The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Vonth attacks the troll in front of him with determination, successfully hacking and slashing and causing green ichor to fly about. The troll must be done for now, right? It looks terrible but some how still stands.

Similarly, Avaria and Solomona's combined dicing, skewering, punching and kicking knock what little sense the troll fighting them had right out of the creature. It almost topples over under the onslaught and looks dead on its feet. But for some reason it just won't die.

Jan darts off into open air above the clearing of the house. Without tree branches around, it's much easier for her to move quietly and anticipate where the two incoming creatures are headed.

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Marrin is still up.

((A bit late, but I am not sure that Marrin breaking her invisibility would break Jan's? Probably though, due to concentration... Darn.))

Marrin, looking like Jan, keeps on moving away from the cabin from branch to branch, taking a zig-zagging path to avoid something getting ahead of her and setting up some sort of trap. She'll also move up and down trunks to vary her altitude a bit.

She will give the multiarmed troll her most rude of gestures.

When ever Marrin catches sight of Trepsin or any of the six ambush drakes, they’re looking up but none of them makes any attempt to climb. Though she’s noticed she never sees more than one or two of the ambush drakes. They’ve disappeared almost completely into the woods.

Trepsin does throw several large pine cones her way, but they bounce harmlessly off the tree branches below her.

“Please come down,” Trepsin calls. “We be friends.”

So far, Marrin’s random zig zag and up and down has kept her moving in a generally northeasterly direction and she’s had relatively little difficulty in making it from one tree to another.

(d6 from Marrin - just to see what might be coming up along her path).

She does hear a couple of voices call her and Jan’s names - sounds like Hammerdasher and Ula. But they’re not close by and maybe headed in the wrong direction. None of the three have ever done much tracking.

Perhaps not too surprisingly anymore, both trolls in the clearing seem to gain some of their vigour back, a few of their wounds closing before Avaria, Solomona, and Vonth’s eyes.

Getting a sense that the three aren’t going anywhere and that the trolls themselves, while dealing with a lot of pain and punishment don’t appear to be in any immediate danger or dying, the pair press their attack once more.

The one troll bites, and slashes his clawed hands twice more at Vonth. His indifference to anything but getting a nice size meal has seemed to calm the troll somewhat, allowing him to connect on all three attacks (Bite - 21 to hit for 9 piercing; Claw - 21 to hit for 10 slashing;  Claw - Nat 20 for 20 slashing).

The other troll tries to take encouragement from his compatriots success and bites and swipes at Solomona. However, the monk slips and dodges away from both attacks. Avaria, on the other hand isn’t so lucky, and the second swing of the troll’s claws catch the shifter on the side. (17 to hit for 8 slashing).

All three catch sign of some movement behind the trolls, back at the house. All notice the front door of the lodge is partially open. Six, seven, or maybe eight kobolds jostle with each other to catch sight of what’s going on in the clearing in front of the lodge. Yips, and barks, and a few pushes, but none actually step out of the lodge to get any closer. 

The three also see a few more kobold heads looking out of several of the windows in the lodge.

A woman’s voice can be heard through the open door. “What is going on and why have you left the door wide open? Get back to work.”

In the sky, the deer bird creatures look to get about 120’ closer. They’re moving faster than Jan originally suspected but they still look to be headed towards where she was, not where she is now.

—-------------------------------------------------

Party is up.

D6 of fun: 2

Marrin, looking like Jan, ignores Trespin and continues on. Yelling to Ula and Hammerdasher will just bring them over to be swarmed by the drakes.

These creatures seem to have an unlimited capacity for joy and happiness, and Solomona is starting to wonder if he has enough to keep giving. Seeing that his friends are taking things poorly (especially Vonth), the islander looks around for a place they might take a break and regain some levity...

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 Edit:

Hearing Avaria's growled instructions, Sol Dicle and weaves his way beneath the swinging claws and did into her pack for the torch and tinderbox...

Bonus action Dodge again (1 uho point)

Vonth...

     A brutal combination of blows crashes into Vonth in quick succession, each strike landing before the last has fully faded. The force of it staggers him, driving breath from his lungs and rattling bone.

     He remembers himself—stone-born, mountain-raised—and hardens against one of the impacts, drawing on that deep, stubborn resilience.

It helps.

     But it is not enough to deny the blow entirely

_____

Reaction - Stone's Endurance - As a reaction, reduce damage dealt to you by 1d12 +5 once per short rest.  - Nat 20 reduced by 11 damage...
(Once per Short Rest usage used...)
Con Saves to maintain concentration - 24, 28 and 26 - Concentration on Divine Favor maintained.

