Whatever it is, the rest is hidden under the snow; the eye's lid is all that moved, so it is all that is revealed.
Embla is not surprised, but she does not necessarily have the initiative, either. The eye is close; no more than ten feet away. For the moment she stands as still as she can in the slicing wind; but at some point she will have to test her speed against whatever is under the snow.
I will remind you: Engelhart is two rounds away; the cleric's arrival could in a bit more than 20 seconds could ignite something. Rob Munro is right behind Engelhart. Then Mikael, who has time to hurry along, with Lothar close behind.
I will make an image for this, though that will eat time so it will have to wait until Wednesday; I want to see what Embla does, first.
Move and roll a d6 for initiative. Wait and see what happens. Decide what else you might do.
43 comments:
3 for initiative.
I withdraw as soon as possible towards my comrades.
Win. You run at the slot towards the shoreline and meet Engelhart there.
Whew!
So, there are nasties under the snow there. What do we want to do?
Is the suspicious mound reacting in any way to Embla getting away?
Are there more suspicous mounds in view?
In any case I stand at the ready with my club and shield in hand.
Whatever it is, it did not move.
So, what I was saying about detect magic...
Mikael, can you try to tell us more, preferably from all of 40 feet away?
Alexis: does my own knowledge of beasts shed any light on this fact?
Gang, what do you say? Dare we enough to try? We can well mark that bull's eye for death. It'll just have to run smoother than the last assassination attempt.
(of course, we need to try to understand what it is and how alone it might be)
Crumbs, still remembering stuff from where we left off. Do I add the HP from my level up to my current HP as well as my total? I thought so, but it wasn't recorded on my character sheet.
Just now, where Mikael is standing, he is 40 yards away from the grate and perhaps a bit more from the gate. He's about 40 feet from where Embla was standing a few rounds ago.
Engelhart cannot judge whatever Embla saw because the cleric has not seen it.
Lothar, you add your new hit points to your present total and to your maximum.
The immediate threat is the eye, I can cast Detect Magic on that from here or a bit closer.
But I wonder if this is just a guardian for the gate. Wasn't there a gate the lemurs guard that we have to get them to leave, and we cannot pass?
[I've gone and read the backlog, but found nothing about guardians. Just "endless croaking from beyond the opened gate"]
Waiting to hear what you find out and from the party in general to decide if we stick with it or fold.
Our HP situation is still dire and we do not know whether it is alone or how dangerous it is.
With this being said, retreating now might be invitation to an ambush down the line.
Rob will note as he speaks that the snowdrift is shaking, as whatever is beneath shakes itself free. The party has gathered at the slot now, so all can see plainly. The creature, not a beast, has apparently flattened itself; and now as it expands, dead white in color and full of large knobby lumps in dark grey, revealing itself to be a large toad. A very large toad.
Four feet at the shoulder now, with a head as large as a human's torso, it pads its feet slowly in the snow, turning its head to look at you. The mouth opens and closes twice, giving the sensation that it is licking its lips ~ though no tongue emerges.
It does not move closer at this time.
Oh shit.
Flee or engage?
I think I understand. This is one of the ice toads being protected by the lemures.
Englehart, Ancient Prugg said this: "You will see them beyond the gate; but you must not pass through the gate yourselves. You must, instead, draw them out. If you can do so, one at a time, this will make it easier for you to succeed at your task."
I think, if we attack this ice toad, the lemures will come out. I know we are weak, but I think if we flee we lose any hope of success.
With the HP from leveling up, I'm at 40%. Let's form up, and if we need to flee, let's keep that option open.
I get in front, brandishing my axe.
I move to 5 feet behind and 10 feet to the side of Embla.
I move 10 feet behind Embla, 5feet to the left.
Good catch, Mikael. Wonder if that means we should only engage from a distance?
In any event, it would seem we've been spotted and might be past the point of escape.
I shift 5 feet in the opposite direction of Lothar, behind Embla's position.
I cast Dust Devil aimed at the Toad.
[OOC: my phone battery is near-dead, I'll likely be away]
I stand in the back and ready a normal dart.
I won't get anything set up until tomorrow. Noted that Engelhart is casting dust devil; no need to aim it at this time. I'll create the usual map as I get the opportunity.
