This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=163672&page=3 as retrieved on 1 May 2006 11:39:42 GMT. G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
The page may have changed since that time. Click here for the current page without highlighting.
This cached page may reference images which are no longer available. Click here for the cached text only. To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:PWtNE_kLOcsJ:www.enworld.org/showthread.php%3Ft%3D163672%26page%3D3+163672+site:www.enworld.org/showthread.php&hl=sv&ct=clnk&cd=2
Google is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.
These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: 163672
EN World - Morrus' D&D / d20 News & Reviews Site - Homebrew - Night's Embrace--Part I: A Touch of Darkness
Homebrew - Night's Embrace--Part I: A Touch of Darkness
All errors have been corrected, and the EN World GameStore is reopened. We're sorry for the inconvenience.
Welcome to EN World, the biggest Dungeons & Dragons and
d20 System fan site on the internet. You will need to join EN World for
free before you can post messages or use many of the site's features, but you are welcome to read the
boards and news without joining. Please feel free to join and participate in the friendly discussions
of all things D&D and d20!
Kelloran, human rogue 1, AC 13 (no armour), HP 7/7
The Alley
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shayuri
"The girl!" Sulannus shouts to the man above. "Someone's taking her!"
[OOC] Hearing the archer's cry, Kel lowers his crossbow and looks around.
Taking note of RA's comment in the OOC thread that the girl isn't going to be dragged until Shan goes down, Kelloran will take the following action. BTW, I don't know if I've made it clear, but I've been working on the assumption that Kel reloads as his move-equivalent action each round. That means that, this round, he'll fire and reload, ready for whatever the next round brings!
[/OOC]
Kelloran raises his crossbow and takes aim - this time, at the badger which is attacking the knight who, despite the blood pouring from his wounds, is still miraculously on his feet.
"I hope this works," he mutters as he squeezes the trigger.
[OOC] attack =18; damage = 4Rolls here
Fingers crossed!
[/OOC]
__________________
Impress the locals? Uh - give me a moment!
Actually, the first round that he made it to the roof, he only had the standard left to fire, so he actually has to reload-> fire each round, not that it matters greatly
*After slipping -- again -- and being hit by the wolverine, Shan wobbles, about to pass out from all his wounds. Then he sees the other man falling too and knows that it's up to him to stop this. He mutters a quick prayer, "let my suffering serve to lessen that of others," and takes up his attacks on the badger, every strike a new pain in his strained muscles.*
OOC
Up to two attacks on the badger as necessary.
__________________
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. - Douglas Adams
*Perhaps it is the grace of Ilmater, the Martyred God, but Shan is somehow still alive and conscious despite numerous terrible wounds, and he attacks the badger, but misses the little beast, as Sulannus stabs the boar and fails to penetrate its tough hide. As the boar gores at Sulannus and fails to connect with the nimble elf, the badger scores a minor bite on Shan.*
*Then, as Kelloran shoots the badger with a crossbow bolt, it flies into a frenzied rage, prepared to tear Shan limb from limb.*
OOC
Not sure if Valanthe is still with us...I guess we can drop the SBLOCK to alley.
Shan's Belated Attack 10 + 4 = 14, Miss.
Shan takes 1 Damage and drops to -8.
Sulannus's Attack 9 + 2 = 11, Miss.
Shan's Attack 2 + 4 = 6, Miss.
Shan takes 1 Damage and drops to -9.
Badger's Attacks 8 + 4 = 12, 8 + 4 = 12, 20 - 1 = 19, Critical Threat.
Confirmation 2 - 1 = 1, not a crit.
Shan takes 1 Damage and drops to -10
Boar's Attack 12 + 4 = 16, Miss.
Kel hits the badger for 4 Damage and now it's angry.
Shan may choose to drop any time he takes damage now if he likes, perhaps after his next attack? It will help keep him alive after Kel just put the badger in rage, where any attack could be a total death for Shan
*Shan prays to Ilmater and pushes himself for one final strike...his sword flies forth with the will of the Crying God and strikes forth mightily against the badger, skewering the creature and returning back from whence it came in a flash of flickering flame.*
OOC
Shan's Final Blow 15 + 4 = 19, Hit.
Badger takes 9 Damage and is defeated
Shan takes 1 Damage and drops to -11, but he stays up, right?
Sulannus's Turn (I decided to do Shan first since they're fighting different opponents, so it won't matter )
Yeah, he stays up. He'll probably do some first aid on Titus next turn. If the Boar returns, or whoever didn't move the woman comes after him... well, I'll just have to figure out a way to fall unconscious before it manages to attack.
Is there a house rule that I've missed? How come Shan is on -11 and still alive? I thought diehard just meant one could stay conscious to -10 and then kaput.
Not that I'd be complaining - just that I'm confused.
