The Order Of The Shining Plume [IC]

[JNAProductions]

You get rest, eat food, and direct personnel as appropriate.

After about five hours, two things happen at once. First, you receive a runner from the scholars and sages of Indos-they've acquired a decent amount of information that might be helpful.
Second, you get a second runner from the walls-they've spotted a massive man, easily 9' tall, approaching quickly, dragging what appears to be children chained behind him.

[Xihirli]

"In order, I say we deal with that man first," Leff determined immediately.

[Athaleon]

"Agreed. But if it's a ransom he wants, he'd better know that we aren't negotiating."

[JNAProductions]

You head for the walls, seeing the man for yourself. His race is indeterminate, but he's heavily tattooed, with an unhealthily pale complexion underneath. He seems to have nine children trailing behind him, being pulled by the chains around their necks as he strides forward.

He is nearing the edge of the abominations when you first spot him.

[Xihirli]

Leflabah cast Thaumaturgy to amplify her voice.
"Has the slaughterhouse resorted to this cowardice after a single hiccup? You may as well surrender now if you're hiding behind children already."

[Valmark]

"I feel like we should've split up but I'm not going to miss someone like that" Eris said following the group.

Looking at the man Eris pulls out a javelin, just in case.
"Anyone knows how to determine if those children are regular children or some secret abominations?" she says.

[JNAProductions]

The man draws closer, closing into the lines of abominations. You can see that, unless he changes his course, he's heading for a small side gate.

You also see the abominations wilt a bit when he's near them. They move more sluggishly, with the smallest actually dropping entirely, only to get back up when he leaves their vicinity.

[Xihirli]

Seeing that she was being ignored, Leff quieted her voice back to its standard.
"Right. You two meet him at the gate, and I’ll stay above you. Variel, we need to find some way to get the kids ready to run to safety, then you should get him to drop the chain. For that you ought to be quicker on the draw than him. Hahann shel ha’hatool."
She placed a hand on Variel’s shoulder and white fire ran from her hands and around the Paladin before sinking in, relieving the tension in Variel’s muscles and making him feel quick and ready.

((Enhance ability: dexterity))

[Valmark]

"I don't think getting near that guy is a good idea" Eris said, looking at her javelin. Then she put it back and unsheated her sword.
"Still, maybe that effect won't work on humans or... corpses" she added before turning and heading to the gate the giant was approaching.

[JNAProductions]

You head for the gate.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

(1d20+8)[21]
(1d20+8)[20]
(1d20+8)[23]
(1d20+8)[24]

Couple of Strength checks.

The gate is cracking and bowing, being an old wooden one. A small contingent of guards have spears ready, a short distance from the gate. They seem quite nervous.

[Xihirli]

"Lazadal," Leff cursed, then made her way down the nearest flight of stairs to meet the other two at the wall.
"Change of plans, I might need to bottleneck this spot," she corrected as she arrived.

[Valmark]

Eris looked at her sword and smiled.
"He really thinks he can just break the gate down and let in the monsters?" she said "I'll show him who's the strongest here!" the blade got covered in flames, in answer to her sentence.
ºLooks like this feeling didn't changeº she grinned, in anticipation.

"If either of you can let him enter with the kids and close the wall behind him. This way we'll have him trapped here with us with no reinforcements to speak of. If not... well, I said we should dig a tunnel, didn't I?"

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Casting Searing Smite, which has only Verbal component if I recall correctly.

It'll make me laugh A LOT if more then a minute passes and the spell vanishes.

[JNAProductions]

The gate comes crashing down, with the giant man coming in first, followed by some smaller abominations a distance behind. As he charges in, the flames on Eris' sword go out, as do any flames licking at Leff's form. Puny mages, he says.

Spoiler: Initiative

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Roll it.

(1d20)[7]

(5d20)[12][15][14][9][11](61)

[Athaleon]

"This is it, men. We cannot lose this gate." Variel told the soldiers when he arrived. "Let none of the bastards pass! No pity! No remorse! No fear!"

He charged in with his glaive the moment the gate went down.

Spoiler

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(1d20+4)[12] Charisma, if it helps rally the troops.

Bonus Action, use Hexblade's Curse on the Giant. Not sure if it'll work but worth a try.

