The beast has no moves. It is completely stunned.
Embla, Lothar and Engelhart all bleed 1 damage this round from open wounds.
Fjall, who is at -1, and the only person not bleeding, will move over to Embla with the intention of binding her wounds before she dies. He'll run along the gaps between the wooden debris to get to her.
Bergthora finishes loading the crossbow.
Engelhart and Lothar can act as they will; they are both at 1 hit point.
Willa appears on the steps behind Bergthora and drags out her bow.
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I move to 0502 and swing. Here’s praying for a second late miracle, even if it comes from Berg's crossbow.
Attack roll: 15 (FINALLY!!)
Damage roll: 6 (!)
*If* it staggers, I'll probably want to press on.
*Unless* stunned creatures still deal incidental, in which case it is better for me to hold back one hex and avoid the randon point (which kind of means the world to me, right now).
The hit feels so good ... so right and true ... and as you draw back your hammer, you see that you've caved in the creature's skull.
It drops in front of you, dead.
And you only get 5 points towards experience. It had 1 hp left after Lothar's hit last round. And at -4 it dies.
You guys were so close the whole time.
The thing had 80 hp, normally; Embla did 20% of that with her assassination attempt, causing 16 damage. At that point, it was already down to 40 h.p. after its fight with the froglings. So it had 24 hp at the start of this fight.
Any good solid hit after Embla's six damage up front would have stunned it. But ...
Ah well. The battle is done.
Fjall starts binding Embla's wound with the one bandage he has. Bergthora lets out a sigh. Willa lowers her bow.
The experience listed above is the final total (just added it to the main post).
Please add it to your characters' totals.
Embla, Lothar and Pandred are all up a level. Engelhart, not quite yet.
Oops, my apologies. Embla doesn't. I adjusted the assassin experience so that she needs 3,501 to reach 3rd, not 3,001 (the old number), when I made an assassin a fighter and upped it's hit die to a d8 from a d6.
Woo!!! I knew we had to be close. I don't have a cloak on me at the moment, but I think we'll all need some bandages soon.
Do I get to roll my new hit points now, as well? Gaining a level never felt so good. Especially since everyone lived!
The way I see it, the act of surviving and knowing that you're still down here in the dungeon, in a place of danger, provides that impetus you need to "man up" and get on with the business of living. I think that translates into hit points gained immediately for levels gained. Remember, I don't consider hit points to be a "physical" manifestation ... that's what I call biological units, and those are unchanged. But your will, your ability to ignore pain, your capacity to grit your teeth to get the job done and get everyone out alive, those are matters of experience and derring-do ~ I consider that the substance of hit points.
Pandred can't, however, as he won't gain this experience until he wakes up, hears the tale, sees evidence, gains his bonus in lieu of having actually seen it, not to mention the main part of his taking part and waking up to find that others have saved his life. THEN he can have his hit points ... but not now.
So Lothar should roll a d8, re-rolling any 1s, then adding that number to his current hit points (and adjusting his maximum up accordingly).
Wow. That was really tense. I'm so glad we all pulled through.
Once Fjall finishes binding my wounds, I try to rouse Pandred.
[When you say, "never felt so good," is that figuratively or literally? I'm writing a post somewhat about self-assessment and I am curious]
Pandred will need actual healing. He's effectively in a coma and won't wake until he's rested or has his hit points restored.
At zero hit points he will wake up for certain; if his hit points are restored to, say, -3, he gets a constitution check to see if that's enough to wake him up ~ at less than his full con, adjusted for the amount in the negatives he is.
Embla, too, is unconscious. She also won't wake up because her wounds are bound. She's in the same situation as Pandred.
Can I assume everyone has immediately begun binding their wounds, so they don't keep bleeding?
Would you like me to roll my HP for leveling now, for simplicity's sake?
Also, glad we brought this thing down. Something about our cohort here just loves rolling the number 8.
Well, I hate to be callous, Pandred, but ...
If Engelhart has no spell, and if the party has no healing salve, and they have to carry you out ... you may not live to reach consciousness.
Fair enough.
Yes, please assume that we are binding our wounds. I roll a 4 for my HP.
