The Northlands Saga - Spears in the Ice OOC

[Farmerbink]

No worries, I just wanted to reach out. :thumbsup:

[Ghostfoot]

Impressive performances everyone! You have won over the fickle fey folk of the forest - for today anyway!!

[Ghostfoot]

I'll squeeze down the shaft. With her height and reach does she need to make a check to climb the 10ft or can she just lower hersefl?

Yeah it seems she can conveniently just lower herself given her height.

A screen made of woven brush (Break DC 12, Hardness 2, hp 15) is secured at the bottom of the chimney and blocks further access.

[DrK]

Yeah it seems she can conveniently just lower herself given her height.

A screen made of woven brush (Break DC 12, Hardness 2, hp 15) is secured at the bottom of the chimney and blocks further access.

If I can try and break through as part of this round then (1d20+4)[15] for Str. Not sure if +1 for large applies or not

[farothel]

I'm not sure how far I can get in one round going down or if I have to make a roll, but let me know if I have to.

I'm sure the others can deal with the last guard, right?

[Ghostfoot]

I'm not sure how far I can get in one round going down or if I have to make a roll, but let me know if I have to.

I'm sure the others can deal with the last guard, right?

You can make it all the way down to Freyja with a Climb DC10 if you would like.

[farothel]

You can make it all the way down to Freyja with a Climb DC10 if you would like.

If I can take 10, I'll do so, other wise: (1d20+3)[13]

EDIT: it's the same, so I'll make it I guess.

[Ghostfoot]

If I can take 10, I'll do so, other wise: [roll0]

EDIT: it's the same, so I'll make it I guess.

Cool, that'll send you crashing safely down next to Freyja

[Ghostfoot]

Elissa looses another arrow at the remaining bandit, and then makes a break for the cave entrance.

[snip]

Moving to prepare for casting summon nature's ally into the cave.

Do you want to drop down into the cave too, next to Freyja & Bjorn (Climb DC10), or stay up top? You'll have enough movement if you want.

[Farmerbink]

I must be misreading the map, but no big issue. I'd rather she stayed up top, for now.

[Starbin]

Climb - (1d20+1)[12] since I don’t think I can take 10

[farothel]

It seems I have gotten a D4 instead of a D20 the past few rounds. This way it's going to take a while.

[Farmerbink]

Just an aside, if the eagle was in the radius of the sleep spell, it should have been targeted first. I assume it wasn't.

Also... uhhh, does it attack the nearest enemy, if I'm asleep? I'm going to assume it does, since it's only an action to make it do something *other* than that.

I'm not quite sure how to determine who is the nearest enemy by the map. If it's P/12, and the eagle can occupy P/11, it'll get a full attack action with its 5-foot "step."

(1d20+3)[20] talon 1
(1d20+3)[4] CC
(2d4)[4][3](7) damage and crit bonus

(1d20+3)[10] talon 2
(1d20+3)[21] CC
(2d4)[2][3](5) damage and crit bonus

(1d20+3)[4] beak
(1d20+3)[22] CC
(2d4)[1][3](4) damage and crit bonus

Obviously, if it has to move more than 5', it only gets one of those attacks. Regardless, Elissa remains asleep for 10 or 20 rounds minus 1.

[Ghostfoot]

Just an aside, if the eagle was in the radius of the sleep spell, it should have been targeted first. I assume it wasn't.

10ft radius put the eagle just outside the area of effect (due to how diagonal measurement works).

There is a valid case for the spell to have affected Heltinne rather than Freyja. I typed the post up and only at the end realised she had 5ft stepped closer in. I figured you guys (well, DrK) could live with my mistake.

Also... uhhh, does it attack the nearest enemy, if I'm asleep? I'm going to assume it does, since it's only an action to make it do something *other* than that.

I'm not quite sure how to determine who is the nearest enemy by the map. If it's P/12, and the eagle can occupy P/11, it'll get a full attack action with its 5-foot "step."