_____

     Vonth’s attention stays fixed on the troll before him, with only a sliver of awareness spared for the one Solomona and Avaria are fighting—just enough to notice if it breaks free or turns. His mind is locked on the immediate problem: incoming attacks, fleeting openings, the rhythm of the creature’s blows.

     He watches the wounds he inflicts. How fast they close. How completely. He searches for hesitation, for weakness—anything that might slow or defeat the troll’s unnatural regeneration.

     So the kobolds appearing in doorways and windows barely register.

     He notes them in passing—small shapes, watchful, boisterous—but they keep their distance. For now, that is enough. Friend or foe can wait until they stop observing and start acting.

     Vonth swings again, committing fully to the fight in front of him, measuring steel against flesh and healing against harm, determined to see whether he can cut the creature down faster than it can mend itself.

_____

Action: Attack Troll w/sword - 20 to hit for 11 slashing and 3 radiant damage.
Bonus Action - nothing worthwhile...
Movement: None...? See PMs

Jan continues skimming above the canopy, looking to put distance between her and the flying creatures or any ground pursuit.

Avaria growls in frustration as the trolls deep gashes seem to knit themselves back together again.  How... and then something creeps into her mind through the fog of the rage.  

Fire.

She doesn't hear the woman at the door or the kobolds gathering.  Only the troll in front of her matters.  Knowing the funny fat man is next to her, she tells him while keeping her eyes on the troll, "Torch.  Grab torch out of pack.  Tinder box to light it. Hit troll with it, only way..."

Then she attacks again, hoping Sol understands what she is trying to say as she hacks away again recklessly.

Attack 1: 26, Damage: 8 + 2
Attack 2: 25, Damage: 16 + 2

Marrin keeps moving through the branches of the trees. She doesn’t notice any sign of Trepsin or the ambush drakes at the moment, but she can hear the sound of rushing water ahead. Sounds louder than just a stream.

Solomona bobs and weaves as he flits about Avaria’s back. He ducks and dodges. His hand finds several exceptionally dry bits of jerky covered in crumbs. When was the last time Avaria cleaned out this pack?

The monk does eventually find a torch and a flask of oil. A tinderbox proves more difficult, but just as he’s about to give up, he pulls it free from whatever it was stuck to down at the bottom.

((Next round Solomona can light a torch and use it as a weapon in the same turn)).

Despite the flurry of attacks, Vonth’s rock-like calm lets him keep his concentration on the task at hand. Yipping kobolds prove to be no distraction.

His one well placed blow from his sword hacks down the troll’s arm, severing two fingers in a gush of green ichor. Any other creature would be long since dead. Vonth is sure of this. What is this foul thing? 

Jan finds herself floating back towards the house as she keeps one eye on the incoming deer birds and making sure she keeps her clothing from flapping in the wind and causing any noise. The flying creatures swoop in another 120’, now only about 60’ from being directly about the fighting in the clearing below.

On top of that though, she can see some movement around the side of the lodge where the two smaller buildings are. A figure slips from shadows behind a tree to behind one of the out buildings.

Avaria’s rage and anger at Soren that she continues to take out on the troll in front of her keeps her from being distracted by Solomona rummaging around in her pack. Even as he yanks and pulls, she’s able to strike two quick, clean blows, causing an arm to fall to the ground with a sickening splat. Green ichor sprays onto Avaria’s clothing from the gushing wound at the troll’s shoulder. That said, the creature doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to fall to the ground.

At the entrance to the lodge, kobolds part to the side, some yelping as they’re slapped about by a gauntlet covered hand.

Pushing into the doorway, a woman, clad in white and purple robes over white scale mail looks out on the scene in front of the lodge.

“What in the hells is going on? Did you lot come with the bard? Where is he?” she calls out to the group and then to the trolls. “And you two, either kill them or give it a rest already.”

The two trolls don’t seem to register any of what she’s just said. Two missing fingers on one, and a missing arm on the other don’t seem to dissuade them any. They almost appear to be enjoying the fight.

Vonth’s troll bites down hard on his hand (20 to hit for 5 piercing), and catches him with one of his claws (19 to hit for 12 slashing). But the hand with two fewer fingers can’t seem to manage to get a good hit on the goliath.

Before Avaria can pull back her sword, her troll lunges forward and bites down on her arm (20 to hit for 8 piercing) and follows that with a slashing blow from its hand (18 to hit for 12 piercing). But try as it might, it can’t seem to make a second slash with the hand that is on the arm that is no longer attached to its body.

—------------------------------------------------

Party is up.

