Home Sweet Home

[ChubbyPixie]

Using Zefarel’s attack as an opportunity to disengage, Sprig shuffles back ten feet, extends the fingers and thumb of his left hand up towards the rope hovering near the ceiling, closes them, then opens them with a rotating flourish, letting in just the tiniest bit of the Plane of Unending Shadow (see figure 1):

Spring casts Darkness.

6F0DFE03-C190-403D-9BB6-ACC51C3DE922.png (142.58 KiB) Viewed 606 times

”Back away from the darkness!” he cries. ”It will stay centered on the brute!”

[hyperborea]

Grossphil the Feeble

"Don't worry Sprig, I'm way ahead of you." After a failed distraction (sorry Finnigan), Grossphil will just continue to stand away from the battle and over next to the portal he entered through.

[OGRE MAGE]

It's been 5 days, MR. Im moving this along!

Kitchen
Dark Tales
Arrival Night
Round 7

The berserker is not stymied in the least by the mysterious rope rising up from his waist. He savagely attacks Finnigan again, just missing the dwarfs head with his ax. In his weakened state, the dwarfs counter attack is ineffective, allowing the brutes second swing to land true. Taking another horrible slash to his mid section, 5 dam Finnigan sucks in a deep breath before finally passing out from the pain of his wounds, hitting the floor hard when he falls.

Seeing her friend go down enrages the half-orc! Letting out another battle scream, she swings her sword in an overhead arc that slashes hard into the neck of the crazed fighter. Blood gushes from the wound and sprays over everyone nearby, but the brute still doesn't fall. With his eyes rolling back in his head, he raises his sword for another attack when the lights suddenly go out all around him.

Grossphil and Mac stay put, watching Sprig intently as the gnome starts a quick incantation. He throws a spell that brings a sudden magical darkness, centered on Mac's tricky rope. He then yells for the combatants to simply back away from it.

Actions!

Elitir 14/22
Zefarrel 10/20 4/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 1/2 first 1/1 second
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 0/1 second
Sprig 10/10 1/2 first
Finnigan -1/25 Unconscious and Bleeding Out

[scottjen]

Zefarrel: She frowns and backs away from the darkness. If she sees Fin, she will ask Mac to help her move him a little away from the darkness & will heal the dwarf. I was not expecting so much combat and this is my last spell of healing. My spell-slinging friends, I suspect you have little magic left at your disposal as well. Once we do away with this berserker, we should find somewhere reasonably defensible. Then rest and recover our magics.

[ChubbyPixie]

Backing diagonally another 10 feet, Sprig points at the darkness, then his ear, then puts his finger to his lips. He then draws his sling and, assuming everyone is away from the roiling semicircle of pitch-blackness, fires directly into the center of it, where he knows the berserker to be:

Attack with Sling (THAC0:18): To Hit: [1d20] = 11 Damage vs. s/m: [1d4+1] = 4+1 = 5, vs. Lg: [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3 Not sure how much of a penalty, if any, to apply to this shot, since the berserker is known to be positioned directly over where the circle of darkness touches the floor...

[Rex]

Elitir

Shouting "Get Finn out of here, I will hold off the berserker." Elitir continues her attack, trying to guess where he is.

-4 to hit in darkness I think. You can continue to roll.

[Monsieur Rose]

Mac

Mac snaps out of his inaction and sees that the rope didn't have the intended effect. A bit put off by that, he helplessly watches the dwarf fall. Something about the sight and sound of a companion falling shakes the cobwebs out of his head. Mac quickly responds to Elitir's words and tries to pull Finn away from combat.

[OGRE MAGE]

Kitchen
Dark Tales
Arrival Night

Not even total darkness can sedate the insane resolve of this crazed berserker. He slams his ax into the prone form of Finnigan yet again, just to be sure the dwarf is dead. (auto hit for 2 dam) Those outside of the magical darkness see Finnigan's legs spasm from the sickening and unnecessary blow. Mac and Zefarrel rush in to grab the dwarfs ankles, pulling him out of the darkness so the priestess can try to heal him back to consciousness. Sprig tries some complicated hand signals mid battle, hoping to get everyone to stop talking. He slings a stone into the darkness that nearly hits Grosphil on its way back outside of his circle of darkness.

Though Elitir cannot actually see her opponent anymore, she is extremely disturbed when she hears him attack Finnigan. So disturbed that she swings out in the direction of the preoccupied berserker with all of her might. (also an auto hit, despite the darkness, since the berserker has ignored her completely and attacked his prone target again) Her blow is enough to take out the freakish fighter permanently. He falls to the ground and groans his last living breath before dying at the half-orcs feet.

Zefarrel calls out to Frey to help her heal the horrible wounds of the dwarf. Her hands glow slightly as the worst of Fin's wounds begin to knit and heal. Through the grace of her priestly powers, the dwarf weakly opens his eyes again. (healed 6) He regains consciousness, but is still very weak, though at least he can act of his own accord again.

After the dust settles a bit, the party of one less catches their breath and looks around the room again. The silence that falls over the room is deafening compared to the grunting and battle cries from the pair of now dead berserkers. Unfortunately, there is still no sign of their little friend Pumfrey anywhere to be seen.

Actions?

Elitir 14/22
Zefarrel 10/20 2/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 1/2 first 1/1 second
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 0/1 second
Sprig 10/10 1/2 first
Finnigan 2/25

[Rex]

Elitir

Elitir cleans and bandages her wounds well the others take care of Finn. Once done she will stand guard until Finn is in better shape.

