RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Longman]

North door opens to the south. It is ajar. You could close it easily.

The secret door - which opens inwards - was opened enough so that the whole party could exit - which is pretty wide, and enough to allow an attack, definitely. You can always spike it back up once you are in there. Another 2 rounds to do that effectively.

If you move back into the secret room, I will allow the whole party to get inside in one round, with the mage hand spell in effect (5 rounds to go).

Spiking the door to a small crack will take another 2 rounds. If you just close it, that's automatic.

[Woe]

There we have it then!

With the cloak floating behind them (and nearest to the northern door), everyone will rush back into the secret door and close it behind them. Once closed, the dwarves will set to reinforcing the door before opening it enough to get a firing arc again.

I think with my next visit to town, I'm buying a few extra cloaks. Tiana always seems to ruin one.

Question and possible change to the plan:
- if they leave the door open and get their bows out, the wormtooth crashes through the northern door, would they be able to both fire (that round) and close the door (next round) as the wormtooth crosses; or if the wormtooth won initiative in the next round, it would be able to bull rush/charge across the room and get into melee?

I'm melee-adverse, remember? As the old adage goes, never bring a knife to a gunfight.

[Longman]

If the worm-tooth got through the door it would be....through the door. You wouldn't be able to close it afterwards.

When you flee, it will be at 40' for Tiana, and the cloak will be in front of her - so she can see it. She has to be able to see it to animate it. It can't be behind her.

What happens is that you all get back inside the room (round 1) while the wormtooth enters the skeleton room. In round 2, the dwarves begin spiking the door closed, and the creature steadily slithers in your direction.

It is now round 3. The worm has won initiative over the two dwarves - meaning it is going to crash through the door before they get a chance to properly spike it at a narrow angle.

You got a few options:

Close the door
Let the door fly open and try to shoot the thing with arrows (Talin, Freya and Anna could all shoot, or two archers and Tiana to cast a spell). Meanwhile Bruce and Kilian will have to back off or lie down, otherwise they will be in the line of fire. All that would happen after the other characters rolled for init.

[Woe]

The door should be closed, right?

Once closed, the dwarves will set to reinforcing the door before opening it enough to get a firing arc again.

In round 2, the dwarves begin spiking the door closed, and the creature steadily slithers in your direction.

The worm has won initiative over the two dwarves - meaning it is going to crash through the door

Wouldn't the worm be crashing into the door. Or did you mean the wormtooth would be crashing through the door? I thought it was a stone door.

[Longman]

OK - I did misread your post earlier. You are in the secret room and the door is closed. That was the first thing you did as soon as you got inside.

If you want to open it back up again from here, the worm will probably get an opportunity to push in before you can spike it. There's no getting around that.

[Woe]

If you want to open it back up again from here, the worm will probably get an opportunity to push in before you can spike it. There's no getting around that.

Yep! I'm expecting that to happen, which is why I have Kilian using a lot of brainpower how to avoid it.

Currently, the door is closed and spiked shut. What I'd like to do is spike the door a bit farther back, remove the front spikes, and ease the door open. I'm quite sure the wormtooth will pounce at the door the second it moves, which is why the dwarves+Talin will be throwing their weight against the door. Also, the spikes should add some extra resistance as well. So when wormy flings itself at the opening door, it will have 250# (Kilian)+ 250# (Talin) + 200# (Bruce) providing counterweight. Suddenly, those extra spikes seem to be a bit pointless. Tiana and Freya will be at the back of the room, Freya with her bow and Tiana with her net.

Before we put this in motion, what was roughly the wormtooth (sp?) weight? 25' long * 5' wide = something heavy. Is it grossly more than 700#?

[Longman]

This wormy was about 20' long and also about 5' wide. You think it could fit inside the door, just.

You can't really estimate its weight and strength. But you are right that if you have 3 big guys against the door, the spikes are bit redundant.

What is actually the plan with this? I'm going to say you can open the door by about 6 inches and it probably won't be able to push inside...but the doorway is only about 5' wide anyway, so it will also be impossible to get a shot at the creature with 3 guys in the way. Therefore, I can't see the point in opening the door at all. You might as well wait til it leaves.

The one thing you could reasonably try is a force web on the creature's head. But there is no doubt it has high enough Strength to bust out pretty fast, if not immediately.

[Woe]

I was thinking about that earlier today. A 5' wide door is pretty wide. Not just the secret door, but the north door and kitchen door as well. Are the dimensions right? You can tell me:
- yes, everything is at least 5' wide
- no, the worm is really 3' wide but just as dense
- stop measuring widths of doors and curtains and get back to role playing

[Longman]

The third one.

[Woe]

I think we're going with that plan, terrible as it sounds.

The boys are going to keep the door as closed as possible. With the barest of cracks, they'll make enough of an opening for Freya and Abigall to start getting shots off at the worm. At some point the worm will bash through the door, but I'm hoping it will take a few rounds. Eventually I suspect the boys will bash with their clubs and the girls will shot with their arrows, but let's hope it works out better than that. Tiana will use her web when best appropriate, because she has nothing else to do.