Until First Light (DM: TwoHeadsBarking. Judge: renau1g)

Raijin sees and hears the horrible sounds from outside. He burst into motion, running very fast to the far side of the temple. We must block the doors, he says in a raised voice before toppling a stack of boxes away from the far wall.

[sblock=OOC]
Move action 1: Run to M13
Move action 2: Run more, is U11 considered adjacent to the front doors? If not I will run to T14
Standard action: Athletics 1d20+4=11 sorry folks, I will try to post early and do assists from now on.
[/sblock]

Zhen dashes all the way across the chamber, then effortlessly hoists a large rock and uses it to block part of the entrance.

[sblock=Mechanics]Double move - Run twice to V7.

Move action (converted standard) - Athletics to place large rock in front of the door.

Athletics (1d20+11=19)[/sblock]

[sblock=Zhen's Info]Li "Zhen" Zhenyu - Male Half-Orc Monk 1
Initiative: +4, Passive Perception: 17, Passive Insight: 17, Low-Light Vision
AC: 18, Fort: 15, Reflex: 15, Will: 14 - Speed: 6
HP: 24/24, Bloodied: 12, Surge Value: 6, Surges left: 8/8
Action Points: 1
Resists: None

Powers:
Crane's Wings
Five Storms
Stone Fist Flurry of Blows
Furious Assault
Half-Orc Resilience
Rising Storm
Second Wind
Spinning Leopard Maneuver
Potion of Healing x1

Full character sheet[/sblock]

[sblock=ooc]So, neither Farce nor Rickroll has been on for about two weeks. There are a number of ways we could proceed.

1. NPC them. If we do this, I'll probably delegate responsibility to a couple volunteers, as I have no desire to NPC two PCs as well as run the bad guys.

2. Drop them, soldier on. Dropping them doesn't necessarily mean they'll be torn apart by zombies. Maybe whoever's hunting them will snag them with a portal. Maybe they'll be busy holding off the zombies coming from a specific entrance. The point is that there won't be any interaction with them. Your group will be down to four, and with no defender, but you could probably handle it.

3. Drop them, do some quick recruiting from the tavern. It's not inconceivable that an adventurer or two happened to be walking near the temple when all of a sudden zombies appeared everywhere. Rather than be devoured, they run to the nearest sanctuary, which happens to be here.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'd like to reach some sort of consensus before continuing.[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]If they don't respond to a PM and seem to really have dropped, I'd vote for Option 3.[/sblock]

Oh...this isn't good.

Lily rushed to the nearest door, plucking the dagger from her belt. Pausing for a second to contemplate the situation she tapped flat of the dagger's blade against her chin, hmmm. After a moment's consideration she began to scratch holy marks and warding symbols into the door, hopefully the correct ones. She worked quickly then took off for the other entryway across the chamber.

[sblock=ooc]

move to J14

Religion to try to implement the proper ward for these particular undead.
Religion (1d20+9=17)

move to K8



I reckon option 3 is probably best, if there is anyone hanging around the tavern waiting for a game.

[/sblock]

[sblock=back!]Hey guys! I'm back from out of town. Sorry that you guys have been having trouble and not much has happened!

As for the options presented by THB, I vote for option 2. I think that's a stronger option and it will make things much smoother, easier, and get us back on track faster. Plus, that is SO appropriate to the adventure genre we just found ourselves in! "Oh my god, where's Johnny and Sue?!? They were just here!" "Never mind them, we have to get this bookcase in front of the door!"[/sblock]
[sblock=game]Ok, so we killed the bad guy, his magic gem is glowy and causing undead to attack, and we left him and the glowy gem in the basement? But we think we're good until dawn, so we just have to hold up. Questions: Do we know how long it is until dawn? Did we ever decide that smashing the gem would be better or worse?

So now we're in the skill challenge and also we need to position ourselves on the map, correct? Does it matter if we use the same skills over and over? I have literally never been in two skill challenges that have used the same rules, so are there any other rules for this one we should know about? Also, you said we get an extra move action this round: can we use that for another skill check? Or can we just make 1 check this round? (I will assume only one in my post for now.)



