The party moves on, leaving the body behind. As they leave the jungle, everyone hears a loud, high screaming noise, the sound that small animals make when in extreme distress. Sasha points to a set of rocky ledges on the cliff to the northeast. Circling overhead are three larger reptile-birds. As the party watches, one dives down, disappearing below the edge of the cliff, and the screaming gets even louder.
“They’re attacking the nest!” cries Sasha, rushing forward impetuously and nocking an arrow to her bow.
| GM: | ARE YOU WREADY TO WRANGLE?
This is a combat with a bit of skill challenge in it as well. The big bad pterosaurs are trying to eat the little defenseless pterosaurs. Each round, after the PCs go but before the bad guys go, the “chicks” will each take one move action. They will generally move away from monsters that have recently attacked them, but will otherwise move randomly, without regard to their own safety, and may even run off the edge. Any chick that runs off the edge gets a saving throw against its own foolishness; if it fails, it falls off and is dead.
Saving the Chicks
As a move action, you can make a DC 20 Nature check in an attempt to calm/coax the chicks. If you succeed, each chick immediately takes a move action as you direct, and does not take one on its usual turn. Chicks have a move of 4 (and see the section on terrain).
As a move action, you can make a DC 22 check with some other skill to attempt to influence the behavior of the chicks. I’ll allow anything that seems reasonable (Arcana to produce compelling lights or noises, interpersonal skills, etc.). If you succeed, pick one of the following effects:
-- one chick immediately takes a move action as you direct (and none on its usual turn) or
-- all the chicks give up their move actions for the round and do nothing.
Regardless of how many attempts you make to influence the chicks, no chick may take more than one move action each round.
As a standard action, you can make a DC 14 Acrobatics or Athletics check to grab an adjacent chick and hold onto it to keep it safe. You must fulfill the usual conditions for maintaining a grab (hand free, not dazed, etc.). While grabbed, a chick in considered to be in your square, but cannot be targeted by attacks. Each round that you hold the chick, you must repeat the Acrobatics or Athletics check on your turn as a free action. If you fail, the chick escapes into an adjacent square and moves on its turn as usual.
If you successfully influence a chick that you are holding using one of the methods above, it will stop trying to escape for as long as you hold it. You do not need to make any further Acrobatics or Athletics checks.
The chicks count as your allies, and can be targeted by things that affect allies. They do not have any attacks, cannot flank, and they do not provoke OAs when they move. If you use an effect on a chick that allows it to spend a healing surge and recover hit points, it is fully healed by that effect.
Special rule on falling
Because falling off the rightmost edge would probably be fatal (and at the very least would take a character completely out of the fight), it is impossible for a PC or Sasha to fall off into the blue area during this fight. If you would fall off under the normal rules (i.e. you are forced over the edge and fail your save), then you stay prone on the edge and in addition become dazed until the end of your next turn.
Initiative and Setup
Initiative for Black Fox; Castile; Kane; Noriaki; Takahaan; Bad Guys
12(1d20) +5 = 17; 15(1d20) +5 = 20; 9(1d20) +3 = 12; 19(1d20) +7 = 26; 12(1d20) +4 = 16; 13(1d20) +8 = 21
Noriaki goes first, then the bad guys. Takahaan may use his daily for a reroll if he chooses.
Please place yourselves on the map in the L1-P4 region. The blue numbers on the flying creatures represent their elevation relative to the rough brown terrain that you’re on. From where you are, you can’t see the nest, the chicks, or the pterosaur that dived down, but you can tell roughly where those things are. |
|
[sblock=Terrain and Elevation]All terrain is normal except for the nest, which is difficult terrain. The different shades of grey represent rock ledges at different elevations. The red numbers are elevations relative to the rough, light brown terrain at the top. (You can also tell where the drops are by the shadows: a thin shadow represents a 5-foot drop and a thick shadow represents a 10-foot drop.)
Moving to an adjacent square that is 5 feet higher or lower costs an extra square of movement. Moving to an adjacent square that is 10 feet higher or lower requires climbing (DC 15). Chicks can handle 5-foot changes without spending extra squares of movement, but they can’t handle 10-foot changes at all.[/sblock]
[sblock=Controlling Sasha]
Companion NPCs in Combat
Any PC can take a standard, move, or minor action to have an NPC perform an action of the same (or a lesser) type. E.g., if you want Gelik to use Charm of Misplaced Wrath, you spend a standard action. If you want him to move, you spend a move action. An NPC is limited to the usual number of actions each round (but those actions need not all be granted by the same PC). An NPC who has an immediate action can likewise only use it if a PC has an immediate action available to use on his/her behalf.
NPCs can take free actions and opportunity actions normally, without the direction of PCs. They are always considered to have their weapons in hand and don’t need to spend actions unsheathing them.
If all of the PCs act in a given round without giving any actions to a particular NPC, I will have that NPC take
one non-offensive action. This will most likely be Second Wind if it is needed and available, and movement or Total Defense if it is not. (It won’t be necessary for PCs to spend their own standard actions to have NPCs use second wind.)[/sblock]
[sblock=Sasha]
Sasha
HP 34/34, Bloodied 17, Surge value 8; Surges 7/7
Str 10, Con 12, Dex 18, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 12
AC 18, Fort 16, Reflex 18, Will 14
Skills: Nature +8, Perception +8, Stealth +10
Striker: 1/round, Sasha can deal 1d6 extra damage when she hits an enemy she has CA against.
longbow +9 vs. AC, 1d10+5 damage (range 20/40)
Twin Strike (standard; martial, weapon; ranged weapon, one or two creatures)
Attack: +9 vs. AC, two attacks
Hit: 1d10+1 damage per attack
[o] Evasive Strike (standard; martial, weapon; ranged weapon, one creature)
Special: Sasha can shift 3 squares either before or after the attack
Attack: +9 vs. AC
Hit: 2d10+5 damage
[o] Crucial Advice (immediate reaction; ranged 5)
Trigger: An ally within range that Sasha can see or hear makes a Nature, Perception, or Stealth check
Effect: The ally can reroll the skill check with a +2 power bonus.
[o] Heroic Effort (no action; personal)
Trigger: Sasha misses with an attack or fails a save
Effect: Sasha gains a +4 racial bonus to the attack roll or saving throw.
[o] Second Wind
Conditions: none[/sblock]
[sblock=Enemy Stats]Please read the appropriate block(s) only when necessary to resolve attacks or OAs. The purple creatures are the Ghoul Ambushers.
[sblock=Pscreamosaur (with the open beak)]Pscreamosaur
AC 19, Fort 17, Ref 18, Will 17; HP 62, bloodied 31
Bite +10 vs. AC, 1d8+6 damage or 2d6+6 damage with CA.[/sblock]
[sblock=Pneckosaur (with the long neck)]Pneckosaur
AC 18, Fort 17, Ref 19, Will 18; HP 80, bloodied 40
Bite (reach 2) +11 vs. AC, 2d10+7 damage.[/sblock][/sblock]
