Chapter 1: To seek a Great Perhaps

[GreyWolfVT]

Concerning deaths: it's one rat, one horrible baby, and 3 PCs so far, right?

I believe it's 1 rat, 2 horrible babies, and 2 PCs (William and Odric; I have Kurt handing in with STR 1). Hans, Horton, Deet, and Schroff are KO'd.

But all this will change by next round.

GM mistakes: I forgot to count Langston as a possible rat target, last round. Sorry, mjulius! And I misread Grogs' Critical roll, and he should be passed out and bleeding with the rest—but since that was my fault, I'll give it to him.

Hans was never attacked Pulp, William and Kurt were the two that were savagely rat attacked

[mb.]

Okay, sorry Kurt. I'll leave the map as is for now, and update once all the dying at least slows down a little.

[Pulpatoon]

An Audience with Horrible Babies

'Shaggy' Beaker and Mouse, pull at a curtain together. They hope to dodge it ripping free and cover the nearest baby. They pull together on that left hand curtain.

At first the curtain refuses to budge, ignoring Shaggy and Mouse's insistent pulls. Then a slight tremor passes through the cloth. Slowly, sloooooooooowly you feel the fabric shift far up above you, and then you hear a distant, tinny snap!

Like a red brocade avalanche, the curtain sloughs down; slow, rumbling, inexorable. It keeps coming, with seemingly no end in sight—an impossible quantity of cloth falling from an impossible height. It pushes before it a great billow of dislodged that sweeps up the sooty cloud from the smoke bomb, filling the darkness with a grating miasma. And still the curtain is falling, yardage upon yardage tumbling down with terrible weight.

Shaggy is able to pull himself free of the enveloping folds, but Mouse is not so lucky. The urchin disappears in a turmoil of crimson weaving.

Vanis and Jake have stumbled clear of the falling curtain, coughing and choking from the dust and smoke. They see behind them the falling and smashing of marble chairs and statuary. Horrible babies pop like grapes.

Fully half the Audience Chamber behind them is blocked with piled-up curtain.

Horton and Mouse, please roll 1d12 for damage.

Mystery Roll: [1d100] = 65

[Grognardsw]

The Butchness of Wrath lies on the floor torn and dying.

Gwar! tries to bury his grief. He grips his sword with two hands and cleaves at the nearest rat.

Gwar! Sword [1d6] = 6

[Urson]

Jake coughs, his face wracked with pain as he forces his mangled leg to keep him moving.

[GreyWolfVT]

Hans strikes at the same rat again Kurt STR 5 [1d20] = 1

[Wizard Lizard]

Jake coughs, his face wracked with pain as he forces his mangled leg to keep him moving.

Vanis, whizzing and whirring in exhaustion from all this action, after making sure Jake is able, goes in a corner to catch a breather, and re-assess de situation.

I'm more than a bit confused by all that's happening. The babies are splotch, but there are still rats and or toy soldiers? Nobody feeling like retreating?

[mb.]

It has gotten a bit messy, but from what I can remember, here's the sitrep:

In the Hall of Horrible Babies

• Horton's down but not yet forever out.
• A baby is using Jake's ripped off leg as a rattle. Hopalong Jake's apparently doing more or less okay without it.
• Shaggy and Mouse have ripped down a bloody huge curtain.
• Vanis is somewhere in there.
• The hall's now a mess of smoke, dead and dying babies, and fallen curtain.

In the Hall of Furniture

• GWAR and Langston are still kicking against the pricks (rats) near the door to the Putti Rotunda.
• Butchness, Hans, Deet, Schroff and Kurt are down for the count, lying decorously on the available furniture perhaps, but not yet perished.
• Odric and William are most certainly perished. R.I.P. guys. We hardly knew ye.
• Brick most valiantly pissed off with the soldiers, leaving his companions to the rats.

Did I forget anyone/thing?

[GreyWolfVT]

It has gotten a bit messy, but from what I can remember, here's the sitrep:

In the Hall of Horrible Babies

• Horton's down but not yet forever out.
• A baby is using Jake's ripped off leg as a rattle. Hopalong Jake's apparently doing more or less okay without it.
• Shaggy and Mouse have ripped down a bloody huge curtain.
• Vanis is somewhere in there.
• The hall's now a mess of smoke, dead and dying babies, and fallen curtain.

In the Hall of Furniture

• GWAR and Langston are still kicking against the pricks (rats) near the door to the Putti Rotunda.
• Butchness, Hans, Deet, Schroff and Kurt are down for the count, lying decorously on the available furniture perhaps, but not yet perished.
• Odric and William are most certainly perished. R.I.P. guys. We hardly knew ye.
• Brick most valiantly pissed off with the soldiers, leaving his companions to the rats.

Did I forget anyone/thing?

Hans is also with GWAR & Langston fighting rats, as he was never attacked by anything. Only William and Kurt went down William definitely dead, Kurt I am not sure if he is allowed to attack or not.

[Stirling]

'Shaggy' Beaker , pulls at the curtain and watches the tsunami of cloth ripple down the hallway. "Whoops!" us all he can say and then a cry if dismay as urchin Mouse faces the final curtain. Hoping for an encore, Beaker frantically digs him out.
Mouse damage [1d12] = 9 Mouse has 1hp and 9 strength.

