Adventure: A Fish Story (DM: BenBrown; Judge: renau1g)

Abigail takes her time, distracted while trying to listen for the skittering sounds beyond the curtain...

Initiative for first combat (1d20+2=3) - and, actually, it was a result of 2, because I typoed Abi's initiative modifier. Yay for natural ones!

[sblock=actions]Abigail will go last, apparently. She's going to move in, engage any baddies, and hope for the best. Azuras is still outside, peering in the window, by the way - when he's more than 20 squares away, he automatically reappears by Abby's side. So she's not too worried.
[/sblock]




[sblock=Abigail]Female Human Assault Swordmage 1
Passive Perception: 9, Passive Insight: 9
AC: 19, Fort:14, Reflex:15, Will:14 -- Speed:6
HP:27/27, Bloodied:13, Surges:9/9 (Value 8)
Special: Surge value drops to 6 if Azuras is "dead"
Initiative +1
Action Points: 1, Second Wind: Available
Powers:
Greenflame Blade, Sword Burst, Luring Strike, Aegis of Assault, Flame Cyclone, Sneak Attack, Burning Blade

Opportunity Attacks: +6 vs. AC, 1d8+3 damage

Azuras: Dragonling Companion (passive)
Azuras has all the same defenses as Abigail when active, and has 1 hit point. Azuras is healed on a short rest, and can only be targeted when active - he is immune to attacks whilst passive.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Ben]
Ok, so it looks like I'm heading in first. Do I do so blindly, calling out a number of spaces I wish to move, or will there be a map?
[/sblock]

There is silence from behind the curtain as the party prepares to move.

[sblock=ooc]Eternal54, just pick a destination square. I will post the map as soon as someone enters the room. Also, go ahead and make a perception check once you do so. Same goes for everyone.[/sblock]

"Everyone stay vigilant." Eraden says as he brushes back the drapes in front of him. He steps in to the next room ready to stike, uncertain of what to expect.

[sblock=Actions]
I step in to the room three spaces. I ready a standard action Bolstering Strike to trigger if an enemy hits me within my melee range.
[/sblock]

[sblock=perception]
Perception=1d20+2=5 Why does IC hate me so?
[/sblock]

[sblock=Mini Stats]
Eraden-Male Half-Elf Paladin
Initiative: +0, Passive Perception: 12, Passive Insight: 19
AC: 20, For: 12, Ref: 13, Will: 16
HP: 28/28, Bloodied: 14, Surge Value: 7, Surges/Day: 11/11
Speed: 5 Squares, Languages: Common, Elven, Goblin
AP: 1, Second Wind: Unused
Powers: Lay on Hands 2/2, Divine Challange, Bolstering Stike, Enfeebling strike, Channel Divinity: Devine Mettle, Channel Divinity: Divine Strength, Shielding Smite, Eyebite, Radiant Delirium
[/sblock]

After Eraden pushes through the curtain, Dante moves up completely silently and peers through, Virgil stomping and bumping into things nearby.

[sblock=Actions]Dante to E3, Virgil to D3. Dante is moving like a ninja(another natural 20 = 27), and doesn't see much (2 + 7 = 9). Virgil is not sneaky (2 + 3 = 5)[/sblock]

As Eraden pushes through the curtain into the room, a crossbow bolt flies at him, but bounces off of his armor.

The room is a large one, well lit from multiple fish-oil lamps placed along all four walls at about ten foot intervals. The central feature of the room, taking up over half of its floor space is a large pit, filled to the brim with fish. Dead, but not yet rotting, the fish were obviously brought in recently. In the morning, perhaps, they'll be sorted and sold off to fishmongers, restaurants, and so forth. Meanwhile they're here. They smell fishy. Their gaping dead eyes stare towards the ceiling.

The most obvious other feature of the room are the two people with crossbows, standing on the other rim of the pit filled with fish. They are humans, one male and one female, dressed in mail and bearing longswords by their sides. The man, on the left side, took a shot at Eraden. The woman hesitates, waiting for the next challenger to enter the room.

[sblock=perception 4 (active or passive)]
There are a couple of other people crouching behind two of the crates at the far end. (E20,I19)
[sblock=perception 18]
Also, there's a bit of movement indicating someone is behind the far-end curtain. (F22)
[sblock=perception 22]
Make that two people behind the far-end curtain, (G22) as well as two guys behind the other two crates. (C19,J19)
[/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][sblock=terrain features]
* The big pit filled with fish (the light green area labeled "fish" is challenging terrain. Make a DC 15 Acrobatics or Athletics roll or fall prone whenever you take a move action which moves you on to a square of terrain (you don't have to roll for each square, only once per round).

