3.5e Batman Campaign (IC Thread)

[jesterjeff]

Laughing, "I can deal with bruises, lacerations, and lingering nightmares as we hunt their superiors."

[Molan]

Lucius replies,

"Well, as I've said, things are very different at night then they are during the day. You won't find any Justicars out tonight. If you all can help us secure the docks in the evening and run down our attackers, I might have more work for you. It sounds like we've got a deal; any other questions?"

[gawwy]

I can't speak for the others but we do indeed have a deal Mr. Fox. Things make a lot more sense knowing the cargo. I will have a few questions, mostly the details around this missing guard, but I can get those off you later.

To the group, but especially Richard. I would rather we not kill petty criminals, that could escalate things to a full-blown gang war. "bruises, lacerations, and lingering nightmares" as The Masque puts it on the other hand... Are probably long over due.

Thanks for offering to be the bait, Richard. Makes a nice change of pace from having to play the damsel in distress.

If we're going to capture and interrogate we're going to need a place to detain and... Interview... The thug in question.

Lucius do you have a room free of prying eyes and ears we could use?

She leans in and whispers There was a shadowy figure listening in on our conversation earlier in the hall for instance. I suspect you may have a mole.

[Molan]

Lucius smiles.

"I might have some space for you to work. Tell you what, you make sure all my spellbooks and Arcanum remain in their gods-damned boxes tonight and tomorrow we'll come the Guild Hall for moles, how's that sound?"

[Molan]

The four of you consented to the Guildmaster's terms; the evening wears on, and you find yourselves the only souls left on the long, winding warren of the Merchant's Guild docks. As far as mercenary work goes, you can't help but feel a little disappointed. The docks are as quiet as the grave and it's hard not to feel like a job that could just as easily be conducted by a squad of Justicar recruits is beneath you.

And yet...the seemingly innocuous, almost boring type of merchandise the Guild is moving has piqued your interest. A single trading vessel filled with these spell book materials could be worth literally millions of gold; the rumors of the Merchant's Guild's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Whoever's after them clearly has massive motivation to bring the Guild down. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky?



The docks are not a straight, uniform row of piers but instead a jagged, winding and byzantine path along the Gotham River. Some of the piers are long, wide, deep water docks tethering large sailing ships, while others are much smaller. Some of the piers stand taller out of the water than others. In some places, artificial inlets connect the Gotham River's waters to the city's interior and you have to cross short bridges to reach the next section, and everywhere large stacks of barrels or crates obstruct your view, and some parts of the waters edge forms bays and inlets so you can't see very far ahead in most areas as the city juts out in front of you. There are occasional small buildings, shacks, and storage sheds and in several places boats are suspended in dry dock. The entire place is a maze; the only way for you to navigate your way through it is to keep the water on your left so you know you haven't gotten lost.

You keep a weather eye out for any signs that something is out of place, and pay special attention to docked ships, closed warehouses, deeper shadows and dark alleyways, looking for any important clues or signs of shenanigans.

Spoiler: OOC: Party

Show

Feel free to come up with a strategy or marching order for exploring the docs. You can make checks here at will, and work together to try to track down signs of trouble.

Hit me up in the OOC thread if you guys have any additional questions or concerns about what to do here.

[Vrock Bait]

“Fox was hiding something from us.” Katherine said, “whoever was hiding back there either worked for Fox or with Fox. The Owls or Assassins, maybe. Either way, he’s taking no action against whoever was back there. He has his own agents, there’s no reason he couldn’t have sent them after the mole immediately.”

[MCollarsen]

In response to Kate's revelation, Makes sense I suppose, if he intends to start pushing back, hiring us without some form of insurance is risky. Shrugging and pacing a few steps, I mean he might know who we are, but would you just show that much "easy" money to 4 strangers in the middle of the night? In Gotham? Shaking his head, No he was probably testing us, with someone watching his back in his own house, and besides he's offering solid coin & the opportunity to knock some scum around.

Let's get started...

