Shadow pulls a little human girl from the wreckage and is taken aback by the markings on her skin. She turns to him and mutter something that he doesn't understand. Do you need help? Where are your parents? The little girl takes off down the street. Wait! No sooner than he calls out he is distracted by the sight of many powerful looking adventurers as they take flight into the air to combat the mages. Shadow is captivated by their powerful presence. That's when he heard the roar. The most terrifying roar he has ever heard. A large black dragon flies overhead and spews a trail of acid all over the buildings. He follows the trail as it hits the building. That's when he hears the screams. I have to help them!
"Come on, get out of there!" Shadow sees a woman yelling into the building. He also sees another woman who seems to have a demonic origin shouting into the building to get them to escape as well. This building is coming down fast, I will try to save who I can. He looks over at his brother. Flame do what you want but I am saving those people. He looks at his brother with sad eyes because he knows this very well may be his last moments. Shadow turns and sprints straight into the building as fast as his Tabaxi frame will take him.
After a series of astounding and unexpected events (including the rising to action of all the more experienced adventurers in the city), Elemoth is snapped out of the confused haze he was in when the Black Dragon starts breathing acid onto buildings and he sees one of the closer ones still has people inside.
"Come out of the building! Jump if you have to! We will do our best to catch you, and have healers standing by!" He shouts in as comforting a way as possible to the people inside, practically throwing down his mace and shield to the floor to get his arms free, and trying his best to look and sound confident despite the fact that the "rescuers" and "healing" he's promising are just a ragtag group of people who seem to either barely know each other, or have never even met until today. (The 2 brothers aside)
He also glances at the first floor doors and windows for signs of movement in case anyone gets stuck and needs to be pulled out.
Edit: Elemoth also makes sure to try and stand in a way that his Holy Symbol of Lathander (his amulet) is as visible as possible.
As terror lies in the hearts of all commoners (and several other people) of Waterdeep the acid house continues to melt with people stuck up at the top of it. As suddenly a terrible high pitched tone begins emanating from inside of the house, causing for everyone inside it to scream in fear, terror, and confusion. As the dissonant noise subsides and Marion screams up; however, it seems like there's so much chaos and terror that nobody is able to follow her orders (that, and they're scared out of their minds, along with a failed intimidation check of 8).
Torment then begins to cast a spell as a window flies open, and as she tries to get the commoners to leap out, their fear is too much as it's far too high for them to jump without a high likelihood of dying. As she begins ordering them, they seem hesitant and reluctant to do so, and that costs them as the acid burns the floor near the window, rendering it much harder to escape from (sadly persuasion was a total of 7...).
Meanwhile, the two Tabaxi brothers run into the burning building after the other and find that the villagers have at this point accepted their fate, but Shadow picks one of the children up and (I'm assuming, but feel free to correct me if this is not something Flame would do) Flame follows suit. They then leap down what's left of the melting stairs and manage to escape mostly uninjured, except for a couple acid drops that burnt away their skin (1 acid damage). The children, however, are luckily unharmed as they are now safe from the melting house... But their parents are still inside!
As Elemoth throws his equipment to the ground and holds out his arms next to the open window, offering his aid in the case of them jumping (and with a persuasion result of 11), one of the stronger people in the building tries to jump 6 ft. through the window (STR 12 required). She succeeds! However, she also is falling out of the top of a two story building... Luckily Elemoth manages to catch her, but not with his arms... As he lies in a crumpled heap for her fall was cushioned by Elemoth himself (as he takes 2 bludgeoning damage in the proccess). She mutters a quick: "Oh! Thank you, by Lathandar I'm terribly sorry I never meant to... oh... I'm not feeling..." As she collapses from exhaustion and inhaling acid fumes. Noticing that one of them succeeded begins to shake the acid prisoners from their shocked state, but as they're going to try it... even more of the floor is devoured by acid, rendering the jump virtually impossible (except by a pretty strong being).
"Oh dear, I'm running out of options," exclaims Torment. She utters another cantrip and attempts to cause the fire and flames nearest the trapped villagers to dim, and look less frightening, perhaps encouraging them to make the leap. (Thaumaturgy)Then she shouts to to one of the Tabaxi she saw carrying a child to safety, the one called Shadow. "I thought up a verse, a bit of a rhyme. I'd play you a song, but I don't have the time!" (1d6 bardic Inspiration die to Shadow.)
