I Can See Clearly Now The Darkvision's On

8th September 2011

Keen to continue where we left off, instead of pausing to consider every way initials could be carved in to a door, I take some indirect action. Standing over some dead tieflings in a crypt, I don't so much suggest that 'the paladin opens the door' in front of us but insinuate that's what he's doing.

'Um, what?' Curiously enough, the paladin doesn't like being volunteered to rush headlong in to the unknown, but that's okay, Brennan has another idea.

'The ranger kicks the paladin in the arse, causing him to stumble through the door.'

'That would involve the ranger getting a successful hit, though.' But thanks to our prompting the door is opened, leading deeper in to the crypt. Recently excavated rock walls shape a corridor. 'Are you going in, paladin?'

Ganelon looks nervously down the dark passage, somewhat reluctant to press on. 'I can't see anything down here', he says, concerned about being taken by surprise in the darkness, 'not without, oh...'

'...the darkvision spell we all have active?'

'I'll head in, shall I?'

Rabbit Shot Through a Paladin

1st September 2011

Combat against the tieflings is going much better now that they cannot disappear in to the darkness. Our temporary darkvision, granted by bought scrolls and cast by our wizard, pierces their supernatural ability and we can see them as clear as in daylight.

Brennan casts a spell and causes some of the tieflings to fall asleep, and Ganelon charges towards the one unaffected by the spell. He raises his longsword and slices down in a powerful swing, causing full damage and cutting the tiefling in two.

But our ranger is confused. 'What did you do just then?'

'Huh?'

'You rolled a second die, after the D20. What was that?'

'Oh. That was a damage roll. Don't worry, you'll get to roll one yourself eventually.' Let's hope so, as there are more tieflings in the crypt.

Keen to get a damage roll himself, Afutavere gets himself in to position where he can see the action. Once again our paladin has pushed forwards and is with me, fighting a mummy which bleeds and has a curious tendency to rely on a dagger. Afutavere aims for the tieflings deeper in the room.

The elf declares his action, stating 'I shall shoot the tiefling through the paladin!'.

'Past' the paladin, I would hope, not 'through'.

'And I shall use rabbit shot!' If it helps him to think he's hunting critters we shouldn't be critical. The combat continues!

Returning for Forty Flings

1st September 2011

Our ambush on the tieflings went a bit wrong. It's our own fault, we should have realised a mysterious benefactor was going to leave us a present of gold to bring us up to our current expected wealth level, so we can buy some appropriate equipment to help with the encounter. We've apparently been rather poor for 3rd level characters so far.

Afutavere the ranger ponders what to do with his windfall, to make him more effective. 'Should I buy a mighty composite longbow, or splash out and buy a magical bow?'

'Well, a magical bow will give you modifiers to help you hit your target, whereas you'll see no difference using a mighty bow in combat.' He sees my point, but buys the mighty bow anyway, as it leaves him some spare gold to buy a scroll of darkvision for combat against the tieflings. If only we'd thought about that the first time, we may have done more than get injured and run away.

The whole party goes shopping for nifty upgrades to weapons and armour, as well as buying a scroll of darkvision each. Our new plan is to assault the base of operations of the tieflings directly, as we probably won't catch them by surprise a second time.

We get back to the decrepit part of town, abandoned by all but tramps and bandits, and make our way to the tieflings' base. Our mage tries to blind the guard in the belltower, and even though the spell doesn't affect him we realise that a blind tiefling could still ring the bell in warning. So much for trying to get an advantage.

Entering the building is easier than expected. We have a crowbar just in case the door is locked or barred, but despite the paladin's protestations that breaking down a barred door will be nearly impossible all it takes to open this door is turning the handle. That was easy. Standing in the doorway, bard Brennan sees that our opponents don't care for a locked door because being alerted has let them get ready to shoot whoever opens it. 'What's inside?', we ask, not able to see.

'Four tieflings', he tells us, as a couple of crossbow bolts thud in to his chest.

