RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

Longman's hex-based exploration PBP campaign

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Woe
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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Woe »

She's starting to think the rumbling sound might be because she hates being underground and the blood is roaring in her ears.
Haha!

"Finally, proper stonework." grumbles Kilian. Clearly he's appreciative of both the stonework and being underground both.

You are correct. They are heading to 5. The party will slowly head west toward the middle of the hallway (but staying on one side). Once they get near the second northern passage, they'll likely detour to see what the two 2's on the map are. That symbol occurs elsewhere.

Any signs of spiders or other creepy crawlies? How high is the ceiling, and can the party see the top of it?

I don't like the alcoves in this hallway.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Longman »

I don't like them either! :o

You move up to the indicated location (2-2) with stairwell - and find that the entrance to that room is actually blocked by a large, stout wooden door. It looks pretty old but nonetheless intact. She can see a keyhole.

Freya checks the alcove opposite (south wall) and sees a large pedestal, with some scraps of metal at the base - possibly the remains of a suit or armor, as she can still see the rusted fingers of one plate glove. From this point, she can see 60' further westward too - the creepy crawlies are still scuttling westward and north and south into the open hallways down there. She thinks they are cave insects. The spider webs are not big. Ceilings 20' high.

She is still 30' ahead, just near the big wooden door.
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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Woe »

Hmm... Tiana has an idea about what to do with the cave insects, but she's not going to do it quite yet. Almost, but not quite. I've seen too many movies like Aliens to be comfortable with this setup.

Freya and Anna confer at the door, as well as listen to it. If it's quiet, if nothing comes down the hall, and if they can find a key to use, *click*
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Longman »

Image

Anna tries her ear at the door, which lurches out at her and tries to attach itself onto her, behaving in an almost flesh-like manner.

Anna is surprised. Freya is not.

The door does not do the young thief any damage. However, it sticks to her head and shoulder with a glue-like grip. It seems to be covered in tiny suckers. It immediately tries to swivel about and turn its back to the rest of you, depositing her in the room on the other side.

Freya can act. What does she do? She can simply shoot the door at very close range, or, she can try and wedge herself in as the creature swivels around. She might end up on the other side, or she might stop it from turning around.

Everyone else is a little way back and can act first next round, except Tiana, who failed her surprise roll and will go last next round. Maybe she was staring at her map?

Mimic. Gotcha.
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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Woe »

The party has never seen that before! Assuming they live, what other horrors await them?

Once Freya sees what is going on, she'll try to roll into the room as it opens. She's not sure what she'll find inside, but Anna isn't going to face it alone! Blocking the door seems risky -- she doesn't want to get squished. She'll fire as well, because elves do the roll+fire thing really well.

Everyone attacks (duh). The dwarves will swap to melee and start pounding on the backside. Talin will fire at the door (I assume three can't fit up there?) with the appropriate penalties for not shooting dwarves in the back. Abigall can throw rocks with her sling. Fido will, um, try to not growl; try to stand guard on the rear; try to sniff a lot and figure out why he didn't smell it earlier.

Freya inwardly wonders whether the suckers would help with her earache. :lol:
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Longman »

Freya ducks into the room - making a pretty nifty dex roll - to discover to her horror that there is another one of the hideous creatures in here as well, posing as the opposite (north) door. It is now moving towards her. There are plenty of bones on the floor here, including the remains of a recently squished hobgoblin. The place stinks. The flight of stairs in this room goes upward into a room containing a large natural stone pillar.

Poor Anna totally fails her check to free herself from the creature's grasp and is stuck fast as it swivels around.

(Freya does not get to shoot this round. It's only a partial round.)

Normal Round 1
Talin fires while the dwarves are changing weapons. He misses wildly, a panicked shot. The mouse-girl slings, and hits - although you can hardly tell if there is damage, the stone just sticks to the thing's back.

Normally, changing weapons means you can't attack in that round. But, if you look at the combat house-rules you will see: You can fire a light crossbow and then be ready to attack with your melee weapon in the next round, with no penalty. So I figure you might as well do that, rather than just changing weapons and not attacking this round?

Both dwarves fire their crossbows. Their bolts thud into the hard carapace of the back and stick to it. Bruce thinks they have done no damage, but Kilian thinks they have done a lot! The rest of the party are similarly divided as to whether these missiles are having any effect. The dwarves will be ready to act in melee next round.

The first mimic moves 10 further into the room and around the corner, and then tries to slam Anna into the wall. It hits and does her 3 hit points (out of a possible 12). Yep, I just rolled 3 1s in a row.

I need actions from Tiana and Freya to end round 2. (You can give me actions for round 3 if you like as well, but I might ignore them if they make no sense.)

Freya could run up the stairs although the second mimic will get a parting shot. Or she could shoot. Incidentally the western doorway to this room has been partly blocked off with all sorts of rubble and debris the mimics have dragged in here over the years. Freya could get through it, but it'd take a round, and the second Mimic is right behind her.