Torment shouts out and a couple people, eased by her calming words and how the fires seem to strangely dim as she speaks, take the jump. They manage to land on a nearby pile of hay (lucky them) as they then run off yelling their thanks to all of you. The next group then begins to get ready to jump and they -
BOOM
A nearby fireball sends out embers and lashes of fire towards you (everyone else is on a different side of the home, so it just barely singes you for 4 fire [reduced to 2 because fire resistance] damage). It also begins to burn the hay away that would have been used to cushion the villagers fall... Which means they can't get down without surely getting killed in the fall.
5 commoners and 4.8 seconds remain (1.2 seconds for each of you).
Flame sprints out of the house and sets the child down. "Get to cover now!" he says to the child as he sprints back into the house. The chaos of it all tries to overwhelm him, but the screams of the dying and injured snap him into the present moment. "Come with me, quickly! We're running out of time!" he shouts as he grabs the first person he can get to and attempts to get them to safety.
Shadow runs out the house with the child in his arms, and sets the child down, "You're safe now, I'm going back for your parents." Shadow turns back around and follows his brother into the chaos. Shadow gets back to the people as fast as he can, while still dodging the acid that's dripping around him. "Come with me if you want to live, we must hurry!" Shadow tries to lead whoever is willing out of the house. If there are still children, he will carry a child as well.
Seeing the wierd cat people run into the house for a second time, Marion sighs. "Not much I can do here."
She peeks inside the house (while avoiding to go into the doomed building) and uses Frostbite in an attempt to freeze some of the acid. "Maybe this will give them more time..."
"It's quite alright..." Elemoth grunts, struggling to breathe from the shock of being crushed by the weight of a falling woman. Seeing that she's unconscious, he rolls her off of him as best as he can and tries to get up to attend to the other remaining people that are stuck. Noticing that there's a hay pile near the building, he points to it briefly and turn to call out to those who are still trapped in the building. "Jump for the hay pile if you can! And if you can't, try for my arms... or just me... it's fine if you just use me to cushion your fall." he half-gasps, groggily putting his arms out in front of himself again to see if he can "catch" someone else.
Noticing that there's a hay pile near the building
See this line: "It also begins to burn the hay away that would have been used to cushion the villagers fall..."
The child Flame grabbed immediately runs off away from the flying wizards. Seeing that the child is safe Flame runs back into the melting building, as he taps into his Tabaxi speed he moves unnaturally quickly. However, as he's running one of the stairs collapses as the support for it has completely melted away. As he trips, his fur is singed on the acidic remnant, and he instinctively leaps back, only to roll out of the house with several bruises and scrapes, taking 3 bludgeoning damage in the process. Meanwhile, Shadow runs up the staircase as well, taking careful note to not step on the broken step he manages to make it all the way to the top and is able to guide two people down while carrying a third. This extra weight though, makes it hard to balance, so as he heads down the melting stairs he trips and begins to fall into a glob of acid melting away the wall. He contorts himself to save the person, but as he does so he takes 4 acid damage from the acidic wall. As Marion then sends out a frostbolt, she manages to part of the acid, slowing down the process. This allows for Flame to take another turn. Luckily it is not needed as the final two people leap out into the capable arms of Elemoth (instead of on him)...
0 commoners and 0 seconds remain...
The house then collapses to the ground, becoming just a mound of rubble and acid. The dragon still flies around, garnering many shots from the town guard, while the battle between the mages and the many adventurers of Waterdeep ensues. This is clearly not over yet.
"Okay..."Marion catches her breath and looks around. Everyone seems to be more or less unharmed. "Did anyone see where the bark skinnend man was headed?"
"I have a feeling he might know what the **** is going on,"she says through gritted teeth.
You saw the bark skinned human ranger with a giant bow run down a nearby alleyway. You also notice that the tabaxi brothers are pretty badly injured.
Current Status of Players:
Shadow: 3/10 HP
Marion: 8/8 HP
Torment: 7/9 HP
Elemoth: 7/10 HP
Flame: 3/9 HP
The screams of fear and craziness seem to have subsided as most of the commoners have escaped to the outskirts of town, and the fireballs have mostly ended since the mages are focussing on more powerful single target spells rather than explosive spells. The main sector of the city is currently in fiery chaos.
Torment surveys the destruction of her home city. This is not good. I was hoping to start an adventure with a little less... death. Gathering her senses, she looks around at the others who were helping the villagers escape. The two Tabaxi are hurt badly, but I'll need to rest before I can heal anyone. It's at this point, she notices the bark skinned ranger dashing down an alleyway. Turning to Marion, "Over there!"Torment points towards the last place she saw him, and rushes over.
