Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Chance" data-source="post: 4756034" data-attributes="member: 2795">First Blood (Round 1)I apologize again for the hold up. My long weekend turned to crap, to include a trip to the emergency room to be misdiagnosed.The fog thins slightly. Trees fade into view as the mines fade away. In the foreground, three men kneel at the edge of a freshly dug pit. One of them prays in a tremulous voice. Behind them are strangely uniformed men holding what seem like weapons, something similar to hand crossbows and heavy crossbows, but lacking the means to fire bolts. One of the uniformed men -- the one closest to the party -- laughs, harsh and compassionless.Other uniformed men stand farther away. As the fog continues to thin, the moment at which the party will become visible rapidly approaches.As the trees fades into view, Piedra gives Sam an "I told you so" look. However, just then the people came into view and he had more important things to think about.Piedra sees what looks like a group of thugs murdering a group of unarmed peasants. At the same time, he is not quite sure exactly what is happening. To make things even more interesting he can't afford to draw attention to the party or wait to see what transpires as the "thugs" are obviously armed with ranged weapons, even if an unknown type. To Piedra, the obvious solution is to quickly disable them before they can react.Immediately putting his plan into action, Piedra starts to run over to the "thugs" threatening the peasants. However, he seems to be stronger and able to moving faster than normal. This catches him by surprise and only his lightning reflexes save him from stumbling.As Piedra positions himself so the closer group of thugs is between him and the more distant group, Jon thinks Oh no, the gate dragged us in! This must be another plane! So ... are the men with the magic crossbows the cultists? We are doomed but we can take a few of them with us!Jon moves awkwardly, feeling light headed and light bodied in this strange place, as he moves in for a surprise attack on the nearest cultist, and what a surprise it is! Jon quickly covers the intervening distance with a reckless charge. His greatsword starts high and ends low, cleaving through neck, shoulder, and ribs. The thug armed with the "hand crossbow" drops to the cold earth, blood pumping madly from the fatal wound.Sam takes a second to take in the scene in front of him then narrows his eyes in concentration as he continues detecting evil in this new world.[sblock=For Sam]Oddly enough, Sam gets no feeling at all from the spell. He can tell the magic is still active, but also that it has somehow been suppressed.[/sblock]Mellisande stumbles woozily as the fog lifts and the cold is replaced by the warm sunlight. She holds her arms out to keep her balance, then breaks into a bright smile as she sees the blue sky above. This was better than the mine, she thought. Better to be outside and free to run around and...Abruptly she realizes the others seem rather...battle-ready. The gnomette looks over and sees the strange and frightening tableau before her. Realizing trouble's brewing, she quickly says a few words in Sylvan, a'conjurin' herself a protective charm for the coming brawl.The three closer thugs stagger away from the ferocious Jon, swinging their strange weapons at him. Flashes of fire and smoke explode from the ends of the weapons. Jon feels something hot whiz! past his ear. The more distant group of thugs seem less panicked."What the hell!" one of them shouts. "Men, spread out! Stahl, put a grenade down range!"The thugs quickly obey orders, moving into a long line, readying their weapons as they move. One of the men pulls what appears to be a smallish mallet, which he tosses toward Sam and Mellisande. The mallet hits close to target, and then explodes with fearsome power, sending clumps of earth flying in all directions.[sblock=Sam and Mellisande]Include a DC 15 Reflex save with your next action. If you succeed, take 4 points of damage. Otherwise, take 9.[/sblock]Okay, let's finish round 1. All the thugs have acted. Good job keeping it in character with your reactions and character knowledge. Please post next actions with relevant dice rolls.[sblock=Combat Block]Initiative Order: Thugs, Piedra, Jon, Sam, Prisoners, MellisandePiedra: uninjuredJon: uninjuredSam: uninjuredMellisande: uninjured; shieldThugs (13): 1 deadPrisoners (3)[/sblock][sblock=Dice Rolls]NPC Initiative: <a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2026424/" target="_blank">1d20+2=17, 1d20+1=10</a>.Three Shots at Jon: <a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2026429/" target="_blank">1d20+4=12, 1d10=4, 1d20+4=5, 1d10=6, 1d20+4=15, 1d10=9</a>.Grenade Toss: <a href="http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2026438/" target="_blank">1d20=12, 2d6=9</a>.[/sblock]</blockquote>

Verification