Anarchy in the D&D (IC)

[Voth]

Val

"Sam! Dart! What have you to report?" Val cries out upon meeting the two scouts.

[warlock2000]

Dart

Dart ignores the him almost completely, just baring noticing the last ounce of life drawn out of the Kobold. Dart is quick to look at the ritual set up, "arcane or divine?", he says to himself. Drawn away from his thoughts as the other rummages through the elven corpse. "These aren't just bandits. Something much greater may be at stake, I just don't know what yet." With that Dart turns to meet the others on their way here.

[Jael_Darkwood]

Aaron

"Bassanius, bury the dead." Pulling out a map, Aaron efficiently markes their current position with a little skull. Looking at the set-up, he comments, "Looks divine to me... possibly some evil tree huggers or some such..."

knowledge : arcana(1d20+8)[9]
knowledge : religion(1d20+8)[27]
spellcraft(1d20+8)[26]

[Zasabi]

Zasabi looks up, surprised. What the hell are all of these people doing here? he asked himself, looking to the wizard and then to the others. And how in the blazes did they get here so fast? I didn't even get to tell them where we were, or how to get here...were the wizard's tracks so obvious despite the heavy storm? And even worse...if they could find us so easily, and get here so quickly...what of the elves?

Regaining his cool, he proceeded to rise from looting the corpse of one of the bandits and gestured to the altar. "It would seem that the elves were the ones causing the acid rain with some sort of sacrifice. It would also seem that, considering the speed that you have arrived, we will have some elven company very soon. I would suggest we find decent ambush spots."

Samuel would finish looting if he hadn't already by now and then find, as previously stated, some damn good hiding spots. If anyone else had a similar urge to keep from dying, he would help them out in finding a decent location. He would also fight off the urge to place Dart in an easily seen location, acknowledging that even the most unobservant wizard could be of use in the proper place and time.

[Jay Emby]

The rest of the party arrives quickly enough, but no so soon that Zasabi hasn't finished up everything he wanted. He has found nothing of consequence in the rags of the two dead elves (nothing beyond their cloaks, that is ), and has found what he considers to be 3 excellent sniping perches to confront any approaching elves.

During this time, Dart has stufied the druid's circle and altar, and concluded that it is divine in nature . . . specifically druidic. It's wooden construction is far more fleeting than the heavy nigh immovable stones that dwarven druids exclusively employ. And though his crafting expertise lies among the stonework of those same dwarves, Dart is able to tell that these wooden posts and beams were erected very recently, as soon as yesterday even.

It is at this point that the others finally arrive. It's not so much that the wizard's tracks were so easioly followed that led them to this same spot: between the river and the cliff, there is no way to miss the druid circle. Zasabi is taken by surprise by their arrival only because he has been carefully watching the "Elven Front" for the enemy.

Cefos, during his godly duty rushes over to the sacrificial victim, but discovers that the kobold is well past the point of help.

In a strange ironic scene, a skeleton buries the dead.

Zasabi points out the other two sniping perches to the party with the obvious suggestion that those place be manned, and turns his attention back to watching for the enemy. What he sees is worse than he expected.

A strong gust of wind surges from downriver, nearly blowing everyone over. Only Zasabi, Renar and Val, the strongest or most prepared of you, manage to keep your feet. The three of them stare into the wind watching as the wind turns a putrid green and washes over all of you in a burning wave of acid. The lightning and fireballs start anew.

The storm returns as strongly as before. Only, as it hits, you can feel your flesh melting even under your cloaks (as you all suffer 5 hit points of acid damage!).

[The_JJ]

let's see I can heal 2 hp 5 times a day, and cast (spontaniously) cure minor wounds 2 times (1hp) and cure light wounds once.
I spread that out amoung the party. (10+2+(d6+1)[7].)

[Meloku]

Renar

Grunting in pain, Renar braces himself against the direction the gust came from, holding his shield out in front of him and drawing his blade.

Speaking at the softest possible audible voice, "We seem to be discovered! Starting to move now is probably a better idea than trying to weather another unnatural storm! Shall we?"

[warlock2000]

Dart

Dart is thrown on to his back from the wind. His hood finally lifted for a moment revealing a tattoo on his forehead. Dart is quick to return his hood to it's proper place as he stands.

"Damn forest Druids."

[Torger]

Xerxes

Blown flat, Xerxes lets loose a stream of curses as Isis yowls and burrows deeper into his pack. Damn the Northmen, damn the elves, Damn king Paladin, and damn the man who forced us to venture out into this storm! Xerxes seeks cover from the weather, looking for a targe on which to unleash his eldrich fury.

[Zasabi]

Zasabi curses come out almost as yelps as the acid burns through the tattered remains of his cloak and into his flesh. He immediately dives behind cover, scrambling to throw the elven cloaks over his vulnerable flesh. He feels sudden relief as the divine magic of the cleric floods over his body, restoring him to full health. Throwing the cleric a grateful look, which he's not sure is even seen, Zasabi tries to gouge the precise location from where the wind originated.

