Before the Rise of Tiamat

[JustinCase]

Grimnir is likewise perplexed, but he focuses his full attention on the reptilian threat before him, raising his warhammer to defend himself.

OOC: Grimnir init and perception: 1D20 = [13] = 13 1D20+6 = [8]+6 = 14

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: Ambush Drake etc. Inish Rolls: CoyoteCode Dice Roller Anyone who won initiative is delaying until the rest of their group can act. Leader Inish Roll: CoyoteCode Dice Roller Stealth rolls: CoyoteCode Dice Roller Leader Stealth: CoyoteCode Dice Roller

The intruders almost pull off their ambush, but one of them squeals with glee as the reptilian beast savages the poor guardsman. "Quiet!" a human voice hisses from inside the same room as the squeal, before realizing that his own voice carried a good bit more than he expected it to.

The quadruped creature slinks forward with a menacing throaty growl, like some freakish crossbreed of a leopard and a crocodile, its green scales glistening with the blood of its previous victim, a frill of skin-webbed neck spines laying flat against its neck as it crouches and advances toward Grimnir, the most obviously threatening of its potential victims. After a few halting steps, it suddenly bounds forward and snaps at the dwarf cleric with its red-stained teeth.

OOC: Hit roll: CoyoteCode Dice Roller Oof, getting lots of 20s today.... CoyoteCode Dice Roller www.coyotecode.net

Grimnir's armor is now missing a large chunk, and a fair bit of skin went with it. Could have been worse, but he definitely felt that.

OOC: Lyle and Grimnir are up; Mornok acts after the leader but before the rest of the intruders.

 

[JustinCase]

As Grimnir prepares for the attack, he whispers a prayer to Umberlee under his breath. The ambush dragon manages to get through his defenses easily, however, but his goddess has apparently heard the dwarf's plea.

While ripping a piece of armor and skin off, a spark of lightning follows and fries the creature's mouth.

"That hurt," Grimnir growls, and his expression darkens. The priest drops his warhammer and while muttering a colourful seaman's curse he reaches out with his hand towards the drake's face. The touch seems to suck the life out of the drake and a wicked smile crosses the dwarf's face for a moment.

OOC: Reaction: Wrath of the Storm (when hit with an attack by a creature within 5 feet, as a reaction deal 2d8 lightning or thunder damage, Dex save DC14 for half damage): Wrath of the Storm lightning damage: 2D8 = [7, 4] = 11 Action: Casting Inflict Wounds (melee spell attack, 3d10 necrotic damage) at the ambush drake: Inflict Wounds: 1D20+6 = [11]+6 = 17 3D10 = [4, 7, 4] = 15 I'm having trouble piecing together the rolls you linked to. How many hp did that attack cost me? Edit: Thanks for letting me know! HP: 3/11 Wrath of the Storm: 3/4 left before Long Rest Spell slots (1st level): 1/2 left before Long Rest

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: You took 8 damage, so you have 3 HP remaining. Whew! DEX Save: CoyoteCode Dice Roller The drake takes 5 damage, correct? And then another 15 from the Inflict Wounds... You basically melted its face down to the skull, but it's still moving. Lyle is up.

 

[JustinCase]

OOC: Rounding down, so yes, 5 from the Wrath of the Storm, and 15 from Inflict Wounds. I'll update my post above for my current hp. Thanks!

 

[gnarlygninja]

Lyle lets out a small scream of terror and takes a few panicked steps away from the monster, blindly firing his bow in the process. The arrow somehow strikes true, sinking into the creature's newly melted face. "I uh, meant to do that!"

OOC: I'm not sure if Lyle was within 5 feet of the lizard, he moves back just in case to avoid disadvantage on his attack. _: 1D20+6 = [20]+6 = 26 Here's his attack roll _: 4D6+4 = [1, 3, 3, 2]+4 = 13 critical hit with sneak attack

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: You know that if you were in 5 feet, moving back would get you an opportunity attack, right? Nonetheless, you weren't, so you're fine.

