Chapter Two: Back into the Mountain

[Zorroroaster]

"Attaboy! Let's show 'em what we're made of!"

Torgyr will fire a bolt from his crossbow at any skeletons not in melee.

So we move ahead with the Galen Defense, yes?

[drpete]

Round 6: Coming Together

The fighting continues. Torgyr takes another shot at the skeletons, but misses. Solaine attacks, but her blows seem to bounce off the bones of the skeleton. They almost seem to be made of a hard black metal! The oil burning one of the skeletons burns a bit longer (2 damage) then flickers out.

The skeletons in the front rank attack Ranulf and Solaine, but their blows are easily parried.

Steel pauses at the west corner, and fires off a shot, which sails over the skeleton's heads. Fall back. Let the machine hold them. It should give us enough time to get away! Randolpho comes racing back into the room, unlimbering his quarterstaff, hoping to rally the troops. Up north of them, Climent moves into the orc room, and slams the door. The hallway becomes pitch black.

Ranulf and Ajax attack one of the lead skeletons, but they are also unable to harm it. Audi gets a solid shot over Solaine's shoulder (6 damage!), and brings down the one facing Solaine. Emm gets a strong shot (4 damage) on Ranulf's opponent, but it stays up.

Galen quickly explains the plan to watch for the skeletons from the west passage, and that nobody should attack them.

Seeing an opening after Solaine's opponent fell, the automaton steps in front of Solaine to attack Ranulf's opponent. One of its hits connects (1 damage) but the skeleton keeps coming.

Still no sign of the skeletons that went north, but for the moment the west hallway is dark.

For the moment, Steel is in the entrance to the west corridor, Randolpho, Torgyr and Galen are north of the dwarf statues. The automaton is pushing the line forward, and this puts only one skeleton in position for most of you to attack next round, though the crossbowmen can still fire into the back rank.

[Zorroroaster]

Initiative: [1d6+2] = 3+2 = 5

"Keep the pressure on! Randolpho - warn us the moment you hear or see anything coming st us from that side, and we'll get in position."

Torgyr will take the opportunity to fire his crossbow into the back ranks of skeletons.

Crossbow: Attack (10+): [1d20+2] = 1+2 = 3, Damage: [1d6] = 1

Or...not.

[drpete]

Here's a tactical map:

Skeleton Fight 3.PNG (439.43 KiB) Viewed 801 times

And the kind of view you could get if Galen moved over. You can see that the fight in the east starts to be in very dim/dark light, but light goes up the west hallway.

Galen Moves Over.PNG (223.52 KiB) Viewed 801 times

[kalstone]

Solaine yells back to Galen, "I don't think these are real skeletons. They're some sort of golem." She switches places with one of the shield maidens so that they can attack past the automaton.

[bobloblah]

"Indeed. I believe I may be able to ward the other hall, if we are to be surrounded..." Brother Galen scowls at her, "You need a glaive, woman."

[Dogma]

Ranulf continues to push against the skeletons with his shield to prevent their advance as their bony fingers scratch against the shield face.

"Come on bucket head," he grunts to the automaton as he strains against the skeletons, "We need to take a few of these bastages out of the fight."

Over his shoulder he calls ,"Emm and Audi... stab the same one that I'm attacking....maybe together we can cause enough damage to start taking them down one at a time."

ranulf will attack the skeleton directly in front of him. I'm at work and can't access the roller. drpete...please roll as needed or I will edit some dice rolls in later tonight

[drpete]

Don't worry about rolls, unless you want to. I have macros for everybody.

[Dogma]

Great!. As a general rule then I won't worry about it. If I can access the roller I'll post them, if not, you can do it.

[drpete]

Round 7 & 8: Making Progress

The next few seconds consist largely of ineffective back-and-forth blows. The automaton hits one of its opponents (1 damage), and gets hit in return (2 damage). In the west hallway, you can hear the sound of fists beating on a wooden door, but Steel cannot see anything, because it's dark there.

Then the tide starts to turn, a bit.

Ranulf deals a solid blow to his opponent, who goes down, and advances to the space next to the automaton.

Steel downs one of the skeletons in the back row (8 damage!). Audi misses her attack.

The automaton's opponent deals a powerful blow to the automaton (5 damage!). Amazingly, the automaton is still functioning, but it looks like it is on its last legs. Torgyr shoots through the melee, and misses.

Up in the north hallway, you can hear Climent yelling"Come on, you bastards! Just try and get in here!" The banging on the door continues up there.

Ajax, Emm and the automaton are unable to damage their opponents.

It seems, for the moment at least, that the skeletons in the west passage are being attracted to Climent, behind the locked door. This may change at any moment, but you seem to have a brief reprieve from being flanked.

[bobloblah]

Doesn't Ranulf get a Cleave attack?

[drpete]

He does. Technically, he stepped forward and missed.

[bobloblah]

"Randolpho my boy, keep an ear out and holler if you hear the black skeletons stop trying to hammer their way in to reach our erstwhile companion, Climent!" Brother Galen then moves close enough to the melee to reach anyone who falls without delay.

[bobloblah]

He does. Technically, he stepped forward and missed.

Cool! Didn't see it in your post.

[kalstone]

If the automaton makes a fighting withdrawal, Solaine will move in to take it's place in the front line attacking the skeleton in front.

[drpete]

Black Skeletons:

photo-original.jpg (504.58 KiB) Viewed 764 times

[Zorroroaster]

Torgyr grimaces, wordlessly focussing on trying to put bolts into the back rank of skeletons as efficiently as possible.

Initiative: [1d6+2] = 6+2 = 8

Crossbow: Attack (10+): [1d20+2] = 3+2 = 5, Damage: [1d6] = 1

[drpete]

Round 9: Busted Clockwork!

Torgyr grimaces, wordlessly focussing on trying to put bolts into the back rank of skeletons as efficiently as possible, but misses.

Randolpho moves to the corner of the west hallway, to listen. He hears them still banging on the orc door, and Climent yelling at them through the door.

In a flurry of activity, one of the skeletons downs the automaton before Steel can call to it, or Solaine get in front of it (4 damage). In retaliation, Ajax destroys that skeleton (3 damage), and the one in the back rank (2 damage). (its second cleave attack, against Ranulf's opponent, misses).

Ranulf's opponent, the last skeleton, misses him. Emm misses it, but it goes down in a rain of blows from Solaine (4 damage) and Audi (3 damage).

The eastern hallway skeletons are all down, but you've lost the automaton!! With the last group of skeletons still distracted, you have a chance to choose what to do next... pivot and attack, or retreat out of either the east or southwest exits.

I assumed that Steel would be trying to redirect it after it took that big hit, but the skeletons got the initiative jump on him and Solaine. The automaton would have acted last in the round anyway, because of their lumbering motion. Steel may, of course, create a new one with some time (see the personal automaton proficiency), but this one is toast.

I'm ok with Steel having gotten a torch from Solaine, if we assume he's now "near" where the eastern melee was, but he cannot hold a lit torch and fire his arbalest. In either case, he is close to out of ammo until he gets more from his bag. Lamech, please let us know how you want to resolve the "torch" issue.

[Lamech]

Steel will hold on to the torch for now. I think this is our cue to leave, we can't die pointlessly. Which way are we going?

[Dogma]

"No! we don't retreat. We press the attack!" counters Ranulf.