[gawwy]

I agree that there's more to Mr. Fox than he would have us believe. If he knows about the eavesdropper then the obvious assumption is that they're in cahoots. Maybe we're not the first ones he's hired on as "special" protection?

The contract he's still got must be an old one and it must be quite lucrative. If the scuttle bug about it being Barron Zucco that's been harassing him is true then it hasn't been going on long. Not as long as the guild has seemingly been in trouble for at least. The guildhall shouldn't be as run-down as it is.

Maybe it's a front for something else? Or there's been some long-running embezzlement going on. I couldn't see much but the state of the records indicated that Mr. Fox had been doing a very thorough check of accounts, so the latter is more likely... So he's bringing in an outside team to clean house but needs to test us first... Barbra takes a breath from her stream of consciousness ramblings, "I would expect some form of loyalty test at some point too" she thinks to herself.

There was something off about the desk too, probably irrelevant but I swear it was built into the floor and that statute was nailed right down onto it.

[jesterjeff]

"One must love an exam. If we do our job, Master Fox will reward us with more duties and more information. If we fail, it's just four more corpses in Gotham. Sounds like a delightful night to me. If you do not mind...I'll take the high ground." Jason bows arrogantly and walks to the nearest wall . he leans against it and steps up, walking up the wall, his cape hanging off of him.

Spoiler:

Show

Hide check [roll]1d20+7[/roll]

[gawwy]

Barbara watches Jason walk straight up the wall her next sentence dying on her lips we should... pair.... up...

Well, I kinda failed the rope climb in training. So guess I'm down here on the docks. Who wants to be bait with me?

[Molan]

Barbara watches Jason walk straight up the wall her next sentence dying on her lips we should... pair.... up...

Well, I kinda failed the rope climb in training. So guess I'm down here on the docks. Who wants to be bait with me?

"One must love an exam. If we do our job, Master Fox will reward us with more duties and more information. If we fail, it's just four more corpses in Gotham. Sounds like a delightful night to me. If you do not mind...I'll take the high ground." Jason bows arrogantly and walks to the nearest wall . he leans against it and steps up, walking up the wall, his cape hanging off of him.

Spoiler:

Show

Hide check [roll0]

Your party is standing near the water's edge; Katherine frowns deeply, suspicious of Fox and concerned that the other sellswords she's found herself working with are perhaps too comfortable taking the Guildmaster at his word. Richard and Barbara have kept their eyes on their surroundings, eager to find something out of place. It's difficult to see much around you; several small boat masts and a few different piles of barrels and debris block a lot of your vision.

Ahead of you, you can continue traveling west down the docks in between two rows of staged barrels. To the right, another path opens up along the cobblestones, running in between a nearby warehouse and a few other buildings beyond.

The Crimson Masque is undeterred by the shadowy and hostile terrain, and walks straight up the warehouse wall in front of you as though he were walking along the flat ground. From the top of the roof, he can see that on the far side of the warehouse, ever more boxes are stacked up; he he didn't have his spider climb ability he'd still be able to climb down from the other side of the building, though this was all hidden from Barbara on the north side of the structure. A row of different buildings run along the north side of the docks, opposite the water. They're ramshackle, sometimes lopsided, and all of different heights, but they're jammed together so close it would be fairly easy to move from one rooftop to the other, if necessary.

Up ahead, the docks branch out into the river again and several large multi-pronged piers spread out into the water, and you can see a few different sized ships moored there. The docks are similarly laded with piles of crates and barrels and there are occasional storage sheds puncturing the landscape both on land and over the water. About a hundred yards west, another large warehouse looms right where the river cuts back north, obscuring your view of the next pier. Several other piles of supplies near that warehouse create a sort of choke point before you will be able to round the next bend.

Finally, in between the two warehouses are several tight paths with lots of looming shadows and odd angles; the place is messy to the point of seeming more like a maze then a well ordered industrial center. You don't see any signs of movement -- yet. There's plenty of places to hide.