The arrow sinks into the reptile's flank, and an immediate shower of gore proves that you've struck a major artery; before it can do so much as roar furiously, the massive saurian bleeds out and slumps over. Within a moment, however, a figure dressed in black robes steps around the corner from inside the room, stands back clear of the door, and holds up a single hand with the five fingers splayed awkwardly as far apart as they'll go, waving the hand in a sinuous pattern while droning several mystic syllables and then finally pointing at Lyle: "Drohmakh zankazha trierre khelverrek: FLEE!"

OOC: Lyle, roll your save versus Command

OOC: . Mornok, you're up.

 

[gnarlygninja]

OOC: Yep, just decided it was worth the risk to kill the thing _: 1D20+2 = [5]+2 = 7

Lyle screams again, much louder this time and turns to run.

 

[gargoyleking]

This didn't look good. The guard was being mauled and Grimnir looked much the worse for wear himself. And Lyle seemed unable to do anything but scream. Still, Mornok was a soldier and he knew his duty, even to a place like this.

First things first, raise the alarm. "ENEMY IN THE KEEP! Come on lads! Or they'll 'ave ye' fer' supper!"

Even as he roared his warning, the dwarf was acting on the second thing. Counterattack. Drawing his warhammer he charged the mage and took a powerful swipe at him. Unfortunately, he was in too much of a rush and the swing was likely to be easily deflected. Still, he had to give Grimnir a chance to recover and hopefully the defenders a chabce to rally.

Spoiler: OOC

Move and attack with a free object interaction to draw. Saving the reaction for either a shield spell if it's needed or an attack of opportunity if that becomes the prudent (and available) thing to do.

Warhammer: 1d20+6 12 1d8+4 10

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: You didn't technically have to scream there Lyle; the spell doesn't cause any fear in you, it simply mechanically forces you to obey the order to run away. Everything other than your physical movements is unaffected, including your larynx since the order wasn't specific to vocalizing. But if your character is a little bit of a coward, the bloody business with the ambush drake was certainly uppermost in his mind, and his reaction might have been due to more than just the spell. We'll just call it roleplaying.

The spellcaster has no armor, and a bit of a glass jaw from the looks of it; one better-than-average whack from your warhammer is more than enough to put him out of commission. As he crumples, you notice he's wearing a cheap pewter pendant in the shape of a dragon; you didn't really notice before, but he might well have been touching this amulet when he cast his spell, since you weren't really paying attention to what his non-moving hand was doing at the time.

Now that he's the closest to the door, the inhabitants of the next room promptly orient on Mornok - four of the "dragon rats" as you so aptly called them earlier. The goblinish quasi-reptiles rush at you with their little knives at the ready; you could arm-wrestle at least two of them simultaneously without breaking a sweat, but they're certainly quick.

OOC: Since the Shield reaction is in play, and the kobolds' Pack Tactics makes a huge difference in how their attacks will work depending on whether they manage to put Mornok down and then proceed past him to Grimnir. I could use some advice as to how to handle this situation; I don't want to keep you guys waiting a super long time, but it really seems like I should maybe run the turns one at a time, and I am not sure whether I should make each hit roll before or after asking whether Shield is cast.

 

[JustinCase]

OOC: Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack That means they could all attack Mornok and he'd have that +5 AC to all their attacks (but no Opportunity Attacks unless none of them would hit his base AC). In that case you could roll all their attacks at the same time - unless you expect them to hit him for 8 damage long before all kobolds have taken a turn. I'm no tactical genius; as a DM I play my NPCs in the manner I think befits their personality or nature. So that's all I got. And obviously I don't want Mornok to go down in the second round of combat. In the first fight of the game. Or at all.

 

[gargoyleking]

Spoiler: ooc

In most games I've played it usually makes life easier for the GM to use their own judgement. Just roll the dice for one attack first and see if it would fall within that range. If it is, then shield goes up. If not, then it doesn't and rinse and repeat. If the last one does hit but he doesn't particularly feel threatened by the damage potential then he might let that one hit pass. I don't want you to have to spend a week on fealing with one of my spells. Unless you're super picky about things, which never seems to work out in pbp to my experience, I'll trust you to make it make sense.

