6. Dawn of a New Night

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 6, 1221
Time: 12:04 AM - Combat Round 4
Weather: Light rain
Moon: Waning gibbous
Location: Castle Ravenloft, Treasure Vault
**************************************

Our heroes seize the initiative this round.

Fendt, Castran, and Robert continue fighting the wraith that had just re-entered through the wall. All four Castran shapes stab at the shadowy wraith. But the strange force in this room seems to pull back at his hand. It's a little like trying to fence underwater. Castran's attack misses. Robert cannot reach the wraith with his scimitar. Fendt, however, wielding the scimitar he picked up from this treasure room, slices a graceful downward stroke that passes through the wraith's arm even as it's reaching out for one of the Castran images. The wraith pulls back in pain.

The other wraith stares intently at Agrippo, its red eyes glowing with hatred for the bearer of the Sunsword. A toothless black maw opens in its face as it shrieks a battle cry and flies directly at the warrior. Agrippo will surely feel the chill touch of the wraith's energy drain unless the wraith can be destroyed first.

Iluq's hammers both fail him. Bragar loses his grip on his new mace. It sails across the room, sending a carefully-sorted pile of silver pieces scattering. Tibbius thrusts his dagger at the wraith's head. He is certain the next sound he hears will be the wail of a wraith in pain, but the shriek does not come. His dagger is diverted by the same force that foiled Castran's attack.

With Tumbler trying to avoid the combat by hiding, Agrippo and Melampus have the last chance to defeat the wraith before it tastes Agrippo's soul. Agrippo, perhaps sensing the importance of this attack, drives the Sunsword deep into the wraith's midsection. Melampus follows by smashing his flail into the wraith's head. With a bone-rattling screech, the wraith vanishes in a puff of smoke and dust, its claws mere inches from Agrippo's chest!

The remaining wraith, not liking its chances alone against a room full of heroes with magical weapons, bows its head and floats backwards through the east wall.

Actions?

I decided to roll for Agrippo, Melampus, and Robert, since their players had all been online since the last move. It ended out working well. If you can't tell from the write-up, the wraith attacking Agrippo had rolled a hit, but you won initiative (see below). Agrippo was getting level drained if you couldn't kill the wraith first. The wraith was not particularly low on HP, either. But a really good roll on behalf of Agrippo and a critical hit for Melampus did the trick.

The wraith that just left won initiative for the next round, so I resolved its action in this post.

Initiative: Party [1d6] = 6 Monsters [1d6] = 4
Wraith attack! (R,F,C): [1d20] = 9 [1d6] = 3 [1d3] = 3
Wraith attack!: [1d20] = 19 [1d6] = 3
Agrippo (Sunsword v. undead): [1d20+3] = 18+3 = 21 [1d8+4] = 8+4 = 12
Melampus, Flail: [1d20+1] = 20+1 = 21 [1d6+2] = 4+2 = 6
Robert (Scimitar +1): [1d20 +1] = 11+1 = 12, Damage: [1d8+1] = 1+1 = 2

Status: Agrippo: 32/52, Tibbius: 10/10, Iluq: 13/34, Tumbler: 24/39, Robert: 16/34; Fendt: 14/15; Castran: 13/23; Melampus: 21/30; Bragar: 31/42
Effects: Protection from Evil (Tibbius): 10 rounds; Mirror Image (Castran): 10 rounds, 3 images

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt tries to take another swing at the wraith before it vanishes through the wall. But fails at the opportunity to hit anything more than the wall as the wraith leaves.
Magical Scimitar [1d20] = 6 to hit [1d8] = 8 dmg

[Zhym]

Fendt doesn't have a chance to attack (nor does anyone else). See my post in the rule interpretations thread about fighting retreats vs. fleeing. In game mechanics, the wraith won initiative and mounted a fighting retreat. The party doesn't get a free attack, and because the wraith was already near the wall, it was outside by the time the party could take action.

