[LPF] Kaedyn's Quest

[sunshadow21]

[sblock=ooc]That's fine with me; Thuvian's basically doing stall tactics this round to buy time for the others to decide. He doesn't particularly expect much else from his tactic. At some point, if he gets a chance (and money) to get them into his spellbook, he does currently have a number of scrolls that are simply waiting to be transcribed into his spellbook, notably summon monster II, that would have made a big difference here. Scrolls are nice as backups, but the move action to retrieve them is brutal, as is their replacement cost. He was also planning on trying to pick up some scrolls that the Mystic Pearl never seems to have from the mage whenever they finally find his lair if they can find some more coin as well.[/sblock]

 

[soulnova]

[sblock=VACATION] guys, my vacations start tomorrow and I'll be away until the 10th. I don't know how much internet access I'm going to get there but I'll try to post as much as I can. If you need any immediate indication for Damaris, she stops singing, tries a diversion with Silent image and retreats with Ru. [/sblock]

 

[perrinmiller]

~ Day 13, 16:01 - In the Darkwood ~

The chaos of the fray became intense as Lai Tai had crashed to the ground and Tyrion had been unable to retaliate enough to even the odds. One man could only do so much. The illusionary eagles did nothing to distract the female githyanki and she told her minions to just ignore them.

Since the large warrior had refused to surrender and the female githyanki spell caster splayed her hand out and he was engulfed in flames for a moment. Tyrion managed to whirl around and protect his face and avoid the full brunt of the fire. However, that did not save him for long.

Despite being badly wounded the flying eidolon tried to do a bit of acrobatic flying. He was unable to avoid being vulnerable to the large fighter’s weapon as he closed in, but Noak evaded the longer reach managing to still get in close and personal. The last thing Tyrion remembered was the burning of fire being mixed with the cold bite of the dragon-creature’s teeth sinking in. He crashed to the ground as well.

The battle was lost as the nausea was wearing off from the other githyanki warriors and the tieflings were ready to stab their two prisoners, even if they could not see one of them. Thuvian was still hidden from view and near as he could tell the outsiders had no idea where he was.

The female githyanki ordered the tieflings to kill Ru and the invisible singer regardless. It was time to flee!

Thuvian only had a few moments left on his spell, and he flew back the way you had come to get away from the scene before he became visible again to be hunted by the flying eidolon. Ru did not hesitate and vanished before the tiefling in front of him knew it and immediately began heading away from the clearing to put distance between himself and the tiefling in pursuit. Damaris stopped talking and singing and moved away as well as fast as she could for several steps.

Being invisible had its advantages. Even though the three were not being very quiet, they got far enough away that the two tieflings could not locate them fast enough to keep up. After a few seconds, there was a cry of alarm back at the clearing that called the pursuit back.

The three survivors escaped and were able to crouch behind trees and in the undergrowth to hide should the outsider resume the chase.

Even from the distance away, there were sounds of a battle continuing for a few moments as there was more shouting. The deep male voices were not familiar. You could hear thundering hooves and an infernal screech that sounded like the dragon-creature dying, followed by a female’s scream of anger. The thundering of hooves faded after a few moments, as did the sounds of battle.

Catching your breath, the Darkwood had grown quiet.

OOC: Combat: Over

[sblock=Combat Information]G2's burning hands did 7 dmg to Tyrion
Noak hit Tyrion for 16 dmg

Party Status:

Ru:        18/39 HP remaining; 
Damaris:   34/27 HP remaining; False Life
Lai Tai:   -10/30 HP remaining; Stable, Unconscious 
Thuvian:   19/27 HP remaining; 
Nora:      13/13 HP remaining;
Tyrion:    -10/57 HP remaining; Stable, Unconscious
 
