Kingmaker in the Forgotten Realms [IC thread]

[Zombulian]

Ruk popped out of his burrowed tunnel into the centipede hatchery, turning to address his companions.

"So, a bit of trouble ahead. The first chamber I came to appeared to be some sort of treasure room - at least whatever garbage these gremlins consider to be treasure anyway. The ring may be stored in there. Unfortunately, we can't search it just yet. In the room just beyond that storeroom has six gremlins in it... and some sort of grotesque giant tick. I think one of the gremlins is its master, and he seems a little more put-together than the others."

[bcool999]

“Any threats in the storeroom?” Kuros asks curiously thinking it strange to leave unguarded when there are plenty of guards in the very next room, “If not I suggest we move forward and deal with the gremlins first. We can take our time on our way back.”

[Zombulian]

Ruk shook his head,
“None that I saw. The tick did seem to notice me in some small way, so we should be careful but decisive.”

[jdizzlean]

could you identify the tick's master enough so i could pinpoint him out of the group? Might be time to try for a minion, and one that has mastery over this beast could prove handy...

[Zombulian]

Ruk raised his spined brows at the question
“Yes, actually. He carries a riding crop and wears a bit more elaborate clothing than the others. I could ask Eral to fetch me a Charm spell as well just in case.”

[Mercurion 2]

"Ready to go," Dergosh rumbled. "Take tick and twist body, head pops right off. We attack then?"

[jdizzlean]

leave the boss gremlin to me friends. i don't pretend to be a master at stealth, but perhaps the rest of you could simply distract them and leave that one to me?

Spoiler

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is it possible to crawl through the tunnel left by the rattlyr? is it big enough? if not, speed might be a better option, just fly in and pow, sock em w/ a charm person

[Saintheart]

Spoiler: OOC

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No, it's not possible to crawl through the Rattelyr hole - too small I'm afraid.

[bcool999]

Kuros prepares himself for the battle, changing gear to have his Hammer, Magic Longsword, and a javelin at the ready along with his shield and sunrod.

When everyone is prepared. Kuros will lead the charge.

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Sunset, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

After what felt like an age preparing, the Company finally nodded to one another and started deeper into the gremlins' lair. They followed down a tight corkscrew passage, and through the chamber Ruk had identified, building speed and momentum as they came running across the dank, darkened ground, and finally--

--bursting into the chamber Ruk had identified. A small, ramshackle table was in the centre of the room, with a small statuette standing atop it. Bags had been left off to one side of the cavern. But such considerations were for later. The gremlins spun around. The one Ruk had described, with a tatty red cape and a long riding crop sort-of stick, hissed in anger. And the giant tick, grotesque even without its antennae sampling the air, turned towards them, giving a horrifying screech...

The battle was joined!

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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Initiative Count:

Dergosh: +9 - 25
Kuros: +4 - 23
Akara: +8 - 11
Three: +9 - 18
Korlann: +3 - 10
Gremlins and Tick: +1 - 10
Ruk: +0 - 8

Nobody is surprised given you came charging in, but neither have the gremlins had a chance to prepare for your coming. Over to you!

[Mercurion 2]

Moving like a hyperactive whirlwind, Dergosh looped behind Kuros, storming along the wall to the southernmost section of the cave, clearing the way for the rest of his clan. No matter that he positioned himself to be boxed in, he didn’t expect these little blue vermin to last long.


Planting his thick legs wide apart, he inhaled mightily and let out a scream, silent to all in the cave other than the huge, fuggly tick.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move action:move to square N5, staying out of AoO range, hopefully, by skirting the cavewall. Standard Action: use piercing scream domain power directed at giant tick. DC Fort save or the target is dazed one round. Successful save negates the daze and reduces damage by ½.

Spoiler: OOC

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Damage - (2d6)[11]

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Sunset, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Dergosh darted around his companions to the far end of the cavern, braced, and loosed his piercing scream.

The effect was astonishing. The tick's body simply began to rupture. The vast sack of its body suddenly started bleeding from a dozen different places, and Dergosh saw at least one of its eyes cloud over white, even in the darkness. It swayed in place, reduced in a moment to a bleeding, dazed mass, barely able to stand. The gremlins gaped, suddenly, at the dreadful sight.

Spoiler: OOC

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Nothing could have attacked Dergosh during his movement anyway, because until a creature gets its first action in combat, it's flatfooted and can't make attacks of opportunity. So that's all good.

And as you might have guessed, the giant tick failed its save, so it's dazed for one round. And it is certainly on its last legs, with one beauty of a roll from everyone's favourite half-orc!