It is growling and talking to her in a language she does not recognize. Its voice sounds mocking. She can see it's horrible mouth and tiny slits for eyes.
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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Woe »

Ok, now to save our romance hooks from becoming a bad case of digestion!

Oh batdroppings! thinks Freya. If it is possible for her to get to a safe place to shoot, she'll do that. I suspect though that the mimic would also be able to go up the stairs, so the stairs are out. If the creature is attacking her (unclear), she'll just parry with her bow (+4 to AC). If it's not attacking her, she'll back up 20' on the stairs (the fighting withdrawal) and shoot it with her arrows. She'll call out "There's two of them!" in case the boys on the other side can hear her.

Tiana calmly tells the others to back out of the way, then polymorphs the mimic into a gnat.

Is this possible or would it have issues? Tiana could mage-hand a flask of oil over there and then light it on fire? My thought is that I wouldn't need to make a success check on putting oil on a wall nor lighting it, since I don't think the mimic would dodge out of the way. Other than that, I can't think of much she can do other than reload a crossbow or futilely throw a dagger.

Abigall should hurl rocks at it, and Fido should attack too.

Round 3!
Everyone kills the mimic, except Freya (who does her best to either stay out of range of being attacked or will parry best she can) and Anna (who does her best to detach herself and parry everything). The dwarves will switch to their melee weapons. Does Anna think about what solvents she has on herself?
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Longman »

Freya retreats backwards up the stairs - the smartest option. The second Mimic is not fast - it is moving at about 10'. You can see small, weird stumpy legs sticking out the bottom of it and you realize it is basically a grotesque and highly mutant humanoid.

Freya shoots - and the arrow simply sticks to the creature and doesn't seem to have any effect. Nonetheless it lumbers slowly towards the stairs.

Tiana can get a flask of oil and prepares flame for next round. Fire is probably a good idea although not with the others attacking it.

Abigall attacks with her sling as it is retreating around the corner but misses wildly and nearly hits Freya as she is running up the stairs.

Fido (on your instructions) charges in and attacks the creature from behind. He ends up getting stuck to the back of the 'door'. As it retreats further into the room. he is now yowling piteously and can't get free.

Round 3 (aka Normal Round 2)

You all get to act first. These things are not fast.

The dwarves - who can stow their crossbows and still attack - rush in and attack the back of the first creature, trying not to hit poor Fido. Bruce critically fails and mucks up Kilian's shot. Kilian misses badly as well, not even managing to hit the door.

Abigall elects to attack with her sling and once again the stone just sticks to the door.

Fido can't break free of the door. Anna stops struggling and starts thinking about solvents - the alcohol in the dwarves' backpacks springs to her mind.

Talin switches weapons - that's a full round for him. While doing so he notices that the creatures are still talking in a language that seems to contains some Sader, and is therefore probably Salenish. The one holding Anna says something like the following:


Aurn de Malach a Gosbe tran alun pas? Fille non pas vital am? Cans itar ya?


He recognizes 'Girl', 'Food / Eat', and 'Malagosbe.' (He rolled 20 and 18 for this).

Freya takes another shot from the top of the stairs - she hits the thing this time, and the arrow actually sticks in and sticky black blood oozes out. It yells angrilly at her, and stops advancing.

Tiana can throw the oil, with mage hand, at the door...is that still what you want to do?

At the end of the round, the first Mimic once again slams Anna against the wall. It does 6 hit points, knocking her down to 0. She fails her save vs death and is killed.

Both dwarves think it was pulling its punches a bit and could have done her even more damage quite easily. Then it swivels around and shows the thief to the pair of them.

(There are numerous rolls here that you could make into successes and fails with game points. I'd suggest you make the Mimic miss Anna, at least).
Woe
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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Woe »

Gah! The interweb demon ate my post. Fortunately this one wasn't a long one.

Yeah, Anna gets to use one of the game points, but it's coming out of her pay! Hopefully the beast critically fumbles, frees Anna, and kills the other beast all with the same failure.

More sensibly, I think the only thing I can undo with her is the attack roll, correct? She can't undo the "get the oil" because there was no roll? If that's true, I'll go with that.
Freya HP 24/24 AC 16 (17 two weapons)
Kilian HP 20/20 AC 19 (18 no shield)
Talin HP 29 AC 16
Tiana HP 11 AC 12 SP 8/8
Fido HP 9/9 AC 16
Anna HP 12/12 AC 15 (19 defensively)
Bruce HP 20/20 AC 16 (15 no shield)

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Re: RED OAK: BEYOND THE MIRROR

Post by Longman »

I don't get the bit about the oil. Tiana already has it and can throw it this round (3) if she wants.

Let's say Anna buys a critical miss and the beast swings around and does not deal her any damage, instead falling partially prone and opening itself up to +2 fr anyone who tries to hit it in round 4.

It does not drop Anna - she is actually glued on as well as stuck with suckers.

End of round 3 - does Tiana throw oil? It may work but will quite likely set Anna on fire as well.

The one that holds Anna is still talking, the same words as before. The second one is still advancing in a cumbersome fashion up the stairs towards Freya.

Round 4 - you all get to act.

Go!
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