Barbara and the Masque might be onto something; it's too difficult to cover enough ground if the entire group is standing next to each other. Since the Masque has no problem walking to the top of a building and Barbara's stuck on the ground, it might be a bit easier to clear the area.

Spoiler: OOC: Party

Show

Am I the only one who's not getting the roll results from the roll macro? Now I don't have a hide result for Masque at all.

[MCollarsen]

I'm not particularly adept at climbing at the moment, gesturing to his attire, and besides in theory at least any goods will be moved by boat or cart if they expect to move quickly. I'll stay down here with you, but we should probably keep some distance between us and spread out, so we can cover more area, and have eyes & ears in more than one place. shout if you hear or see anything.

Spoiler: Actions - OoC

Show

Barring objections from the others, Richard will walk around the docks "looking for anyone moving goods, acting suspicious, or generally being there (as It appears deserted).
Spot: Should be a 15
Listen: Should be a 14
Taking 10 on the pair &/or as passives. Waiting to have something happen, will call to the others after seeing & ID'ing something (provided he doesn't get attacked), will be listening for their calls of help or signal. Will check in every hour or so if he doesn't see anytihng.

[Molan]

Kate shrugs, and spends a moment climbing up a stack of salt crates before scaling to the roof of the warehouse to join the Crimson Masque. She's nimble and athletic, but it still takes a good deal more effort to get to the top of the building than when the Masque simply walked up the side. With the two of them on the roof, Richard gesture's to Barbara to follow him.

"Come on, let's go."

Barbara and Richard continue their stroll down the docks, looking for signs of trouble. Kate and Masque scan the surrounding area above them. When the pair on the ground reach the other side of the warehouse, they find themselves in a five way intersection; behind them is the way they came, a stack of crates separates two different routes toward the cobblestone part of the docklands, and the dock itself splits in two different directions.

As they walk into the "intersection", Barbara and Richard see a pair of figures walk out of the shadows to greet them. One's a rough, ugly looking man in a suit of well-worn brigantine with a broken nose, his arms tucked around his sides. The other's a big, hulking, heavyset half orc in gross looking hide armor. His arms look like tree trunks; one of them grips a well-used club, the other has a small wooden shield with a stabbing blade attached to it.

"Well well well, what's this now?" the half orc growls in a deep voice.

"Sweet little couple out on a date maybe?" His companions smirks.

"I think you picked the wrong docks." the half orc replies.

Spoiler: OOC: Barbara and Richard

Show

Knowledge: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Architecture and Engineering:
You can't know for sure if these two don't have other buddies around, though you haven't seen any. One of the barrels stacked in the pile behind them has an alchemical industry marking for a substance called "Malodone", which when mixed with water produces the effect of an Obscuring Mist spell.

Some of the barrels and crates around you are poorly stacked. The 20sqft. area of docks that you and the other two men are standing on is particularly worn and rotten. The entire surface area around you is covered with mud and seawater.

It's not obvious whether these two goons know that Kate and Masque are on the roof behind you.

Spoiler: OOC: Kate

Show

Spot: Off to the right (north) of Barbara and Richard below you, you can see a third thug, still hidden in the shadows. He's carrying a short sword, and it's drawn. He's actually quite stealthy, you only just barely noticed him. It's possible that there may be others, but if their are you can't see them.

[gawwy]

This was the part she hadn't been looking forward to. The other bounty hunters all looked like they could handle themselves in a fight. But Barbara knew that one on one in a fistfight with either of these she would lose. The Malodone would usually be her first choice. Puncture the barrel and use the resulting mist to hide from the ruffians and hit them one at a time. That would prevent the rooftop support from getting clean shots though.

Breaking the rotten dock boards or tripping the roughians on the slick surfaces might work. Should the opportunity arise.

The best course of action, for now, was probably to stall out the brutes until the other two were in position. they seemed pretty keen on violence and hopefully that meat they would shoot first and eliminate one of the opposition. Then she would have a moment of confusion where hopefully she could hit whichever of the two was left standing with a standard-issue sleep vial (OC the spell sleep), and bam fight over.