And finally, because it has to be said:

Zombies comin' up the hell right now!!! SHOOT 'EM IN THE HEAD! PRESS A, BITCH! Grab the shotgun - you ain't gotta load it, we did that for you! PRESS A!!! PRESS A!!!!! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZsDUSxK5Fs"](skip to 1:50 if you've already seen it)[/ame]
[/sblock]
After a short period of quiet contemplation, Empathy snaps back to attention and begins to help organize the resistance. She runs to the window to get a better look at the encroaching zombies so they'll know where the biggest wave will hit first.
[sblock=ooc]Move to a window and look: perception 17 (is that a success or failure on a secondary roll?)

I guess she'll just move to the closest window and then move to another window and another and then make the roll. If it becomes necessary to know exactly where she is we can figure it out or the DM can just place her.[/sblock]
[sblock=Empathy ministats]Empathy Shardmind Psion 1
Initiative: +1, Passive Perception: 16, Passive Insight: 20, Senses: Normal
AC:14, Fort:11, Reflex:14, Will:16
HP:24/24, Bloodied:12, Surge Value:6, Surges left:7/7
Resist: 5 psychic
Action Points/Daily Item Uses/Milestones: 1/1/0
Power Points: 2
Powers:
Dishearten
Mind Thrust
Shard Swarm
Far Hand
Forceful Push
Second Wind
Ravening Thoughts

Important Stuff:

Conditions:

Full sheet: PC:Empathy (evilbob) - L4W Wiki[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC] I vote for Option 2 now that we still have 4 PCs, which should be enough. Option 3 if the DM can't power down the encounter a bit or is feeling like recruiting[/sblock]

[sblock=MC Chris] I was at that show, okay I was at a show on that tour when he did that bit. In New Orleans [/sblock]

[sblock=MC Chris]

johnmeier1 said:

I was at that show, okay I was at a show on that tour when he did that bit. In New Orleans

Click to expand...

Awesome! Yeah I saw him at Dragon*Con a few years ago at a panel. I ended up talking to him for just a minute or two afterward and it was pretty cool - although he did try to give me the hard sell on one of his CDs. [/sblock]

As you set off, you hear a strange churning, crackling noise from the basement. D'keth and K'atzn'ii give each other a quick look and head back down. "We'll handle whatever that is, you just keep them from overrunning us!" D'keth shouts to you before closing the door behind him.

ooc: Now they're out of the way, but able to come back if the players return.

With a loud smash, one of the northern doors flies open and four cadavers stumble into the room. You recognize them as wearing the same patchwork uniforms as the bandits outside.

[sblock=Statuses]Skill Challenge:
Successes: 2/8

Empathy's minor success gives the party a +2 bonus to one skill roll for the next round.

The rules are pretty much those set up in the DMG. So if you're good at a skill, you can keep reusing it. The "catch" is that you're fighting a combat at the same time, and so you need to ration out your standard actions between killing the zombies that have gotten in and preventing more from following them. Remember, if nobody attempts a major skill check, that's an automatic failure for the round.

Combat:
Empathy (24/24)
Lily (34/36)
Raijin (22/22)
Zhen (24/24)
Risen 61
Rotter 58
Rotter 66
Rotter 77
[/sblock]

At the bursting of one door and the entrance of the undead, Raijin whirls around. He strides towards them imperiously, drawing his dagger. He gestures and motes of light fall from the ceiling in a blazed, but it is nothing compared to what he has done before. No! he seems to defy the reality of the situation.

[sblock=OOC] Well, if there is ONE thing that Raijin is good at it is smiting.
Move: Walk to Q5
Minor: Draw dagger
Standard: Blazing Starfall at I5 1d20+4=7 (vs Risen 61 Ref) 1d20+4=10 (vs Rotter 66 Ref) for 1d4+8=9 radiant and fire damage
Well at least I didn't fail at the skill challenge!
[/sblock]

[sblock=ministats]Status: 1 failure on skill check
Passive Perception 10, Passive Insight 16
AC 14, Fort 15, Reflex 10, Will 16
HP 20/22, Bloodied 11, Surge Value 5, Surges 5/6
Resist Lightning 5, Resist Thunder 5
Speed 6, Initiative +0
Action Points: 0, Second Wind
At-Will Powers: Blazing Starfall, Storm Walk
Encounter Powers: Promise of Storm, Thundering Roar
Daily Powers: Lightning Breath
[/sblock]