Kelloran cheers as the knight - bloodied but unbowed - drops the badger in its tracks. Then he looks along the alleyway to see how the elf is doing. His eyes narrow as he assesses the distance to the boar, then he nods and sets about reloading. When the bolt is in its groove, he cocks the mechanism, aims carefully at the beast, and fires. Unfortunately, it chooses that moment to dart suddenly to one side and the bolt skitters past it.
[OOC]
I assume that the boar can't be much more than 30 feet away from Kel, since Sulannus only took a single move away. attack = 5; damage = 2Rolls here
[/OOC]
She jockeys for an opening, wary of the terrible tusks with her little buckler seeming suddenly very flimsy indeed. Finally she feints to one side and thrusts forward, hoping to catch the beast on its forequarters with a quick jab.
(OOC - fancytalk for "I attack again." )
__________________
Check out the Story Hour I'm in!
*As Sulannus feints to one side and thrusts forward, she catches the boar by surprise and makes a clean slash, adding to the creature's previous injury from her bow. Meanwhile, this time she really does notice the girl dragging away, and Shan sees it too.*
Kelloran, human rogue 1, AC 13 (no armour), HP 7/7
Kel raises his eyes to the heavens, and sighs deeply as he reaches for another crossbow quarrel. Reloading takes but a moment, then he sights and ...
... pauses, frowning, when he hears the elf call out. Looking around, he sees the unconscious woman being dragged off. He takes a guess at where the person dragging her must be - "At her feet, I suppose" - and launches the projectile at the invisible marauder.
The bolt, however, ricochets off the cobblestones and shatters on impact with the wall opposite.
*Shan's lips forms a half-remembered prayer of thanks. "Your strength is part of mine, my suffering is part of yours." Did he say that aloud? He couldn't be sure.*
*The sound of fighting draws his eyes up the alley to where someone was battling the boar.*
Nothing I could do to help out there, he admits to himself.
*He looks in the other direction and sees the girl he'd come to rescue in the first place being dragged away.*
All for nothing? I'll find her again, I have to. But not now. Not now.
*He looks down on the first two that'd come to his aid, the first to fall had had his wounds bound by the other but no one had looked after him in turn. This was something he could do, even in his current condition.*
OOC
Speaking of fancyspeak... First aid on Titus. Go unconscious if it succeeds.
Don't mind him, he's just delirious from pain and bloodloss.
Now don't let that boar take you out Sulannus! It can't have many turns left of its duration now.
"Someone's taking that woman away!" Sulannus cries out, wishing suddenly that she had her bow, and that a giant pig wasn't buisily trying to sever her femoral arteries.
Of course, the last went without question.
Lent new speed of urgency, she grabs the sword's hilt awkwardly with both hands and tries to drive it downward into the boar's spine, hoping to finish it before the kidnapping could be completed.
*As Shan tries to staunch Titus's wounds desperately, to no avail, he notices what seems to be a magic potion stashed among the other man's things...perhaps a healing potion.*
*Meanwhile, the boar gores Sulannus again, and the girl's body moves away, while Kelloran's crossbow bolt hits empty air.*
OOC
Heal Check 4 + 3 = 7, Fail. Titus is at -6 now I believe--I accidentally lost track
Shan drops to -12.
Boar's Attack 17 + 4 = 21, Hit.
Sulannus takes 6 Damage and is staggered.
The girl's body moves 40 feet more away and is now beyond a full range increment for Kelloran's crossbow.
Kelloran shoots and misses.
Kelloran--you are a little less than 25 feet up.
Sulannus--still want to attack despite being staggered?
As the boar takes advantage of the opening she provided it, Sulannus feels suddenly faint with pain and blood loss. She aborts her attack and calls out, "Help! It's...someone, please!"
Nevermind pride now. When you have seven centuries ahead of you, you want to SEE them.
She shifts to a posture of complete defense, using sword and buckler alike to try to block incoming attacks, and ignoring any opening the beast might present.
Just making sure--Sulannus is taking the total defense option? It may raise her AC, but it still makes her take the 1 damage for acting while staggered, so if she has to do it even once more, she's knocked herself unconscious. All in all, I personally wouldn't consider it a good gamble, but let me know if that's still her plan.
Er...ouch. That's rough. I thought only attacking cost the HP. Er...hm. Well, can she move? Could she, for example, take the Withdraw manuever to duck around the corner some distance, thus avoiding attacky?
Sheesh man, are these dire animals? I rarely see potential TPK's from boars and wolverines, even at level 1 .
Anyway! If there's literally no action Su can take that won't result in her falling...then she'll attack after all. Blaze of glory and all that. If she can disengage without falling, she will. Disengage means move somewhere that she can't be attacked on the boar's turn, in this case. Not make a 5' adjustment. Sorry to muddle things like this, and thanks for your patience.