That was a plan at least, Barbara cursed herself for not explicitly going over it with the others and wished she had some way to covertly communicate with them. In the meantime, she had to stall them... This was going to be embarrassing.

No, no my fine fellows we are a pair of, admittedly lost, wandering performers. Barbara flourished with her hands whilst cringing inwardly. Without giving the pair a chance to question them further Barbara nudged Richard. And a one, and a two, Before launching into a recitation of Drunken Sailor.

Spoiler: bluff => fasinate

Show

bluff = (1d20+8)[17]
fasinate = (1d20+10)[19] possibly +2 if richard is willing and able to hit the aid another dc.

[Molan]

The human seems to slow down, and forget what he was going to say before going slack-jawed and silent. He listens to Barbara's song and his hands drop to his sides, while he smiles slightly, if stupidly and his foot begins to tap on the dock. When his hands move away from his sides you see he's wearing a pair of punching daggers.

The Orc looks irritated that Barbara's singing and takes another step forward, but he buys the explanation.

"The fug're you Bards doin' here?" he growls, loudly enough to talk over her silly song. "This is Guild territory. You hear to pay us or get knocked around eh!?"

Spoiler: OOC: Barbara

Show

Knowledge: Local: The Bard's Guild, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wizard's College, controls the Media in Gotham and most of it's entertainment, among other services. The half orc appears to have bought your explanation, but may assume you're here because you want something. He is still not likely to be friendly towards you, and you're not sure how many refrains of Drunken Sailor he'll tolerate before he loses his temper.

Looks like the song worked on his compatriot.

[MCollarsen]

Language my friend Language, - just because you have no sense for music doesn't mean you should spout such expletives in front of a lady. As he spoke he let a ripple of arcane energy race down his arm and into his middle finger, moving his hand up he brought his thumb to meet the building power. She performs for the ears, I perform for the eyes. He snaps his fingers letting a blinding flash erupt in the half-orcs face.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Using Arcane Attunement 1 of 8 to cast "Flare" on the Half-Orc as a surprise round action. (GM's call if this distracts from Bab's song (if so "Sorry") but anything else I have definitely would (distract) or else is of no relevant help.

Flare DC 15 to avoid being dazzled ( -1 on Attacks, Search & Spot checks)

Rolling Initiative & a Knowledge Nature Check (since targets are humanoid) via knowledge devotion.

Initiative: (1d20+4)[16]
K. Nature: (1d20+7)[13]

[Molan]

Old, scintillating elven magic flies from Richard's fingertips before bursting into a flash of light. Both the Half Orc and the Human, who's inferior eyes were already squinting in the deep gloom, are dazed by the effect. The man with the punching daggers steps back, covering his eyes, clearly confused after being yanked out of his temporary reverie.

Looking at the way the two thugs are standing and moving, and by observing their armor, Richard gets some rough ideas of where to strike the two to maximize his effect.

Spoiler: OOC: Richard

Show

Flare is successful against both targets, but fascinate is broken. The double surprises from Barbara's and Richard's ambush magic effects have taken the human completely by surprise, and he's slow to react.

You gain +1 against both targets via your Knowledge Devotion roll.

[Vrock Bait]

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Init (1d20+5)[12]
Do I get a surprise round to shoot them first?

[Molan]

Spoiler: OOC: Kate

Show

Yes, you and Jason both get a surprise round.

[gawwy]

[spoiler=init](1d20+2)[20]

Things running a bit slowly
[/init]

[Molan]

[spoiler=init][roll0]

Things running a bit slowly
[/init]

Spoiler: OOC: Party

Show

It is. I've been waiting for our surprise round-ers. I left a longer update in the OOC thread for next steps.

[Vrock Bait]

Katherine quickly slid her longbow over her shoulder and notched an arrow. Without hesitation, snapped the bowstring back and launched the missile straight at the thug below.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

I use my move action to draw the bow because Quick Draw is a thing that I don’t have, and attack roll.

