Sailors on the Starless Sea

[GlassEye]

There is a confused shuffling around the door after Tender knocks it loose but at least Brom remembers Narančasta's plan and pushes one of the armored ones forward. Geoffrey gets hit by the stench as he approaches the door and a moment later he sees the cause: The floor of the wide tower is covered in rotting hides of cattle, sheep, and men. A narrow staircase spirals around the tower wall. Dark forms hang from chains spiked through the wall - surely these are your fellow countrymen!

A pack of snarling beast-men slowly emerges from the shadows, bloody spears clutched in their gnarled hands...

[sblock=OOC]

1. Door to tower (ground level)
2. Door to tower (Wall walk level)
3. Door to gatehouse
Red Arrow: points direction most PCs are advancing
Purple X: Jakob

Initiative (Party mostly has initiative. You don't have to post in order but I will resolve in order.)
Deuce Traveler: Initiative (1d20+1=20)
Dogmatron: Initiative (1d20=12)
Doghead: Initiative (1d20+1=9)
Fireinthedust: Initiative (1d20=6)
Beast-men: Initiative (1d20+1=6)
Scott deWar: Initiative (1d20+1=5)

Note: the beast-men are not moving out of the tower or even approaching the door.[/sblock]

 

[doghead]

Narančasta and Siva

If the others have not jumped straight into a fight:

Narančasta grabs the shoulder of his nearest companion and starts backing off.

"Wait. Fall back to the other side of the door. Lets see if they come to us. We can hold them at the door if they do. If not, we can have at them with bullets and arrows."

If the others have jumped into a fight:

Narančasta presses forwards and attacks.

[roll]1d20/[roll] [roll0]

Siva slings her bow and, grabbing the rope, attempts to follow Jacob's example and climb to the top of the wall. With a rope its a whole lot easier than skinning up and down cliffs looking for birds eggs, or climbing trees to avoid bears.

[roll1] or [roll2]

OOC: Hopefully the door will act as a choke point, giving us the advantage of numbers.

Edit: Botched the roll formatting for N's to hit. How about this: 1d20=8

 

[GlassEye]

The scene has not yet devolved into combat: Geoffrey stands at the door not yet having entered the tower and the beast-men lurk at the far wall of the tower awaiting an expected assault.

Siva manages the wall and pulls herself onto the walkway next to Jakob and near the tower's upper door.

 

[fireinthedust]

OOC: Gah! Okay, gotta think tactically! I'm going to have Dudles attack with his pitchfork, and Borok move up to support him with his hammer. Xim is going to stand back and launch sling stones when he sees a target appear.

One sec and I'll roll the attacks and damage rolls (Dudles, Borok, Xim) and the damage rolls if any (1d8 pitchform, 1d4 hammer, 1d4 sling)

1d20+1=5, 1d8=7, 1d20=11, 1d4=3, 1d20+1=14, 1d4=4

 

[fireinthedust]

Dudles, made senseless by fear, swings his pitshfork wildly instead of jabbing with it.

Borok, more sensable in his approach, swings his hammer with more precision.

Xim, using his cleverness along with natural agility, tosses his sling stone when a head or hand comes into view.

 

[Scott DeWar]

OOC: Blast it! bad interweb connection destroyed my post!

Franko the Fickle, Jester (L 11) (Scott DeWar)

Franko is about to throw a dart but sees the designated leader hold every one back. He does likewise.

Jakob, Caravan Guard (L 9) (Scott DeWar)

Jakob move carefully to the door, checks behind him to see if any one from t he gate house door is following and sees Siva has his back! H cautiously opens the door . . . .

Homar Greenthumb, halfling Moneylender (L 4) (Scott DeWar)

Homar is use to carrieing bags of coins, not the sword. He wears that for intimidation to keep potential thieves at bay. He draws it shakily and watcjes Franko's left flank

Hank, Scribe (L 9) (Scott DeWar)

During slow days, Th office would play darts with their quills, Hank seemed to have picked up the knack. H had bought a set of darts and practiced, but never expected to use them in combat. "Oh well, I guess the pen can be mightier then the sword." he mumbles with his dart at the ready.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

At Narančasta's suggestion, Tender holds his longsword high and maintains his position by the door, awaiting an enemy charge.

Boral stands just behind him and to the right with a pitchfork ready to stab.

Kurl has no desire to get into the fight unless he must, so he stands in the rear with a dagger readied for throwing.