Spells Cast: Invisibility (Damaris), Mirror Image-4 (Thuv)
Abilities Used:
  Ru: Ki Pool 2/3; Rngr Foc 0/1
  Damaris: Bard Pef 6/12; Spells 1st 0/4, 2nd 1/2;
  Lai Tai:  Arc Pool: 1/5; Staff Charges 0/10; Spells 1st 1/4, 2nd 1/2; Lev 0/1
  Thuvian: Dark 0/1; Blind Dark 0/7; Spells 1st 1/5, 2nd 2/4, 3rd 2/3
Conditions in effect: False Life(Dam)

[/sblock][sblock=GM Note]Combat is over and you get awarded 2400xp (480 each).
Lai Tai and Tyrion still get a share of everything, whether they are alive or dead. But, I decided to allow for stabilization to happen so they are both unconscious and they can be retired instead of killed.

That way Systole and Jackslate45 can continue to play these characters once they are revived, but they can also swap them out from something else before we have another combat encounter.[/sblock]

 

[jkason]

Ru Brike, rangerish human ninja

The problem with having your fellow party members turning invisible--and being invisible yourself--was that it made keeping track of each other especially tricky. He'd managed to keep relatively close to the crash of branches that was Damaris running around transparent, but Thuvian was flying, so he had absolutely no idea where he might be, or if he'd even had the same good sense to run that he and the bard had.

Ru had lost his invisibility before Damaris, but that just let the young girl see his hand to grab hold of it. He'd dragged her with him through the undergrowth, then down a berm, into the space underneath a fallen tree. There he held them both still, listening to the commotion behind them, which quickly receded at the call of alarm.

Ru refused to move.

He held himself still, barely breathing, as he heard the crash of pursuit fade back the way it had come. He kept a strong grip on Damaris, too, in the silence of the forest. He quieted objections as her form faded back into view. Not yet he said with just a shake of his head. He strained to hear, catching the sounds of battle, of hooves, of more death.

He forced them to wait until these, too, were gone. Until the silence of the forest began to fade with the returning chitter of squirrels and occasional cry of birds. Ru closed his eyes, listening for anything that sounded out of place. The barest brush of feet on leaves.

Nothing.

Finally, finally, he nodded, standing slowly, glancing around.

"That, Princess, was not my best day," he muttered quietly, cracking his back and working the kink out of his thigh from where he'd been squatting for far too long.

"I suppose the only thing left to do now is bury the bodies," he said, his usual mirth painfully missing. Slowly, carefully, he lead the young bard back to the scene of the battle, ready to hide at the first sound or sight of any strangers.

[sblock=ooc]As above, I figured keeping with Damaris would probably be possible, but keeping track of someone flying invisibly, not so much. Ru has no way yet of knowing the other stabalized, so I'm playing him thinking he left two men to die.

I figured, since soulnova is on vacation, it wouldn't hurt to RP out running into Thuvian before getting to the others and trying to wake them. I'll leave it to SS21 to fill in where Thuvian ended up and how he might cross paths again with Ru & Damaris. Didn't want to shoehorn him into anything.[/sblock]

[sblock=mini stats]

Ru Brike
AC: 18 (Touch 14, Flatfooted 14)
HP: 18/39

Initiative: +4
Perception: +7 (+8 Traps) Sense Motive: +5
CMB: +3 CMD: 17 Fort: +6 Reflex: +10 Will: +3
(conditional: +2 vs. divination effects)

Wakizashi: +8, 1d6
Wakizashi (TWF): +6/+6, 1d6/1d6
Nunchaku: +7, 1d6
Shuriken: +7, 1d2
Conditional Attack mods: +2d6 Sneak Attack (when denied Dex), +1 Dirty Fighter (flank), +2 Attack / dmg vs. Ranger's Focus (1/day)

Conditions: None

In Hand: Wakizashi x2

Ki Pool: 0/3 remaining
Ranger's Focus: 1/1 remaining
Shuriken: 9/10 remaining
CLW Wand charges: 48/50 remaining

Used: 13 days' rations[/sblock]

 

[Systole]

[sblock=OOC]I would rather have Lai Tai be dead. Badly burned and heading into immediate retirement if someone wants to use him as an NPC, I suppose. But I think that failure needs to have consequences. Namely, that he's at least no longer a PC.