Attack: (1d20+9)[17]
Damage: (1d8+4)[10]

[Molan]

In what seemed like an instant, the docks exploded from oppressive, brooding silence into a burst of light and violence.

Richard effortlessly flung magic into the air, summing a flash of light that temporarily blinded and stunned the man and the half orc in front of them. From atop the storage building, Kate fired a shot from her heavy composite bow into the shadows behind one of the barrel stacks; no one else could see what she was shooting at, but her shot was rewarded with an angry cry of pain and fear. The Crimson Masque wasn't far behind; appearing at the edge of the roof, he balled his fist, summoning forth a bright confluence of burning, eldritch energy. The air briefly swirled in a nauseating pattern around his hand before he released the energy in a searing blast. The bolt struck the half orc down on the docks. The thug tried to block the attack with his wooden shield but failed rather miserably, and the blast took a chunk out of his hide armor, ripping a piece of his torso with it. The half orc howled in rage and his allies quickly responded.

From behind the barrels a third figure emerged; this was a half elf, with a wiry body and a long, hawk-like nose, wearing leather armor and carrying a shortbow. He was well hidden from his perch, and he appears as a surprise before quickly firing off two shots with his shortbow in rapid succession. The first shot whizzed past the Masque's head, but the second one struck him in the side, near his kidney. It was a brutal wound, and Jason felt himself reeling from the strike.

The half orc barrels forward; he first jabs at Barbara's neck with the blade at the end of his small shield before sweeping his right arm around to crush her with his club. The shield strike swings wide, but the club manages to catch her shoulder, causing a survivable but considerable injury.

Spoiler: OOC: Party

Show

The half orc is badly hurt, but he and his human friend were clearly not the only thugs waiting at this intersection. His human friend was dazed but is rapidly recovering.

Everyone needs to make Spot and Listen checks. No taking 10 due to Combat.

Also Initiative order is posted in OOC thread.

Spoiler: OOC: Jason

Show

Masque takes 13 damage. You can now see the thug that Kate was shooting at, he's got an arrow sticking out of his side and is limp/running as fast as he can way from the scrum.

He's partially covered by the stack of barrels where the half-elf is posted up. You're 20 ft. away from the barrels, and a total of 40 ft. away from the injured thug. In lieu of chasing him, you can also clear your LOS by moving 15-20 feet to your right along the roof, which will put him in LOS before he runs away.

Spoiler: OOC: Barbara

Show

Barbara takes 5 damage.

Spoiler: OOC: Kate

Show

The thug you'd Spotted hiding in the shadows with his short sword was badly wounded when you shot him and he takes off. He's hurt and plainly panicked, but now he's running instead of fighting. He has Cover from your attacks based on where he's currently positioned and where you're standing. If you hold off trying to kill him for a turn, his path *may* take him back into your LOS on his next turn, but he'll be around 80 feet away from you by that point.

The half orc is badly hurt, but Masque is clearly worse off. Barbara just took a pretty serious clip from the Club down below you, and there's now a half elf with a short bow on a stack of barrels 30 feet away from you.

[gawwy]

Barbara staggers back a couple of steps (5ft step out of threat range) reeling from the half-orcs blow. She jerks her hand up out of her utility belt (spell component) pouch, sleep capsule ready to go. She almost throws it at her nearly dead assailant. Her tactical instincts managed to win out and aim the pellet closer to the entirely unharmed human, trusting Richard to clobber the rest of the sense out of the orc. (Casting sleep on the human, its a 10 ft radius burst and might get them both? Will save DC 16). Then she draws her shortbow.

[Vrock Bait]

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Do I roughly know where he is? I have the a Blood Seeking enchantment that lets me negate Cover if I do.

[Molan]

Barbara tosses her sleep vial in between the two attackers and it releases a short burst of magically-inlaid gas. The gas cloud bursts and the man with the punching daggers is immediately knocked unconscious, but it doesn't reach far enough to hit the half orc. As the human hits the docks with a *thunk* the half orc presses in, growling at Barbara.