And the newcomer in the doorway:

Jan keeps moving her 60' away, but tries to make out the figure she saw.

((How does she keep those gauntlets and hip spikes from destroying/catching in her cape?))

Marrin keeps on moving towards what is most certainly not going to be a massive waterfall into an endless abyss.

Avaria's starting to look like she's been in a battle for quite some time, each of the troll's attacks finding purchase on the shifter even though the damage is not as bad due to her rage.  She continues on though, blind to it all.. only the troll with it's disgusting green ichor is all she sees.. all she wants to destroy.  She continues on, slashing at the thing relecklessly - even if it means taking it apart limb by limb.

Attack 1: 22, Damage 15 + 2
Attack 2: 25, Damage 16 + 2

Vonth...

     Vonth hears someone shouting from the nearby house, but the words fail to register. He has more pressing concerns—like the trolls in front of him, and the unsettling sight of Solomona digging through Avaria’s pack mid-fight.

     “Torches?” Vonth hisses, baffled. “There is plenty of light.”

     Then again, this group’s choices often seem confusing in one treacherous way or another.

     The moment’s distraction costs him.

     The troll lunges. Its jaws snap shut around Vonth’s hand, teeth scraping bone. For a heartbeat his grip falters—then he wrenches free, keeping both sword and fingers by sheer stubborn force.

     Pain flares again as a clawed hand finds a gap in his patchwork armor. Long, filthy talons rake across his flesh, slipping between plates meant to protect him.

     Vonth bellows a curse in Giant, raw and furious.

     He slams his shield up to catch the second claw and, in the same motion, hacks low—swinging his sword hard at the troll’s knees, determined to bring the towering creature down.

_____

Con Saves to maintain concentration - 23 & 18 - Concentration on Divine Favor maintained.
Reaction - Riposte the missed attack with one of his own - 16 to hit for 7 slashing damage and 4 radiant damage and 5 from combat superiority die...
(3 of 4 Superiority Die now used for this short rest...)

_____

     The blade bites deep into the troll’s leg, and Vonth seizes the opening at once. He steps in hard, pressing the advantage, and swings again with the sword he took from Culver yesterday—though it already feels like a lifetime ago.

   Steel rises and falls, driven by grim necessity rather than hope—but necessity is not always enough.

     Even as Vonth commits to the swing, he feels it. The troll shifts. Just enough. Too late for him to adjust. He knows the truth of it before the arc is finished.

     The blade should miss.

     It does not.

     In the space of a single breath—of less than a breath—something changes. The swing bends where it should not. The steel’s path is nudged, guided, corrected by a force that is not Vonth’s own. Power floods down his arm, through muscle and bone, and into the blade.

     Morc answers the prayer that was not prayed.

     The sword bites deep into the troll’s flesh, not by chance, not by skill alone, but by divine will made manifest.

_____

Action: Attack Troll w/sword - 10 to hit for 8 slashing and 3 radiant damage.  20 to hit for 8 slashing and 3 radiant damage.
Special - Channel Divinity Guided Strike - When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll.
Bonus Action - nothing worthwhile...
Movement: None
(5 of 10 rounds of Divine Favor used - Concentration Spell.)
(1 of 1 use of Channel Divinity per Long Rest.)

((Solomona is still up - guessing he's going to light the torch and try and attack with it, but will give him more time to post))

(yes, please proceed with that)

Jan flies over the side of the house, taking her away from where the incoming creatures are headed and catches what looks like Soren entering the rear of the lodge. A door closes behind him.

Jan then sees the two flying creatures arrive over the clearing, beating large wings to slow their speed.

Flying Creatures:

 Marrin does, indeed, get to a gap in the woods where a river coming down from the mountains plunges over a rock face, creating a loud waterfall. The river appears to be heading further down the valley.

Looking that way, Marrin sees small puffs of smoke. The wisps look like what she would expect from small chimneys or the like.

A little up river, one tree does reach part way across the water and another from the other side extends towards it. They’re large branches but still there’s a good 6’ - 8’ gap between the ends of the branches. Even if Marrin were to jump that far, there’s no guarantee those tips of the branches would be strong enough to support her weight. Maybe if she leapt for a thicker part and just tried to grab on.

Though obviously, she could circle back or head upstream or downstream. 

She does catch the sound of twigs breaking and brush being moved through in the nearby woods below.

Vonth’s calculated riposte, followed quickly by Morc’s divine amused intervention, cleaves an arm from the troll. It falls to the ground with a hollow thump. The troll looks down, confused for a moment. But it doesn’t fall.