Kel looks over the roofedge and purses his lips. "Hmm," he thinks, "there's no way I'm jumping down there. I'd kill myself! But if I climb down and go around I'll be too late - so what do I do?"
As he weighs the options - go after an invisible assailant dragging away a comatose body, or try and help the archer, who's losing a lot of blood after that last strike - he reloads and surveys the scene again. Then, hearing the woman's cry for help, he nods to himself, his decision made.
Taking a few steps forward, he takes aim, and fires again at the boar.
OOC
5-foot step towards Sulannus and the boar. attack = 22; critical threat (natural 19); damage = 4Rolls here critical confirmation roll = natural 20+3; extra damage = 2Rolls here
*Sulannus, bleeding and nearly unconscious, still manages to collect herself and assault the boar with a powerful sweep of her sword through its underbelly. Nevertheless, it manages to continue fighting, with a vicious and malevolent tenacity.*
OOC
Nope, not dire. Normal garden variety Fiendish Boar.
She can indeed disengage with the withdraw action. However, since the boar has higher movement, she can't possibly escape to a place it can't follow normally without a double move, which she cannot do while staggered. Of course, with my staggered rules from AU, she'll be up and conscious for one more round, so...
Sulannus's Sword 15 + 2 = 17, Hit.
Boar takes 9 Damage, total 22.
Sulannus takes 1 Damage and drops to -1, still staggered, barely.
Shan's Turn (if he didn't go unconscious already--let me know Jolmo), then boar.
*In a daze, Shan keeps trying to stop the man's bleeding.*
OOC
First aid again.
Last try it seems. I guess pouring a potion in someone's mouth or drinking one also costs me a HP? Any chance to do it over two consecutive move actions instead of a standard action? If the healing fails, he'll stay conscious if I can somehow use the potion without dieing. If it succeeds or he can't use the potion, he'll give up to his wounds at last.
*Shan tries and fails again to heal the dying ranger, feeling himself slip to the very precipice of death, where suddenly he cannot feel the pain any more, as Ilmater's hand begins to descend upon him gently.*
*Meanwhile, the boar tries to kill the pesky elf once and for all, but she blocks the attack just in time.*
"You silly fools are fortunate that you did not keep me from my prize. Perhaps some of you shall live this day--consider yourself lucky."
*The man's voice calls out from near the other end of the alley, just before the woman's body vanishes along a side path on the alley's other end.*
*Kelloran fires his crossbow expertly and skewers the boar through its big snout, causing it to roar angrily, gravely wounded but continuing to fight with a malevolent tenacity, hoping to destroy Sulannus if it can before it is banished back to the hell from whence it came.*
OOC
I would allow it as two move actions--one to put the potion up to his mouth and another to tilt his head back to swallow. However, there's a third move action required to pick it up off of him--let me know if he's going to try that.
Shan's Heal Check 2 + 3 = 5, Failure so -7 for Titus now.
Shan drops to -13.
I'd be interested to see if Shan were a gambling man and give himself the potion and then rely on healing checks to stabilise Titus
__________________ DM: The only thing standing between you and the fiendish owl bear in this corridor is the Rogue. Sorceror: I cast Enlarge Person. On the Rogue. To block the corridor. Rogue: What the?!?!?! Hah! I get a Fortitude saving throw..... <rolls>.... <sigh>
*Realising that he doesn't even have the strength to bind his wounds anymore, Shan reaches out for the potion.*
OOC
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legildur
I'd be interested to see if Shan were a gambling man and give himself the potion and then rely on healing checks to stabilise Titus
I've considered that... Can I do that and take the damage after healing, Rystil? Even if it is possible to drink it myself over three rounds that seems a bit too risky as it will only mean one more attempt before he dies. Anyways, getting the potion is the first step.
Aye, damage is applied after an action, and only if you are still staggered after the action is over. Otherwise, in the normal D&D staggered rules, if the damage was applied first, you'd knock yourself out before you could actually do it
Kelloran, human rogue 1, AC 13 (no armour), HP 7/7
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rystil Arden
"You silly fools are fortunate that you did not keep me from my prize. Perhaps some of you shall live this day--consider yourself lucky."
*The man's voice calls out from near the other end of the alley, just before the woman's body vanishes along a side path on the alley's other end.*
"You gutter-spawned, slime-sucking toad! Damn! Why doesn't that side of bacon curl up and fry?"
"He's getting away!"
"Damn! One job at a time."
Cursing and muttering, Kel reloads, moves a few paces closer, aims and fires.
OOC - Now it's done!
5-foot step and try and kill the ruddy thing. attack = 12; damage = 1Rolls here
Ignore the fact that the descriptive text on the roll says "critical threat roll + extra damage" - I'm tired & I forgot to change it from last time!