 

[Envisioner]

OOC: Mornok is wearing leather armor, right? I don't see it on his sheet, but as far as I know everyone who isn't a barbarian or a monk has literally no reason to ever not wear it. Rereading the Shield spell, it says that you cast it when you are "hit" by an attack, which by a strict reading would mean the +5 AC you get by casting it does nothing, but that's obviously not the intent of the spell, so I'll treat it as saying that you cast the spell when you "would be hit", which is the most generous interpretation of how long you can wait before having to make the call. If this was still 3.5 you'd be screwed lol. Rollypop: Kobold 1: forgot to grab the link but he rolled a 2 Kobold 2: CoyoteCode Dice Roller Kobold 3: again forgot the link, sorry; he had a 17 and I believe a 5. Kobold 4: the dice roller is giving me technical issues all of a sudden, so I'm fiatting this last roll as an 18 for narrative reasons.

The kobolds rush Mornok with a furious series of chopping motions, most of which hit nothing but air. All the first one manages to do with his ankle-biting is annoy the dwarf, but that's enough; a second one pounces onto his shield and scrabbles furiously for purchase, then while his shield is dragged down, a third dragon-rat scrambles up the back of the first one and launches right at Mornok's face. This in turn leaves him distracted long enough that a fourth can slip around behind him and practically crawl up his fundament. At roughly this point he intuits that he's going to need magical protection to survive unscathed; while he would probably have kept his feet after sustaining both slashes, he'd be left in seriously bad shape, and a critical hit could in theory outright kill him, so it's more prudent for him to cast his spell than to try and take a single swipe at one of his attackers.

Grimnir is up. Lyle, you come to your senses and can act right after him.

 

[gargoyleking]

Spoiler: ooc

No armor, he cast the mage armor spell before they started heading towards the keep in anticipation of having to fight some sort of trouble-making vanguard unit.

 

[Envisioner]

Spoiler: ooc

No armor, he cast the mage armor spell before they started heading towards the keep in anticipation of having to fight some sort of trouble-making vanguard unit.

Your character sheet lists AC as 14. The default is 10; your Dexterity modifier of +1 adds to that, and then another +2 for the shield. Where does the last point come from, if not leather armor?

 

[gargoyleking]

Spoiler: ooc

He doesn't have a shield and the mage armor spell gives an AC of 13+dex.

 

[JustinCase]

Grimnir holds the life essence his goddess took from the drake and with that hand presses against his wounded chest. Already moving, he mutters, ”Umberlee takes, Umberlee gives,” and the wound starts healing.

Only slowing to pick up his warhammer, the priest rushes to his fellow dwarf’s aid. The hammer swings towards the nearest kobold, but his unfamiliarity with this foe makes him underestimate its reflexes and it manages to duck under what would otherwise be a lethal blow.

OOC: Bonus Action: Healing Word on me; regain 1d4+4 hp: Healing Word: 1D4+4 = [2]+4 = 6 Move: to nearest kobold Action: Attack with warhammer: Warhammer: 1D20+5 = [5]+5 = 10 1D8+3 = [7]+3 = 10 HP: 9/11 Wrath of the Storm: 3/4 left before Long Rest Spell slots (1st level): 0/2 left before Long Rest

 

[gnarlygninja]

Lyle stops screaming, spins on his heel, and shoots into the throng of kobolds swarming Mornok. The spin carries him past the kobold he meant to aim at but a lucky stumble right as the arrow left the bow puts the arrow back in the right direction.
"This would almost be impressive if it weren't for all the screaming."

Spoiler: ooc

_: 1D20+6 = [1]+6 = 7
I rerolled this 1 because of Lucky

_: 1D20+6 = [6]+6 = 12
New Attack roll

_: 2D6+4 = [3, 5]+4 = 12
12 damage with sneak attack

 

[Envisioner]

The kobolds' incessant scampering about makes it impossible for Grimnir to land a hammer blow upon anything other than the floor and walls, but Lyle's wild arrow manages to catch one of the little rascals right under the tail, spearing out its entire lower intestine and leaving it dead in a puddle of blood and reptilian excrement.

Mornok is up. Three kobolds are all still swarming all over and around him, though two of them are now also sandwiched between him and Grimnir.

 

[gargoyleking]

Mornok was used to fighting kobolds and is showed as he deftly landed a second blow with his hammer.

Spoiler: ooc

Warhammer: 1d20+6 24 1d8+4 6