Sorry about the lag. It's Christmas and my time was soaked up today.
Couple of things. First, Lothar, I updated the sage table to include Athletics. Sorry to disappoint, I rolled four levels of knowledge gain and you only received 4 points.
Second, I've added the snow field image above, trying to get your positions correct. I've added one map that reaches almost to the gate and a close up for easier reading of the map numbers (though everything is in white; sorry; I didn't have time to manually change every text number on the map to black text (has to be done one at a time, unfortunately).
Sorry also that these combats will run slowly. Will be like playing chess by old mail.
So, I propose we try to lure him a bit further away from the gate, in case .
I can read the numbers okay, and I am pretty much blind. Sorry if it was stated, but what is the dark gray coloring to our left and right? How far from the ice are we, and would I be correct that the ice is to our backs? I agree we should lure the creature further from the gate, but fighting on ice sounds awful to me.
Mikael: the ground's packed snow, much as the previous fight, we ought to have no problem with that.
Regarding luring the toad... aren't these things spellcasters?
Alexis: do we have initiative right now?
Yes, you have initiative.
Engelhart, forgot to say you should consider your dust devil spell cast, and that you are holding it back before discharging the spell and letting it rip up the snow.
Hum, let's see, if I cast this too soon it could mean a microblizzard and the thing obscured from us, to its advantage.
I'll go cautious for now and fall back one hex to 0716, holding the spell.
(on second thought, make that 0715, keeps my options open and avoids bunching up too much)
Engelhart, you might as well discharge your spell, better to get the first hit in and keep the flying snow away from us. I have a feeling we'll have to fight it whatever we do.
Rob, Mikael, get ready to run. Depending on how tough it is we might be able to hold it off long enough for you to get away.
Jeez, why do I feel like I'm looking at another batch of fire beetles?
I don't think I trekked across an icy lake to flee the thing we came here to kill. Seems counter-productive.
We should probably just attack the damn thing.
I back up 3 hexes, keeping 2 AP to make an attack.
That's just the thing, we collectively never decided if we really were in for an offensive fight or defensive withdrawal.
Indecision and lack of preparation were what cost us the beetle fight. I can hold the spell a while longer as I still have AP, but I'd like to see some kind of action from you guys before committing.
Let's try to kill this thing.
I think we've agreed to fight it. Engelhart, you've got the spell, to you go the honors of opening the proverbial can of whup-ass.
Very well, fellas, I'm more than willing. I move one hex forward and fling the spell.
Attack roll: 4 (Crap. Devil attacks as a 9 HD monster, but I doubt this is a hit).
I draw my maul with the remainder.
So, not set up just at the moment to resolve a combat round; a "4" hits AC 10 for the dust devil; but remember you have three rounds left with it. Reading the rules on the wiki, a miss would mean the devil was still adjacent to the creature (choose a hex within your 6-hex spell range for the devil's exact location). Technically, the creature is "engaged" in combat with dust devil so it needs 2 AP to escape it and move to attack.
Apart from that, if anyone wants to throw anything, remember the dust devil will be in the way and will suck up anything thrown at it, so that it is thrown out of the whirl, missing. If running forward, movement please. The snow is thick, however, so please subtract 1/2 AP for each hex you move through once you clear the rocks (that's what those grey things on either side are). Two hexes, then, are a move of 3 AP.
It's always something, isn't it?
I take it to mean the snow doesn't surge up in a cloud like I feared, then?
Still, that placement information is pretty nifty, Alexis, it could be of much use to us in escaping if the beast tries to pounce us. And it will also hinder spellcasting, correct?
Alexis: I now stand on 0714. The Dust Devil is placed on hex 1010, so as to keep it out of the way. To recalibrate my miscalculated movement, I simply keep my maul stashed for now.
Same as Mikael, I did not come all the way here to flee while you die.
I move to 615.
Engelhart, I was most concerned that the blowing snow would disrupt the dust devil, but I've ruled that out. The devil is, technically, wind, not material; and while it does pull up snow, it is contained within the dimension of the dust devil, being whisked away otherwise.
You're right that the devil will ruin spells and that it will serve as a blockade.
[sorry for going AWOL, guys. Holiday bullshit; and I escaped into the writing on the other blog. I'll put up a new post for the campaign this evening]
The next post is up.
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