Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 4656100" data-attributes="member: 726">(Note:  I've dashed this off in a hurry.  Apologies in advance for typos and sloppy writing.)We played again on Thursday – our 8th session of the campaign – and managed to get into a lot more trouble than I think any of us expected.  I'm not quite sure why no one has died yet -- especially Strontium.  (Though, while things are better than they were at their low point, we're not out of the woods yet... there's plenty of opportunity for extreme pain next game, most likely inflicted with an axe.) But I digress.Commander Pikeline gave us a few hours of R&R.  Because one of the lizard-army higher-ups out in the swamp had recognized Cobalt, Pikeline thought that suggested the enemy had a man on the inside in Floodford. She suggested that we stroll around the town and collect information.  Logan (his player being absent for the game) was sent with the other Grey Guard contingent to guard the armory (where most of our captured weapons had been taken).  The unpopular tiefling, warlord Caducity Skirr, was sent with us in his place.Before we set out, Cobalt had another tiff with the obnoxious Runcible Parsons, who constantly goads the short-fused Cobalt by insulting his mother.  As usual, Cobalt played the part of Clumsy Buffoon, while Runcible smoothly disabled him and knocked him prone. (On the one hand, Runcible is a provocative jerk, who's also jealous of our party's recent success.  On the other hand, Cobalt just naturally *likes* everyone and wants to be friends with them.  So he has this weird conflicted relationship with the guy, where he tries hard to be friendly, and also can't help (trying to) punch him in the face every time Runcible insults him.  It's even got the other PC's mad at me, since they stick up for me, and then I turn around and try to reconcile with the little bugger.  Eventually, either Cobalt's relentlessly good nature will change Runcible's bad attitude, or Cobalt will decide he's incorrigible and give up on him.  I'm pretty sure my party-mates would prefer the latter...)But I digress again.We headed into town, first stopping at a local blacksmith.  He didn’t recognize the maker’s mark we had seen on the lizards’ stockpiled weapons, but he suggested we ask a local weapons importer currently out of town, negotiating some kind of deal with a noble from Skadderlin.  The blacksmith also promised to make some inquiries on our behalf.Moving on, we discovered a large crowd of armed teamsters and dockworkers, ostensibly preparing to defend the town against possible imminent invasion, getting drunk in a large tavern.  Not good.  Worse, the ale was being freely distributed by the mayor’s own secretary, a large Dragonborn.   This obviously made us very suspicious, especially since his voice sounded a bit like the one we had heard out in the swamp.  We made an excuse to leave, and waited outside until the crowd dispersed.  A preponderance of the semi-drunken mob headed for the northern guard post, which made us think that perhaps the attack was planned for that area.  (“Strike where the guards are sloshed!”)  The mayor’s secretary was also leaving, and we swore he grinned slyly at us as he departed.  Traitor!We decided to report back to Commander Pikeline, which took a while since she had left the Guard Tower, and we had to track her down in the streets.  When we shared our suspicions with her, she ordered us immediately to the Armory to the south, thinking that the mob of drunken militiamen was actually a distraction from the intended incursion point.  We headed that way, and en route heard the sound of a muffled bell coming from the armory – as if someone had tried to ring it but was quickly prevented from continuing.  We dashed to the armory, which is on a small island.  The drawbridge was drawn up, so there was no obvious way in.   Toiva, peering through the arrow slits, was pretty sure the dark figures inside weren’t human.  Damn!  Somehow the lizards had gotten inside the armory, with all the weapons we had just stolen from them!  Cobalt decided he’d swim the moat, climb the tower, and find a way to sneak inside to lower the drawbridge.Strontium, who doesn’t need to breath, jumped into the water, intending to circle around to the other side of the tower and serve as a fire-blasting distraction.  And that’s where the plan really started to go wrong, as he discovered two lizard men standing guard under water (!?).  They nearly killed him in a single round of surprise attacks.  He returned fire (literally), and the underwater glow tipped off the rest of the party that something was amiss.  Caducity Skirr’s quick thinking saved our wizard, as she jumped in after him to restore some of his vitality.  (“Pull yourself together!”)   Cobalt and Doc Caldwell jumped in to fight as well – eventually one lizard was killed and the other fled into the dark water, toward the tower.  