"Well you best keep puttin' it out kiddo! Ain't got time to roast wieners and coon jerky right yet!" He hollers over the squeaky sound of cranking his crossbow.
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
Teki and Loola again manage to douse the fires -- perhaps taking advantage of their natural fascination with it as goblins? -- though they seem to be more furious, and the haflgobling especially struggles at first before finally smothering it.
That leaves the rest of you Pathfinders to deal with the attackers themselves, Scratch and Samar drawing blood, though Sandstone's flame fires off into the desert. The bandits seem to start being concerned about you, but they continue to focus on the wagons as well.
The green hatted one again throws toward the red wagon, which ignites anew, slightly burning Teki 1 splash damage. He pulls his shortbow and takes cover, as Purple throws wildly, then pulls his bow and dives behind some scrub. The blue bandit's throw is more on target, and Scratch's wagon begins to burn again as the man draws his shortbow before taking cover.
Across the oasis, faced with Samar in their face, the red and aqua bandits draw their sword and slash, drawing a vial with their free hand. One swings wildly, but the other nearly cuts Samar, who's able to interpose the haft of her axe in front of the blade at the last moment. Each Interacted, so if you have an AoO you can use it (though I don't think you do).
Scratch shakes his fist at green before unloading another bolt in his direction. Unfortunately his aim isn't as good as it should be. "Enough of the fire stuff already!" He scrambles closer to the flames and tries to stomp them out with his worn leather boots.
Spotting the sparkle of sunlight on glass, Sandstone hurls another ball of fire in the direction of Red Bandit, hoping to possibly ignite the vial before they manage to throw it.
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
FROM SAMAR, who's having trouble with the website:
Samar drops her bow, pulls out her second hatchet, and swings both at the aqua bandit. She follows it up with a sideways swipe at his shoulder.
Interact (draw hatchet; 1A), Twin Takedown (1A), Strike (1A) Note that aqua is her hunted prey, so her multiple attack penalty is lower against him. If aqua goes down before her final strike she’ll redirect to attack red with her last attack, but the penalty would be -4 higher against red.
Loola casts a shield spell, dismounts the wagon, and rushes toward Scratch and his wagon. "Rrraaaawwwwrrrr!" she roars, smallishly.
◈ Cast shield ◈ Move ◈ Move
Shield is a bloodline spell, which triggers her dragon scales. She gains a +1 status bonus to AC for 1 round. Together with shield, her AC is 19 until the start of her next turn.
If she is hit by an attack, she will use ⤾ Shield Block.
Teki manages to douse the nearest fire again before pulling out her bow, while Scratch douses the other fire, though it distracts him enough his bolt goes flying wide, off into the sands.
The fires again out, the rest of you are able to concentrate on the bandits themselves, but they prove to be able combatants, fending off Tess' blade. Samar cuts the first of them down, but the red-garbed bandit furiously fends off her remaining slashes before crying out in pain from Sandstone's fireball. Moving around Samar, he throws his last vial at the green wagon, then spin and cuts wildly at Samar.
The others, apparently out of alchemist's fire, open fire with their bows. Green fires at Teki and Scratch, while Purple shoots at Loola, but all three arrows miss badly. The blue bandit moves to get a better shot, then fires at Samar and Sandstone. The second shaft misses, but the first grazes Samar 1 hp.
"Ha! You terrible shots with bows!" Loola taunts the bandits.
"Scratch, you see how bad them shots is?" She giggles.
The wee goblin lass then casts a couple of spells in quick succession: the first raising her shield and dragon scales again, while the second sends bolts of electricity at two of the bandits. (GREEN and PURPLE.)
◈ Cast shield ◈◈ Cast electric arc electric arc:1d4 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 Basic Reflex save DC 17
Shield is a bloodline spell, which triggers her dragon scales. She gains a +1 status bonus to AC for 1 round. Together with shield, her AC is 19 until the start of her next turn.
If she is hit by an attack, she will use ⤾ Shield Block.
Scratch dodges green's arrow then furrows his brow "Ya got that right kid. They aim as good as I do hittin' the piss pot after a long night out!" He cranks another bolt into place and returns fire on green then ducks for cover behind a coil of rope on the wagon.