* The conveniently labeled catwalks along the side are a different sort of challenging terrain. If you have a hand free, you can move normally along them. Otherwise it's a DC 20 Acrobatics roll to avoid falling flat on the fish.

* The big boxes provide cover. They provide superior cover (& concealment) for people crouching or prone behind them, or for small characters. They can be moved (DC 15 Athletics roll to push, DC 20 to pull or slide). Also, for an extra square of movement, you can jump up on top of one.

* The curtains provide superior cover. It's one extra square of movement to go through.
[/sblock][sblock=actions]Mercenary #1 - Crossbow at Eraden (1d20+9=16) Miss
Mercenary #2 - Readied Action
Archer #2 - Readied Action
Archer #3 - Readied Action[/sblock][sblock=status]
Mercenary 1 - F19 - No Hits Taken (moved)
Mercenary 2 - H19 - No Hits Taken (delaying)
Archer 2 - E20 - No Hits Taken (delaying)
Archer 3 - I19 - No Hits Taken (delaying)
Eraden - G6 - 28/28 (moved)
Dante - E3 - 22/22 (moved)
Virgil - D3 - 22/22 (moved)
Abigail - F2 - 27/27
Alastair - J3 - 24/24
Talks-to-the-Moon - F1 - 29/29
[/sblock][sblock=map] [/sblock][sblock=enemies]
Mercenaries:
AC 18, Fort 16, Ref 15, Will 14
Archers:
AC 13, Fort 13, Ref 14. Will 13
[/sblock]

"It's starting. Quick!" As soon as she hears the distinctive ping! of crossbow bolt on armor, Talks-to-the-Moon scurries through the curtain. Scrabbling at her belt, she pulls out a vial of brown dust and blows it over Eraden.

[sblock=Actions]Move: To D4
Minor: Resistive Formula on Eraden. Eraden gets a +1 power bonus to AC, which he may redeem at any time for 10 tempory hit points. I've never played an artificer before, but I suspect that the right strategy is to cash it in as soon as something hits you, so you can use the temp hp to help resist the attack.[/sblock][sblock=mini-stats]Talks-to-the-Moon - Githyanki Artificer 1
Initiative +3 Passive perception 15 Passive Insight 10
AC 17 For 14 Ref 15 Will 12
HP 29/29 Bloodied 14 Surge value 7 Surges/day 9/9
Speed 6 squares Languages Common, Deep Speech
AP 1 Magic Items Uses 1
Dagger +3 (1d4)
Dagger +4 (1d4)
Powers: Magic Weapon, Static Shock
Scouring Weapon
Telekinetic Leap, Second Wind
Arcane Empowerment 1 of 1, Icebound Sigil
Healing Infusion 1 of 2[/sblock]

The woman with the crossbow takes aim on Talks-to-the-Moon as soon as she moves through the curtain, grazing her across the shoulder.
[sblock=attack]Readied action crossbow attack on Talks-to-the-Moon: (1d20+9=17) Damage: (1d8+2=3)[/sblock]

Alastair scampers from his hiding spot, transforming into an indistinct blur of shadow.

Those able to spot him notice that upon clearing the curtain, he pauses for a moment, gazing upon the 18,000 cubic feet of today's catch.

"That's a lot of fish," he whispers to himself.

He then deliberately dives into the reeking pit, scurrying through the scaly morass, stopping only to silently curse his opponent.

[sblock=Actions]Move: Alastair moves to G5, triggering Shadow Walk (concealment) and a Stealth check: 1d20+7=24. Double move into the fish pile, deliberately failing the skill check, falling prone and crawling to G7. Minor: Warlock's Curse on Mercenary 1.[/sblock]

[sblock=mini-stats]Alastair Feyd - Male Gnome Warlock 1 Initiative: +3, Passive perception: 10, Passive Insight: 10 AC: 15, For: 11, Ref: 14, Will: 15 HP: 24/24, Bloodied: 12, Surge value: 6, Surges/day: 7/7 Speed: 5 squares, Languages: Common, Elven AP: 1, Second Wind: unused Powers: Eldritch Blast, Eyebite, Misty Step, Assassin's Shroud, Witchfire, Fade Away, Ghost Sound, Prophesy of Zhudun[/sblock]

[sblock=Questions]Ok, so a couple questions:
*Are people kind-of in the midst of their turns? So someone with (moved) next to their name has already taken their move action and we're waiting until everyone has "completed" their turns?
*Mechanically, what is "crouched" and how does one do it? I know what prone is, but I've never seen crouched in 4e.[/sblock]

[sblock=Actions]Basically, Dante is waiting for Eraden to move in further and draw the enemies' attention/fire before he hazards the fish[/sblock]