[bcool999]

Kuros follows along right after Dergosh. He closes on the mass of gathered Gremlins before unleashes a flurry of steel in their direction. He first launches his Javelin at Gremlin 5. He then drops the hammer on Gremlin 4. He then slashes at the tick with his blade, attempting to grant the abomination a quick death.

Spoiler: OOC

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5ft step to J5. Then Full Attack!
Javelin vs G5: (1d20+4)[10] Crit on 24 penalties for cramped quarters added and multiweapon fighting penalties.
Damage: (1d6+6)[11]
Hammer vs G4: (1d20+4)[17] Crit on 24
Damage: (2d4+4)[8]
Magic Longsword vs Tick: (1d20+5)[19] crit on 24-25
Damage: (1d8+5)[10]

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Sunset, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Dergosh's move was followed up by a six-armed horror, weapons weaving like gleaming death in the light of Kuros's sunrod.

The gremlin managed to dodge the javelin, but the next one was turned into meat and mess with one well-placed swing of the big man's hammer. And with one, final, mighty blow, Kuros's longsword chopped the staggering giant tick clean in half, a dreadful smell going through the enclosed space as its pieces collapsed to the floor, and the gremlin panic became more apparent in their dreadful faces.

Spoiler: OOC

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Gremlin 5 survived, Gremlin 4 is down and dead, and the giant tick is now sucking blood on another plane of existence.

[jdizzlean]

Akara charges into the room behind her companions and sees the goblin leader just as Ruk as described it. Moving into position, she focuses her will upon it and tries to take him/her/it directly out of the fight!

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move to L6 and cast Charm person, will save DC 16

the spell states that if the creature is being attacked or threatened, it gets a +5 to the save. it's up to you whether we are to be considered to be attacking it yet or not, since no one has targeted him, and indeed it could be that we have specifically treated him as a non target at this point.

if it fails the save, it's attitude moves to Friendly for 5 hours. I'll immediately pantomime to it to sit down and at the same time talk to him in a soothing manner in common to try to get him to tell his friends to stop fighting, as my friends are just afraid and so struck out in an unfortunate misunderstanding. I doubt my turn allows me to run through all the languages i know to convey this. if i can do it in more than 1 language, I'll try Sylvan this round as well.

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Sunset, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Akara's spell fired. The gremlin leader blinked a few times, then shook its head and narrowed its eyes at Akara, a high-pitched hiss coming from its mouth. It turned towad the western end of the cave and began shouting in some language she didn't recognise. It certainly didn't sit down and didn't seem to have been affected by the dweomer.

Spoiler: OOC

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Yeah, fail I'm afraid.

[BluesEclipse]

Maintaining his crouched position, Korlann watches for a moment as Akara unleashes her magic, observing the apparent leader's reaction. Seeing him turn and shout, the Skarn darts forward between Kuros and Akara. Already focusing his ki as he steps over the remains of the giant tick, Korlann lashes out with a single swipe of his spines at the bulky gremlin, wisps of azure light flowing off of them.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Move to K4 and attack the gremlin leader.

Attacking with Stunning Fist
To Hit: (1d20+5)[9], Crit on 20
Damage: (1d6+4)[10], x2 on Crit
Other: On Hit, target must make DC 14 Fort Save or be Stunned 1 round.

[almondsAndRain]

Three stood at the back of the Company, watching as her allies engaged the gremlins. She planted her feet firmly in the ground and aimed her crossbow at the large, caped gremlin. She squeezed the trigger and hoped for another clean kill, then lowered and reloaded the weapon.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Standard Action: Three attacks the gremlin that Ruk didn’t bite with her +1 light crossbow.

Attack Roll: (1d20)[4]

This threatens a critical on a 19 or 20.
+1 from the enchantment, +3 from her dexterity modifier, +2 from her base attack bonus, -2 from the cramped conditions, -4 from firing into melee.

Critical Confirmation: (1d20)[4]
Damage Roll: (1d8+1)[3]

+1 from her weapon’s enchantment.

Critical Damage Roll: (1d8+1)[5]

Move Action: Three reloads her +1 light crossbow.

Notes: Three has 38 bolts remaining.

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Night, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Korlann's swing was just off the mark, and even taken by surprised and horrified by the death of what presumably had been its mount, the gremlin's leader was still quick, slipping into a defensive crouch. He pulled a knife and slashed at Korlann with it, the rusty old knife nicking the monk.

Then the lights went out.

Quite literally; Kuros's sunrod, which had been providing illumination in the room, suddenly turned deepest black and was covered completely in soot, snuffing out its light as effectively as if it were doused. The room was in darkness.

