In his usual helpful manner, Mialucus darts past all of his fellow journeyman and begins searching the tree. As Stick and Caden begrudgingly follow the wild swordmage, Stick notices faint trails of blue light imprinted beneath the dust just below the tree. The blue trails seems to end abruptly on one side of the tree, while they continue out in all other directions for nearly 20 feet.
Noticing this as well, Rashka begins preaching in his usual sarcastic tone, but camoflaughed heavily with a good dose of seriousness. The others wonder how often they'll have to hear these sermons from the cleric. But the better part of his mind wasn't even focused on his own musings but rather, the commrades-in-arms for this seeminly strange journey. It appeared Roithe was constantly walking in a daze from the start, while Stick and Caden seemed ever-alert. Mialucus, however, seemingly plunged headlong into anything, confident of his own skills and understanding of the world. Formulating this into his mind, Rashka understood that this was a formidable but slightly un-refined team.
Roithe, for his part, was taking in the hot sun like a heat sponge. The two large celestial bodies wear bearing down upon all of them. The Elardin warlock didn't seem concerned at all that he couldn't much remember the start of his journey with the party, or that the ground below him was quietly shifting.
With a sudden start, Stick and Rashka moved to the side of the tree where the tendrils snaked out as the ground began to move rapidly. Roithe yelled and snapped out of his contemplations to jump forward as the sand shifted hard and began to fall, as if the ground below had suddenly been removed. Caden, unaware of the shifting sand, jumped high into the air the instant his feet felt the motion of the dust and landed close by his comrades. Mialucus, already halfway in the air, grabbed a low lying branch and swung over to the opposite side.
[sblock=OOC] Stick and Rashka passed the perception roll (DC20), and the rest of you passed a reflex save (DC15). Ironically, the ones how wouldn't have passed the reflex save passed their perception roll. Good show
[/sblock]
Large swathes of sand moved in front of them, swallowing the crumbled concrete and stones. The noise was deafening as the whole in front of them grew larger and larger. Sand and dust flew into the air, blacking out the light and giving a small respite against the heat of the suns. Quickly though, the dust settled, and the damage before you was evident. In front of you, a large, gaping hole 60 feet across and 60 feet wide is exposed. Nearly 10 feet deep, the hole looks as barren as the rest of the landscape, with a few exceptions. To the south (the right if you are facing the hole) you see one of the few standing structures, somehow uncovered by the earth. A small hut with all four sides and a gaping entrance way.
Directly in front of you, you notice a mangled, crumpled body. On either side, a pile of skeletons lay. As the dust settles, you notice that these piles are no longer piles but have formed into skeletons! Directly behind these creature are two large walls with a small entryway on either side. Peering out from behind these two walls are two more skeletons, each with a small orb of fire floating around their heads. The undead cackle at their unsuspecting visitors.
[sblock=Combat Setup]
The first encounter, the Ruined City, takes place inside the exposed gaping hole that was accidentally uncovered by the adventurers. Caden (CD), Rashka (RA), Stick (SK), Mialucus (ML), and Roithe (RT) are all not surprised and are starting on a small 10ftX15ft cliff next to the tree (to the left in squares A7 and A8, but not pictured). The drop is 8-10 feet but easily not troublesome to jump down and move (can move at normal speed through it). The X in the middle marks the dead body, while BN1 and BN2 are the skeletons next to it. BS1 and BS2 are behind a wall with partial cover (+2 AC bonus) unless you have direct LoS. The rectangle starting at H12 is the partially ruined building, it's dark inside of it.
I'm going to use a modified version of initiative rolls that seems to help speed along my RL D&D games, so I'm hoping it will streamline our PbP games. The first round (starting now), will have initiatives rolled by me and we will post in order that they come up (see the 1st Round Initiative below). After the first round, all the PC's get to go first, then all the creatures, and so on and so forth. For the sake of ease, I will lump all the creatures together but use the LOWEST initiative roll as the bonus. Also, bosses (none in this one) will have separate initiatives.
Please post your three actions (standard, move, minor) and any changes you make to these actions. You can totally RP these moves, just make sure you are clear in a small OOC sblock at the end of your post. Also, if you don't mind calling out the location of where you end up using the grid provided in the picture, that would be most helpful for everyone to figure out where everyone is. Thanks and have fun with this one
[/sblock]
[sblock=1st Round Initiatives]
Caden = 23
Roithe = 22
Rashka = 16
Stick = 14
Mialucus = 10
Monsters = 10
*Note* That worked out better than I could have hoped for. All of you go before the monsters anyway. Since that is the case here, order of posters doesn't really matter unless you want to delay your turn to wait for someone else. You can talk about it in the OOC or RP it here and I'll catch onto it. Have fun
[/sblock]
[sblock=Current Stats]
Party
Caden HP:44 Status = None
Mialucus(+2) - HP:55 Status = None
Rashka (+2) - HP:43 Status = None
Roithe(+5) -HP:45 Status = None
Stick(+3) - HP:58 Status = None
Monsters
BN1 Damage:0 Status = None
BN2 Damage:0 Status = None
BS1 Damage:0 Status = None
BS2 Damage:0 Status = None
[/sblock]
