Urn Your Pay (Rae judging)

[covaithe]

Round 4, continued

Karm steps away from the monstrous skeleton in the crypt, careful to defend himself. Kuma cowers in the corner, still refusing to attack the unnatural beast approaching. (handle animal check fails.)

The troll skeleton turns its attentions to Ter-raen. Its long bone claws reach out again, slipping beneath the warrior's hastily raised shield and cutting him deeply. Ter-raen falls, bleeding heavily. Then the skeleton turns its attentions to Karm, another long-armed claw finding its way around the corner and past the druid's defenses, wounding him badly, though he still stands. (troll skeleton's full attack hits Ter-raen for 8, dropping him to -4, and hits Karm despite cover and total defense, for 7. rolls)

Ter-raen lies helpless in a pool of his own blood. (fails to stabilize, drops to -5. Ter-raen started raging in round 1, so even if he stabilizes, at the start of his turn in round 8 he will lose the extra HP and die, unless he gets some healing.)

Round 5

Gildrim...

[sblock=status and initiative]
Wolf skeleton 1 dead
Gildrim 12/24 <== You're up
Wolf skeleton 2 8 damage
Karm 3/10, total defense
Kuma 13/13
Troll skeleton unharmed
Ter-raen -5/39, raging (started in round 1), dying

Wand: 26 charges left
[/sblock]

[sblock=map]

[/sblock]

 

[Trouvere]

Gildrim lets out a despairing growl that turns into a dwarven dirge for the dead and for those facing hopeless odds. He heads for the stairs.

OOC: not bardic music, just free action fluff. Withdraw action up the stairs 40' to wherever that takes him.

 

[covaithe]

Round 5

Gildrim withdraws upstairs, mourning.

The remaining wolf skeleton lopes across the hall towards Karm, paws clacking dully on the earthen floor. It bites at the druid, but Karm easily evades. (miss)

Karm hesitates, glancing away into the darkness as well as down at his fallen comrade. He jabs the wand towards Ter-raen, then steps farther from the door. Ter-raen's bleeding slows, and his eyes open, but he is still very weak, nearly helpless. (CLW from wand heals 5, bringing Ter-raen to 0; he is now disabled.)

The troll skeleton waits, ready to strike anything that moves.

Ter-raen...

[sblock=status and initiative]
Wolf skeleton 1 dead
Gildrim 12/24
Wolf skeleton 2 8 damage
Karm 3/10, total defense
Kuma 13/13
Troll skeleton unharmed
Ter-raen 0/39, raging (started in round 1), disabled <== You're up

Wand: 25 charges left
[/sblock]

[sblock=map]

[/sblock]

 

[serow]

Ter-raen takes a small step to stand between the skeletal wolf and Karm. Shield held up, mace in hand. He refuses to let the wolf touch his companion.

 

[Trouvere]

OOC: unfortunately, having been unconscious, Ter-raen begins prone.

 

[serow]

OOC: Oh right! In that case...

Ter-raen places his mace head on the floor, and with a little effort, stands up and growls at the skeletal wolf menacing him and Karm. He lifts both mace and shield back into his en-garde position, and makes a few swings at the beast!

OOC: Move action get up, the rest is flavour text

 

[covaithe]

Round 5, continued

Ter-raen lurches to his feet, drawing the attention of both of the nearby skeletal creatures. The wolf's attack is easily blocked, but the troll's claw catches in his side, ripping a gaping hole in his abdominal cavity. Ter-raen falls again. (Unlike 4e, in 3.5e standing from prone provokes AoOs. The troll's hits, for 8 damage.)

Round 6

(ooc: It's my understanding that Gildrim has retreated and is no longer part of the fight, yes? I'll retcon if that's wrong...)

The remaining skeletal wolf attacks Karm again, tearing a chunk of bleeding flesh from the inside of his arm. Blood flows, and Karm, too, falls in a senseless heap. (wolf 2 hits Karm for 4 damage, dropping him to dying as well.)

Karm lies bleeding. (fails to stabilize)

Kuma lets out a plaintive howl of loss, but cannot bring himself to attack the unnatural creatures. He slinks up the stairs, tail curled between his legs.

The troll skeleton waits.

Ter-raen bleeds. (fail to stabilize)

Round 7

Ter-raen's bleeding slows to a trickle, and then stops altogether, as his body has simply run out of blood. (fails one last chance to stabilize. Ter-raen dies.)

End Combat

[sblock=status]
Gildrim 12/24
Ter-raen dead

[/sblock]

Gildrim hears Kuma's mournful howl, and moments later, sees the wolf's shadowy form slinking away, head down, keening piteously. Kuma does not look up at him, but quickly runs outside, out of sight.

[sblock=ooc]I was going to have Karm pretend to be dead, but he never stabilized, so he dies too.

Where do we go from here? It's kind of up to Gildrim. Continuing would probably require some re-recruitment.
[/sblock]

 

[Trouvere]

Gildrim stumbles after the wolf, seeking the shortest route out of this house that has proved unluckier than Ter-raen's darkest forebodings and hoping to rejoin Apikotoa as quickly as he can.

 

[covaithe]

[sblock=dotting Is and crossing Ts]Trouvere rightly pointed out to me that the AoO that killed Ter-raen shouldn't have occurred, since the wolf skeleton provided soft cover to Ter-raen, since the troll skeleton was making a reach AoO. The troll skeleton would have made the same attack anyways as a readied action, but, again, soft cover means that Ter-raen's AC was 20 at the time, and the troll's 18 missed.

Unfortunately, it's still not good news for Ter-raen. The readied action puts the troll's initiative directly before Ter-raen's move action (standing up) that triggered it, and before Ter-raen gets to go again, the wolf and troll get another turn. The wolf moves 5' to the SE, removing the soft cover, and the troll uses a full attack, which is more than sufficient to kill Ter-raen.

The outcome remains the same, but, since PC death is involved, I just wanted to make sure that I'm being as careful as I can be not to make rules mistakes.
[/sblock]

 

[covaithe]

Apikotoa waits patiently by a small fire, roasting a portion of something long and legless over it. He looks up, nostrils flaring in alarm as he takes in the blood staining Gildrim's attire. "You are alone. Where are the others?"