'Forty what?' But we did the fire giants joke only recently, so we ignore that and leap in to combat.

Two Minor Flaws

25th August 2011

We have a plan to catch the tiefling bandits before they strike again, and this time we've done our homework. We've researched what we know about tieflings and that they have an ability that acts like the darkness spell. We've talked to some vagrants in the decrepit part of town who've seen the tieflings wandering around, to get an idea of their numbers and what paths they use. We've reconnoitred the area around their base of operations and found tracks suggesting which route they take before diverting to a specific point to cross in to the city proper. A suitable building has been found where we can lie in wait for their next excursion, and we've got some silent signals prepared to get us all ready when they are spotted coming our way. For once, we're prepared. It feels unnatural.

Our luck is in, as the tieflings move out of their base on the first night we wait for them, although another attack was due according to their modus operandi. Afutavere, our elf, sees them coming and taps our bard with the first signal, telling him to get ready. When they are close, he gives the second signal, and Brennan casts his light spell, giving us plenty of illumination to attack the tieflings, and we launch out of our cover. It's all working as planned! And then the tieflings cast darkness, and they are thrown in to a magical blanket of blackness, giving them complete cover that our normal sight cannot penetrate.

'Can they do that?'

'Um, yeah. I suppose we found that out earlier.'

'So what do we do?' It's a good question, as crossbow bolts coming pinging out of the darkness with more accuracy than we could manage firing them back.

'We're just going to have to do our best. Charge!' Paladin Ganelon rushes in to the lack of light and swings where he thinks a tiefling should be, his sword slicing only air. For his troubles he gets a short sword jabbed back at him. 'Argh! I'm being attacked, to my left!'

'That's great! Where are you?'

'And which direction are you facing?' Okay, vocal cues aren't going to help us either.

Afutavere pulls his bowstring taut and readies an action 'to shoot any tiefling I see.' That's the elf giving up on combat, apparently. And with more crossbow bolts coming our way and the paladin getting stabbed a couple more times the bard marks our retreat by running very fast away from the tieflings. The rest of us follow.

I'm sure even the admirable Kryten would admit ours was an excellent plan, with just two minor flaws. One, we learnt about the tiefling's darkness but didn't do anything to account for it, and two, we learnt about the tiefling's darkness but didn't do anything to account for it. Now of course, technically speaking, that's only one flaw but it's such a big one it's worth mentioning twice. Maybe we need to think about this some more.

Leaving Their Mark

25th August 2011

We need to stop a group of bandits who are burgling shops in the city, and whose latest raid ended up murdering a family who interrupted them. We recap what we know about the bandits and how they operate, which includes that they scratch their name, the Bastards of Erebus, on the outside of the door of the shop they burgle.

'Do they have time to do that? You'd think they'd be in a hurry.'

'Maybe they're blasé about it all and just take as long as they need.'

'Maybe they only write 'B of E'. That would save time, and everyone would know it's them.'

'But aren't the doors also locked when found in the morning? Do they really take the time to lock them again? And if they somehow appear inside how do they carve the name on the outside?'

'I reckon they already know what place they're hitting and they take a replica of the door with them, with the name already carved in to it, and they simply replace the door. It 's the simplest explanation.'

'They already have an 18th level wizard*, they probably just cast permanent illusion. It's easier that way.

'Does the warp wood spell allow you to do something like that? It's lower level and more likely they'd have it.'

'...are we still talking about this? This was just meant to be a recap from the last session! How about discussing a plan to stop them?

*Because they can warp time. Don't ask.

Letting Them Get Away

18th August 2011

We're fighting some bandits: tieflings and an ogre. There is one more tiefling than I saw when I scouted, this fifth one looking to be the leader, as he is rather more aggressive and the only one to be using natural claws as a weapon against us. Well, against me, mostly. And despite the paladin's constant checking the bandit leader doesn't drop his natural claws in favour of a more conventional weapon. It all sounds rather familiar, but at least we aren't facing gelatinous cube bandits. Or, for that matter, fire giants.

