

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Search: (1d20+2)[15]

[Mr Adventurer]

"Good idea!" Torokk says enthusiastically, helping to poke around the place.

Spoiler: OOC

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Attempt to Assist on the Search check! DC10 check, Search: (1d20-1)[15]

If successful, improve Lars' score by 2 points.

[zlefin]

You're not in a room, you're in the hallway right now. You search the hallway thoroughly; and you search the room where the Knight was, and you did indeed gather up all the coins. there's nothing you haven't found already. do you want to go to the room the spider came from?

[Mr Adventurer]

Yes. Together, as a party.

[zlefin]

You cautiously approach the room the spider came from. Lars remembers there was something odd at the doorway he noticed when he threw a bit of wood in; you find that the spider had set up a strong web there. You're able to cut and/or burn it down quite readily and without trouble. The room is fairly small, maybe 20 feet square; it contains a number of remains of rats and cocooned rat bits; quite a bit of other webbing, and nothing else obvious. It has no exits other than the one you came in by.