Last edited by Boddynock : 01-25-06 at 09:17 PM.
Reason: Invisible Castle is now up!
Wobbling from the strain, and the alleyway seeming dark even to elf eyes, Sulannus hesitates, praying to Corellon to guide the crossbowman's hand and arrow, and slay the beast that has so nearly ended her. But even as she waits, she grips the hilt of her sword tighter in her bloodied hand. There could be no retreating from such a monster, and no surrender.
If the bolt missed, she would do her best to take it down with her; that would at least be some comfort before Arvandor claimed her.
(Delay until crossbow attack is resolved; if boar still stands, I'll stab at it from Hell's heart! Ragh!)
*As Kelloran's shot goes astray, Sulannus prays to Corellon, and she can almost smell the fresh woodland scent of Arvandor as her sword plunges down through the boar's head and out, as it vanishes in a gout of flame, and Sulannus, clutching her sword with a deathgrip, slides down her sword slowly as her strength saps away, until her face hits the cobblestones and her reality fades into blackness.*
OOC
Sulannus's Attack 19 + 2 = 21, Critical Threat.
Confirmation 15 + 2 = 17, Hit.
Boar takes 14 Damage and is defeated.
Sulannus drops to -2 and collapses from her wounds.
Shan takes the potion, as Titus fails to stabilise and drops to -8.
RA, what's the layout like along the rooftops? Is there any chance, to Kel's eye, that he could run along the walls and rooftops to where the invisible assailant turned into a side alley, and maybe even follow?
Otherwise, how many rounds would it take him to climb down and come around to the alley?
Legildur--he took the potion, but he hasn't used it yet
Boddynock--there are enough roofs that if he made several jump checks, he could get over there eventually, but it would still take a few rounds. Climbing back down and running out and around into the alley will take 4 rounds. Jumping or tumbling down is just one, but of course, it carries a decently high chance of knocking himself out
*Hearing the sound of battle come to an end, Shan looks up to see the boar gone, but its defeater seamingly fallen along with it.*
*Realising that she is another one who might bleed to death if no one quickly aids her, Shan feels a wave of nausea as he tries to figure out his responsibilities. Suddenly realising he won't come to a definite conclusion, he cuts his thinking short and drinks the potion himself, hoping it will give him strength enough to bind the wounds of the others both.*
OOC
The choice is made, I just hope Titus doesn't die for it. But hey, you've got 77.2% chance to make it.
"Hey!" Kelloran shouts at the single figure still standing in the alleyway. "Hey! Are you all right? What about the others? That guy who attacked you. He's getting away!"
Kelloran paces back and forth along the tiled roof. "Oh, dammit, what should I do?" he mutters. "This guy's going to pass out any minute, the others are dying ... I have to get down there."
He goes to the edge again and looks over. His pale face becomes even paler as he considers himself jumping that far - falling that far to the cobbles below. The adrenaline of moments before is suddenly flushed from his system and he backs away, sweating.
He looks again at the knight and yells, "I can't jump this far - you help him and I'll be there as soon as I can." He then scampers off the roof, ashamed of himself but vastly relieved not to be facing that jump. He makes his way as quickly as possible to the back gate and out into the alleyway.
*Although the potion got him feeling quite a lot better, Shan still isn't ready to answer such a blurt and instead he just looks up wearily and holds out his hand in a friendly gesture. He hadn't quite noticed the man before, though he realised there had been bolts hitting the animals from above.*
*After a second of looking up at the man, Shan gets back to the task at hand; healing the wounded.*
*As Kelloran climbs down and moves around Shan quickly finishes staunching Titus's wounds and then slowly limps over towards Sulannus in his chainmail, twenty feet at a time, little by little, until he has reached Sulannus. He tries to heal Sulannus's spreading wounds, but he fails. Again...but his hand slips up, as the pain is overwhelming. One last time, as the elf is slipping away from this world forever...and it is enough! Sulannus is saved, and Shan can breathe a sigh of relief.*
*Meanwhile, Kelloran has easily made his way back to the alley at ground level.*
OOC
Sulannus drops to -4, Titus Drops to -10
Shan's Heal Check 15 + 3 = 18, Titus is stabilised!
Shan drops to -6.
Sulannus drops to -5
Shan moves 20 feet towards Sulannus.
Sulannus drops to -6
Shan moves 20 feet towards Sulannus
Sulannus drops to -7
Shan moves 20 feet towards Sulannus
Sulannus drops to -8
Shan moves up to Sulannus
Sulannus drops to -9
Shan's Heal Check 9 + 3
Shan drops to -7
Sulannus drops to -10
Shan's Heal Check 6 + 3
Shan drops to -8
Sulannus drops to -11
Shan's Heal Check 15 + 3, Sulannus is stabilised.
Shan drops to -9