Kindly return to the exit of the cave. Really, is that so very difficult? The skull, now free of Strix's grapple, remains in position but slowly rotates, fixing each of you wish a disapproving glare.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Maybe the skull isn't fully aware of the water threat. Either way, if we can't kill it fast enough, i suggest we try and keep it in the waterway and hope it gets hammered by a wave...or we start the chase up again and hope to bring it with us to the Black Spider...I got 7 HP so I'm basically staying out of that things way...of course I'll shoot it given the opportunity.
I'm offline for the next 6 hours or more.
Attack roll if needed with arrows Attack: 8 Damage: 5 sneak attack damage if applicable (someone is next to him) 8
Varinth is not quite this drunk. He is sober enough to know when he's outmatched. He has used this over-drunkeness on a few occasions when he wished others to dismiss him as a lush.
"We're A biT loSht.. couLd you eshcoo *hic* eskar *hic* show uS tha wAy ouT?"
He makes the Neverwinter equivilent of a thumbs up behind his back, hoping that the rest of the gang play along.
I think Scupper was only going to attack if we started fisticuffs with Floaty Skull.
"of course I'll shoot it given the opportunity. "
This is very tiresome. If you lower your weapons and return to the mouth of the cavern where you encountered me, then I will not attack you. Will you do so? The skull continues to rotate slowly, eyeing you all warily.
I am kicking myself for not spending a ki to use Acrobatics for that roll, but then I don't think I can if it's me resisting the contest rather than initiating the contest... anyway, the good news is that he didn't float off into the air so I've got a shot at melee. Strix has 15 HP which is enough to take one more fireball (hopefully he hasn't got any more!) on a good roll by me and a bad roll by the Skull so I'm going to attempt to grab him and start dragging him south past the waves. If it succeeds and if he's tiny I can move him 50 ft per turn that he doesn't get out of it and bash him off the floor as I go. Might get one or two turns before Strix is down and he comes after you, but it's not clear how high the waves go and how high the roof is. Might buy some time. If a wave is coming I can always plant the spear in the ground, cling on with one arm and one leg and see how dependent he is on those flames for flying? Or see if he can swim...
So - my decision making on this has been pretty poor so far in relation to this dude - what's the story? Are we bringing him back to his cave and looking for another way around? We can fight him again but how do we stop him coming back? Short rest is an hour, so he regenerates in an hour or less. The unknowns are whether or not he'd have appeared where we are if I'd left the bone behind (did I say I was sorry? I am!) or if, god forbid, there's another one of him where the rest of his skull got left...
Speech translation for below: "I'm afraid we cannot leave, as we must find the intruder and rescue the dwarf he has taken captive. If I'm honest I'm not entirely certain why I'm willing to risk my life for this endeavour but it seems a little late in the day to be questioning my motivations. Ah well, c'est le vie D&D!"
Strix sighs "Can't leave. Must find 'truder. Must save Dwarf. Not sure why 'portant, but bit late 'be question'n." Then in the space between breaths he snaps out an arm to grab the skull (Spend 1 Ki, Acro-grapple : 14 - Will be running south I think as fast as my Medium sized legs can carry the pair of us.
Strix, you grab the skull by its jaw once again. Now that is really quite enough of that. You are able to pull the floating skull thirty feet to the south.
Round Two:
A: Dekhan and Incantis B: Flameskull C: Strix, Scupper and Varinth
The magic flows from Incantis, and you all hear echoes of whispered voices, fragments of a tune long forgotten, spoken in a language you cannot understand. For the skull, the sound is more intense.
14
But the whispers seem to pass by while only doing a moderate amount of damage to the skull, less than you hoped, and you get the sense that it may be more resistant to such magical energies than most living creatures.
Dekhan moves 20 ft closer to the skull and assuming Strix is holding it like Adam West holding the bomb in the old Batman movie, drops Talon, draws a javelin and launches it at the skull Attack: 21 Damage: 8
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Has no tongue - hand won't stop. Need shut up..."Strix's eyes land on the churning water and he gives Scupper as slightly maniacal grin.
