RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

[Woe]

You forgot to roll for initiative for round 6. And yes, putting "dwarf" in the race box makes "alcohol" on the inventory redundant. I think that's been a house rule since Gygax declared it in 1847.

"Wha?! Ack! Me ale! Wot are ye doing lassie?!" screams Kilian. "Dat's me pappy's brew!"

Mimic 2 is moving this round and not attacking?

Everyone will attack again. Tiana will go after more ale despite Kilian's emphatic protests. If I can tell which person will be attacked by mimic 1,said target will defend. Talin will make the strategic withdrawal (the one without a penalty), switch to his bow, and fire soon as able. I think that means next turn though.


I haven't been recording damage on my .sig because I forgot that was my job. Can you give me a health update?

[Longman]

You say ale, I say whiskey. It's strong, whatever it is.

I was mistaken about Mimic 2. It is actually still stuck, as there is a penalty on the saves vs. Tiana's form of the spell. So, it does nothing in round 5.

Anna has taken 3hp. Fido has taken 8 hit points. Bruce has taken 1, from Abigall. Mimic 1 has taken 22. Mimic 2 has taken 10.


Note - Kilian was still injured on 15/20. He actually has less hp now, due to the redefinition of his class. Please update your sig to reflect that.

Round 6 -
Freya fires - fish in a barrel - mimic 2 now on 13hp.
Kilian attacks - this time a big hit, taking the creature to 29. He manages to free his battle axe. The mimic is really having chunks carved out of it.
Bruce attacks - this is a miss. He's scared of hitting Anna, as well as getting his mace stuck.

Abigall fires and hits - it in on 32. She cheers with delight again. Someone should really shut her up.

Talin backs away and can change weapons. Technically that is 2 moves but I will allow it in one this time as the creature is about to surrender.
Anna tries to struggle free, and succeeds. Fido is still not free.

Tiana lobs more alcohol on the creature, hitting it well. Foul smelling steam oozes off the strange bloody humanoid. It falls to its knees (?) and starts babbling in Salenish. Talin has no idea what it is saying. but it is pretty clear it is not attacking you any more. Fido is still stuck, however.

In the meantime the second mimic tries to get free of the web and succeeds, this time. It backs away from the mysterious force web, and blunders back into the main room. It looks like it is going to attack either Tiana or Freya or Talin, who has just rearmed. It looks and sounds very angry.

Please note that Freya is still upstairs and the lower part of the stairway is blocked with a forceweb. Tiana can deactivate this if she likes. Otherwise Freya can't get back in.

Good job. You really beat up on that first mimic. I thought someone was going to die! But I think you have gotten out of this OK.

Your go. Round 7.

[Woe]

Darn! This would have been easier to finish with one more spell point!

It looks like it is going to attack either Tiana or Freya or Talin, who has just rearmed.
The dwarves close rank in front of the rest of the party, and everyone else will be behind the dwarves. The force web prevents it from attacking Freya, right?

Freya shoots at the retreating mimic (#2). Talin fires at the approaching mimic (#2). Abigall will hurl a stone at the second mimic. Anna will back up and get her bow out.

Is the mimic-2 clearly moving into melee range for the party? If so, the dwarves will charge toward it. Whichever one is getting attacked will fight defensively (a defensive charge? ) and the other will hack at the mimic.

Fido attempts to free himself. Tiana will hold the runed quarterstaff threateningly toward the downed mimic (#1), but will neither attack nor get within melee range of it.


What dwarves call ale, humans call whiskey. What dwarves call whiskey, humans call dragonbreath.

As for Talin's move, can't he move back and take an action? Just a "explain the rule to me" question.

Good job. You really beat up on that first mimic. I thought someone was going to die! But I think you have gotten out of this OK.
Someone did. Spinning it to a positive though, at least it's only Fido who is massively injured and not the others... yet.

[Longman]

There's questions to deal with here before we go to round 7.

First - the web is indeed preventing mimic 2 from getting up to Freya. That's why it has backed off, into the room. She can still shoot it, this round. After that it will be out of sight. She can't get back down the stairs unless Tiana deactivates the web.

Second - normally, a fighting withdrawal is a full round action - you can't do that and change weapons as well, especially not very large ones. But seeing as the mimic was basically surrendering, I let Talin change weapons as a full round action, with no consequences. The mimic wasn't going to make an opp attack against you, because Kilian and Bruce would have clobbered it, and it is nearly dead.

Mimic 2 will be in melee range for the entire party, yes. The room isn't very big. Talin, having rearmed with his bow last round, can shoot before the rest close in on it. In round 8, he will be firing into a melee.


ROUND 7 -
Talin turns around fires at Mimic 2. It's hard to miss a walking door when you have +8 to hit and he hits it easily. Freya also hits it well. Total 23hp.