[roll0] talon 1
[roll1] CC
[roll2] damage and crit bonus

[roll3] talon 2
[roll4] CC
[roll5] damage and crit bonus

[roll6] beak
[roll7] CC
[roll8] damage and crit bonus

Obviously, if it has to move more than 5', it only gets one of those attacks. Regardless, Elissa remains asleep for 10 or 20 rounds minus 1.

I believe that the eagle stays. The spell is not 'concentration' so I think you're good.

The map is a little imprecise for those of us wanting certainty around tactical combat movement. The eagle is 'small' so lets say it can 5ft step into P11 no problem.

I do think that a flying creature like the eagle has to make a fly check to hover/ 5ft step. I'm not 100%, I don't deal with flying rules a lot. Regardless, it makes the check:

Eagle fly check (1d20+8)[22]

Again, I don't believe that the Fly check is a move action, so I think the eagle gets a full attack. It hits for 4+2 = 6 damage.

[DrK]

Ouch, that Styr the ugly is a real swine! Thats Freyja unconcius and dying.
Does she stabilise (1d10)[7] on a 1 she stabilises

[Ghostfoot]

Ouch, that Styr the ugly is a real swine! Thats Freyja unconcius and dying.
Does she stabilise [roll0] on a 1 she stabilises

I think it's only a DC10 Con check to stabilise? Much easier to survive another round:

Con DC10 (1d20)[15]

[DrK]

I think it's only a DC10 Con check to stabilise? Much easier to survive another round:

Con DC10 (1d20)[15]

Ah, I was on DND mode. I stabilise! Glad you rolled that and not me

[Ghostfoot]

AoO vs Elissa
Club (1d20)[4] damage (1d6)[5]

[farothel]

I think that a 23 should be enough to hit, hopefully the 5 damage is enough to take him out (or at least enough to render him unconscious so we can capture him as we did with his flunkies).

[Ghostfoot]

I think that a 23 should be enough to hit, hopefully the 5 damage is enough to take him out (or at least enough to render him unconscious so we can capture him as we did with his flunkies).

That'll take him down nicely :-)

[farothel]

Here's my bard: Anna Sagewood

[DrK]

Had a hectic week with manufacturing issues but I'll pull together a rogue (pirate) who enjoys a life on the waves and plundering and looting

[DrK]

Signun the raider is ready to rock (just needs some backstory adding)

[Ghostfoot]

Nice, looking mean team!

[Ghostfoot]

Timeline of the Northlands: Common Knowledge
(available to anyone who can make an untrained Take 10 DC10 Knowledge check; ie Int 10+)

Year	Event
3221	Althing of Storstrøm Vale founded
3223	Five siblings of Gat clan relocate to Bornhølm Peninsula in dissension from assembly form of government represented in Things and Althing; Gatland founded
3280	Gat-Hrolf feud begins
3298	Kraki Haraldson slays red wyrm Verthenstyr and recovers the sword Kroenarck from beneath Mount Helgastervän
3306	Kraki Haraldson unites all jarldoms and named High Køenig of the Northlands
3316	Oathbreakers assassinate Kraki Haraldson and flee to mountains of Seydiford Peninsula; High Køenig Kraki Haraldson interred with Kroenarck overlooking Storm River; Athils the Seer prophecies no High Køenig will rule the Northlands again until Kroenarck finds a worthy hand
3321	Vastavikland founded by rebels on Seydiford Peninsula
3355	Disappearance of Folkmar the Reaver after 30 years of raiding
3363	First sighting of Jomsvikings with raid on Tallsinki
3378	Jomsvikings raids increase in frequency around North Sea
3380	Combined fleet of longships from Storstrøm Vale, Hordaland, Hrolfland, and Gatland defeat Jomsviking fleet at Battle of Kulding Swells; Allied fleet pursues surviving Jomsviking ships back to Jomsburg and are totally destroyed; Alliance falls apart, Northlanders avoid Jomsburg Island; Jomsviking raids greatly curtailed and focus farther abroad than North Sea
3401	Hrolfs employ Southlander mercenaries to stymie Gat raids
3437	Beast Cult of Shibauroth driven out of Storstrøm Vale
3452	First Althing of Estinfird convened at Three Rivers trading post
3517	Campaign start

[Ghostfoot]

