To the Ravenwood - Delve #1

[merias]

How far is the skeleton from Phelim? If he is far enough Phelim will take a shot. Otherwise he will spear it.

"Schmidt! Schmidt! Shine your Holy Light down this accursed hole! Schmiiiiiiiidt!!!"

It's about 8 feet away, so melee distance.

[Attronarch]

"Come at me, you sack of rattling bones!" Phelim will fight with spear, two-handed.

[JimboJimbo]

Guthry, hearing Phelim's scream, yanks the dagger from his belt. The blade nicks his hip as he draws it, but the mage pays no mind. His face a rapture of delight, Guthry throws himself into the pit (when he's in range), aiming to spear the rattle-bones with the dagger's tip and the full force of his bodyweight behind it!

[Magremore]

Disturbing the bones makes the smell even worse, but B&W manage to scavenge a handful of silver and gold coins (24sp, 16gp), as well as a jewelled necklace.

Added to Loot topic.

[Magremore]

Bel'xor checks the shackles to see if one is sturdy enough to secure his rope to. If so, he will hand his rope to Wennic and ask him to secure it and drop it into the new opening in the floor while Bel'xor looks to more immediately involve himself in the fight: preferably by gripping his battle axe in one hand (keeping the other free to grab with) and dropping down onto the back to the skeleton.

If that kind of entry into the below fight isn't possible, Bel'xor will be more cautious and grip the edge of the opening to let himself down easy, dropping just a few feet rather than jumping the 10' and risking injury.

Bel'xor's instructions to Wennic will also include remaining on the main floor to stand guard and be ready to hep pull anyone out of the pit using the rope as needed.

[merias]

Bel'xor checks the shackles to see if one is sturdy enough to secure his rope to. If so, he will hand his rope to Wennic and ask him to secure it and drop it into the new opening in the floor while Bel'xor looks to more immediately involve himself in the fight: preferably by gripping his battle axe in one hand (keeping the other free to grab with) and dropping down onto the back to the skeleton.

If that kind of entry into the below fight isn't possible, Bel'xor will be more cautious and grip the edge of the opening to let himself down easy, dropping just a few feet rather than jumping the 10' and risking injury.

Bel'xor's instructions to Wennic will also include remaining on the main floor to stand guard and be ready to hep pull anyone out of the pit using the rope as needed.

Getting the rope and securing it, then climbing down would allow you to enter melee in the pit on the 3rd round. Dropping down carefully would allow you to enter on the 2nd round (and jumping in like Guthry is doing would allow you to enter this round ).

So in game terms, I think you would realize that the rope method would be slower.

[Magremore]

Got it. Thanks. Bel'xor will just follow Guthry in. Wennic can stay on the main floor for now; we can always throw the rope up to him later.
Bel'xor will yell to Wennic, "stop him from running away" — maybe he can grab Schmidt and talk some sense to him!

[merias]

This was really fun to play out... let's see what happens!

Bel'xor and Wennic see Guthry charge towards the pit and leap in, even as Bel'xor moves to the pit himself. Guthry's dagger is now glowing, and his hip is bleeding, but he does not seem to notice the wound.

In the pit, Phelim faces off with the skeleton, wondering why Schmidt has not come to his aid. The skeleton is surprisingly fast, and swipes at Phelim with its dagger, but cannot connect. Phelim lunges with his spear, breaking off a few of the skeleton's ribs.

From above, Phelim hears a cry and sees Guthry leaping into the pit, a glowing dagger in hand. His leap is badly timed and clumsy, and he crashes head-first into the floor with a sickening crunch, unmoving. His dagger lies next to him, its glow fading.

Meanwhile, in the room, a sprinting Schmidt side-steps Wennic, and with a look of terror on his face, runs north, through the door and into the dark corridor.

I assumed Wennic would not pursue Schmidt, having been told to try to grab Schmidt but also to stand guard.

Bel'xor has now lowered himself into the pit, and safely drops the last few feet. He brings his axe to bear and shatters the skeleton before it can attack again.

Actions?

Status:

The pit skeleton is destroyed.
Phelim is wounded and in the pit with Bel'xor and a dead Guthry (RIP)!
Schmidt has fled the room in terror, into the darkness of the dungeon!

Code: Select all

+----------+----------+
|Name      |HP        |
+----------+----------+
|Wennic    |3/3       |
+----------+----------+
|Bel'xor   |7/9       |
+----------+----------+
|Phelim    |3/4       |
+----------+----------+
|Guthry    |-2/5      |
|(RIP)     |          |
+----------+----------+
|Schmidt   |5/6       |
|(Ran away)|          |
+----------+----------+

Mechanics:

R1 (room):

Wennic has a better DEX than Schmidt, so he has a chance to grab Schmidt as he runs by. I'll make it easy, he just needs to hit AC 10: d20 = 2 MISS.

Schmidt is clearly under the influence of some kind of fear magic, so he ignores Wennic and continues to flee.

R1 (pit):

Skeleton DEX 3d6 = 13, so order of actions in pit: Bel'xor (when he joins the melee in round 2), Skeleton, Phelim.

Skeleton vs. Phelim d20 = 7 MISS.
Phelim vs. Skeleton d20 = 19 HIT for d6 + 1 = 4 dmg (skeleton is wounded).
Guthry does 2 damage to himself with the self-inflicted dagger wound, and leaps into the pit, trying to land on the skeleton and also attack him with the dagger. This was a neat attack, so I'll make it a bit neater than usual - I'll roll a standard d20 for the dagger (+2 for an attack from above), and even if that misses, if it is within 2 points of the score needed to-hit (12), he will crash into the skeleton and do some damage anyway. d20 + 4 = 9 COMPLETE MISS (oh no!).
Guthry falling damage d6 = 5 - Guthry is now at -2 HP and unconscious (death save coming)!

R2 (both pit and room):

Bel'xor vs. Skeleton d20 + 2 = 17 HIT for d8 + 1 = 5 dmg (skeleton is destroyed).
Guthry death save d20 = 5 FAIL - poor Guthry has broken his neck in the fall and is dead!
Wennic stands guard above.
Schmidt continues to run!

[merias]

For Schmidt, what I'll do is determine randomly where he runs for the duration of the fear effect, and play out any encounters in another thread. I don't think we need to hide anything, but if something comes up that might be important that the other PCs should not know just yet, I will keep it hidden. So I'll post another update for Schmidt tomorrow.

[rredmond]

Sounds good. Ring mail should slow him a bit, even while the fear drives him on!