Attack: (1d20+8)[27]
Damage: (1d10+5)[13] +3 (if the Curse sticks)

He will use his Menacing feat to attempt to Intimidate the giant in place of an attack. Let's hope he makes up for the size difference with the intensity of his wrath.

Intimidate: (1d20+10)[17] vs target's Insight

If he fails he is Frightened of Variel until the end of Variel's next turn. If Variel's Aura of Conquest still works in the antimagic field, its speed is reduced to 0 and it takes 4 psychic damage at the start of its next turn.

(1d20+4)[5] Perception, if he can identify the source of the giant's antimagic (e.g. an amulet).

Edit: If the Curse did work, the attack was a critical.

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

No curse for you, so no crit, no extra damage.

Menacing is non-magical, though, so rolling Insight! (1d20+5)[16]

With that Perception roll, you get squat diddly.

The men are still nervous, but their spears are at the ready. They hold the line, letting you charge forward and confront the massive man, but stopping anyone from getting past them.

Your glaive stabs into the man, and is almost immediately expelled. When the blade leaves, you see no injury on the man-but one of the children begins to bleed profusely from their gut.

The man does, however, seem a little taken aback-unfamiliar emotions cross his face.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

He is indeed frightened.

[Xihirli]

Leff's eyes traced the path of the glaive as it hit him, then she looked up the chain attached to the man's belt and watched a wound appear on the child's body.
Oh, la'zin. She drew her dagger and went right for the giant's belt, striking out with the dagger to slice the belt off of his waist.

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

To hit: (1d20+5)[19]; Damage [roll]1d4+2[roll]

[JNAProductions]

The belt, a simple leather one with the chains attached to it, is cut off.

His eyes never leaving Variel, he does let out a brief chuckle-it's tinted with fear, but of Variel, not of the loss of his belt.

The children stay where they are, exhausted, malnourished, and generally unwell.

[JNAProductions]

One of the abominations charges the line of guards, attempting to leap over them.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+3)[19]
(1d20+3)[8] Advantage

Athletics check will be used in place of AC for these attacks, but AoOs are being provoked.

Six guards in range:

(1d20+3)[19]
(1d8+1)[3]

(1d20+3)[22]
(1d8+1)[6]

(1d20+3)[13]
(1d8+1)[4]

(1d20+3)[20]
(1d8+1)[6]

(1d20+3)[18]
(1d8+1)[6]

(1d20+3)[9]
(1d8+1)[9]

It lands on the other side, bleeding heavily its foul-smelling ichor.

[Xihirli]

Leff noted this about the children, then sighed.
No, I can work with this.
"I'll get the kids out of here and be right back. You two focus on the giant."

[Valmark]

"Puny mages...!?" Eris said, gritting her teeth, barely noticing the strange ache in her muscles.
"You use magic to hide behind children and make fun of us!? The first strong-looking Slaughterhouse member and it's a damn hypocrite and COWARD!" Eris charges towards the abomination, her wrath propelling her forward through whatever effect is hurting her.
Once she gets to it she slashes at the bleeding creature.

Spoiler: Rolling attacks (the final count will be edited in)

Show

Right, Bonus action to rage.

Attack 1:
(1d20+6)[15]
Damage 1:
(1d10+5)[8]

Attack 2:
(1d20+6)[12]
Damage 2:
(1d10+5)[15]

Reroll 1s and/or 2s:
(2d10)[7][3](10)

Meh, pretty straightforward.
Attack with 15 for 8 damage
Attack with 12 for 15 damage

Without bothering to check if it died she ran up to the giant man.
"Why don't you try fighting a real warrior!? Or are you too chicken!"

[JNAProductions]

The abomination drops, a carcass.

The man growls, but pays little attention to Eris' words.

The four remaining abominations that have made it in start going around, moving carefully to avoid spears and climbing up the interior walls to get a better leaping point.

Spoiler: OOC

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The interior walls are much easier to climb than the exterior, since they aren't designed to be smooth and hard to climb. For obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, the man lets out a roar of challenge.

Spoiler: OOC

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Give me some time to actually stat him up. I've got the ideas for him, but I need to know for sure what numbers he has. Be back in a bit. And DON'T look at HatchetKing in the homebrew forum!

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: Overcome

Show

(1d20+5)[18] Wisdom save against DC 8+Intimidation modifier, or 18. No save normally allowed, but he's got an ability that lets him make saves against conditions affecting him.