The ogre is causing enough problems on his own. Even with the four other tieflings removed from combat, thanks to an effective web spell flung at them by our wizard (and thankfully not followed-up with a swarm of bats), the ogre's tree-trunk of a club has put some dents in the paladin's armour.

I'm tickled to see that trying to disarm a club bigger than myself is not that much more difficult than a normal-sized club, but I still manage to fail. Maybe the ogre's orge strength helps him cling on to his weapon when it's struck by a puny human monk. Not even Brennan's attempts to trip the ogre are much help. A voice rumbles from above that maybe the encounter is tweaked a little too much against us.

But Ganelon comes to the rescue! After failing to realise in our previous fight that his smite ability ignores all damage reduction—which would have helped nicely against the were-rat not-a-goblin leader, had he remembered—the paladin redeems himself with a mighty blow on the ogre, a critical hit slicing through the large creature's neck. It's not quite enough to drop him to the forest floor but one more strenuous swing of the huge club is enough to cause the orge to collapse. It's a neat trick, but you need to be a professional to pull off the sacrificing strike.

The tide is turned. The felled ogre leaves us only the leader tiefling to fight, who we drop unconscious just in time for the other bandits to free themselves from the web and face us. Two are put to magical sleep and manacled by our bard, so they can be taken back to town to face justice, and the other two flee. The fight started to look bad but a heroic strike made us victorious! So of course I have to ruin it.

Some strange sense of justice fills my mind such that I cannot let the other bandits escape unpunished. My new-found fast movement lets me close the ground on the fleeing tieflings, to the point where they turn to engage me. Right, I remember now why this is a bad idea, as they probably won't surrender if I declare that I'm putting them under citizen's arrest.

The two tieflings naturally gang up on me, as we are now safely a couple of hundred feet from their camp and my fellows. Well, they are safely a couple of hundred feet from my fellows, I'm rather at risk. I take a few blows before deciding that maybe justice has been served, at which point a couple of the party have thankfully decided not to let me learn from my mistakes the hard way, and have line-of-sight to let them shoot arrows at the tieflings.

The tieflings go one way, I go the other. Our mission is a success, even if I consume a potion or two of cure light wounds more than was necessary. We take back to town three bandits to be locked away for their crimes, return trade goods to robbed merchants, and present the head of the ogre as a show that it will not threaten any citizens again. Our good deeds are getting recognition.

Intelligence Misgathering

18th August 2011

We're almost being heroic in our efforts to clean up this evil city. A shadowbeast has been killed, the goblins dispersed with the death of their leader, and now we're dealing with some bandits who are preying on merchants on a trade route between towns. We have already borrowed a covered wagon and have me as a harmless driver escorted only by an imcompetent-looking guard, a role the paladin fills only too well. The rest of the party are in the back of the wagon pretending to be trade goods. They're pretty convincing too.

We don't lure out any bandits to attack us directly, but at a notorious spot in the road we see wheel tracks in the soft mud leading away from the road. Afutavere gets rather excited by this, giving him a chance to use his ranger tracking skills, but as he checks the wind direction and starts licking animal droppings we have left him behind. The wheel tracks in the mud are pretty easy to follow.

The makeshift bandit camp is readily found, although only fools would go looking for it, I suppose. I scout ahead silently, to give us a better chance of gaining an advantage in unfamiliar territory. The general chit-chat and noise coming from the unsuspecting bandits in the camp conceals any sounds I make in approaching, and I see four dark-skinned humanoids sitting around a fire. Tieflings! But what's that? Beyond a partially collapsed wall I see the head of what looks like a much taller and broader figure. I must go back and report.

I return to the rest of the party, not too far away, and give a detailed description of the layout of the camp which they can mostly see. I also let them know what bandits we face. 'There are some tieflings, and a large fellow, maybe a giant. I didn't get a decent look at him.'

