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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrSpunj" data-source="post: 1151915" data-attributes="member: 994">I just have to jump in here and say that Riva's tactics (straightforward-charge-I-take-the-bait approach) were what started Nail's "adventurer threshing machine (tm)" (also known as ATM <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />) in motion. The rest of the evening was spent trying to recover from that move. While Riva took by far the most damage, he also received the most healing and actually slumped unconscious twice and was disabled an additional time IIRC, and most all of us were nearly equally "threshed" by the end of the grueling ~3 hour battle. Garret was starting to think that Riva had learned some hard lessons about tactics, given his more cautious approach to things in the last few days. His fall in the tower pit and his headlong charge into this blasted ATM quickly dispelled any of those foolish notions.  For those of you looking for RBDM tactics, let me jump ahead of Nail's next posting (I know, I'll hurry <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) to describe the scenario. Imagine entering a 5' wide straight corridor near one end by climbing down a shaft. About 15-20' in front of you stairs descend for ~10'. At the bottom of the stairs ~1 inch of liquid covers the floor and extends the entire 20' to the end of the passage, blocked decoratively enough by a flimsy, red curtain. The corridor is completely without light, and while some in our party are carrying torches, Riva and Kytum-Up (our kobold ally second-in-line) don't really need them with their darkvision. Leading our party (most of which are still at the top of the shaft), Riva heads down to the base of the stairs. At that moment, a goblin standing just behind the curtain pulls it open revealing himself, another goblin standing next to him, and behind them a ballista (huge Xbow) aimed directly down the corridor at Riva. The first goblin fires his Xbow at Riva, then the goblin with the ballista fires and hits him as well (oh, and the ballista bolt/javelin is poisoned). Finally, the last goblin fires his Xbow and pulls the curtain shut. Now, anyone want to guess Riva's response? As he steps off the stairs into the puddle, starting his charge towards the curtain 20' away, he is surprised by a number of things. First, the liquid is not water, it is grease or something of the sort that reduces any movement by half and requires a balance check to remain standing. Second, its 1" depth effectively hides numerous caltrops, at least one of which pierces Riva's soles reducing his movement by another half. So each 5' square now requires effectively 20' of movement. For a raging dwarf, he wasn't going to get too far on a good day. This wasn't a good day. The biggest surprise he received was finding four goblins very effectively hidden/concealed to either side of his position. They are situated in 5' corridors at right angles to the main corridor, with cover being provided by low walls. Much to his dismay, Riva missed Spotting them as he tried to charge past. That leaves him with 1 goblin on either side using a morningstar in flanking positions. Having faced them before, we are all familiar with their Sneak Attack abilities and collectively groan (as Nail gleefully cackles). That was two attacks, both with Sneak Attack damage. To add insult to injury, behind each of those goblins is another goblin, wielding a longspear, which is an additional 2 Sneak Attacks. Realize these positions also gave these 4 goblins a killing zone with one AoO each for anyone trying to move through/past Riva to get to the curtain goblins and ballista crew. I'll leave it to Nail and Gina to flesh out the remainder of the battle, but suffice it to say, I think our party did...well...how did you put it? We survived! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Though I'm still not sure we're learning much! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Have a nice day. PS. Thanks for the pic, SBI! Cute!</blockquote>

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