 

[GlassEye]

While most of the group chaotically sort themselves into those hanging back with missile weapons and those around the door waiting for a rush of beast-men, Dudles, Borok, and Xim take the fight to the beast-men. Geoffrey, and those around the door get a clear view as Dudles advances and is missed by an iron axe that swings down from above the door. It is unclear who or what wields the axe.

Unfortunately, neither Dudles nor Borok seem to be favored by the gods of fate and both attacks miss. Xim, at the door with sling whirring, lets loose with a stone that strikes a dog-headed beast-man between the eyes and drops him to the hide-covered floor senseless or dead. Now that they are within the tower Dudles and Borok see a cluster of five beast-men and one now dead on the floor from Xim's stone. The beasts jab with their spears...

Dudles is tripped and skewered and dies atop the flea-infested hides covering the floor. The other beast-men converge on Borok battering him with the butts of their spears until he collapses unconscious next to Dudles.

Jakob opens the door to the upper tower. Once his eyes adjust to the dimness he sees a massive, bull-headed monstrosity, surely topping seven feet tall, looming on the stairs above the lower entrance to the tower with axe in hand and attacking as Dudles and Borok rush in. As the light banishes some of the gloom the bull-headed beast-man looks up and locks eyes with Jakob. It roars and rushes up the steps swinging its axe. The heavy blade bites deep into the door that inadvertently shielded the caravan guard.

[sblock=OOC]Fortune favors the bold! +1 luck to your PCs, Fireinthedust.

Ok, when going to write out this post I realized it would be confusing to try to resolve in exact initiative order when I've said you can post in any order. Instead, I'll resolve in posted order; I think it'll be less confusing (and easier on me). The group as a whole has initiative, then the beast men go.

At this point there are four general groups: 1) Siva and Jakob on the wall, 2) Dudles and Borok in the tower, 3) the group around the door waiting for a charge (Boral, Brom, Geoffrey, Homar, Narancasta +Xim), and 4) those hanging back and/or with missile weapons (Fendrel, Franko, Hank, Kurl)

Axe from above vs. Dudles: Beast-man atk (1d20+2=5) MISS
BM1 vs. Dudles: Beast-man atk (1d20=8) MISS
BM2 vs. Dudles: Beast-man atk (1d20=20) CRIT: Critical (1d6=2) Knocked Prone; for Dmg (1d6=2)
BM3 vs Borok: B-M attack (1d20=13) for Sub damage (1d5=2)
BM4 vs. Borok: attack (1d20=2) MISS
BM5 vs. Borok: attack (1d20=13) for Sub damage (1d5=5)
Bull-beast vs. Jakob: Beast-man atk (1d20+2=7)

Beast-man Champion: AC 12
Beast-men (6): AC 12; DEAD: 1
[/sblock]

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Kurl snarls as the men in the very front go down. "Blood and chaos," he swears as he lets his dagger fly towards the closest beastman.

"Quick, we must help the fallen before they die from their wounds," Tender shouts as he breaks formation and rushes forward with his new sword. He knows he is likely too late to save Dudles after he saw the twisted way the man's body fell.

"Stay here, Betsy!" Boral shouts as he guards Tender's right flank. He stabs at a close beastman with his pitchfork, attempting to use the length of it to keep the enemy at bay.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Jakob
Crazy, bored, impetuous or exhilarated on achievement, it is hard to say. The caravan guard opens the door to be greeted by an explosion of splinters from the axe wielded by the bruit at the top of the stairs. Either way he can smell the stench of defilement as the door opens and he now knows what happened to his fellow villagers.

Though he is not strong, he has spirit. Besides, if he runs now, he would die anyway. He swings the short swort and it finds a vulnarable spot on the dogheaded beast man while it was trying to dislodge the ax buried in the door!

1d20-1=16, 1d6-1=4

Franko
The jester in his silk garb laghs saying, "Hey you mangy mutts! You never have a quiet moment when you need one, huh?" he throws his dart at the closest one, however the dart hits in a wood post well off its mark.

1d20=6, 1d4=2

Hank
Hank remembers his dart throwing techniques and carefully aims at one and it hits its mark!

1d20+1=17, 1d4+1=5

Homer
A money changer. What was he thinking joining these robust peoples? Because he has customers who have disappeared, that is why. He cares for his money, but its people that make the business profitable. He stands at the side of the dart throwing scribe.