History of the Northlands: Ancient History

Knowledge History (Trained only, Take 20, DC25)

Spoiler: Anna Sagewood only

Show

The story of the Northlands is ancient; it goes far back to a time when the world sat differently in the Great Expanse and the Northlands were not yet cold. Even in those distant and ancient days, there were men dwelling in the Northlands. Yet despite the length of human habitation in the Northlands, the people currently known as Northlanders have actually lived there only for slightly less than 800 years and are, in fact, the third migration of human settlers, having arrived from a land much farther to the south. They are what is thought of when folk of the Lost Lands think of the Northlands, and their history is an epic worthy of the harsh lands they now hold. But no history of the Northlands can be told without speaking of the first humans to live there.

The first settlers of the Northlands were organized tribes of peoples clad in hides and wielding weapons of wood and stone. Some of these tribes even knew the secrets of working bronze, and these were the princes among the peoples known as the Andøvan. Known throughout most of Akados as the Ancient Ones by modern folk, in the Northlands they have retained their identity as the Andøvan if only due to the presence of the mountain range by that name that has survived in ancestral memory for thousands of years. These lost folk left behind only barrow mounds, earthen hill forts, and enigmatic rings of standing stones upon the heights. The ancients who once dwelt in the Northlands are still held in a mixture of awe and fear by modern Northlanders, their barrow fields still haunted by the specters of their civilization that walk the night-darkened hills and forests.

While it remains a mystery what happened to the many tribes of Ancient Ones that dwelt throughout Akados, in the Northlands the oracle Siljus spoke doom over the Andøvan when he said, “Seek you the mountains, tribes of the gray sea, and there you shall know your doom.” His words dutifully scribed on the Stone of Andøvan, the tribe’s chieftain ritually strangled the blind seer for such an ill-omened utterance, even though he protested his innocence to the last. Such measures did not save the Andøvan of the north, however, for they soon learned their doom when from the Stoneheart Mountains far to the west came a migration of giants, foremost among them were hordes of trolls and troll-kin. While the giants primarily took to the mountain peaks to make their homes in caves and rock shelters, the trolls descended upon the lowlands around the sea to claim their homes among the human-held lands. The Andøvan fought this onslaught for many years, but the tribes never fully united and ultimately they fell to the trolls one by one. Those who survived became thralls to their troll overlords, and the Andøvan ceased to exist in the north as over generations they became savage troll-blooded people called the thrydreg — the last remnant of Andøvan blood long polluted in their thralldom to the trolls.

[Ghostfoot]

History of the Northlands: Recent History

Knowledge History (Trained only, Take 20, DC20)

Spoiler: Bjorn, Signy, Anna

Show

Two and a half thousand years ago, after the third great elven exodus, a tribe of wild elves known as the Nûk came upon the Northlands seeking a peaceful home far from the ever-encroaching Hyperboreans of the south. The thrydreg still held the coastal lowlands, and giants were plentiful in the mountain heights, but in the forests and plains north of the mountains, the elves found a new home that eventually became known as Nûkland. These elves did not build cities or large settlements but instead elected to remain in small bands, hunting among the forests to avoid the notice of the giants and to be able to pack up and move on quickly should human intruders show up in their territory once again.

When the poles of the world shifted nearly 1,500 years later, the Northlands suddenly found itself on the very edge of the arctic. Temperatures plummeted and powerful blizzards dumped vast amounts of snow over the formerly temperate lands. The thrydreg were ill-prepared for such changes, and famine and warfare overtook the troll-kin tribes as they competed for ever-dwindling resources. The agile Nûk fared better, quickly adapting to hunting among the snow-laden forests and across the newly formed tundra as the mega-fauna that they lived off of were able to adapt to the colder clime as well.

It was into these new subarctic conditions that a tribe of the wandering Shattered Folk, bands of the long-ago defeated Hundaei, arrived in the Northlands led by Hvran Kalsong. Known as the Uln, this clan saw that ferocious bands of troll-kin still roamed the coastal lowlands and that elves held the arboreal forest to the north. A raid by the thrydreg killed Hvran’s son and took his daughter as thrall. Knowing his people to be too weak to challenge the savage thrydreg or avenge his family, Hvran led his people farther north until they came upon the Seal Coast and the Wailing Mountains where the Ulnat separated into small bands and villages to resume the ways of their distant ancestors.