The man roars his challenge and reaches out for Variel with an open hand.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

(1d20+12)[30]
(1d20+12)[21] Disadvantage if he's still Frightened.

AC is 12 for this attack, so basically only missing if he rolls a one.

His hand grabs onto your arm, for just one moment-but you feel something else grasp onto your soul.

One of the kids suddenly seems to get a burst of strength, and begins dragging the injured one away.

[Athaleon]

"Oh, is that your game?" Variel spat. "Pathetic!" He moved to try to hinder the giant without striking him, and buy time for his allies.

Spoiler

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Taking the Attack action again, using the first to Intimidate with Menacing again and the Extra Attack to try to Shove and knock him down. Aura of Menace, if it

Intimidate: (1d20+10)[26]

Shove: (1d20+3)[19] vs Acrobatics or Athletics to knock him prone. If Aura of Menace applies, his speed would be 0 so he would be unable to get up.

[Xihirli]

Leff nodded at this.
Great. Since we don't know if we can hurt him we can capture him and deal with him after we've plugged the hole.

"I need to be able to cast near the gate to shut out further intrusion," she let Variel know. Then she ran up to the line of guards who were trying to form a barrier from the abominations (and also 30 feet away from the guy). She selected two of the soldiers at random.
"You get those kids out of here. And you, go get us some sets of manacles that'll fit the big guy. I'll take your spot."
She glanced at her dagger, carelessly dropped it, and instead withdrew a pinch of sulfer and her bottled bat guano from her pouch.
"Kadör Ahash!"

Spoiler: Fireball on three of them

Show

(8d6)[28]

[JNAProductions]

The man goes down, but you can see he's not scared this time.

Two of the abominations on the wall go down in flames, but the remaining stands strong. It leaps over the guards and you all, dashing deeper into the city.

Three more enter through the open gate.

Spoiler: OOC

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Eris, you're up!

[Valmark]

"Alright!" Eris yells, dropping her sword "I don't need two arms for a puny mage like you!" she says before jumping on him to try and block him on the ground.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

So, dropping the sword so that it doesn't eat up the free action.

Athletics check to grapple, advantage with rage (can't add anything else sadly)

(1d20+6)[21]
(1d20+6)[21]

The book doesn't say that one can use only one attack to grapple, so just in case I'm going to role the second grapple check, in case it's possible and the first one fails:

(1d20+6)[7]
(1d20+6)[22]

Lastly, if she fails both times she'll use the free item interaction to pick up the sword. Just in case.
I think I used too many times "case".

[JNAProductions]

Eris manages to get ahold of the man for the moment. He grimaces, and attempts to break free. If he manages to do so, he draws a massive maul strapped across his back and slams it down onto Eris.

Spoiler: OOC

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(1d20+12)[31] against (2d20)[6][3](9)+6
(1d20+12)[17] against (2d20)[19][1](20)+6
(1d20+12)[18] against (2d20)[1][13](14)+6

Each of those is an opposed Grapple check, but once one succeeds, he'll stand and make attacks against Eris. Same bonuses.

(4d6+8)[20]
(4d6+8)[19]

Max of two attacks, if the first one succeeds.

So that's 19 points of damage to Eris.

[Xihirli]

Leff looked over her shoulder at the abomination that was fleeing. She lifted her hand into view, black fire appearing in her palm as she did so, simultaneously forming on the fleshy bindings keeping the abomination together.

Spoiler: Toll the Dead

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DC 15 WIS vs (2d12)[17] necrotic damage, half on success.

Spoiler: If it survives...

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"That thing should be on its last legs," Leff told the soldiers.
"Chase it down on horseback with a pike and there shouldn't be a problem."

She ran up toward the walls then, blocking the path from the abominations to the inner wall as best she could while keeping her distance from the giant.

Get him away, get him away...

[Athaleon]

Variel backed away parallel to the wall, hoping to gain some distance to remove the effect the giant had placed on him.

Spoiler

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Move away along the wall, provoking AOO. If he declines to take it, that could be a clue in itself.

Casting Dispel Magic on himself once he's 30' away, then signal the others to attack.

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: Save

Show

(1d20-1)[4]

How you getting half damage? Isn't it usually save for none?

The abomination falls dead, its life snuffed out.

The man swipes out at Variel with his maul, dishing out a painful blow.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

(1d20+12)[27]
(4d6+8)[26]