Barrow of the Forgotten King (IC)

[TwoCents]

Martina Kempinard, Paladin of Pelor

"Wait, friend," interrupted Martina, putting her hand to stay Mercutio as he bent to pick up the fallen sentinels. The paladin knelt by the bodies, praying to Pelor for understanding.

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Heal: (d20+3)[7] edit: ouch! So, is it too late to take 10?
followed by Detect E-e-e-vil.

Once done, she asked Pelor's blessings on the souls of the departed and helped Mercutio carry the bodies into the mausoleum. "I would say we ought to take them back to their families, but there is still hope the others might be prisoners in here, especially what with talking wolves and all."

[Benejeseret]

"Agreed, and to deliver judgment upon those threatening this community."

As the monk speaks he channels arcane might into his staff, charging it with electrical arcs left skipping along its length. As the surge finds the ends of the staff they begin to glow with bright, intense light. He starts into the mausoleum following the blooded trail into the depths cautiously.

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Cast Shocking Grasp channeled into the staff and used one of the staff's Light charges for illumination of the dark.

He is cautious and following the trail thus whatever is suitable as he gets farther inside:

Spot = (1d20+5)[17]
Listen = (1d20+5)[14]
Search = (1d20)[19]
Move Silently = (1d20)[19]

[GimliFett]

Mercutio del Bayar

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HP: 14/17; AC 20, t 14, ff 16

Merc nods to Martina and assists her, then draws his rapier and follows the monk a couple of steps before halting. "Let us get going then, yes? These two will be fine for now, I think, but perhaps we can bring the mausoleum doors to before we continue?"

[NeonBlack]

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Heh, Rage's Open my Grave playing as I write this. Quite appropiate.

Martina (who didn't find any further clues on the dead sentinels) and Mercutio carry the bodies of the two fallen warriors to the stone table in the center of the entrance room, then proceed to close the doors behind them. Wolves may have learned to talk, but as far as any of you know, they still don't know how to open a set of double stone doors. This should keep the sentinels safe from any other scavengers.

Following the blood trail, Hren notices that a battle took place on the room. You can't ascertain too many details about what happened, but one thing is clear: wolves didn't take part into that fight. Whatever killed the guards walked on two legs, and at least some of the attackers used bows and arrows, judging by the fragment of an arrow head the monk found near one wall.

As you approach the back door, you see something else unexpected: the door is closed, but not locked. In fact, there's a key ring dangling from the lock, identical to the one that Mia gave you. It's quite likely that this one belonged to the dead sentinels. If it was them who opened this door before the attack, or they were left here by their killers, you can only guess. The trail of blood ends (or begins) just in front of the door.

Behind the door, a dark, narrow staircase descends deep into the complex. Hren opens the way, lighting the way with his magical staff, with Mercutio and Martina close behind, and the rest following on their trails. Soon you reach the bottom, and find another open door that opens into a landing. Seeing no immediate danger from the opening, you carefully step inside and take a look around to try to find out what's in there.

Lit torches illuminate this chamber. From the landing you now stand upon, a shallow staircase leads down into a room obviously designed to allow corpses to be prepared for burial. At the bottom of the staircase is the corpse of a woman, crumpled and broken. The statue of some winged celestial overlooks the scene from its pedestal east of the stairs. Several tables stand against the east and west walls, and all but two of the seven have corpses on them. Farther into this chamber is a long pile of crushed stone where somebody or something toppled and crushed two of the tables. Aside from the one table that is beyond that debris, the farthest features you can see are vault doors along the north wall, a couple of which hang open, exposing the rudely tousled bones within.

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Yeah, that last paragraph is straight from the module. I even had to look up what "tousled" means, ffs . Anyway, thanks to Mia's map, you know that the room bends to the right, but you only see the first half of it from where you are now (right until the bend).

Summarizing: body of a woman on the floor down the stairs, five other bodies on the tables, seven tables total, two more of them broken and crushed, and a few vault doors open when they shouldn't be. If you want to check the bodies in detail, you'll have to move closer.

No time to draw a map now (maybe tomorrow I'll need to do it anyway, wink wink), but if you need an idea of the space, the section of the room you can see is 30 feet wide wall-to-wall, and about 45 feet long from the bottom of the stairs to the vault doors in the front wall. The first six tables are lined up against the side walls, and leave a 10-feet-wide space in the middle of the room to walk through.

By the way, I didn't remember to note the north direction in Mia's map. In case you need to know, north is to the right.