Personally I think this is stupid, the skull has no limbs so Somatic and Component requirements can't be met but he still cast Fireball. No reason to believe Vocal is any different. Also, the thing clearly has a fly speed so the water won't slow it down much. But Strix doesn't listen to me.
I'm not clear on what I roll for smashing him off hte ground, so I've gone with 2 Unarmed Strikes with a D4 for damage. Feel free to correct me.
I'm also not clear on how far I can drag him - full movement is 50ft, half movement is 25ft, not sure where the 30 came from (is that the 5ft I had to reach to grab it?)
Attack : 18 Damage: 6
Bonus unarmed : 18 Damage: 5
He smacks the skull off the ground and then hammers his knee down on top of it, runs south a little further and dives into the water with his bony chum in tow.
21
(I would argue if he's holding the skeleton the arrows are aimed at him, it's his hand, but unless that roll is a 20 I don't think it matters :))
Ah **** off dice!
Strix, Shifter Shadow Monk in Lost Mines of Phandelver ¦ Sihegiall Human Soulknife Rogue in In Search of Molly McGuffin
Kindly return to the exit of the cave. Really, is that so very difficult? The skull, now free of Strix's grapple, remains in position but slowly rotates, fixing each of you wish a disapproving glare.
Strix, Scupper and Varinth are up.
Maybe the skull isn't fully aware of the water threat. Either way, if we can't kill it fast enough, i suggest we try and keep it in the waterway and hope it gets hammered by a wave...or we start the chase up again and hope to bring it with us to the Black Spider...I got 7 HP so I'm basically staying out of that things way...of course I'll shoot it given the opportunity.
I'm offline for the next 6 hours or more.
Attack roll if needed with arrows Attack: 8 Damage: 5 sneak attack damage if applicable (someone is next to him) 8
"LoOk *hic* SkuLly's bacK! Hey SkulLy sKull! WheRe'd you *hic* go?"
Varinth is not quite this drunk. He is sober enough to know when he's outmatched. He has used this over-drunkeness on a few occasions when he wished others to dismiss him as a lush.
"We're A biT loSht.. couLd you eshcoo *hic* eskar *hic* show uS tha wAy ouT?"
He makes the Neverwinter equivilent of a thumbs up behind his back, hoping that the rest of the gang play along.
Scupper, your attack misses; Strix attempts to catch the stray arrow but unsuccessfully.
Varinth, make a Deception check.
Deception: 19
I think Scupper was only going to attack if we started fisticuffs with Floaty Skull.
"of course I'll shoot it given the opportunity. "
This is very tiresome. If you lower your weapons and return to the mouth of the cavern where you encountered me, then I will not attack you. Will you do so? The skull continues to rotate slowly, eyeing you all warily.
Strix is up.
I am kicking myself for not spending a ki to use Acrobatics for that roll, but then I don't think I can if it's me resisting the contest rather than initiating the contest... anyway, the good news is that he didn't float off into the air so I've got a shot at melee. Strix has 15 HP which is enough to take one more fireball (hopefully he hasn't got any more!) on a good roll by me and a bad roll by the Skull so I'm going to attempt to grab him and start dragging him south past the waves. If it succeeds and if he's tiny I can move him 50 ft per turn that he doesn't get out of it and bash him off the floor as I go. Might get one or two turns before Strix is down and he comes after you, but it's not clear how high the waves go and how high the roof is. Might buy some time. If a wave is coming I can always plant the spear in the ground, cling on with one arm and one leg and see how dependent he is on those flames for flying? Or see if he can swim...
So - my decision making on this has been pretty poor so far in relation to this dude - what's the story? Are we bringing him back to his cave and looking for another way around? We can fight him again but how do we stop him coming back? Short rest is an hour, so he regenerates in an hour or less. The unknowns are whether or not he'd have appeared where we are if I'd left the bone behind (did I say I was sorry? I am!) or if, god forbid, there's another one of him where the rest of his skull got left...
Speech translation for below: "I'm afraid we cannot leave, as we must find the intruder and rescue the dwarf he has taken captive. If I'm honest I'm not entirely certain why I'm willing to risk my life for this endeavour but it seems a little late in the day to be questioning my motivations. Ah well, c'est le vie D&D!"