Bruce closes on the creature and attacks - he also hits! and takes it to 29! But his mace gets stuck!

Kilian swings his battle axe at the creature and takes it to 37, at which point it falls to the floor and black blood spurts out everywhere. It stops moving.

Tiana waves the runic staff threateningly at the unconscious monster. Abigal holds off on her shot.

Fido cannot free himself this round, but mimic #1 is withdrawing its suckers and glue as much as it can. It is prone, and has surrendered.

Now what?

[Woe]

Mimic #1 is prone and surrendered, and mimic #2 is unconscious?

With three bows, a sling, and a runed staff all pointing at mimic #1, Talin gestures at Fido. In Salenish, he says "Let go." while making it very clear what happens to the mimic if he does not. The dwarves will go over to help separate Fido from the mimic.

(assuming that goes well...)

Abigall and Anna will keep watch on the unconscious mimic. Freya will watch the stairwell, and the dwarves can keep an eye on the passage they arrived from. As he binds up Fido, Talin will strike up a conversation with the surrendered mimic. "Talk slow. Why?"

I know, "why" is very open-ended. That's the point. I don't want the mimic to learn much about the party, and Talin can't just start with "where are we?" But eventually he wants to know where they are and more about Malagosbe, so he'll play along. Besides, he's not great at Salenish yet.

Kilian leans over to Tiana and asks, "How is ye spell to conjure up 'e dwarven fortress comin' along, hun?"

[Woe]

I didn't get a very good look at the room before. The only two exits are the "door" they came in from and the stairs going up? There is no north door?

[Longman]

You are in room 6 - first to the north off room 5. (Freya is on level 2.)

Mimic 2 - dead or dying. I don't give monsters the benefit of the negative hp rule.

Talin's attempt at speaking Salenish is surprisingly successful given that he doesn't know it. The monster had already let go of Fido, but the glue takes another 10 seconds to detach. The badly injured dog limps back to its master.

"Hungry, ever", is what Talin understands from the creature. "Girl, food. You give food. Sorry."

Talin realizes the creatures were asking for food in exchange for releasing Anna. They didn't realise how strong you would be. Nor did the DM.

There are 4 exits - north (where Mimic 2 was impersonating a door), south (the one you came in, where mimic 1 was stationed), west (where they have blocked it off partially), and east (the stairs to level 2).

Freya can now hear movement coming from somewhere behind her, to the north. It is hard to tell what it is, it sounds very echoing, as though it has come around multiple bends to reach her.

There is no treasure apparent in the room - only the remains of a dead hobgoblin and several previous meals.

[Woe]

My mapdoesn't have room 6. Room 5 has many north doors, one with a long corridor ending in a throne (?). I don't think that's where I am. The second door has two 2's in it, which is where I think I am. Correct? If so, those two 2's probably meant "deadly monsters!" and I'm going to avoid any further rooms with numbers on it.


"Boys, time to go. Company coming." says Freya.

"//Sorry about friend. Thanks for my friend.//" says Talin. He gets out some food (one week) and tosses it on the ground. "//More food coming.//" he says while gesturing north.

The party will then run south back to the main hall, hook a U-turn, and try the passage with the throne (?) at the end of the north hall.



PS I've decided henceforth, I'm shooting at all doors.

[Longman]

You're giving it a weeks' food?

It looks at you in disbelief - as much as you can tell from the face of a walking door.

Tiana deactivates the web spell and Freya runs nimbly down the stairs, then the whole party hoof it out of there and on to further adventures, leaving the nearly-dead mimic staring at a pile of iron rations...

Yep, the room you have just been fighting in was #6 with the 2 circled 2s - about 30' wide. I am calling the throne corridor 5a. I made some stealth rolls for the party to run there, and all told, you did not do a good job just now, but at least you are aware of it. Anyway, you can no longer hear anything coming.

It isn't a throne exactly - more like a stone bench seat with some carved pillars with the knot-work style decoration on them. It looks to Kilian like there used to be a door leading through into the room beyond, and this has been blocked off and replaced with this rather silly seat. He can't imagine anyone ever actually sat on it much.

You haven't gone up and touched / searched it yet, but he is guessing it is solid, no compartments or anything. You notice the rooms off to the east appear to be empty, although once again you can hear things scuttling away from the light from the magic helmets as you move past that corridor.

[Woe]

You're giving it a weeks' food?

Yeah, I thought about how much food would be the equivalent of Anna and Fido. Between the two, they're probably 100kg. I gave them 6kg. It's a pittance next to what the mimic gave up.

According to the map, there's a secret door there. The elves will look for one while the dwarves look down to the east. The humans and Abigall will watch the south passage. Everyone has their missile weapons out, and the dwarves are closest to the south passage (i.e. the humans are between the east passage and the throne).