[hyperborea]

Grossphil the Feeble

The elf surveys the room and takes in the ragged, barely-breathing form of Finnigan, and the injured girls and says a silent thank you to whatever deity might be listening that they're all still alive.

"Well it wasn't the easiest combat, but we've survived. Great work team, though I think it's very obvious that we cannot continue under our current conditions. I think even I could take Finnigan in a fight right now."

Grossphil walks over to the wooden closet those berserkers were sleeping in and decides it's the best place to try and recover. "We can't rest in the main room or we may as well be holding up a sign that says 'monsters welcome' given that there's so many ways in. I vote we hole up in the closet where our dastardly friends were before they attacked us. We can rest, recover spells, and hopefully manage to survive this mess. Agreed?"

I'm going to prepare more combat-ready spells for the next day if we make it through the night. Zefarrel, I recommend a lot of cure light wounds spells for the next day.

[scottjen]

Zefarrel: What is on the other side of that wooden door? Is the area large enough to accommodate us? Do the rest of you agree on rest?
I'm worried about Pumfrey. I could seek divine guidance on whether going back through the portal we came in from is a bad idea.

[Rex]

Elitir

"If we go looking for Pufrey we will need to carry Finn."

[hyperborea]

Grossphil the Feeble

"I really don't think going to look for Pumfrey is a good idea at all given our current condition. Zefarrel can seek divine guidance, that's fine, but if we go looking for Pumfrey we're going to end up finding trouble. And if people are carrying the dwarf around, who's going to fight? Me and Mac? I think not."

Grossphil liked Pumfrey, but he's adamantly against the idea of leaving this room with a nearly dead fighter and no healing spells.

[scottjen]

Zefarrel: I was thinking of trying to divine it now, but not act on it until we are healed. We don't have the strength as is obvious to all.

[ChubbyPixie]

At the sound of falling barbarian cook, Sprig snaps and the darkness shuts off. He surveys the situation while the others discuss the relative merits of staying or going.

"Pumfrey's a nice guy, but he's on his own, I say. Stick with the group: rule number one. But I agree a rest is in order. I'll check out their quarters," he says and goes over to carefully check (and open) the entrance to the space the brutes came out of. If all seems clear there, he'll report back, the carefully check the metal door for traps and such before trying it also.

"Where does it go?" he asks Mac, in passing, pointing to the still dangling rope that mysteriously disappears at the top. "I never seen that one before. Nice trick."

[Monsieur Rose]

Mac

Mac seems a bit embarrassed. "Yes. The rope. I had grand visions of the rope lifting the man off his feet, dangling him above our heads for easy targeting." He smiles a bit. "Ah well. If this was a story, that's what would have happened. As for the destination, it opens into a hole of sorts, outside of this plane. It's usually quite peaceful in there. Until the duration wears off, that is." Mac gets a wistful look in his eyes as he continues "I decided to learn it after reading a story about a Madam who used the space at the end of the rope as a kind of make-shift bedroom. She never had any problem with clients staying longer than they paid for."

Mac focuses on the current situation. "That wooden door leads to a little pantry that has been made into a small bedroom, and the metal door contains chilled food. We may have to rest out in the open."

Mac moves to the food chiller and starts looking for dinner.

[OGRE MAGE]

Kitchen
Arrival Night

The pantry and cold storage side rooms are both lined with shelving. The shelves are filled with a wide array of foodstuffs. Every shelf is full. Almost anything that you could think of is there for the taking. The cold room is pretty clean and tidy, but the pantry is slightly mussed and stinks of the 2 thugs you just dispatched, still lying dead on the floor in the kitchen area.

Searching their sleeping mats on the floor of the pantry turns up nothing of value. The room is 10'x25', likely large enough for the entire party to rest in if Sprig and Grossphil don't mind sleeping on the shelves. The cold storage room is smaller, only 10'x15'. It might be a bit cool to try sleeping in there for any length of time.

No secret doors, traps, or anything else out of the ordinary is found in either side room.

Actions?

Elitir 14/22
Zefarrel 10/20 2/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 1/2 first 1/1 second
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 0/1 second
Sprig 10/10 1/2 first
Finnigan 2/25

[Alethan]

Finnigan sits down for a rest and takes one of the last swigs from his flask.

"That hurt..." is all he can manage to muster for a while. Finally, he adds, "Thank you all. For the help and the... healing."

Then he slowly gets up, walks over to the dead barbarians, and searches them for anything of value or interest. Finally, he heads over to the pantry and looks for anything that might resemble whiskey.

[hyperborea]

Grossphil the Feeble

Grossphil doesn't particularly like the idea of sleeping in such a disgusting place, but knows it's necessary. He'll look for the cleanest spot on the shelf, dust it off as best he can and use his "speaking cloth" to fashion a mask of sorts that will limit the effect of the gross smell of the berserkers on him. What had he done to deserve slumming it in this kind of a situation?

Though before he actually settles in to sleep, he wants to cast his invisibility spell on Sprig so that way he doesn't waste the spell. Grossphil casts invisibility on the gnome and says, "That way the next time you want to backstab a berserker, or perhaps one of those thieves we encountered earlier, you may have a surprise advantage."

[scottjen]

Zefarrel: You are welcome Finnigan. I am glad you are still with us. She will check on his wounds. Then she will begin to chant her augury spell and will cast her gem inlaid sticks to try to determine whether going back though the portal (the one we entered this room from) will be beneficial or harmful to the party.