Strix sighs "Can't leave. Must find 'truder. Must save Dwarf. Not sure why 'portant, but bit late 'be question'n." Then in the space between breaths he snaps out an arm to grab the skull (Spend 1 Ki, Acro-grapple : 14 - Will be running south I think as fast as my Medium sized legs can carry the pair of us.
Strix, Shifter Shadow Monk in Lost Mines of Phandelver ¦ Sihegiall Human Soulknife Rogue in In Search of Molly McGuffin
Skull's grapple resist: Acrobatics 8
Strix, you grab the skull by its jaw once again. Now that is really quite enough of that. You are able to pull the floating skull thirty feet to the south.
Round Two:
A: Dekhan and Incantis
B: Flameskull
C: Strix, Scupper and Varinth
Dekhan and Incantis are up.
Incantis' eyes roll back in his head as his mind wanders out and touches the skull's, filling it with eldritch and dissonant whispers.
Dissonant Whispers: DC13 WIS or 20 psychic damage and it must move away.
Incantis, half-elf warlock (great old one) 4/bard 1 ● Thorok Earthhand, hill dwarf mountain druid 6/grave cleric 2
Cragmyre Ironseed, earth genasi ancestral barbarian 3 ● Cyrus Natriallae, aquatic half-elf warlock of the deep 3
The magic flows from Incantis, and you all hear echoes of whispered voices, fragments of a tune long forgotten, spoken in a language you cannot understand. For the skull, the sound is more intense.
14
But the whispers seem to pass by while only doing a moderate amount of damage to the skull, less than you hoped, and you get the sense that it may be more resistant to such magical energies than most living creatures.
Dekhan is up.
Dekhan moves 20 ft closer to the skull and assuming Strix is holding it like Adam West holding the bomb in the old Batman movie, drops Talon, draws a javelin and launches it at the skull Attack: 21 Damage: 8
Dekhan, your javelin slams into the skull and bounces back; it does some damage, but less that you think it should have.
The skull, still gripped and grappled by Strix, starts to jerk around in his hand. It attempts to break the grapple once again:
Acrobatics 21
Strix, please roll the countering Athletics check.
(Ok dice. You know I love you but you gotta say it back... Daddy needs to take this boney bastard for a swim. )
Athletics : 23
You dodecahedrous BEAUTY!
Strix, Shifter Shadow Monk in Lost Mines of Phandelver ¦ Sihegiall Human Soulknife Rogue in In Search of Molly McGuffin
The attempt to escape fails, and the skull is left fuming impotently, unable to move.
Strix, Scupper and Varinth are up.
Keep yer hand on it's jaw!
It may not be able te cast if it can't talk!
There's no way I'm getting this fight in melee on a slippery ledge.
Scupper fires another arrow
Attack: 8 Damage: 1 sneak attack damage 5
"Has no tongue - hand won't stop. Need shut up..." Strix's eyes land on the churning water and he gives Scupper as slightly maniacal grin.
Personally I think this is stupid, the skull has no limbs so Somatic and Component requirements can't be met but he still cast Fireball. No reason to believe Vocal is any different. Also, the thing clearly has a fly speed so the water won't slow it down much. But Strix doesn't listen to me.
I'm not clear on what I roll for smashing him off hte ground, so I've gone with 2 Unarmed Strikes with a D4 for damage. Feel free to correct me.
I'm also not clear on how far I can drag him - full movement is 50ft, half movement is 25ft, not sure where the 30 came from (is that the 5ft I had to reach to grab it?)
Attack : 18 Damage: 6
Bonus unarmed : 18 Damage: 5
He smacks the skull off the ground and then hammers his knee down on top of it, runs south a little further and dives into the water with his bony chum in tow.
Strix, Shifter Shadow Monk in Lost Mines of Phandelver ¦ Sihegiall Human Soulknife Rogue in In Search of Molly McGuffin
Scupper, your arrow ricochets of the top of the skull, having done no damage, and flies off into the darkness above the water.
Strix, you bash the skull twice into the ground, but some kind of magical shield seems to deflect the damage both times; the skull is unharmed.
You move south along the ledge and the dive into the churning, swirling waters, with the skull gripped firmly in your hands.
Varinth is up.