Showing a portion of the room ... the shrieker is still alive, still breathing, sucking in air through gaps of its bladder-like body and blowing them out through the mouth on top of its head.
Once again, Engelhart escapes the incidental damage, and once again Lothar takes 3. Embla takes 2.
Something new ... Embla tilts her head a half second before taking an attack; then realizes what it is she had just heard.
There are rats coming.
The party is free to act.
The shrieker dies. Here is the party's XP so far:
23 comments:
I say "Rats incoming"
I also whack at the shrieker with my axe. Nat 1 to hit.
Lothar attacks!
Attack: 15+1=16, hits AC 2
Damage: 2. Humph.
Valda closes to 1211 and swings a shortsword -
Attack: 12
Damage: 5
Roll a d20 for your axe, to see if it suffers from the drop. The weapon falls and ends up in 1011.
2 damage is 2 damage, Lothar. And the 5 damage also counts. The shrieker is only AC 9.
That's a 4 for the axe's durability.
Yet another swing:
Attack roll: 15
Damage roll: 10
Should we let go of the bone? Clearly this thing has already alerted whatever it was meant to alert...
With Engelhart's last swing, the shrieker collapses into a mass of limbs and vegetable matter, the air inside escaping with a final wheeze...
And at the same time, a host of rats, seven or more, emerge from the darkness deeper in the cave; Engelhart's lantern offers light as far as the 0300s, blocked somewhat by two stalagmites ... but the rats race quickly, the front runners moving into 0709 and 0710.
I'l draw that out with the next running. Since Engelhart is closest, he should roll initiative. A d6 from the cleric, please.
[I can't run tomorrow; I'll be working. I'm off Saturday and Sunday, but I know that the players rarely have any time on the weekend. Then I am working Monday and Tuesday, and I should have Wednesday off ~ though that schedule isn't confirmed]
[If you all are good with two days a week, all day, then that would work for me. If it's expected, we might do well]
Engelhart gets 8 hp of damage done out of that last hit. I've put up the XP gained by the party so far ... but I must consider the rats part of the same encounter, as they are here because of the shrieker. So don't add any XP to your characters, yet.
Two solid days a week sounds great to me.
Agreed.
I'm good with whatever accomodates you, Alexis.
(I do have freedom to post during weekends thanks to the marvels of mobile internet and millenial membership card).
Leaving me 8 or whatever-it-is xp points shy of levelling before a fight, however, has me blinking back salt.
[Forgot all about the die roll: I roll a 6].
[Hello, I'm here. I'm just going to shake off my morning stiffness and drink some coffee. Does anyone have any questions before we dig in?
[Engelhart wins the initiative. I'll be bringing in the new players as soon as I'm able. For now, Mikael and Rob, keep commenting on the main post's thread, until I bring you on]
[Let's get to it! As an unfortunate side note, I will be without my dice today and tomorrow]
Okay, Embla. Let me know your intentions each round and I'll roll the dice for you.
I need to set up a new map. Just waking up. We'll be fully started in half an hour.
This is an important question, which I need answered so I can set up the next round.
HOW CLOSE do you want the rats to get to Embla and Engelhart's position before you act in accordance with winning initiative? 1 hex? 2 hexes? 3 or 4 hexes? Those are your choices.
I haven't asked this question before, but it seems to me I ought to, since they're "charging" and you've won initiative.
Maybe 2 hexes away, so we can see how their positioned and respond accordingly?
They're massed and running one and two rats per hex.
One feature I have added to the rat "monster" is that two rats can attack and defend out of the same hex, so they can really maul a single individual (up to 12 attacks per round if someone is isolated and attacked from six directions). This swarm feature should be concerning. There is no bonus for attacking a hex with two rats in it.
There are 14 rats altogether.
I'd personally say as far as possible, but that's me and my "fighting retreat" ways.
If we can bottleneck them in 1413, we can trivialize the fight...
(yikes, I only saw the "14 rats" message now!- I'm definitely asking for "far as far can").
I have already stated that the rats had entered the 0700s column. I'll start them there.
The next post is up.
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