(OOC Assuming I see the ranger): "Oi! You wooden coward! Did you get kicked out of your daddy's orchard? Get back here and answer for these actions! Vicious Mockery Wisdom Save DC 13. Psychic Damage: 1
Flame stands to his feet after rolling out of the collapsing house. The acid has eaten away a portion of his fur on his left leg, but he seems not to notice. He notices a human and a tiefling running toward an alley. The tiefling starts barking insults, so he makes his way toward the alley. When his left foot hits the ground, his leg buckles underneath him. The exertion from the house has taken a toll on him. He struggles back to his feet and limps toward the alleyway despite the pain.
Shadow runs out of the melting house right behind to of the people. He is carrying a small child in his arms but as he exits he begins to stumble so he lays the child on the ground. "Go quickly, get to safety!" Shadow stumbles forward as the building collapses behind him. He lay face first in the dirt, the pain of the acid burns begins to get to him. on his back is a whole in his clothing with a burn about the size of a dinner plate. What was I thinking? Running into a collapsing building, I'm no hero. But everyone was able to escape so I suppose it was worth it in the end. A few burns is only the beginning of the punishment I deserve. Shadow looks up to see a little elven boy with his legs crossed. "You must hurry and get to safety!" Shadow tries to get the boy to move, but nothing happens. He doesn't know if it's the burns or the massive exhaustion he is facing, but the boy doesn't look right. It's almost as if he could see somewhat through the boy. Shadow just lays his head in the dirt, too exhausted to try and figure this out right now. Somewhere nearby he hears some shouting, and hears footsteps as some people run off chasing after wooden-man. Or at least that's what Shadow thought he heard them say. What is wrong with this crazy city?
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Elemoth breaths a sigh of relief as the last of the helpless citizens seems to get to relative safety (for now) he picks up his mace and shield and stows them away, seeing as they aren't needed for now. He then looks around to see if the would-be rescuers are alright, and notices that the two Tabaxi are in a bad way, and approaches the one that looks worse off. One is limping down the alleyway so at least seems mobile, but another is lying head-down in the dirt, practically unmoving, so Elemoth decides to use his last healing spell on that one.
He mutters a healing spell to himself and reaches out to point towards Shadow. 22 (Healing Word) 5 (ooc: ignore the previous roll, due to a typo, it was 1d43 instead of 1d4+3)
After he's finished, he slowly approaches and calls out, "Excuse me sir, are you quite alright? It was quite a heroic thing you did earlier, rescuing all those people!"
Shadow pulls a little human girl from the wreckage and is taken aback by the markings on her skin. She turns to him and mutter something that he doesn't understand. Do you need help? Where are your parents? The little girl takes off down the street. Wait! No sooner than he calls out he is distracted by the sight of many powerful looking adventurers as they take flight into the air to combat the mages. Shadow is captivated by their powerful presence. That's when he heard the roar. The most terrifying roar he has ever heard. A large black dragon flies overhead and spews a trail of acid all over the buildings. He follows the trail as it hits the building. That's when he hears the screams. I have to help them!
"Come on, get out of there!" Shadow sees a woman yelling into the building. He also sees another woman who seems to have a demonic origin shouting into the building to get them to escape as well. This building is coming down fast, I will try to save who I can. He looks over at his brother. Flame do what you want but I am saving those people. He looks at his brother with sad eyes because he knows this very well may be his last moments. Shadow turns and sprints straight into the building as fast as his Tabaxi frame will take him.
Not sure if it's needed but I roll anyway
Perception: 21
"Shadow, don't!"
Flame glances back at the strange guard and sprints after his brother.
After a series of astounding and unexpected events (including the rising to action of all the more experienced adventurers in the city), Elemoth is snapped out of the confused haze he was in when the Black Dragon starts breathing acid onto buildings and he sees one of the closer ones still has people inside.
"Come out of the building! Jump if you have to! We will do our best to catch you, and have healers standing by!" He shouts in as comforting a way as possible to the people inside, practically throwing down his mace and shield to the floor to get his arms free, and trying his best to look and sound confident despite the fact that the "rescuers" and "healing" he's promising are just a ragtag group of people who seem to either barely know each other, or have never even met until today. (The 2 brothers aside)
He also glances at the first floor doors and windows for signs of movement in case anyone gets stuck and needs to be pulled out.
Edit: Elemoth also makes sure to try and stand in a way that his Holy Symbol of Lathander (his amulet) is as visible as possible.