Spoiler: OOC: Barbara

Show

The rules for Sleep stipulate rolling 2d4 to see how many HD of creatures are affected; I didn't see a roll from you, did I miss it? I made a roll myself in roll20 and came up with a 5, at your option you can either keep this result or try to roll again. To peel back the DM screen for a moment, the magic number to knock out both targets was six.

I did roll will saves for both enemies first, and they both failed; so if you keep my 5 result then the human will stay asleep and the half orc will not. If you decide to reroll 2d4 you might be able to catch the half orc, but you might risk rolling more poorly and waking the human. Up to you.

Spoiler: OOC: Vrock

Show

You do know where he is; if you have Blood Seeking then that would work handily in this situation.

[MCollarsen]

Now Now ugly, you need to learn that being overbearing is a real mood killer. With a swing and a grunt, Richard whirls his mace from its place on his back and straight towards the half orc's temple.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Move: Draw wpn
Attack: (1d20+9)[17]
Confirm: (1d20+9)[19] (if needed)
Damage: (1d6+1)[6]

[gawwy]

Spoiler: Spot and Listen

Show

Almost forgot
Spot = (1d20+6)[25]
Listen = (1d20+13)[21]

[Molan]

Now Now ugly, you need to learn that being overbearing is a real mood killer. With a swing and a grunt, Richard whirls his mace from its place on his back and straight towards the half orc's temple.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

Move: Draw wpn
Attack: [roll0]
Confirm: [roll1] (if needed)
Damage: [roll2]

The half orc takes the hit from Richard's mace hard and staggers back. The gaping hole in his side and the crushing mace strike have begun to sap a lot of his piss and vinegar. He's still not down, or even retreating (by the gods these brutes are tough!) but he raises his shield defensively and holds his club at the ready in order to defend himself and hold his ground, and he's no longer bearing down on Barbara.

Spoiler: Spot and Listen

Show

Almost forgot
Spot = [roll0]
Listen = [roll1]

Spoiler: OOC: Barbara

Show

You hear a faint, sharp breath, almost like the sound of someone cursing. The hairs on the back of your neck rise and you catch a glimpse of someone moving behind you.

It's kind of a miracle you ever saw or heard the halfling at all. He's a miserable looking runt, wearing worn and ripped leather and covered in dirt, his wiry hair tied back in a bandana. He was deadly quiet, and he'd blended into the shadows so well even your elven eyes had missed him when you'd walked into the intersection -- you actually walked right past him!

But despite his formidable stealth, he's witnessed hostilities breaking out and clearly decided he wanted no part in it. He's currently slinking away from the fight, still moving silently, heading east away from you, back the way you all had come. He's got two small halfling-sized daggers still gripped in his fists; if he'd wanted to, he could have leapt out and opened your throat. Fortunately for you, his spinelessness appears to have gotten the better of him.

Of course now you have a problem; the half orc is still very much up and fighting, and you've learned rather painfully how hard he can swing. The human with the punching daggers is down for now, but the sleep effect doesn't last forever, and the half elf on the barrels looks to have nearly killed the Crimson Masque.

Your keen senses have also revealed the faint outline of a fifth assailant run-limping north, just beyond the half elf with the bow. That must be who Kate had shot at. You definitely won't be able to chase him with three of his buddies standing in the way.

[EDIT]:

Spoiler: OOC: All

Show

Since Jester's afk for now I'll roll for him.

Furious and in pain, the Crimson Masque summons another bolt of dark energy, and hurls it at the half elf who shot him. His injury's clearly getting to him, however, and the Eldritch Blast flies wide.

[Vrock Bait]

Kate couldn’t see the thug very well, but still she knew roughly that he had ducked behind some crates and was clearly wounded. But with only a melee weapon he wasn’t much of a threat; so instead she launches her next arrows at the half-elf with the bow.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

I Rapid Shot them - I have enough BAB it’s probably effective enough.

Attack:
(1d20+7)[21]
(1d20+7)[25]

Damage:
(1d8+4)[5]
(1d8+4)[6]