The Closed Eye, part II (DM: covaithe, Judge: garyh)

[nerdytenor]

"Oh Hacker, you always were such a hard-bottom," Kathalia says, mangling the idiom. Though her tone is disapproving, her gleaming, smiling eyes say otherwise. Nevertheless, she does her best to rouse Atreus from his slumber (OOC: Heal check to activate 2nd wind = 24! Woot! I can't believe we survived this fight with both emergency healing powers intact...).

"Come on little human. Nice, nice little human!"

 

[Dunamin]

[sblock=The sign of a good DM]Didn’t occur to me earlier that Combat Challenge would be disabled with dazing, but thanks for making it all fit together, Cov!

I’m surprised the golem was “just” an Elite Brute 5 – its abilities seemed well beyond what we could handle, almost irrespective of adjusted numbers. That was some tense fight, though, even if we mostly avoided TPK by pure luck.
[/sblock]

"What the ****?" drawls Hacker, "You expectin' applause for doin' what fighters are supposed to do? Stop ***** around and kill that gawds-***** zombie. I swear, some people's kids..."

Woe cocks an eyebrow at Hacker, looks at the sorry inanimate remains of the zombie he just destroyed, and back at Hacker again.

“That golem must’ve thumped his head one too many times,” he ponders.

The warrior lumbers over towards Atreus to assist Kathalia in reviving him.

[sblock=Actions]Woe runs over to aid Kathalia’s Heal check next round.

EDIT: No need, I guess. Nicely done, nerdy![/sblock]

 

[Atriden]

Atreus opens his eyes to see Woe and Kathalia standing over him. " I am guessing... it's dead... " he painfully says with a grin.

Standing up he looks at his two rescuers and makes a simple nod of respect " Thank you " and he takes a look around noticing the mutilated golem " What happened here? "

Another survey of the immediate area reveals thatgnome is still alive but there is no sign of appreciation from Atreus.

 

[Dunamin]

“Rise and shine, Atreus.”

Woe eases up when Kathalia saves the rogue from bleeding out, and helps him to his feet.

Atreus opens his eyes to see Woe and Kathalia standing over him. " I am guessing it's dead " he painfully says with a grin.

“More dead than it was before, at least.”

“Welcome back to the land of the living. Let’s not do that again anytime soon – too many buddies have croaked within the last day, eh?”

Standing up he looks at his two rescuers and makes a simple nod of respect " Thank you " and he takes a look around noticing the mutilated golem " What happened here? "

“Hey, it’s all thanks to the little lady here. She didn’t spare a second from the moment she was back on her feet.”

“Unsurprisingly, those jolly troopers must have been from the Closed Eye cult. The little menace rambled on about their Unseen Lord, so at least we’re on the right track. Let’s take a breather before moving on, ey?”

Woe searches the corpses, including the many components that make up the flesh golem. Having noticed how Arnest’s dead half-orc bodyguard ended up in it, he particularly takes care to see if parts of Palindrome or anyone else familiar also can be found.

 

[covaithe]

[sblock=ooc]

I’m surprised the golem was “just” an Elite Brute 5 – its abilities seemed well beyond what we could handle, almost irrespective of adjusted numbers. That was some tense fight, though, even if we mostly avoided TPK by pure luck.

Yeah, the golem was tougher than I expected. It's not a published monster, it's the result of me fiddling around with Adventure Tools and trying to make something like a normal flesh golem (elite brute 12) but level 5 instead. I'm fairly happy with the results, but dazed (save ends) on its MBA... Appropriate at level 12, maybe, but for level 5 I think it's a bit much. Oops! Well, it seems to have worked out, and if our judge permits, you'll see some extra XP for the unanticipated challenge.

(Random side note: I'd originally planned more monsters here, but held them back from the first few rounds of combat. I'm glad I did; they turned out to be unnecessary!)

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[covaithe]

Woe's grisly search turns up no bits of Palindrome. None that can be identified, anyway.

 

[Dunamin]

[sblock=OOC]

I'd originally planned more monsters here, but held them back from the first few rounds of combat. I'm glad I did; they turned out to be unnecessary!

Wowsers, and I thought just piling the trap on top was overkill!

Woe's grisly search turns up no bits of Palindrome. None that can be identified, anyway.

What about the goblin? Anything of note, if not of value?[/sblock]

 

[Atriden]

“Welcome back to the land of the living. Let’s not do that again anytime soon – too many buddies have croaked within the last day, eh?”

Atreus agrees with a quick nod and walks over to rest up against the cavern wall. " We might still be able to save some...or at least avenge the their deaths "

“Unsurprisingly, those jolly troopers must have been from the Closed Eye cult. The little menace rambled on about their Unseen Lord, so at least we’re on the right track. Let’s take a breather before moving on, ey?”

" So much I do remember " he comments. " Unfortunately, they know now we are coming and can easily set up another ambush in these unfamiliar grounds, perhaps me and Hacker should scout further ahead as we venture forth". Atreus takes a long hard look at the flesh golem " Let's hope this was their strongest offence "

 

[covaithe]

As Woe moves to inspect the goblin's body, he is distracted by something. Near the wall, close to the goblin's outstretched hand, is a length of cord protruding from under a mound of dirt. Following the cord, Woe spies a series of cleverly hidden niches in the wall, each of which proves to contain an intact barrel of Grayson's Finest Red Label Coconut Rum!

[sblock=ooc]Three small barrels (call them about a gallon each) of rum. They can be sold for 10g each. This is more fluff than treasure.

Speaking of which, let me get back to you on the goblin's body. I'm sure I owe you guys some treasure, but I don't have it worked out yet. Meanwhile, don't let me hold you up from moving on in character.
[/sblock]

 

[Atriden]

[sblock=OOC]

Yeah, the golem was tougher than I expected. It's not a published monster, it's the result of me fiddling around with Adventure Tools and trying to make something like a normal flesh golem (elite brute 12) but level 5 instead. I'm fairly happy with the results, but dazed (save ends) on its MBA... Appropriate at level 12, maybe, but for level 5 I think it's a bit much. Oops! Well, it seems to have worked out, and if our judge permits, you'll see some extra XP for the unanticipated challenge.

I have also tried the adventure builder, trying to build different types of monsters for fun and I noticed that even though you level adjust high level monsters to low level, their abilities are the same. Only thing that level adjustment changes are: to hit modifiers, hp's, defences and exp.

Too bad I had to spend half of it lying on the floor dying but none the less, it was exciting!

Random side note: I'd originally planned more monsters here, but held them back from the first few rounds of combat. I'm glad I did; they turned out to be unnecessary!

Wow, I am glad that you didn't!

To Covaithe: Not to be a pain in the arse, but I wanted to ask when we will be awarded exp.? I am curious since I am pretty sure that Atreus levelled with this encounter. He only needs about 221 exp. but if this is not the appropriate time to hand out exp. il wait til you will find it suitable.
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