[As far as "never felt so good" I was being literal. This fight I felt we were on a knife's edge the whole time, teetering between horrible defeat and sweet, hard-won victory. That, and considering we've fought a troop of frogling scouts, a giant toad and a stirge before taking on this gnoll, we've extended ourselves pretty far, and getting up a level at this point feels really, really nice. Now we've got to get back to civilization, eat, heal up a bit, sell off whatever loot we can carry, and then see what else can be done about these frogs we accidentally unleashed upon our quiet little corner of Dano-Norway.
[But I was still super excited to finally put this beast down, and getting a level on top of it was like a gooey chocolate center in a giant chocolate chip cookie that was trying to bite our collective faces off]
Speaking of, we're going to need a big meal before the day is out... Are either the froglings up the slope or this dog creature likely to be acceptable sources of protein, or is that a bridge too far?
So, it is done...
I'm pleased, but not elated. This shouldn't have been this hard. Damnable luck, starting right with Embla's attempt.
Still in disbelief that no one died. Some thoughts of new stat rolls crossed my mind during the day.
We're all way overextended, so I can but agree with Lothar, time to retread and retreat. I have no rations whatsoever on me.
Also, as weak rewards go, I seem to recall some valuable spear tips embedded on the damnable thing. Any chance I can identify its nature, Alexis?
[Alexis, tell me, if I had attempted casting Hold Person, what would have been the chances of success? I mean, for reference, what does *any* given creature roll to pass/fail a saving throw?
I started out thinking the creature would not be vulnerable to it due to the misnomer inherent to "Hold Person", it took me a reading once things got desperate to realize its size and monstrosity didn't exempt it of being a target but by then I was in too thick and simply stunning it with a maul attack seemed more direct!]
I staunch my bleeding as best I can with shreds of my spare shirt. So much for fastidiousness.
Even if we rest, not nearly enough Hp will be magicked back, plus we really should invest in some healing salves.
Found my own answer to the save question.
Hm, probably better than 50%, huh? Could have ended that debacle there and then.
And a Cleric's saves are way better than most other folk, what do you know...
I assume there's a way out of here through the rubble, and by "out of here" I mean deeper into the dungeon. Exploring to figure that out is probably unwise.
I think we should hole up in here for a few hours. Let Engelhart recover a Cure Spell so I can get back in the fray.
We might get lucky and have the hirelings or the soldiers come rescue us, I don't remember how long we were meant to be gone.
But if we move, we do it without me. I weigh too much to carry out of here, and the party can't afford to have me slow them down. If you decide to leave, hide my body in the rubble and take whatever of mine you can use.
Pandred: I believe the soldiery to be well and truly written off. The mass of froglings on the warpath went straight in their direction.
We would need a full rest plus a goodly hour of wholesome prayer (make it two, so I recover everything, including Bless).
We can't just leave you behind, you'd die of exposure! Nah, we're in this together, between me and Embla, you'll glide to wherever you need to go.
Both Embla and Pandred are out until they regain HP, which means that it's Engelhart, me, Bergthora, Fjall, and Willa that are functional. I don't have food; you, Engelhart, don't have food either, the kitchen was described specifically as being devoid of food, so we're either going to drag the two of them outta Dodge, or we're staying here and feasting on frog legs and dog meat. I think our best bet is going to be waiting it out in the frog cavern, if we want to overnight here - we can put the boards back up we broke through, and hope the frogs don't climb up their chimney when they get back. Getting both of the unconscious folks across the bridge is task number one... After wounds are bound, obviously.
We should probably search through the room a bit as well once we get stable.
I search the room. I'm also interested in trying to tell if our fight may have raised the alarm (guessing not, judging from the previous one going unattended).
Willa will be very anxious to tell you about the froglings ...
Suspend introspection a moment. I want to get a new post written.
Oh, ok, I get it.
We're boxed in.
The next post is up.
Engelhart, you find a passage down through the rubble, too small for the dog-beast, but good enough for your group.
Oh, yes, though this post will probably be missed. There are two spears stuck in the beast's hide. They are the same spear points that you found earlier and sold in Stavanger: made of adamantite.
Value of the catch? (I can go dig the earlier post, if needed)
I think 22 g.p. a pound was the price. For the moment, let me hold back on experience for it, since it is bound to be small, and you can't split it with the unconscious party. We can sort it out later.
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