[Gaijin Guy Jim]

Brog Grimeapple

As "Trunir" quietly follows behind the others as he pat some smudges on his disguise caused by sweat, he quickly reacts as he sees the crumpled body of the women and pushes past the others to find out who it is. AFTER he looks back and forth as he crouches aboves her to make sure its safe.

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Search check:(1d20+8)[15] Spot Check:(1d20+4)[14]

[TwoCents]

Martina Kempinard, Paladin of Pelor

Martina carefully removed the second bunch of keys from the lock. She wasn't sure what was going on here, but she had no intention of letting someone lock her in. "I've got this set of keys. Who has the others?," she asked, as she put the keys in her belt pouch.

Relieved to discover there were no evil emanations tainting the bodies of the sentinels or the outside of the mausoleum*, Tina followed Hren down the staircase into the complex. Once in the room, she paused, praying to Pelor to reveal the presence of evil.

*or, in the alternative, "Worried to discover the stench of evil..."

[GimliFett]

Mercutio del Bayar

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HP: 14/17; AC 20, t 14, ff 16

The swashbuckler moves to cover the dwarf's back as he investigates. Merc does his best to try and recognize the bodies he can easily see as belonging to the missing family. "Whoever did this will pay. There will be blood tonight!" he whispers harshly, a sharp gleam shadowing his features for a moment as his knuckles whiten on the hilt of his rapier.

[Attilargh]

Gadriel

"How quaint," Gadriel says as he sees the chamber. "Strudy construction, not too much furniture, atmopheric lightning, and the neighbours aren't too loud either." The elf rubs his eyes a bit as he adjusts to the dim light, and then whispers a few words of what sounds like Draconic spoken backwards while writing a few delicate symbols in the air with his fingers. His eyes seem to shine dimly in the torchlight as he wanders between the tables and takes a good look at the surroundings. He even peeks into the open vaults, although he does it very carefully and from as safe a distance as possible.

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Gadriel uses his spooooky Dark Powers(tm) to cast Detect Magic.

Also, go go low-light vision! (Not that it's necessary at the moment, but still.) Assuming no gribbly monster tries to eat Gad's face, do I need to roll anything to see what's inside the vaults?

[Benejeseret]

"Not another," the monk lets out a sad sigh and rushes to the crumbled woman's side. He checks for a pulse, and rolls her over supine.

{Heal check for life/nature of injury (1d20+3)[15] }

[NeonBlack]

"Trunir" and Hren quickly kneel down to check on the female body lying on the floor, with Mercutio close behind. They immediately see that the woman is dead, and this time, the cause of death is quite evident: she's been bludgeoned to death, with one of the blows breaking her neck. Sadly, at the same time comes another realization: this woman fits Ian's description of Desiree Yurling, Morgan's wife and Tyra's mother.

Meanwhile, Gadriel walks carefully across the tables, casually looking around. He inspects the open vaults from afar, and the only thing he sees inside is heaps of bones. Looks like whoever opened them took whatever he could find that had any value, and left the rest. The elf can't see many details about the bodies lying on the tables: three are wrapped in a mortuory blanket, and the uncovered ones (that seem to belong to two human males, both adult or older) lie face down, hiding their features. His shining eyes see no signs of magic on the tables, but he notices a faint evocation aura emanating from the six torches that light the chamber, hanging from their holders, eight feet above the ground.

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Yeah, everburning torches. Most likely owned by the good people of Kingsholm. Oh, and low-light vision does little on this zone, since it's brightly illuminated by the torches. Things get darker after the bend to the right, though. You still can't see the right end of the room from where you stand right now, but everything drawn in the map (below) is crystal clear.

Still standing at the stairs, Martina concentrates on her surroundings, trying to focus her will into locating any source of danger that may reside in this chamber. Soon enough, she notices something: there's a certain aura of evil somewhere in this room. She focuses even more, trying to locate the exact source.

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I've played this as if only one round has passed since the last post, hence the small amount of terrain covered by Gadriel (who's walking slowly and carefully, so nothing close to full speed), and the fact that Martina still only reads "there's evil here, but no idea of how much or where exactly it is" with Detect Evil. One more round of concentration should give you the amount and strenght of the evil auras, and a second one their exact placing.

Here's a map. A bit too small, but I hope it's at least readable. Bodies are green, the grey blob at the corner is the celestial statue mentioned in the room's description, and the grey small things are rubble from the broken tables. The "boxes" at the end represent the vaults (three rows, one above the other). The uncovered, face-down bodies are the ones at the bottom left and at the right of the second row of tables.