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I honestly have no clue what I'd roll for trying to figure this out. Gather information, maybe? With an int modifier rather than a Cha, as I'm just trying to put logical information together?

"We need to get moving!" he yells over the pouring torrent. "Try to put the rocks in between you and the acid! We can't stop it all, but we can try to avoid the majority of it until we get back down to the cliff!"
Zasabi knows, deep inside, that the elves will have gotten a good idea of their location, and will have armed bandits patrolling their likely avenues of escape. To prevent the party from being maimed while in their weakened state, he will proceed to keep a careful watch for anything out of the ordinary in the rain.

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So, essentially running continuous spot checks while we're getting away from our exposed position.

[Jael_Darkwood]

Aaron

Cursing in a darkly inflected diabolic tongue, Aaron hurriedly finds shelter, ordering Bassanius to do the same.

[Voth]

Val

Without saying another word, Val quickly follows the others.

[Jay Emby]

As for healing, Zasabi apparently has claimed the cure light wounds spell, healing him fully. The rest of you recieve 2 points of healing each - It may actually be give or take one person, but I'll gloss over that and let you heal them all a bit. Oddly, Dart is not as injured as the rest - As he's healing him, Cefos doesn't notice the same acid scorches as were on the rest of you. Still, he did take a quarterstaff-smack near the groin and needed some healing, too.

The group dashes for the cliffs again, seeking shelter. Safely covered from the brunt of it, Zasabi peers into the storm, seeking out its source. Downriver, past the point where he guesses the abron's cave to be, he can see a sort of funnel focusing the storm into a single point. It looks very much like what he saw earlier when looking down upon the druid circle here.

(I figured this was a Spot check using Int instead of Wisdom - the ability to catch something "not right" that Spot entails, but actively doing so that Intelligence implies. Gather Info doesn't feel appropriate to me because that skill is all about asking questions and following leads. Anyway . . .)

As Zasabi points this out to the rest of the party, y'all spot an elf walking upriver toward you, but on the opposite shore. He disappears behind some foliage, and is in sight far too briefly for you to make out any details. He's followed moments later by a pair of elves carrying what can only be another sacrifice. A kobold hangs from a pole carried between the two, his hands and feet bound like a pig on a spit. They too disappear into the foliage. Closer up river - but still a distance off, you can catch brief flickers of movement of more (or the same) elves.

You find it impossible to make an accurate count, but you'd say there was anywhere from 6 to a dozen of them heading your way. They have made no indication that they've seen you, but one should never trust an elf.

[The_JJ]

cefos
Cefos snarls in anger as he sees the second sacrifice being carried out.
We have to move now. C'mon, we can head around the funel.

[Jay Emby]

(Note: The kobold's not being sacrificed this instant - he's being carried on his way to the sacrifice. You guess that he's the replacement for the kobold recently "saved" by Zasabi.)

[Meloku]

Renar

Sheathing his blade, Renar sighs.

"Another sacrifice? We need to stop this and get out of here before we get trapped in here by the rain and elves"

((Also - drawing a shortspear))

[Torger]

Xerxes

Shouting over the rain, Xerxes calls to the others. Will the subhumans not try to reuse this altar? Can we not get them here?

[The_JJ]

Cefos
We have to stop this.

Hey, what can I say. I think this guy actually cares about NPC's, even the non-humans/core ones. It's nice to mix things up. Let's go do some good, asap.

[Zasabi]

Samuel's mind raced as he tried to come up with a plan. They had a number of elves heading their way, even more heading toward the sacrificial altar that they had no doubt set up down the river, and who knows how many elves there. They were ridiculously outnumbered and possibly outgunned. The only thing they had was the element of surprise.

Immediately, he would both look around himself to find good ambush spots while trying to remember any that he might have seen on his way down. After having done so, he'd turn to the rest of the group and detail his plan.

"Alright, I have an idea," he began, hunkering down behind a big rock. "I'll get up higher along the path and lure them up. You guys hide down toward the bottom of the path. Once they pass you, I'll shoot a few arrows their way and make a run for it, which will be your cue to pop up and ambush them. Make sure to get the strongest looking ones first. If they have a sacrifice, I'll take care of it."

After detailing his idea, he'd listen to the group's suggestions, if they sounded intelligent, and then proceed to point out good spots before getting into a prime ambushing location.

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Plenty of spot checks and probably some "Don't get burnt alive by acid" checks :D

[warlock2000]

As the black veins return to normal Dart looks at everyone listening intently to the plan. "I think this plan will work as long as the elves don't shoot back. I would consider two of you shooting just to hopeful soften them up a little more."