Avaria lunges forward, pressing her unrelenting attack upon the troll, hacking and slashing, drawing more green blood to the surface but yet the creature continues standing.

In one motion, Solomona smears oil on the torch, strikes the flint, and then reaches forward to smack the troll Avaria just attacked (20 to hit for 3 fire). A horribly sickening acrid burning smell fills the clearing and the creature lets out a howling of pain.

The troll in front of Vonth does what Vonth, Avaria, and Solomona have come to expect in this fight. Some of its wounds knit back together, and the open gushing wound where the arm used to join the shoulder, covers over with fresh skin.

But the second troll, the one burned by the torch, well, that’s a different matter. There’s no healing of wounds. No knitting together of cuts and gashes. The troll merely looks at the burnt skin, then up to Solomona, before it finally collapses to the ground, unmoving. Dead.

The other troll, seeing what has just befallen the dead troll eyes the burning torch warily and quickly scoops up its severed limb, disengages and runs towards the side of the house.

The two flying deer creatures screech loudly from the ski above the fight.

The woman in the doorway holds up a hand towards them, causing them to stop the noise.

“Well, wherever he’s gotten off to, at least he appears to have delivered you here,” the armoured woman says. “Now why don’t we stop all this fighting and talk about you helping me and me getting you on your way. You don’t all need to die here today.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Party's up.

Jan is over the backside of the house about 90' from the newly arrived flying creatures.

Marrin is some 200' into the woods next to a river, with what she's sure are Trepsin and the ambush drakes still around in the woods beneath her.

Avaria, Solomona, and Vonth now find themselves with a dead troll at their feet. The second troll has disengaged and fled 30' towards the side of the house it came from. The front steps are about 30' away, where the woman stands. A couple of kobold heads peek out from behind her, while others still watch from various windows.

Vonth...

     Vonth catches movement at the edge of his vision as a torch flares to life nearby. Solomona swings it at the other troll. What follows is hard to make out from where Vonth stands—fire, motion, a brief, terrible reaction—but the result is unmistakable. The troll crashes to the ground and does not rise again.

     Vonth’s focus snaps back to his own opponent.

     He sets himself—shield ready, blade poised—prepared to meet the next attack.

     Instead, the troll turns and runs.

     “No,” Vonth snarls, the word ripped from him as he lunges after it.

     He closes the distance in long, pounding strides and strikes again, not just to wound but to drive the creature back. He angles his blows, forcing it toward Solomona, toward the fire that has already proven fatal.

_____

Con Saves - None this time
Reaction - None this time
(3 of 4 Superiority Die already been used for this short rest...)
Movement: Chase the Troll !!!  Hopefully we have the same movement and Vonth can move back into melee...
Action: Attack Troll w/sword - Nat 20 for 27 to hit for 13 slashing damage and 8 radiant damage.  (I'm assuming double dice on a Crit, not sure if we use some other rule?)
     Vonth spends his last Superiority Die and uses his Pushing Attack maneuver - When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to drive the target back. You add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you push the target up to 15 feet away from you. - The goal is to push the troll away from Vonth and back towards Solomona.  This also adds 10 more useless damage since superiority die damage gets added.
Bonus Action - nothing worthwhile...
(6 of 10 rounds of Divine Favor used - Concentration Spell.)
(1 of 1 use of Channel Divinity per Long Rest.)
(4 of 4 Superiority Die used for this short rest...)
(Nat 20 wasted on an attack who damage all but didn't matter... lol)

Solomona watches the troll begin to flee. Sensible idea. Wise. But then Vonth drives it back, opening new wounds where the old ones have already knit together. Solomona's smile turns into a grimace.

Sorry cuz, you had your chance, eh.

He shifts the torch in his hand, and thrusts it into the trolls face. (Attack rolls: 12, 23)

Time to rest now, big fullah. He says as the troll writhes and smokes. Too much of anything is bad for you. Even living.

Jan continues moving away from the clearing, looking to put distance between herself and the site of Soren's betrayal. (60 ft of flying)

The big Goliath gives chase after the fleeing troll, catching it just as its about to turn the corner of the lodge and head into the woods.

Driving his sword down quickly with all his strength, Vonth feels the blade slice through the muscle and bone of the troll's shoulder.

The troll stumbles and falls to its knees, which causes Solomona, who darted quickly after Vonth, to miss with his first swing of the torch. Solomona though is able to adjust and his backhand to the troll's head connects, again causing searing pain to the troll. The smell of burnt troll flesh fills the clearing again. The troll stares blankly forward.

Jan flies off over the woods to the west of the lodge.

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Marrin and Avaria are up still.