[Attilargh]

Gadriel

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but could anyone give me a hand with these? They're magical, and one illumination spell probably isn't enough around the bend there," Gadriel says quietly and points a finger at the torches.

[TwoCents]

Martina Kempinard, Paladin of Pelor

"I have a lantern you can borrow, but stop for a minute! There's something bad here. Pelor is lighting my way, but I'm having trouble understanding it. Give me a chance to see..."

Martina continued concentrating, her eyes almost closed and her teeth gritted in distaste as she opened her mind to the sensations.

[GimliFett]

Mercutio del Bayar

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HP: 14/17; AC 20, t 14, ff 16

Merc looks over his shoulder at the Paladin. "What is it, Tina?" He returns his gaze forward and looks around the crypt, relaxing the grip on his rapier so as to flow with it rather than force it to move.

[NeonBlack]

Everyone freezes at Martina's warning. Silence falls on the room as all watch the paladin concentrate, trying to locate where the source of the evil she felt may lie. Soon, the image in her mind begins to slowly gain focus. They're... two sources. Not too strong, but enough to make their only presence a threat. A few seconds later, Martina locates the exact position of the evil auras: the two uncovered, fresh-looking bodies on top of the tables.

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So, two faint evil auras, emiting from the two uncovered bodies. No cookies for this one, too easy. Updated map, with the red circles being the evil bodies. I assumed nobody moved.



Briefest IC post evah!

[Gaijin Guy Jim]

After knowing the possible source of the problem, "Trunir", with little regard to making a plan with the others, and not even making a plan for himself really, runs up to the nearest corpse-takes a look, and gives a quick little jab at it with his rapier.

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Gnomes arent exactly patient. Spot Check (1d20+4)[19], Attack Roll (1d4)[2] He really should of thought a little more-huh? It didnt even occur to Brog that a rapier might not hurt a zombie too much...

[Attilargh]

Gadriel

Gadriel freezes as he realizes what "Trunir" is about to do. "No, stop! Don't poke the Evil Thing!"

[Gaijin Guy Jim]

Sweat rolls down his face as it distorts into something almost like pain, he nervously says "But...I can't help it...its just lying there, it must die!"

[NeonBlack]

Seemingly incapable of controlling himself, "Trunir" runs up to the evil body resting on the left table. Just as he readies his thrusting hit, the corpse's head turns around to stare at him with blank, empty eyes. Then "Trunir" realizes two things: first, that the dead face looking at him belongs, or rather used to belong, to Morgan Yurling. Second, that trying to poke a zombie with a stick, even if it's rather pointy, is usually a stupid thing to do.

His rapier pricks into the dead meat, but its unnatural toughness makes it harder to puncture, and the attack deals no apparent damage. The corpse opens its mouth and moans, before raising its right arm and striking back at the beguiler.

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Attacking from prone: (1d20-2)[11], Crit: (1d20-2)[0], Damage: (1d6+1)[7], Crit dam: (1d6+1)[7]

I'll take my chance and roll initiative here, too: (1d20-1)[5]

Sloooow zombies...

The slam misses "Trunir"'s head narrowly. Another moan sounds from the opposite side of the room, and you all turn to see the other evil corpse awakening from its slumber, and standing up on top of the table. At the same time, Gadriel hears some faint clicking sounds coming from the dark, behind the bend...

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Initiative rolls and first round actions, everyone. I'll post Segan's at the end if Saihyol is still away.

Oh, and the only change in the map is that the zombie at the right is now standing (same position), and that Brog is to straight to the south of the zombie at the left.

[Benejeseret]

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initiative = (1d20)[12]

"This is not right," Hren cries as he pivots to face the corpse swinging at the 'dwarf'. "Back to the table Morgan!"

The youth points his staff toward the body and focuses inward. A white, wispy pulse of energy builds along the base and extents to touch the zombie.

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Staff's daily disrupt undead attempt touch attach ranged (1d20)[9] to deal (1d6)[4] untyped magic damage, critconf(1d20)[13]

[Gaijin Guy Jim]

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Initiative:(1d20+1)[15]

Realizing he's not in the best of places, "Trunir" thinks quickly "What magic can I possibly use to help!?!" And readys to retreat next to Hren.

[TwoCents]

Martina Kempinard

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Initiative: (d20+1)[13]
HP: 16/16 AC 18; T: 11; FF: 17 Fort+6; Ref+3; Will+4

"Ah. Er. Urk. Eep. What?" Martina was tongue-tied. Time seemed as frozen as her limbs as she watched Trunir walk up and poke the body with his rapier. A tiny part of her brain noted the sword and wondered at the dwarf's choice of weapon.