Trying to recall some point of encouragement or information about elven druids for everyone from his learning. "Whoever is the one leading the ritual will be quite a threat. He is at home in these woods and probably knows them far better then we can imagine. If anyone sees one of the elves who seems above the others we should remove him quickly to prevent more of these rituals from being set up."

[Torger]

Xerxes

Can we not just pull down the cliff face and crush them all easily?

[Zasabi]

Zasabi looks at the mage with undisguised disgust. "Sure, we can do that. With an hours preparation, some sappers, perhaps some explosives. And the unique ability to bring every elf in the area down on us all at once."

Shaking his head, he keeps doing what he was doing. "Just make sure to hold such mind-shattering magics until we fight a real contingent of elves, rather than just a scouting party."

[Torger]

Xerxes

Xerxes scowls blackly at the offensive peon. So, instead of turning our not inconsiderable arcane might against these subhumans, you, instead, propose to single-handedly slaughter them. Do you have loves ones to whom we should convey your remains?


OOC:

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No offence, but kiteing an entire elven party solo into a dubious ambush in an area where they have terrain familiarity, magical reinforcement, and numerical advantage doesn't add up.

That shouldn't be a DC 10 Int check.

[The_JJ]

We don't have TIME we have to move NOW.

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Yeah, one unified ambush doesn't look good here. They may not have terrain advantage (they're the invaders.) But they have numbers. And we have a time limit, the sacrifice. Even for those not upset on moral grounds want that to stop before the rain restarts. I think we gotta hit them in lil' groups. You know 'local superiority.' It's ok if they have a better army then you, as long as you army can beat the what it's fighting. Ninja = good, but right now I just want some 'me smash' and/or 'fireball to face' types.

[Voth]

Val

"I'm sure your all having a lot of fun arguing but heres a thought, why not just split them up. Divide and conquer."

[PlasticSoldier]

OOC: I have resistance 2 to acid, cold, and electricity.

Aasimar Sam

"How would divide them? There flanks are covered by the Cliffs & the river & the only other way to move is away. I think we should take cover about 40 feet from the sacrificial thingy & ambush them when they're getting prepared."

[warlock2000]

Dart

Watching the discussion for a moment then hearing Val's response. "Excellent idea. Those who want to go crush the group we see now, before the sacrifice is made should go now. Everyone else save your strength for the rest of the enemy." And with that Dart heads in the direction of the elves we have just seen moving, hoping at least a few come with him.

[Voth]

Val

"I shall go with Sir Dart. Better I meet these elves head on. Watch your backs my companions. Good Luck!" With that Val runs to catch up with Dart. "I have your back Sir Dart. We have yet to be properly introduced, though I wish it was under better circumstances. I am Val, just Val. Shall we kill some of these upstarts?" Val grins at Dart with a friendly smile, "Bet I can kill more than you."

[warlock2000]

Dart

Dart nods at Val's introduction and let's out a light laugh at the bet, "I haven't heard a comment like that since I left the western mountain range.", pausing to think. "if that's the bet, I already have one.", he says as he balances with his quarterstaff. "I am not a mindless killer though. If they are not a threat I plan just to subdue. However I doubt were going to find innocents in this battle."

[Zasabi]

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As far as we can see, he said six to twelve elves. We can handle six elves relatively easily, 10 elves with some difficulty but probably still win, and 12 with a seriously doubtful outcome. As for the sacrifice, they can't sacrifice something that's already dead, now can they? As for terrain familiarity, I can't imagine they're too much more familiar than we are at this point. And as for Zas's obvious disbelief in your abilities, if you do have some power to do what you suggest, he wouldn't know of it. Frankly, I don't know either, as I haven't read your char sheet.

Samuel shot the mage a glance that, from someone who was higher level and more magically inclined, could kill.

"No," he said sharply. "I don't intend on killing them on my own. I find it a handy accusation coming from someone who seems to think that he can turn the very valley against them! At least with an ambush we have the element of surprise, and we can hopefully bottle them into a narrow passage that allows us to make their numbers worthless. We obviously can't- "

His argument is cut short as the wizard he just rescued decides to take off running toward the elven contingent. Zasabi goggles at him for a moment, confused as to what just happened. He wordlessly looks back to the rest of the group, then to Dart, who happens to be getting further and further away.

Looking back to the group, he shrugs. "I guess he'll buy us some time while we prepare."

He looks to the mage, his teeth gritted together with a mix of frustration and pain from the acid. "Look, Mage, if you think you can bring down the mountain on them, then we should at least set this up somewhere where we can confine them in an advantageous location. That way, if your...Magic," he says, an obvious note of sarcasm in his voice, "Fails, the rest of us can pick up the slack."

He didn't expect anyone to be so foolhardy as dart and run into the elven pack. At least, he hoped that everyone here had a healthy sense of caution. He hoped.