CG Human Barrister Rogue 1 | HP 16/16 | AC 17 | F +3 R +8 W +5 | Perc +5 | Stealth +6 | Init +2 | speed 30 ft.| Hero Points: 0 | Active Conditions: --
Tess snarls at the bandit who fended her off. "Why are you doing this?!" she yells, full of adrenaline. "Leave these people alone and run, or your road ends here!"
Intimidate:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
She presses her attack to prove her point, rapier flashing menacingly (if not very ably):
Rapier:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Rapier:1d20 - 1 ⇒ (10) - 1 = 9
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
Teki's arrow hits the green-clothed bandit followed a moment later by electricity from Loola's spell, which causes him to stiffen momentarily before falling over.
His target dead, Scratch instead aims at the purple garbed bandit, hitting him in the chest and drawing a cry of pain. Needed to change your target; I'm assuming the precision is from Hunt Prey, so didn't apply it here. You still got the +2 from Crossbow Ace..
Tess closes in on the bandit, who quails less at Teki and more at her command, though the effect is diminished a bit by the swordswoman's wild thrusts. Still, that sets him up for Samar, who puts him down in a spray of blood as Sandstone puts out the last fire. Your last action has no target, so you can do something else with it at the start of the next round, Sandstone.
The remaining two bandits seem ready to continue to fight, and the purple-garbed one shoots at Loola 1 and then Scratch before taking cover, while the one in blue fires at Tess 5 hp before falling back to find cover of his own. "You don't scare us," he calls, earning a slightly skeptical glance from his sole remaining companion.
Loola will use her ⤾ Shield Block to cancel that 1 hp of damage. It means she can't cast shield again for 10 minutes, but I don't think she was planning to anyway.
Loola charges the nearest bandit with reckless abandon. "You not scare us neether!" The wee goblin lass slashes ferociously with her long and sharp claws at the man.
Teki strides closer, shooting at the Purple bandit who is threatening Teki. "I defend my people, miscreant! Flee, or risk dying here... forgotten, for I will not trouble to remember your cowardice!"
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
Loola's claws bring down the one bandit, his body seizing a little as the electricity courses through him.
Samar and Teki wound the last remaining bandit as Tess and Sandstone rush to close in. Scratch studies his foe, but fires wide as the bandit tries to duck away from the others.
The scout drops his bow and stabs at Samar twice, but even as he cuts Samar badly, he seems to realize the numbers are against him.
@GM: I'm having trouble following your last post. Who was hit and for how much damage?
Also, I didn't think this through when I gave Loola the nickname Blue, knowing that a lot of GMs designate their NPCs with colors. My other character has the nickname Red. :P I recommend that we use "Loola" to refer to her in anything other than dialog.
Scratch cranks and cranks his lever as the last bandit is surrounded. "Throw down yer arms and we'll let ya live, else the birds gonna be feastin' on yer innards soon enough."
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Sorry, bad last post! Samar took 6 hp. She was the only one who was hurt. And, yeah, colors are the best way I've found to differentiate. That said, I can avoid using Blue anymore!
Scratch's bolt catches the last bandit, ending his threat, and leaving you alone in the desert. The goblins start creeping out, to survey the damage.
"See, we told you! They just keep attacking!" Muckmuck says. "But it looks like you saved the wagons..."
Sorry for delays in posting. I caught some real-life aggro over the weekend.
Breathing heavily, Sandstone turns to Muckmuck. "Do they always target the wagons like this? Do they ever take things from the wagons, or do they just --" he gestures expansively "-- ruin them?"
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
You can take 10 minutes; the goblins need a little time to recover themselves. You can also look around if you want.
"We do not know. They disappear, and we don't see the wagons or the goblins again!" Yigrig replies.
"Goddess of Forgotten and Unlikely Heroes" | 820-2002 | Female Goblin Acolyte Blessed One Bard and Starstone Hopeful 7 HP 62/62 | AC 24 | F +11 R +16 W +15 | Perc +13 | 30 Speed | Focus 3/3 | Spells 1st 3/3, 2nd 3/3, 3rd 3/3, 4th 2/2 | Hero Points 3/3 | Campaign Coins 1 | Exploration - Scout | Active Conditions: ---
"Then I am glad that we obiterated them!" Teki says. "Obit? Get it? As in wrote their obituaries?" Teki looks around. "Is there any sign where these louts came from?" She looks to Samar and Scratch. "Can you see their tracks?"