Brennan is keen to get information on the bandit numbers, asking me 'how many?'

'Five.'

'Five giants? Crikey.'

'No, I—'

'Fire giants?' Ganelon isn't happy to hear what we face. Frankly, neither am I, but it focusses the minds of the party, and when we eventually get in to combat at least we find the encounter to be a little smoother than first expected. But not much smoother.

Getting a Foot in the Door

11th August 2011

The ground floor of the ruined inn is cleared of any goblin threat and we move upstairs, hoping still to find the leader, Whitechin. We see no movement to start with, and with a choice of opposite doors at the end of a corridor we decide to get the element of surprise with both of them.

Afutavere the ranger and myself stand back-to-back, getting ready to kick down a door each and face what waits behind them. So that we don't alert one side before the other, we coordinate our busts to be simultaneous.

'Okay, ready?

'Ready.'

'1, 2—'
'3, 2—'

'No, count down, not up.'

'Ah, right.'

'3, 2—'
'3, 2—do we go on 1, or after 1?'

'Okay, count up. Go on 3. No! After 3.'

'Okay.'

'Okay.'

'1, 2, 3, go!'
'1, 2, 3, go!'

Afutavere's foot slams in to the door, making a few splintered dents in it but otherwise having little effect.

I, on the other hand, have a change of heart. I've tried to kick down enough doors that I know a 2nd level monk is not likely to succeed, even with a fairly shabby-looking door, so I reach for the handle and casually push the door open in to an empty room.

And the goblins attack behind us from down the corridor anyway.

Pitiful Reflex Save

11th August 2011

We go in to the ruined inn, in the northern part of the city, to flush out some goblins and their leader, Whitechin. The ground floor holds a surprise for our paladin, who has to catch himself from falling down a covered pit. Ganelon is asked to make a reflex save.

'Reflex? That's not good for me. Um, 15 + 6, that's 21.'

The 'that's not good for me', followed by 'plus 6', is followed by a chorus of 'plus 6?!' around the table. Bard Brennan kindly points out our paladin's false pessimism.

'Reflex is my best saving throw, and it's only +5.' And despite the paladin not feeling confident with his paltry 2nd level reflex save bonus of +6 he manages to stumble across the pit trap safely, where he gets chewed on by a couple of goblin dogs. Thankfully, the dogs' bites only force fortitude saving throws, which our paladin feels rather more secure about, being even better than his reflex save.

Burn It!

11th August 2011

A shadowbeast defeated we look to removing the menace of some organised goblin gang to gain more prestige amongst the civilians of the city. The goblins have been brought together under the leadership of one called Whitechin, and it seems that if we get rid of him then the goblins will disperse to be little more threat than vermin once again.

We head to the ruined northern part of the city where Whitechin is suspected to be, and get friendly with some vagrants. Offered some rations, they tell us they were evicted from what they call home by the goblins, and now they don't even have half a roof over their heads.

'We could just raze the building to the ground, with the goblins in it. It's the only way to be sure.' I like the sound of my own plan, strangely enough, as does Skelra, our wizard.

Brennan, however, doesn't like the wanton destruction it would involve. 'No, we need to keep the building intact for the vagrants to use, since the goblins evicted them from there in the first place.' Our paladin, feeling a tug from his good alignment, concurs with the bard.

Two against two, the burning building plan fails. Skelra comes up with a new idea, 'let's send the paladin in, where he asks to be served beer and in the confusion we catch them off-guard'. It's crazy, but it might just work. Better still, the paladin seems okay with it, and starts walking in the direction of the ruined inn.

'Okay, that's got him out of the way. Now we can revisit the vote to raze the building to the ground. By my reckoning, it is now two against one, so the motion will pass.'

'Even better, the paladin's inside too. It's the perfect plan.'

We don't get around to setting the building on fire, sadly, as the same motion cannot be brought to the table twice within a twenty-four hour period. That, and the building is made of stone. We settle for a more traditional assault through the front door.


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