When the zombie moaned, Tina was released from her confusion. With a loud cry of "Hah! I knew it! Die again, scum!," the paladin leaped forward to attack. She moved to the farther zombie, the one standing on the table and menacing Gadriel, trusting to whatever gods Trunir followed that someone would help the odd little fellow.

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Move to engage upright zombie (from B3 to E4 if Gadriel moves, D4 if not)*
Saving the Smite Evil until we find out what is making that clicking noise...

Attack: (d20+6)[26]
Crit confirm: (d20+6)[26]
Damage: (d8+3)[11]
Crit damage: (d8+3)[5] (hey, a girl can dream, can't she?)
edit: Holy Light of Pelor, Batman!

*making up a grid label: A: stair landing to K: crypts; 1 to 9 right

[Attilargh]

Gadriel

Told you so. Gadriel thinks as he flinches a step away from the living dead. He recovers quickly from the shock, however, and turns his head towards the mysterious clicking noise. After a moment of pondering, the elf climbs to the nearest table, jumps over the corpse lying on it and lands softly on the wall. "There's something coming. Can you put those things back to rest by yourselves?" he asks from the others as his fingers trace another symbol in the air.

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Go go, itchy mouse finger. Rollin' initiative in the OOC thread. Move diagonally up and left, then go left and up the wall. Ready an action to summon a murder of white crows. (Why white? Just because.)

[GimliFett]

Mercutio del Bayar

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HP: 14/17;Initiative - (1d20+4)[5]
AC 20, t 14, ff 16

Merc rushes toward Trunir and the zombie before him. Realizing the dwarf's rapier seemed fairly ineffective, the swashbuckler swaps his own rapier out for his sickle as he moves, slashing it crossways at the zombie when within reach.

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Safe to assume my statement re: rapier=ineffective?
Can I resheath my rapier and draw the sickle as I move, then make my attack? If not, I'll edit to reflect dropping the rapier out of the way as I move, then draw sickle and attack.
Attack - (1d20+6)[18]
Crit - (1d20+6)[7]
Damage - (1d6+1)[4]

[Saihyol]

As he enters the complex, Ilanda swoops down out of the night and lands upon his shoulder. Knowing she doesn't like being indoors Segan is surprised and stays at the back of the group nervously. As the others begin to investigate he is mumbling that something is not right when Martina speaks.

Seeing Trunir's reactions and the corpses rising he reaches for the silver symbol around his neck. "Let Yair's truth return the dead to rest!"

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Initiative (1d20+2)[6]
Turning check[roll][1d20+3[/roll]
Turning Damage (2d6+4)[10]

[Saihyol]

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Turning check(1d20+3)[17]

Do it right this time

So that's up to 4th level undead with up to 10 hit dice running away on initiative 6 - if that doesn't send them running I think we're in trouble - just get those AoOs in

[NeonBlack]

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Initiative order:

Brog & Gadriel: 15
Martina: 13
Hren: 12
Whatever's behind the corner: 11 (using zombies' roll, but with a much better +6 mod)
Segan: 6
Zombies & Mercutio: 5

"Trunir", with an apparent return to reason, quickly retreats away from the lying corpse. At the same time, Gadriel, surprised by the other zombie, turns towards the left wall, climbing first on top of the table, and then, somehow, managing to walk up ten feet high up the wall. He stops there, mumbling to himself and keeping his eyes focused on what's coming from behind the corner. From his current position he can make out some vaguely humanoid shapes marching towards him, but still can't identify them.

Martina charges across the room, climbing on top of the table and slashing with her trusted sword at the standing zombie. Its face is somewhat similar to Morgan's, but older. This must be Morgan's father's corpse, the one the family came to prepare for the burial. Her attack hits true, and cuts deeply into the upper body of the zombie. Any normal living being would have been killed on the spot by such blow, but the undead merely stumbles for a second, then starts flailing its arms at the paladin.

Hren points his shining staff towards the moving corpse of Morgan Yurling. A stream of white light emits from its tip, hitting the zombie straight in the chest. The undead is struck back down just as it was trying to stand up on the table. Slowly, it tries to rise again.

Finally, the clicking shapes behind the corner come into sight range. They're three skeletons, all of them wielding shortbows. As they exit the darkness to step into sight, they raise their weapons and get ready to shoot.

But Gadriel is ready for them. Unleashing magical energies, the elf summons a murder of white crows out of nowhere. The birds appear above the rubble that covers the north side of the room, and move to engage the skeletons, which are caught by surprise and can't react in time. Surrounding the undead, the crows start pecking and clawing at their exposed bones, damaging them.