Scratch reloads and sets the safety on his crossbow, clears his throat and hacks up a solid lunger to be sent into the nearest glowing ember. "Don't rush me Teki, gotta let my ticker slow down else it might just seize up. Then I'd be dun fer!" He slings his weapon of ranged destruction over his shoulder and climbs down out of the wagon to have a look around.
"If any are still alive we can wake 'em up and smack 'em around a bit, find out somethin' if you want." He shrugs and makes his way over towards where they first jumped out of the rocks.
Loola sits idly, refocusing her magic. "Teki, don't rush Scratch. He not young like you and Me. Him have heart condition... whatever that means. I think it something he got in the war."
Then she hollers over to the dwarf, "You find anything yet, Scratch?!"
Loola is slightly injured and could use some dirt rubbed into it, by either Scratch or Sandstone.
Medicine checks take 10 minutes each and Scratch as a +6. Its DC15 for 2d8 healing. Critical failures and successes apply. I'd say roll your own checks if the GM doesn't mind.
"No I ain't looked up and under them rocks Bloo, why don't you do it, I'm busy measurin' boot tracks over here!" He collects some particularly clean looking sand to rub into anyone's wounds that need it.
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
Scratch isn't able to find any clues as to what exactly is going on, but does discover a nearby cave where the bandits seem to have been waiting. Several weapons remain among the other remnants of the camp, including a bolas, a khopesh, and a fighting fan.
As you search and tend your wounds, the goblins regroup and make sure the wagons are able to travel. The rest of the journey is uneventful and you arrive at the camp to find it bustling with activity. Goblin engineers do their best to guide goblin workers as they build the decking and assemble the piers; the bridge appears simple, but sturdy, and is approximately half complete.
As the wagons are unloaded, Muckmuck leads you to Zig, whom he introduces as the leader of the bridge camp. While many of the goblins at the work camp are covered in dirt and sweat, Zig stands tall and straight among them. He pours over maps of the surrounding area before speaking.
“It is good to see you. They call me Zig. I’m glad my father asked you to come here to help.
“We have been building a very important bridge. But every night, the big cats attack our camp. We leave out meat for them and they saunter right past it. Instead, they seem bent on filling their bellies with goblin flesh. If we move camp across the river; they cross over it overnight. If we light fires around the camp to scare them away, the goblins workers burn themselves in the flames. It’s a lose-lose situation.
“Every few nights, the cats come back to hunt us. Everyone is terrified and that’s bad for business. With all this talk of some saber-toothed whatever coming for us in the night, we’re all too scared to finish our work. If someone doesn’t take these furballs out, I suspect the bridge isn’t ever gonna get built.
“These kitties aren’t natural. Whatever you need, you got it. I can give you workers to build fences. But fences alone aren’t going to be enough. Either the cats go, or this bridge is history. The only other answer is death.”
"Weird lookin' weapons here fellas. Anyone wanna give 'em a go? Or maybe we'll take 'em along just in case." He relieves himself in the bandit's fire pit then gathers up the loot and tosses it in his wagon.
That's a crit success Loola! 4d8 healerin' comin' yer way!
Crit Success Medicine vs DC15:4d8 ⇒ (4, 7, 5, 2) = 18
Scratch knows his dirt, and apparently has learned a thing or two about goblin anotomy over the centuries. "Right as rocks now kid. Now lemme fix up Tess a bit. Looks like she sliced herself swingin' around that flimsy sword of hers." The dirt in this desert has amazing healing properties.
Medicine vs Tess since she's afk, DC15:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15 Success Medicine vs DC15:2d8 ⇒ (7, 1) = 8
------------
Scratch eyes up the camp from atop his battle wagon like the senile general that he is. "Fencin' be good. Fires be good. More bolts be good too! Got any?"Could always use more crossbow bolts if they're available, no biggie if not.
"Bloo you calm down them workers, I'm gonna go check out the river bank fer cat tracks.. see what we're dealin' with." He hops down and heads downgrade. Survival to Track, Prey:1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 2 = 19
Sandstone listens to Zig's account with a furrow on his brow. "What do you mean, the cats aren't natural? How can you tell?"