As terror lies in the hearts of all commoners (and several other people) of Waterdeep the acid house continues to melt with people stuck up at the top of it. As suddenly a terrible high pitched tone begins emanating from inside of the house, causing for everyone inside it to scream in fear, terror, and confusion. As the dissonant noise subsides and Marion screams up; however, it seems like there's so much chaos and terror that nobody is able to follow her orders (that, and they're scared out of their minds, along with a failed intimidation check of 8).
Torment then begins to cast a spell as a window flies open, and as she tries to get the commoners to leap out, their fear is too much as it's far too high for them to jump without a high likelihood of dying. As she begins ordering them, they seem hesitant and reluctant to do so, and that costs them as the acid burns the floor near the window, rendering it much harder to escape from (sadly persuasion was a total of 7...).
Meanwhile, the two Tabaxi brothers run into the burning building after the other and find that the villagers have at this point accepted their fate, but Shadow picks one of the children up and (I'm assuming, but feel free to correct me if this is not something Flame would do) Flame follows suit. They then leap down what's left of the melting stairs and manage to escape mostly uninjured, except for a couple acid drops that burnt away their skin (1 acid damage). The children, however, are luckily unharmed as they are now safe from the melting house... But their parents are still inside!
As Elemoth throws his equipment to the ground and holds out his arms next to the open window, offering his aid in the case of them jumping (and with a persuasion result of 11), one of the stronger people in the building tries to jump 6 ft. through the window (STR 12 required). She succeeds! However, she also is falling out of the top of a two story building... Luckily Elemoth manages to catch her, but not with his arms... As he lies in a crumpled heap for her fall was cushioned by Elemoth himself (as he takes 2 bludgeoning damage in the proccess). She mutters a quick: "Oh! Thank you, by Lathandar I'm terribly sorry I never meant to... oh... I'm not feeling..." As she collapses from exhaustion and inhaling acid fumes. Noticing that one of them succeeded begins to shake the acid prisoners from their shocked state, but as they're going to try it... even more of the floor is devoured by acid, rendering the jump virtually impossible (except by a pretty strong being).
7 commoners and 6 seconds remain.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
"Oh dear, I'm running out of options," exclaims Torment. She utters another cantrip and attempts to cause the fire and flames nearest the trapped villagers to dim, and look less frightening, perhaps encouraging them to make the leap. (Thaumaturgy)Then she shouts to to one of the Tabaxi she saw carrying a child to safety, the one called Shadow. "I thought up a verse, a bit of a rhyme. I'd play you a song, but I don't have the time!" (1d6 bardic Inspiration die to Shadow.)
Torment shouts out and a couple people, eased by her calming words and how the fires seem to strangely dim as she speaks, take the jump. They manage to land on a nearby pile of hay (lucky them) as they then run off yelling their thanks to all of you. The next group then begins to get ready to jump and they -
BOOM
A nearby fireball sends out embers and lashes of fire towards you (everyone else is on a different side of the home, so it just barely singes you for 4 fire [reduced to 2 because fire resistance] damage). It also begins to burn the hay away that would have been used to cushion the villagers fall... Which means they can't get down without surely getting killed in the fall.
5 commoners and 4.8 seconds remain (1.2 seconds for each of you).
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Flame sprints out of the house and sets the child down. "Get to cover now!" he says to the child as he sprints back into the house. The chaos of it all tries to overwhelm him, but the screams of the dying and injured snap him into the present moment. "Come with me, quickly! We're running out of time!" he shouts as he grabs the first person he can get to and attempts to get them to safety.
Persuasion: 21
Acrobatics: 9
Shadow runs out the house with the child in his arms, and sets the child down, "You're safe now, I'm going back for your parents." Shadow turns back around and follows his brother into the chaos. Shadow gets back to the people as fast as he can, while still dodging the acid that's dripping around him. "Come with me if you want to live, we must hurry!" Shadow tries to lead whoever is willing out of the house. If there are still children, he will carry a child as well.
Acrobatics: 24
Seeing the wierd cat people run into the house for a second time, Marion sighs. "Not much I can do here."
She peeks inside the house (while avoiding to go into the doomed building) and uses Frostbite in an attempt to freeze some of the acid. "Maybe this will give them more time..."