[Wizard Lizard]

Thanks for the summaries, it helps

Vanis, knowing that a dead party won't cover his back for long, decides to try and close in on the rats and help those who are still able (and willing). He stumbles in this general direction with crazed eyes and still almost out of breath.

Ref : How much turns do I need to join the fray against the rats?

[Pulpatoon]

The Nutcracker Suite
Hans and GWAR! leap through the mist of blood that smears the air as poor Odric is split in half. Bringing their weapons to bear, they strike down the rats!

Hans Sword [1d6] = 6
Gwar! Sword [1d6] = 6
Langston Axe [1d8] = 7
Rat 1: [1d20] = 19
Rat 2: [1d20] = 9

Three giant rats lie motionless on the floor. With a soft puff! they dissolve into three piles of hundreds of mundane white rats. Most scurry off, running towards the wooden steps to the right of the barricade,leaving several hundred dead companions are left behind.

Kurt I am not sure if he is allowed to attack or not.

Kurt is unconscious.

The Nutcracker Retreat
The Toy Soldier says, "What door is that, soldier? The one by the Front Line? We'd thought that sealed. Or do you mean The Enemy's Balcony?" The roughly hinged limbs gesture back the way you came, to the door to the Putti Rotunda, and then to the wooden stairs leading up, just visible over the top of the furniture barricade.

An Audience with Horrible Babies: Curtain Call

Ref : How much turns do I need to join the fray against the rats?

Are you still helping one-legged Jake exit the Audience Chamber? Let's say 4 rounds, unencumbered, 2 if you're running flat out, and 8 if you're helping Jake.

Mouse damage [1d12] = 9 Mouse has 1hp and 9 strength.

Mouse is hanging in there with STR 1! Please roll a STR Save (target of 1) to see if he's still conscious.

As Shaggy digs through the deep folds of the fallen curtain, and Vanis and Jake limp back the way they came, a deep voice rolls through the smokey darkness: "WHAT THE BLOODY BLUE HELL IS ALL THIS?! MY BABIES! WHERE ARE MY LOVELY BABIES?!"

[Urson]

Jake turns paler- if that's possible- and half-coughs, half-whispers RUN! He hobbles along at the best speed he can manage, gritting his teeth against crying out in pain.

[Wizard Lizard]

Vanis, being a man of reasonable disposition, takes a deep breath and gladly hears out his companion's suggestion, and starts to run as fast as he can, away from the booming voice which, to say the least, sounds to him like bad news.

I'm sorry I wasn't there for a while, christmas and all.

[GreyWolfVT]

Hans shakes his head at the sight of the dead William and tries to bring Kurt back to consciousness. "Sir, Will is dead I'm afraid. Lord Smithington wake up sir." Hans tries his best to get Kurt back to the here and now.

[Grognardsw]

Gwar!, survivor

Gwar! staggers over to the wounded Butchness of Wrath.

"Stay with me woman!"

He tries to staunch, clean and bind her wounds.

"Do you have healing magics!" he yells at the wooden soldiers.

[Pulpatoon]

Jake and Vanis make it back to the others to find a grizzly scene. The others have begun to bind the wounds of their fallen compatriots.

I'll wait to restore HP until we know the party can safely pass an hour of rest, which we can't determine until we know how Shaggy Beaker handles his situation, but we can say that all the wounded have been bound enough to be able to talk and preform feeble actions.

Are you making your Rest in the Barricaded Hall or the Putti Rotunda?

On their feet: Langston, Hans, Vanis
Bloodied but active: GWAR!, Jake
KO: Schroff, Deet, Kurt, Butchness

EDIT: The Dearly Departed: Will, Odric

Still in the Audience Chamber: Shaggy, Mouse (KO?), Horton (KO)
With the Soldiers: Brick

Have I forgotten anyone?

"Do you have healing magics!" he yells at the wooden soldiers.

Brick hears a shout from back at the entrance of the Barricaded Hall. It is too far away to make out what is being yelled, but it sounds like GWAR!

[mjulius]

Brick, waiting for the clanking maw to stop it's hinged words:
You know, that's really quite amazing. Are you a stick or automatic? Nevermind.

He gestures to the door marked THE WISE MAY BE INSTRUCTED BY A FOOL, dismissing the irony, and asks:
That door.

Langston lets the ax drop and fishes among his coat pockets, briefly extracting the bomb before dismissing it as a solution. He finds his flask of rum, unstoppers it, takes a swig and tumbles the rest into the semiconscious Betsy.

I have no mechanical idea what it might benefit but what the hell.

[GreyWolfVT]

Will isn't on the list there but I thought Will was dead and Kurt was barely alive.

[Pulpatoon]

Brick:

Even as you ask the question, the arched doorway now looms above you, its carved words bending into the atmospheric haze above you.

Through the door, you see shelves reaching up like cliffs, stacked with a many-colored mosaic of books. The floor is occupied by a tent city of Toy Soldiers. The one you are talking to says, "Welcome to Camp Drosselmayer—barracks, mess hall, staging grounds, all-around bivouac. It is from here we launch our inevitable victory against The Enemy!"

As you cross over into the Camp, the company of soldiers begins to disperse. The soldier you have been talking with doesn't seem in any particular hurry to go anywhere though, and marches casually alongside you. "Looks like I could use a trip to Supply. My coats all scratched up. And you're out of uniform, entirely, soldier. You wouldn't want a Sergeant to see you like that."