I'll get a new PC going soon. Maybe today, probably tomorrow, definitely by Wednesday.

Actually, this is the kind of thing that could turn an idealistic young monk LG/LN type towards LE. Hmmm ... changed my mind. Badly burned and retired, please.



EDIT: Since LT is going to be retired so that he can go to the Dark Side, can I get a final XP tally on him? Also, should I bump the new guy to 5th or leave as 4th? [/sblock]

 

[sunshadow21]

Thuvian's ability to fly means that he is able to be largely silent as he moves away from the battlefield before settling in on a branch of a particularly densely foliated tree as his invisibility fades, a vantage point from which he sends Nora to keep an eye on the scene. When he senses sorrow and desolation rather than fear and dread from his familiar, he moves back towards the battlefield, a scroll of vanish ready to be cast at a moments notice as he uses the foliage of the trees to further provide protection. Once back at the battlefield, once he secures Nora once more, he examines the field and the dead with a quiet, stoic, and methodical approach. While not overly phased by the loss, it's clear that he isn't happy as he keeps muttering about how this spell or that could have made the key difference.

 

[soulnova]

[sblock] Doing this quickly [/sblock]

Damaris ran through the forest back in the direction they had came from. When Ru lost his invisibility, she approached him and whispered to him, still retaining her spell on her. "Ru, it's me" she said on a hushed tone. She allowed herself to be lead by him as far as they could and hid behind a tree.

After some minutes, she lost her spell and Ru could see she actually had some dry tears and red eyes.

She repeated now and again "no, no, no... please, be just uncounsious... please" she was still holding her wand of cure light wounds against her chest.

Once the noise was over, Damaris nodded to Ru, she will follow him. "What could that be?... it seems they are gone now. Maybe we can..." she didn't even know what to do. She had never lost someone to a job. She felt a knot on her throat. She had to sing them something if they were dead, right? She had to. A farewell. Something. She couldn't think what. "Wait, where's Thuvian? Oh goddess... I hope he made it too."

 

[perrinmiller]

[sblock=GM Note]Is Thuvian not going to join the others and return to the scene of the battle without them?

In any case, the posted narration puts him ahead of Ru and Damaris in time as they stopped and began talking instead of actions at the end of the scene transition. I only want to post the aftermath once, so I will wait before updating what Thuvian sees if he still going to go solo with Nora.

So Lai Tai was burned to death, and Ru probably saw it happen. The grievous wounds Tyrion took could be fatale from the survivors’ point of view as well.

A bump to 5th level is not necessary. But if you want to, then go ahead, Systole.

Of course Lai Tai and Tyrion’s replacement characters from death, start with minimum XP and GP according to WBL for level 4 and 5 respectively, then you can have DMC applied to raise the new character to 5th if you want.

I can work up final numbers for retiring them instead, but that would presume they did not die and you could have them revived and keep TBX/TBG ticking uninterrupted. This choice is still open if you want.[/sblock]

 

[sunshadow21]

[sblock=ooc]Thuvian has no other notable place of reference nearby to rejoin them then the battlefield, therefore it's the only place he really has to work with. He'll won't leave the tree line to start searching the clearing until they arrive, sending Nora ahead to give the all clear before approaching even that close, finding some bushes to take cover within until they do.[/sblock]

 

[perrinmiller]

[sblock=GM Note]Oh, I think he would know roughly where Ru went based on the initial pursuit. Thuvian was flying overhead and near Ru when he disappeared. All he had to do was follow the disturbance of the undergrowth from the ninja's passage until Ru popped visible again.

In any case, I pretty much assumed all three were together in my scene transition. You can go against that if you want, but that is not something I am making you do. [/sblock]