[GreyWolfVT]

Yup didn't get a chance to read that before i posted here.
Fendt looks around for a sheath to the sword. "Anyone who would like my mace is free to have it. I like this sword I just need to readjust to fighting with a blade again it has been some time since I've used one in battle."

[Dram]

Bragar - So you think it will return with friends. We should possibly keep a double duty. And there was some other force that seemed to be fighting against us.

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt From my experience it is how the luck of this group has been since they entered this castle of evil. I know my luck was far better before i came here myself. I am just grateful to be alive and not alone in this place."

[Storm11]

I think it would be foolish to resume our rest right now, four of the wraith's were turned by our cleric, and could return in force in a few more minutes. We should wait at least half an hour before we proceed to rest again in my opinion says the gnome and his three doubles.

i think after this rest and rememorizing time we need to cut out trying to sleep or rest during night hours. It's pretty foolish to even try.

Once we are as sure as we can be the undead aren't going to return the spellblade will offer to take watch with someone for the next four hours and use his Phantasmal force spell to cover our presence with an illusion to try and minimise any attacks. Perhaps making us appear as old sacks or statutes or something similar.

[MonkeyWrench]

Iluq, still averting his gaze because no one has hidden their freaking glowing like the power of the sun, calls out to the group, "I agree, so far whenever we have rested it has ended in disaster..." he puts his hammers back through the loops in his belt and walks into the hallway with the spiders to get away from the freaking light show.

[Dram]

Bragar-I don't think the dark one is enjoying your light show. Maybe we should dim a few of those down. Also the light might be drawing the undead to us, since it is probably a beacon to our whereabouts. He looks around to see if anybody is agreement.

[greyarea]

Melampus

I doubt it is the light that draws the undead. Perhaps we sleep during day and continue on at night.

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt "Well I was trying to sheath the sword but it is nice that Agrippo has some item that warns us of undead so perhaps we can at least have his sword out." the half elf is still looking for the sheath to put onto his belt for the scimitar.

[Storm11]

For you to see unimpeded dark one the rest of us will be blinded or our resources will be swiftly depleted. You CAN still see in magical light yes?Castran sheathes his axe and sword.

[MonkeyWrench]

Iluq, "Yes, I can see still. I am not blinded, the light is just painful to my eyes. I can suffer through any pain if it means you all can make it out of this alive."

[Computer +1]

Tumbler steps back out of his concealment (at least he thinks he was concealed). Lets take the most transportable loot from here and get moving on again. We dont want to be weighed down but if we get a chance to get out of this hell hole then I think we need to take it and not have to come back here for booty.

[Dram]

Bragar- Yes lets move on. Maybe we can find a more secure place.

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt "Provided someone can figure out how to get us out of a secret space that opens from the other side only."

[Storm11]

"Did you feel something sinister working against us in there? A dark malevolent force perhaps? says Castran and his triplets. He waves away the problem with the fireplace. He has already said he can fix that.

"Still we have found a secret place to hide here abouts, where only incorporeal undead can attack us it seems. Let me try and cloak our rest for a few hours here and at least try and recover the spell casters less charms and cures to give is a fighting chance. The belfry has broken windows above allowing us an exit should we need one. It is unlikely we will be able to rest without disturbance, but perhaps if any undead come by our resting place and see only an empty space they may just wander off without investigating and we might at least heal. What say you all. Is it worth a try maybe?"

[greyarea]

Melampus nods at Castran's suggestion. Worth a try, I suppose.

[OGRE MAGE]

Tibbius

Lets give it a try, but don't hold out too much hope in this vile place. We are all doomed to fail in here it would seem.

[Zhym]

Interesting idea. A couple of caveats about phantasmal force:

• It only projects an image. Sound (e.g., snoring, breathing) and smell are not masked. Whether sound and smell would be enough for anything that wanders by to suspect something's up would be up to the dice (unless you can work up an illusion where your sounds and smells would be expected). For example: there might be rolls to see if any of you snore.
• The caster has to maintain concentration to keep the illusion going. So Castran can't rest as long as the illusion is in effect.

Assuming you want to go forward with the illusion, please let me know exactly what you want the illusion to be.