Even if the cats indeed aren't natural, Sandstone figures they still must make some mark on the local ecosystem. He goes poking around to deepen his understanding of how the ecosystem should be working, in order to spot anything that's out of place.
Nature:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
If anyone else wants to roll me for healing, it's 1d20+7 for Natural Medicine. :)
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
"They keep attacking us! We try lighting fires to scare them, and they don't care. We put out food, and they still come after us! Dogs, no surprise that they act like that, but not cats!" Zig says emphatically, spitting a little big after he mentions dogs. Sandstone doesn't need to think long to realize this definitely doesn't seem normal.
Scratch, meanwhile, is certainly able to find some cat tracks by the water, though they seem to get lost in the mass of goblin and other prints in the area. It's hard to make heads or tails of them beyond that they're there. He's also disappointed in his request for bolts, as Zig said they don't have many weapons here -- this is a work camp, not a war camp -- and can't spare what few items they have.
"Goddess of Forgotten and Unlikely Heroes" | 820-2002 | Female Goblin Acolyte Blessed One Bard and Starstone Hopeful 7 HP 62/62 | AC 24 | F +11 R +16 W +15 | Perc +13 | 30 Speed | Focus 3/3 | Spells 1st 3/3, 2nd 3/3, 3rd 3/3, 4th 2/2 | Hero Points 3/3 | Campaign Coins 1 | Exploration - Scout | Active Conditions: ---
"Can we have a tour of the area? I want to know what supplies we do have. Can we make defenses? Traps? Do the cats always arrive at night? If so... We're goblins, right? We could sleep and work in shifts, making sure that we have an attack force ready at night to shoot those strange cats."
Teki thinks. "It's possible that those aren't real cats at all, but something else. If so... They seem to have an agenda of just attacking our people. We should make it too costly to do so."
"Lotta cat tracks down at the water, and goblin, and now some Dwarf too." He chuckles as he counts out his bolt supply. "Traps be keen, love me some traps... maybe some that explode? Spray nails? Release giant, perfectly rounded boulders to squash things as they roll downhill?"
His imagination gets ahead of his abilities, but you gotta start somewhere right?
Scratch will be a trap laying Ranger, at least once he gets to level 2 and can take the feat. Until then all he's got is a regular craft skill check at his disposal.
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
"Yes, yes," Zig says, showing you around the camp. It's pretty basic, consisting of a hospital building with perhaps a disconcertingly large amount of bloodstains; tents where the goblins sleep; a command post, where plans -- all drawn with no actual words -- are pinned down to a rough wooden table; and a supply pavilion.
"The cats always arrive at night. Maybe pits could work, or at least help," he says. "Plus we have more materials to add to the walls -- though they climb over them!"
There's enough material to place 16 additional segments of fence. Each section of fence fills a 5-foot square, is 6 feet high, and is made of wood (10 Hardness, 40 HP, Broken Threshold 20). You can place them on the map if you want. I've created some boxes on the right side of the mpa you can use.
Scratch takes the tour with his tongue in one side of his cheek while he counts on his fingers, eyeballing everything with a bit of military knowledge he picked up over the decades. Maybe he can come up with a solid defense strategy that helps.+4 Warfare Lore. Do you want to roll GM for the secrets?
"So them kitty cats just usually head to the tents to chow down on people? Is anyone stayin' in the med tent? How 'bout the command building?" He asks as the tour goes on.
"Be helpful to build some more fence around where ever the workers are sleepin'. Two ways in maybe so you can run off? We can set up some platforms to see up and over things and be ready ta put bolts between the whiskers!" He pokes Sandstone between the eyes to illustrate his point.. or tries to. Damn tall bastards!
"Sounds good to me, cap'n!" Loola salutes the old dwarf with a clumsy blue hand at not quite the right angle for a proper salute. "Where you want Bloo?"
motteditor
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
I rolled for you, Scratch. Unfortunately, nothing more leaps to mind for Scratch, in terms of a strategy.
"Only Pearlybones stays in the hospital," Zig says. "He is the doctor and keeps goblin workers healthy -- as long as the cats don't kill them. He says he can't do anything about that! No one sleeps in the command post."
You can create a sniping area, but it takes four fencing sections. You could also use the hospital or supplies area without needing to use any fencing. Both will let you get 10 feet up.
You can put some goblins in the hospital, but all the workers won't fit in there.