"It's quite alright..." Elemoth grunts, struggling to breathe from the shock of being crushed by the weight of a falling woman. Seeing that she's unconscious, he rolls her off of him as best as he can and tries to get up to attend to the other remaining people that are stuck. Noticing that there's a hay pile near the building, he points to it briefly and turn to call out to those who are still trapped in the building. "Jump for the hay pile if you can! And if you can't, try for my arms... or just me... it's fine if you just use me to cushion your fall." he half-gasps, groggily putting his arms out in front of himself again to see if he can "catch" someone else.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
OOC: Sorry, I missed that line. I was distracted and I guess I wasn't reading closely enough.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
"Okay..." Marion catches her breath and looks around. Everyone seems to be more or less unharmed. "Did anyone see where the bark skinnend man was headed?"
"I have a feeling he might know what the **** is going on," she says through gritted teeth.
You saw the bark skinned human ranger with a giant bow run down a nearby alleyway. You also notice that the tabaxi brothers are pretty badly injured.
Current Status of Players:
Shadow: 3/10 HP
Marion: 8/8 HP
Torment: 7/9 HP
Elemoth: 7/10 HP
Flame: 3/9 HP
The screams of fear and craziness seem to have subsided as most of the commoners have escaped to the outskirts of town, and the fireballs have mostly ended since the mages are focussing on more powerful single target spells rather than explosive spells. The main sector of the city is currently in fiery chaos.
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Torment surveys the destruction of her home city. This is not good. I was hoping to start an adventure with a little less... death. Gathering her senses, she looks around at the others who were helping the villagers escape. The two Tabaxi are hurt badly, but I'll need to rest before I can heal anyone. It's at this point, she notices the bark skinned ranger dashing down an alleyway. Turning to Marion, "Over there!" Torment points towards the last place she saw him, and rushes over.
(OOC Assuming I see the ranger): "Oi! You wooden coward! Did you get kicked out of your daddy's orchard? Get back here and answer for these actions! Vicious Mockery Wisdom Save DC 13. Psychic Damage: 1
Flame stands to his feet after rolling out of the collapsing house. The acid has eaten away a portion of his fur on his left leg, but he seems not to notice. He notices a human and a tiefling running toward an alley. The tiefling starts barking insults, so he makes his way toward the alley. When his left foot hits the ground, his leg buckles underneath him. The exertion from the house has taken a toll on him. He struggles back to his feet and limps toward the alleyway despite the pain.
Shadow runs out of the melting house right behind to of the people. He is carrying a small child in his arms but as he exits he begins to stumble so he lays the child on the ground. "Go quickly, get to safety!" Shadow stumbles forward as the building collapses behind him. He lay face first in the dirt, the pain of the acid burns begins to get to him. on his back is a whole in his clothing with a burn about the size of a dinner plate. What was I thinking? Running into a collapsing building, I'm no hero. But everyone was able to escape so I suppose it was worth it in the end. A few burns is only the beginning of the punishment I deserve. Shadow looks up to see a little elven boy with his legs crossed. "You must hurry and get to safety!" Shadow tries to get the boy to move, but nothing happens. He doesn't know if it's the burns or the massive exhaustion he is facing, but the boy doesn't look right. It's almost as if he could see somewhat through the boy. Shadow just lays his head in the dirt, too exhausted to try and figure this out right now. Somewhere nearby he hears some shouting, and hears footsteps as some people run off chasing after wooden-man. Or at least that's what Shadow thought he heard them say. What is wrong with this crazy city?
Torment rounds the corner and comes face to face with... sprawling city streets. She has no idea where the bark-skinned man ran off to.
Just awaiting our final party member for another one of my major update posts.
EDIT: Also here's the link to join the campaign ddb.ac/campaigns/join/190922747310243 on D&D Beyond
DM of Tomb of Annihilation (and more) Group 2 and Group 3
Elemoth breaths a sigh of relief as the last of the helpless citizens seems to get to relative safety (for now) he picks up his mace and shield and stows them away, seeing as they aren't needed for now. He then looks around to see if the would-be rescuers are alright, and notices that the two Tabaxi are in a bad way, and approaches the one that looks worse off. One is limping down the alleyway so at least seems mobile, but another is lying head-down in the dirt, practically unmoving, so Elemoth decides to use his last healing spell on that one.
He mutters a healing spell to himself and reaches out to point towards Shadow.
22(Healing Word) 5 (ooc: ignore the previous roll, due to a typo, it was 1d43 instead of 1d4+3)After he's finished, he slowly approaches and calls out, "Excuse me sir, are you quite alright? It was quite a heroic thing you did earlier, rescuing all those people!"