Cobalt and the Doc had to surface for air, where they discovered that Toiva had fished out a rope-with-grappling hook and thrown the hook onto the tower roof.  Toiva, Cobalt and Caldwell used it to reach the roof, not realizing that Strontium and Caducity had opted to pursue the underwater lizard.  Yes, we split the party, without even really trying.  D’oh!On the tower roof, we found a little lizard who’s job it was to guard the bell.  For a few frustrating rounds Toiva couldn’t manage to shake the damned little beast loose, as it clung obstinately to the clapper to prevent the bell from sounding.  After Cobalt and Caldwell joined him, the lizard was soon overpowered.  But no sooner had we started ringing the bell when more lizards popped their heads up out of a trap door in the roof.  Caldwell, who speaks Draconic, heard one of them hiss down:  “They’ve found us!  Get everyone downstairs and let’s get out of here!”Quick cut to the water:  Strontium and Caducity discovered a water gate, wrenched free and smashed.  They headed through themselves and ended up in the tower basement, facing down a huge two-headed lizard-man with an enormous axe.  Strontium managed to at least slow it with Sleep, after which Caducity yelled to him:  “Now!  Go around him!”  Stron did so, dashing into the next room, but as he did, the slowed monster took a couple of steps toward Skirr and dropped her with a single massive axe-blow.  Strontium emerged into a larger room (closing the door behind him) filled with hastily piled weapons and a bunch of lizard men trying to enclose them with a long piece of magical-looking rope.  He managed to stall them for a couple of rounds through clever use of Mage Hand, combined with some fiery blasts.   Then she caught a glimpse of something hurtling down from above...Cut back to the roof:  Toiva dropped down through the trap door and found himself completely surrounded with lizards, whose attacks were mostly foiled by his armor.  He tried to bull rush one of them, but succeeded only in flinging himself inelegantly off a ledge to the lower level.   It looked like he was ticketed for a painful landing, but Strontium saw his plummet and reacted instantly with Feather Fall.That left Caldwell and Cobalt on the roof.  Caducity Skirr them made a surprise appearance; she had not actually been killed, but instead had escaped back through the water gate, and then had climbed the rope to the roof.  Doc fired his bow (aided by Skirr)  taking out one of the minions, and Cobalt them jumped down into their midst.  He let loose a Blinding Barrage (using his new magical dagger) that slew all remaining seven!  With the way cleared, both he and the Doc managed some deft acrobatic leaps to get down to the others with minimum damage. Below, the combat continued.  Having now spent more than a round in that lower area, Strontium noticed the bodies of many Gray Guardsmen (including Logan and Runcible) lying unconscious or dead.   And Caldwell recognized a faint alchemical smell – he suspected knock-out gas of some kind.  But there was no time to dwell on that, as the lizards were trying to finish circling the rope around the weapons, presumably to finish off a teleportation ritual.  The session ended with most of the lizards slain, and Cobalt holding one end of the rope.  There is still one large non-minion lizard remaining, AND the huge two-headed lizard with the axe, along with a small number of minions.  And though we're all (miraculously) still alive, some of us are badly damaged, Toiva has used up her Lay on Hands for the day, and we’re out many of our better powers and second winds.  We’ll find out who survives next time!Tactical Notes:-    First off, since this game was heavier on role-playing and lighter on combat than most recent runs, this section will be fairly short.-     Holy crap, was our dice-rolling sucktastic for most of this session.  (And Piratecat, for a while, couldn't roll a single-digit number for his bad guys.  Our luck started to turn a bit at the end, but sheesh.)-    We pulled off some Acrobatic Stunts™, which was fun – specifically, our jumping down to the lower-level of the armory, mentioned above.  I want to do more of that!-    Sure is nice having a Warlord around!  She saved Strontium’s bacon with Aid the Injured, that’s for sure.-    Blinding Barrage really paid for itself in this run.  7 minions popped in a single round!  To be fair, my dice made up for all their previous suckitude in that one six-second span, as all 7 rolls were in double digits.  (chance of doing that on a given set of seven rolls: 1.5%)-    Skills used this game: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Nature, Perception, Stealth, Streetwise -    Almost all of the enemies were (I think) the same lizardy types as in the previous couple of runs – Greenscale Hunters mixed with repurposed kobold minions.   I don’t know what the two remaining lizards are (the large one, and the larger two-headed one).  Perhaps Piratecat will let us know, after we’re done fighting them.</blockquote>

Verification