(CSRHoD) Creamsteak's Red Hand of Doom [IC]

[pathfinderq1]

Tyrla shook her head, almost sadly- it seemed as if she had exhausted his store of useful information. "Like I said, I was supposed to meet up with Koth down by the old keep- and he wasn't there. There were signs of a fight, but nothing solid- I was hoping he had come here... I guess we're going to have to hang on until the next battalion comes up, but we can't stay here. Those humans are sure to search more thoroughly once they get organized- we ought to move back up the trail, to see if we can let the others know what happened here, so they can be ready." She paused, as if thinking. "We'd better move out. Now listen- I'll go first, you wait maybe thirty heartbeats then follow. Stay low, and keep moving away from the bridge until we get some cover." And with that, Tyrla ducked out of the tent, moving quietly in a low crouch- for a moment. As soon as she was out of sight of the tent flap she straightened up, motioning to her companions that the hobgoblin was coming so that they could deal with him.

It seemed likely that their next move out to be tracking the warpriests who had taken the human's friends- after they dealt with this bridge. With a new detachment of troops due every twelve hours, something had to be done to stall them...

 

[Creamsteak]

Is Warren going to stab him a couple times as he comes out?

Also, he's taken severe subduel damage, but no lethal-damage so-far. So he'll pass out from essentially any wound. What do you intend to do after that?

 

[Redclaw]

He can't reveal anything about us that the dragon can't, so I don't see any use in killing him, and Larian would greatly object to such an evil act.

 

[Creamsteak]

He is, in fact, charmed still. So his reactions are artificially "friendly" (as should have been obvious from Tyrla's conversation). Once the group tells me whats going down I'll move on.

[sblock=Redclaw]This is a total aside, but I also get an evilish inclination from killing what is essentially a prisoner. I'm not so concerned about it here, but in my home game something similar came up, and my gaming group was split 50/50 on the same kind of issue: charmed captured NPC prisoner, and they killed him when they were done. Two of my players and myself thought it had an evilish connotation, but the other half thinks it's not. One suggested an explanation that at least gave me some thought, in that it was more on the lawful/chaotic axis... which I can see his angle there somewhat.[/sblock]

(My subscriptions are not updating properly for some reason. One more problem after another).

 

[Arkhandus]

(If the hobgoblin starts to exit the tent, Warren is most assuredly going to stab him as mentioned earlier. He ain't letting the hobgoblin escape, unless the others tell him to. That said, he's not going to keep on stabbing after the hobgoblin goes down; he just wants to be sure the gobbo is unconscious. Assassin's Stance + Cloak of Deception + Shadow Blade Technique = attack at +13 melee, 1d4+5+3d6 damage, plus the shadow blade effect)

 

[Creamsteak]

Warren's stab deals 21 points of lethal damage, dropping the hobgob.

The DM turns to the group and asks, "Now what?"

 

[Redclaw]

Larian turns green at the death of the bespelled hobgoblin. I understand the desire to prevent him from harming us in the future, Warren, but doesn't killing a charmed, weaponless hobgoblin make us as bad as them?

After a few minutes of sorrow, Larian turns back to the task at hand. Now, how do we go about taking down this bridge? Does anyone know anything about architecture?

 

[Creamsteak]

I don't believe Warren's blow was enough to kill him. He has 7 hit points left, and has > 7 points of non-lethal damage, so he's unconcious.

 

[pathfinderq1]

Tyrla shook her head at the fallen hobgoblin, but she had little pity, knowing what these creatures had done, and what they planned for Elsir Vale. "Leave him. we should clean out those tents, then get over to the other side of the bridge. Once we take this thing down, we can head after the warpriests who took the other prisoners. As far as the architecture, I've not a clue- I'd think the weakest part of the span is in the center, where the arch is narrowest. If we've no other plan, I can hurl blasts without pausing..." Without another word she turned, as if to head across the bridge (though she paused long enough to avoid leaving the others behind.

OOC: As far as bringing down the bridge, Tyrla can hurl eldritch blasts all day long- they don't do much individually, but might work through attrition if nothing else- or she can use Baleful Utterance on individual stones, rather than the bridge at large. Any other ideas?

 

[Arkhandus]

Warren the halfling

"Eh, he ain't dead, I don't think. I don't think he's an innocent ol' gobbo though, who's done nothin' to the folks 'round here, all things considered. But I don't care, leave 'im if ya want. Not like he'll cause us any more problems than the bloody dragon we let escape......" the halfling mutters, with a scowl.

After cleaning off his blade and meditating for a bit, he scales the nearest tower to keep a lookout from the top floor, until it looks like either the bridge is about to collapse from Tyrla's blasting, or more enemies approach, or the sun goes down.