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Damage rolls for the three skeletons: (1d6)[6], (1d6)[6], (1d6)[3]. Attilargh, remember that the swarm will remain as long as you concentrate, plus 2 rounds. And that you have no control over it (once they're done with the skeletons, they'll turn to whatever it's close to them).

The skeletons lost their chance to AoO thanks to their bows. By the way, swarm damage is untyped, right?

The skeletons drop their useless ranged weapons to the ground, and slash at the cloud of white birds with their bare, bony claws.

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Some or all of the skeletons my have been downed already by the birds, I'll ignore any useless rolls if they have. The rolls below are in the same order as the damage rolls above. Oh, they're immune to blinding and they're not living, so they cannot be distracted.

Skeleton 1: A: (1d20+1)[8], C: (1d20+1)[19], D:(1d4+1)[4], CD: (1d4+1)[2].
Skeleton 2: A: (1d20+1)[13], C: (1d20+1)[8], D:(1d4+1)[5], CD: (1d4+1)[5].
Skeleton 3: A: (1d20+1)[2], C: (1d20+1)[15], D:(1d4+1)[2], CD: (1d4+1)[5].

Edit: They all miss.

Segan, breaking the silence he'd been keeping since they entered the mausoleum, shows his shining holy symbol to the unholy undead ahead. The holy light of Yair seems to scare the walking dead, who turn around and try to escape. The first to move is the standing zombie, who stops trying to attack Martina and flees towards the north. The paladin takes her chance and strikes once more with her sword.

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Martina's AoO:

A: (1d20+6)[21], D: (1d8+3)[4].

The paladin's attack cripples the already damaged zombie, but it still manages to limp away from her, turning around the corner. Meanwhile, the other zombie finally manages to stand up, but its slowness prevents it from fleeing the fight before Mercutio arrives and attacks it with his sickle. The weapon cuts into the dead flesh, but the undead still stands, ignoring the swashbuckler and trying to get away from Segan, and as fast as its dead muscles can.

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Wow, lots of sblocks here. I'll add the map here once I see the results of the rolls above.

Post-roll edit: What a blowout. Two zombies heavily damaged, and all the undead running for their un-lives. That's what you get when you buy your undead on the discount bin. Sigh.

Current map ahead. New grey blobs = skeletons. Black dots = crows. Sorry Attilargh, white over white doesn't work. Gadriel can also see the rest of the room now, since he has a better angle and his low-light vision reaches up until the opposite wall. Nothing else moves there.



Left zombie took 8 damage, right zombie took 15 damage, and skeleton #1 and #2 took 1 damage.

Edit again: Hm, rereading damage reduction, I think the skeleton's 5/bludgeoning DR applies to the swarm attacks, even if they're untyped. Brain fart, etc. Fixing it.

Re-edit: Fixed text, time for the map...

Last edit (hopefully): All done!

[Attilargh]

Gadriel

Gadriel slaps himself on the forehead as he moves to see what the crows are accomplishing. I am such a bleeding idiot. Noneteless, his eyes stay focused on the swarm of birds as they futilely attack the undead. "Uh, a little help here? My bag of tricks is pretty much empty."

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Using a standard action to concentrate on the swarm and a move action to walk ten feet up. Er, up the room, that is, not the wall.

As dismissing a spell with a duration of concentration doesn't take an action, I can instantly dispose of the murder if another character moves to attack the skellies, right?

[TwoCents]

Martina

" 'Bones are for bashing,' my teacher used to say," said Martina as she sheathed her long sword and drew her morningstar. "I'll be right there!"

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Sheath sword then move to I4 (just left of the two skeletons and out of the swarm if I am reading the map correctly). Draw morningstar as free action combined with move.

[GimliFett]

Mercutio del Bayar

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HP: 14/17; Init 5
AC 20, t 14, ff 16

The swashbuckler grins broadly as he slashes the zombie once more. "HAH! Foul semblance of life! Leave this poor man's body to rest in peace!"

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I will follow creature's retreat if possible.
Attack - (1d20+6)[7] WHAT IS WITH THE 1-FEST?!?! First Initiative, now this? Yargh.
Damage - (1d6+1)[5]

[Benejeseret]

Hren

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Initiative 12, HP 18/18, AC 13/13/13

Hren sends another pulse of light down his staff aimed at the chest of the animated elder family member to the west. This one requires more focus and Hren chants to call it into being.

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Casts 0th level spell Disrupt Undead. Ranged Touch Attack = (1d20)[9], for (1d6)[5] magical damage.