Barely a century and a half later, another migration of humans began for the Northlands. At the far southern end of the continent of Akados, on the aptly named Helcynngae Peninsula lived the Heldring, a barbarous people of feared warriors of great size and martial prowess who had sold the soul of their people to the goddess Hel in exchange for might and protection from the invading legions of the Hyperboreans. This contract had served well, for the Hyperboreans were never able to conquer these tribes and ultimately had to wall off the entire peninsula with a defensive breastwork known as the Helwall. It was from this ruthless and bloodthirsty people that the final migration emerged.

Not all of the tribes among the Heldring were as devoted to the Lady of Pestilence and, at a time when her cult’s power was waxing among the Heldring, one thegn called Swein Sigurdson turned his back on the wicked ways of Hel and sought an escape for his people. Swein gathered his family and related clans and headed north to cross the Helwall. The clergy of Hel, however, learned of his defection and sent an army in pursuit. Unable to reach the Helwall, Swein retreated into the mountains of Cumborian to find safety. The Helite council’s army pursued doggedly and drove them ever deeper among the jagged clefts. Finally, Swein and his people were forced to seek shelter in a cave and await the arrival of their eminent executioners. However, even as the Helite raiders charged up the valley and Swein formed his shieldwall across the mouth of the cave, an earthquake struck the valley. The cliff face above the cave mouth collapsed, sealing it off and trapping Swein’s people within while killing many of the charging Helite warriors.

Saved by seemingly divine intervention, Swein nevertheless despaired at the prospect of his people dying trapped within the collapsed cavern. However, when torches were lit, it was found that the back of the cave had likewise collapsed to reveal a series of natural tunnels that ran deep beneath the earth and into the Under Realms. For two years, the clans following Swein survived and forged their path through the darkness of the Under Realms on what they came to call the Neimbrall Trail. At some point during that journey the Æsir gods of their ancestors, long forgotten when Hel became the dominant deity of the Helcynngae Peninsula, reappeared to them. Swein received a vision from Wotan the All-Father of a distant land of snowy peaks and timbered forests, far from the Helcynngae Peninsula, a land where they could hack their homes out of the wilderness and live as a free people.

Swein Sigurdson became the first godi and led his people toward this promised land. For nearly three years, the clans of Swein stumbled through the dark, being forged by the hardships they faced and tempered by the foes they fought until finally one day he led them into the light of day from beneath the a chain of mountains in a wide valley they named Storstrøm. Across the vale at the foot of another mountain range they found the Stone of Andøvan, which gave cryptic clues to what people had lived in the valley long before, and named these mountains for them as a result.
Unfortunately for Swein’s people, the lands they had found were not unoccupied; the thrydreg still held sway in the lowlands around the North Sea. But the Æsir favored Swein’s people and provided them with a stone fortress built upon a river from which they could defend themselves and begin their own expansion. Thus with the might of their faith in the Æsir behind them and the tempering they had endured on the Neimbrall Trail within them, Swein’s clans made war upon the thrydreg. No longer as numerous as they had once been due to the faltering resources since the climate shift, and with most of their true troll overlords long since relocated into the mountains, the thrydreg fell before the onslaught of Swein and his people. In a few short years, the thrydreg had been driven from the Vale and the new society of Northlanders had been established.

Over the following decades, the Northlanders continued to push the thrydreg back. They mastered the art of crafting swift longships with which they could launch raids all along the coast, and soon the last pockets of thrydreg were destroyed or in hiding among the wildlands. Swein was named the first Køenig of Storstrøm Vale, and what became the first modern nation of the Northlands was begun.

[farothel]

And so the great Jarl search begins. :)

[Farmerbink]

Glad I checked the character sheet. Between a racial and cold weather gear, Elissa is ready to go!

[Ghostfoot]

Figured I should take a leaf out of DrK's GM playbook and post for Signy the DMNPC separately to keep her more 'distinct'.