Spoiler: Three and Akara

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Three and Akara, suddenly in darkness and realising how these dreadful little freaks fought, figured it was some sort of prestidigitation spell, used to make a temporary change to the substance and colour of the sunrod.

Kuros felt a wave of fear crash over him, but he was inured to the little blue freaks' tricks now, and his mental defences pushed back the assault as surely as he might have pushed back a physical one.

Spoiler: Dergosh, anyone with darkvision

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One of the gremlins went running out, via the western exit.

Spoiler: OOC

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Over to you guys. It's Ruk's turn. Total darkness right at this moment for those who don't have darkvision right now.

EDIT: And because I'm an idiot, I forgot to mention that Korlann took 2 damage there.

[Mercurion 2]

“Ho! Run little ugly goblins! Go get friends so we kill them, too!” Dergosh shouted. He then glared at the gremlin with the silly riding crop. With violent gestures indicating great harm was coming down on the gremlin he screamed, “YOU DIE NEXT LIKE UGLY BUG OF YOURS!” with a gesture towards the dead tick.

The cleric then lurched forward, swinging his mace at the gremlin’s face. Unfortunately Dergosh failed to note the intervening root protruding from the hard earth ceiling and nearly bashed himself in the nose.

Spoiler: Dergosh’s actions

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Free action: shouting at the departing gremlin
Standard action: Really wanted to make a demoralize check using Intimidate with the +4 bonus due to the size difference, but I guess he’ll just go with a melee attack. 5’ step to M4 and attack.
attack with -2penalty - (1d20+3)[4]
damage - (1d8+3)[6]
If the leader is dead before Dergosh acts, he takes move action to get to the nearest gremlin.
Yay, a 1.

[Zombulian]

As Kuros’ light was extinguished the color in the chamber melted away, but otherwise Ruk’s vision was unimpeded. Knowing that this wasn’t true for most of his companions, he knew that the first order of business would be to restore the light.
Ruk squeezed himself next to Kuros and cast his own Prestidigitation to clean it of whatever alterations.

[bcool999]

With light restored, Kuros continues to crush and cleave wading into the Gremlin ranks.

Spoiler: OOC

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Full attack taking a 5ft step between the first and second attack.
First attack: Hammer: Against nearest Gremlin (1d20+4)[19] Crit on 24
Damage: (2d4+7)[12] Bludgeoning

5ft step into the Gremlin Horde

Second Attack: Sword: Against nearest Gremlin (1d20+5)[14] Crit on 24-25
Damage: (1d8+4)[5] Slashing

All attacks include the -2 for tight quarters.

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Night, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

The Company surged further into battle. Just as quickly as darkness fell, light was restored, Ruk moving up to the forward line and cleaning Kuros's sunrod with a gesture.

Dergosh's strike went wide, but it didn't matter: the head of a massive lucerne hammer came whistling over Korlann's head and blasted the gremlin leader into the nearest wall, his riding crop going wheeling off and lodging between a couple of tree roots in the chamber's ceiling. Then the warrior moved forward and carved another massive wound onto the nearest gremlin. The gremlins shrieked at the loss of their leader, clearly mortified by his sudden and grisly end...

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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Moving the round up - light has been restored, Dergosh's strike was a natural 1 and thus a miss I'm afraid. As a reminder, Korlann is down 2 hitpoints.

Initiative Count:
Dergosh: +9 - 25
Kuros: +4 - 23
Akara: +8 - 11 <---- We are here, it's Akara's turn.
Three: +9 - 18
Korlann: +3 - 10
Gremlins and Tick: +1 - 10
Ruk: +0 - 8

That's the Gremlin Leader down and dead, and Gremlin 5 is on its last legs (DR/cold iron.)

EDIT: Damn, bcool posted just before me! Okay, made a couple of edits, but the map won't be accurate, it reflects the situation just before Kuros's turn.

[jdizzlean]

Spoiler

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I should be at L6, i'll move to L4, and fire a bolt at gremlin 1.

(1d20+3)[15] (crit on 22/23) for (1d8)[4]

For a moment, it looks as if the charm will take hold, then that moment is gone and the gremlin is running and yelling some nonsense. Then, just as quickly, it's not as Akara's companion turns it into a red splotch on the ground, next to it's companion. Stepping up next to Korlann, she fires a bolt at the nearest enemy, saving her spells for what might come later.

[almondsAndRain]

Despite fighting these little creatures on their own turf, the Company seemed to be cutting through them without difficulty. Even when the Prestidigitation put out the sunrod, Three was not worried - she was confident in the party’s ability to put these things down, even if they were temporarily blinded. All the same, her hand began to drift to her Darkvision scroll, but Ruk countered the gremlins’ spell with his own and the sunrod was fully functional once more.

