Adventure: Lord Byron’s Economic Woes (DM: Tenchuu, Judge: H.M.Gimlord)

[evilbob]

"They are certainly taking her to be killed, and that ice is much more dangerous than you'd think... I don't know if even you could make it quickly enough, my good bugbear. But I'm happy to try..."
[sblock=ooc]If Mervin moves to row -J, he can lay an AoE down on top of the girl that won't hurt her but kill any minion on either side of her (winged horde). That's not hard.

The hard thing is going to be getting the girl across the ice without her getting killed (or, frankly, us either).

If we think step 1 (Mervin blasts stuff) is a good idea, I'm happy to lay it down.[/sblock]

 

[johnmeier1]

Go ahead Mervin, I will clean up. Wil aims towards the kobolds.

[sblock=OOC] Ready a Jinx Shot on the kobold Mervin doesn't kill [/sblock]

 

[evilbob]

[sblock=ooc]I will wait until Hergunna has had a chance to say something, but otherwise Mervin will sneak to -J12 and make sure there are two kobold minions in a 3x3 before he fires.[/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=ooc]
Nature 13 Don't know about ice, I guess... despite Hergunna being from the frozen north.
Nature 13 or about kobolds.

Initiative (1d20+4=14)

So we're not going in initiative yet, right? That means you can't ready actions (doing so is meaningless), and it's unclear how moving and stealth would work.

But if Mervin moves to J-12, he will have no cover and won't be able to make a stealth check, they'll just see him - though there's a little wiggle room if we aren't actually in initiative yet. If we really need to get a better view first, Hergunna, who's actually good at Stealth can use those statues for cover to get a better look. Though I'm not really sure that we do need a better look. If Mervin is just going to step into the open and attack, he'll be able to see where to best position his attack, anyway.

As I say, it's a bit confusing how this will work as we go into initiative, but maybe we can all take a "move" to get into position (rows K/J) before combat starts, then take our surprise round, assuming we're going to get a surprise round, with Mervin using his enemies-only attack on the kobolds around the woman, and the rest of us supporting him however. I'd rather not have the surprise round start with Mervin only stepping out into the open, with the rest of us having to waste our surprise round action with moving into position, but it depends how Tenchuu wants to run it.

Kane is probably the best one to get across the ice and back (from what Mervin has said; Hergunna has speed 7 but is not good at Athletics or Acrobatics in any case), while the rest of us just support him and try to keep any kobolds off the woman. And also deal with the statues once they animate or shoot arrows or whatever it is they're going to do.

*edit* I see that Wil already posted a move to K-13, when that happens he'd be in the open and the kobolds would see him. What I'd like is for Tenchuu to let us all move into the open together before combat starts, then hopefully we get a surprise round. (Surprise rounds + maneuvering around before initiative is kind of a rough patch in the rules, IMO...) [/sblock]

Hergunna draws and loads her crossbow.

 

[johnmeier1]

Wil remembers to stop humming as he moves forward carefully

[sblock=OOC] Stealth should be 12 since renau1g reminded me about Hergunna's ritual [/sblock]

 

[evilbob]

[sblock=ok, so...]I think what we're saying is, we'd like to do one of two things:
a) everyone attempt to sneak into position by moving once, then hopefully unleash a surprise round (1 action)
b) Mervin moves and fires, then we go to initiative as this will start the battle

I'm good with either one.[/sblock]

[sblock=thursday]I will be unable to post on Thursday, and possibly some of Friday. Please NPC me along.[/sblock]

 

[Tenchuu]

[sblock=Next Steps]
I don't think the surprise round would work. In my opinion, you actions now would be the surprise round (including the move). If you moved with stealth, it would then be up to the initiative to decide who acts next.

So how about this. I just rolled Initative for the enemy group. It is: 15. If you beat this initiative, you can take your turn now. If not, you have to wait until the next enemy turn. If everyone who beats the roll does not move, or moves with stealth and remains hidden, you can play wait and see for the enemy. It is questionable how far they will move in one turn, since the girl is resisting.[/sblock][sblock=Ice]
Just so everyone is clear on the rules here, and since Mervin beat the DC he'll tell you as much IC:

1. All of the Ice you see is Treacherous Ice (TI). Talking with the judge, maybe it was supposed to be TI mixed in with regular ice. However, when I created this encounter, I was not under that impression. So all the Ice you see is TI.
2. The countermeasure is required for each move into each square of TI. So, if you decided to walk/run across the ice sheet, you would continue to move until the TI attack hits. Then you would stop there, and be prone, and take damage.
3. Movement into each square triggers an attack for that square.
4. If you tried to slide across the ice under your own power, on a TI hit you would stop there. I know this sounds counter-intuative, but the ice is Treacherous afterall, so it cannot be trusted.
[/sblock]

 

[evilbob]

[sblock=ooc]I think that means: only Kane goes now. Sneaky bugbear?

And I tried ta warn ya 'bout that ice! [/sblock]

 

[ryryguy]

[sblock=Surprise Round, Stealth, Ice]Ok, just to get this straight.

There is no surprise round, right? Since the enemies are taking a turn. We are now in initiative, and all taking a full set of actions. Is that correct?

Since we're moving in initiative, the regular stealth rules are in effect. Which pretty much means, stealth is useless, because there is no cover once we move in line with the tunnel. It's pretty much time to charge in.

But with the ice being so bad, it seems unlikely that anyone will actually be able to make it across the ice in one round. I say that without knowing what the countermeasure is or what the attack roll for the ice is... so maybe with good rolls Kane can make it across. But it seems virtually impossible that we could all make it across. It also seems like trying to get the hostage back out across that same ice is not going to happen. So probably what we want is for Kane to try to make it over, while the ranged characters do their best to support him without going into the ice at all. Except possibly Hergunna, as a pseudo-melee, should try to follow Kane, but maybe she should wait one round first? Anyway, whoever makes it over the ice just tries to protect the hostage on that side as much as possible, and the others try to move up as the situation allows for it.
[/sblock]

 

[renau1g]

Kane moves to the edge of the ice, building up momentum for a leap, but the jump is not quite enough as the bugbear lands squarely in the center of the ice patch.

[sblock=ooc]
Init is 23 (from last post)
Leave the jump to Kane, if he gets overwhelmed, maybe you can help him out, but it's likely best to give him covering fire. No stealth for him unfortunately, no cover.

Move: first to -K10 (to get the 2 squares of movement for running jump) athletics (1d20+10=17) jumps 3 squares so he lands in -K7 (this triggers something right?). Maybe I'll wait here to see if something bad happens for continuing the action? You might notice a second roll for Kane's athletics, that was rolled as I was going to attempt a standing jump after landing, but then I realized I should wait until I see what happens when landing. If Kane survives he'll try again and got a 16 athletics check/10 = 1.6 squares jumped.
[/sblock]


[sblock=ministats]Kane Male Bugbear Barbarian 4
Initiative: +6, Passive Perception: 12, Passive Insight: 12, Senses: Low-light
AC:20, Fort:19, Reflex:18, Will:14
HP:47/47, Bloodied:23, Surge Value:11, Surges left:5/10
Action Points: 1
Powers:
Howl of Fury
Whirling Rend
Predatory Eye
Whirling Lunge
Whirling Frenzy
Brutal Slam
Shrug it Off
Swift Panther Rage

Important Stuff:
+1d8 damage when charging. Cool stuff happens when he bloodies or kills a bad guy

Conditions:

Full sheet: L4WC:Kane (renau1g - ENWiki) [/sblock]