The Unseen Servant forums

What if we surprised her, rushed her and tried to pin her arms so she can't cast spells? Then we could question her. I hate to just run in and kill a lady. Are we sure she's evil?" says Ozborn. ""I wonder what the mirror does."

Malone will quietly allow the others to rush ahead, while he guards the stairwell.

Thurinor, elf

"Judging by her experiments and the fear she inspires in local inhabitants, she's not good," says Thurinor. "With the cloak perhaps you could back bkudgeon her." (Back stab with pummel for x2 subdual damage.)

"We must get the jump on her to disrupt spells she may cast."

The party decides to rush the sorceress and try to take her by surprise. You rush up the stairs, feet clomping heavily, and emerge in the tower's top floor. The sorceress is standing by the open window. She holds a wand in one hand. Her other hand is held up before her in a gesture that might be warning and might be self-defense.

Ok, the main idea I heard was to rush upstairs and catch the sorceress by surprise. On the other hand, she wasn't exactly unaware that you were coming, meaning that there was a chance, with you clomping your way up, that she would be ready for you and that you all could be the ones surprised. So, here are those surprise rolls:

Party Surprise Roll: [1d6] = 2
Sorceress Surprise Roll: [1d6] = 4

The sorceress gets 2 segments of surprise during which to act, adjusted by your characters' dex/surprise adjustment. Stonjuz and Swilbosh are surprised for the full 2 segments and cannot act. Andrin and Thurinor are surprised for 1 segment but (by my reading of the surprise rules) can act on the second surprise segment. All others are not surprised and may post an action for each of the two surprise segments. These are quick actions, the equivalent of making a single missile attack per segment in a 2-segment free-for-all. Movement is possible but will be prorated. Spells can be cast but will take the usual number of segments to complete (i.e., they may go off during the early part of the first full round of combat).

saalaria wrote:Ouch! So where does Swilbosh get to before being surprised?

My assumption is that all of you are just inside the room, except for Malone, who explicitly stated he was guarding the stairwell. The room is fairly open, no real furniture except for the mirror and shelves along the walls holding mundane knick knacks and trinkets as well as elements used in divination, as explained before.

I'm also assuming that Oz is still wearing the cloak of elvenkind. He has an excellent chance of not being seen...

Thurinor, elf

Hanging back, the prestidigitator tosses the snake scepter down to attack the sorcereress. He fires a magic missile at the mirror to hopefully smash it.

Swilbosh stands and gorps in surprise at the woman....

Fairfax calls over the crowd ahead of him "Are you friend or Foe woman, speak now or lose your chance to ever do so!".

Andrin waits to see if she's willing to parlay before he acts.

Oz, realizing it's possible he won't be seen, aims to use the party's attempt to parlay as a distraction. He moves to get out of her direct line of fire and as quickly and efficiently as he can loop around behind her as she (hopefully) addresses the party, with the intention of pinning her arms from behind (hello, grappling rules!) so they can question her. He just can't bring himself to strike her unless she fires first.

Malone moves into a position where he can hear what is going on above him, but does not enter the room/level.

Surprise Round

The sorceress intones a quick spell and begins to grow larger, over twice as large as she had been. She is now nearly 12' tall!

Swilbosh stands and gorps in surprise at the woman. Fairfax calls over the crowd ahead of him, "Are you friend or Foe woman, speak now or lose your chance to ever do so!"

Ozborn, taking advantage of his companions distracting presence, attempts to sneak around behind the sorceress under cover of the cloak of elvenkind. He slips by his companions unseen but on the way knocks a few knick knacks off of a shelf.

Cloak of Elvenkind: [1d100] = 27
Move Silently: [1d100] = 65

The sorceress seems to track the sound of Ozborn's movements and gives a warning: "Leave and I will do no harm to you. You have freed me from my prison and my disobedient servants. Now go!"

At this, Thurinor tosses the snake scepter to the ground, uttering the command word, and it begins to lengthen and writhe on the floor between the party and the sorceress.

Ozborn, still moving, is now off to one side of the sorceress, a mere 10' away. She is turned to face halfway between him and his companions standing in the doorway. Malone is just outside the door on the landing of the stairs. He is out of view but can easily hear everything going on inside.


Andrin, who was waiting to see if the sorceress is willing to parlay, may respond briefly and possibly prompt a different reaction from her. I would tack this on to the surprise round if you like. There's always a possibility to prompt a reaction roll, for good or for ill.

Sorry Thurinor, you only had one surprise action, not two, so I opted to go with your first action of throwing the serpent down. You can still try to smash the mirror with a magic missile if you want. Since the magic of magic missile is to hit automatically, I'll give the mirror a save against a normal blow, but you can only target one portion of the mirror, which is already cracked in thirds: the top, the bottom right, and the bottom left. Just tell me which you want to break. If the mirror fails its save, that portion will be shattered.

And you should all give me your first round combat actions and/or any parlaying...

"You are outnumbered and surrounded, witch! Stop your threats, and you might get out of this alive!"

In case , she doesn't surrender, Andrin casts faerie fire at her.

Swil lets the parlaying play out but if combat ensues he is right in there:

Battle Axe To Hit [1d20+2] = 8+2 = 10 Damage [1d8+2] = 1+2 = 3

Malone will continue holding his place, expecting her to find a way to escape the others. They always do. He will be ready with halberd to make sure she doesnt flee.

Sir Clarence wrote:"You are outnumbered and surrounded, witch! Stop your threats, and you might get out of this alive!"

The sorceress scoffs at this, her full lips turning down in a scowl that somewhat lessens her beauty, her eyes narrowing to dangerous slits as she seems to measure the strength of your party. "We shall see who survives and who does not."

Keep giving me those actions for those who haven't yet, but I wanted to give Andrin and you all the benefit of her reaction before the first full round of combat begins...

Realizing she knows where he is, Ozborn will stop in place for a moment and remain utterly silent, hoping to take advantage of any commotion between her and the other party members to resume sneaking around behind her, only this time to set up for a back stab. If she looks to be casting any kind of spell in his direction, or between him and the others, he'll try to run perpendicular to her line of fire to get out of the way (but still generally trying to work around behind her, if possible). "She looks way too big to grapple, now..." he thinks to himself, imagining getting kicked like an invisible ball across the room.

Malone hears the warning and assumes she will be attacking, most likely with a spell. Knowing he is most likely the only party member she is not accounting for, he will stay out of sight for a moment longer.