She passed down the tunnel and said, “Well done, Ruk,” as she strode past him. The warforged launched a bolt from behind Kuros, aimed at the gremlin closest to the exit.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Standard Action: Three attacks the gremlin 2 with her +1 light crossbow.

Attack Roll: (1d20+4)[11]

This threatens a critical on a 19 or 20, so a rolled 23 or 24.
+1 from the enchantment, +3 from her dexterity modifier, +2 from her base attack bonus, -2 from the cramped conditions.

Critical Confirmation: (1d20+4)[19]
Damage Roll: (1d8+1)[9]

+1 from her weapon’s enchantment.

Critical Damage Roll: (1d8+1)[7]

Move Action: Three moves to K6.

Notes: Three has 37 bolts remaining.

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Night, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Three and Akara moved cautiously in; the fight seemed to be going well enough, particularly given Ruk had reversed the gremlins' tactic of putting out the lights most efficiently.

That said, Three's shot whipped just past one gremlin's head, and Akara's thunked in but didn't penetrate as strongly as she'd thought it would.

Spoiler: OOC

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Three's shot is a miss; Akara's hits, but DR turns most of the strike.

That brings us round to Korlann.

[BluesEclipse]

Korlann frowns slightly as the light vanishes for a moment, closing his eyes in an effort to focus his other senses. Before he can, though, the light bursts back into brilliance. Opening his eyes, he quickly steps forward in front of Kuros, lashing out with a single fierce swipe of his spines at the injured creature.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Korlann will take a 5-foot step to J3 and attack Gremlin 5.

To Hit: (1d20+5)[23], Crit on 25
Damage: (1d6+4)[6], x2 on Crit

[Saintheart]

A Gremlin Hole, The Old Sycamore, Hills, the Stolen Lands
Night, Twenty-first of Kythorn, Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Korlann's blow struck true, ripping the gremlin's neck open, and it fell without a sound.

That seemed to cause the other gremlins' nerve to fail. The two creatures turned for the western end of the cavern, seeming to try and run --

-- Kuros and Korlann's fists and weapons carved into them, bringing them down before they'd taken a step. The room, at least for the next few moments, was empty.

It didn't look like the fight was over, though. There was a cacophony of raised voices from the western end of the cavern, and the renewed screaming of the kobold they'd heard. And more disturbingly: a familiar chittering noise that the Company had heard before. The noise of giant centipedes, and the drumming of hundreds of legs on the ground. Closing fast.

Spoiler: OOC

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That's a break in combat, but we'll handle XP and stuff later; at a guess you've got about twenty seconds or so before whatever's on its way gets here. Anything you guys want to do before whatever's coming reaches the western door?

[jdizzlean]

The last of these pesky creatures falls, and Akara takes stock of the situation. Reinforcements can be heard approaching, and by the sounds, not far off. She quickly steps over to the remains of the 'boss' and rifles through it's pockets for anything of value or possibly some scrap of intelligence. Then focusing upon the entrance to the room they're in, she stares intently at the opening and tells her companions to stand back!

Spoiler

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search roll if you want it
(1d20+3)[6] and assist from familiar (1d20+3)[12]

it'll be a glitterdust upon the hoarde when they arrive, lasts 5 rounds, blinds all in a 10ft radius, -40 to hide. DC 18 will negates blindness

followed by a rain of stones to soften, or outright slaughter them

[Mercurion 2]

A satisfied rumble like stones grinding together issued from Dergosh’s throat as the last foes were cut down,though the tone of the sound quickly changed to one of annoyance as the half-orc heard more blue goblins—and the skittering of big bug feet—approaching once more.


Making sure his clan was gathered close, he spat, “THE POWER OF THE ONE EAR BE WITH THE WOLFTOOTH TRIBE!”. With a thick finger he then scribed a shape in the air and a shimmering oval appeared in front of him centered with a one-foot-wide glaring, bloodshot eye. Stepping back, he let Warriors Kuros and Korlann have the lead while he pulled his fighting spear, Ilneval, from his back and stood waiting, weapon over his head ready to cast at the first foe that appeared.

Spoiler: Actions

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Assuming we have three rounds of actions here to prep:
Round 1 – cast bless on entire group, granting +1 on attack rolls and+1 on saves vs. fear effects.
Round 2 – cast shield of Gruumsh
Round 3 – draw spear as part of move action to take up position in 2^nd row of formation in support position. Use standard action to prepare a ready action to hurl his spear at the first foe that comes within 30’