With a crisp salute and a determined expression, The Black Rose replied, "Aye aye, captain," to Erolith. His hands grippedtight around the oars of their boat. His senses were fully engaged, every muscle and instinct attuned to the subtle sounds of the water around them. With calculated precision, he guided their boat. Each stroke of the oar was deliberate, bringing them steadily closer to the other boat.
Erolith nods to the Black Rose with a smirk. A prevailing thought enters his mind that the party is becoming a team that works well together. That thought gives him the strength to pull the notched arrow back even further awaiting the impending flight towards its victim.
The boats are quickly anchored together, and you soon feel more stable and ready to meet the approaching flock of parasites. Not that you think you will be able to use heavy weapons any better; you realize instead, now you have a chance to think about it, how impossible accurate aiming of even light missile weapons would have been in the separated light boats. Now they stabilize each other to some degree and allow you to use one handed weapons that are not Heavy without the boat rolling away under you from the reaction; and other weapons as described in the last post
Those characters who spent an action to help anchor the boats have one left; the rest have two. You can post both your actions at once or one after the other (if, for instance, what you do is affected by or dependent on what someone else does and you want to wait for your second post until after they react to the first) Go ahead and incorporate a roll for initiative in the ensuing combat into the description of your second action. Any characters who want to make missile weapon attacks on the stirges may do so; these will be at long range if taken as your first action, and medium range if as your second. Gwgri will spend her actions thrusting several long poles into the mud on the river bottom in a way that roughly moors the boats in the middle of the stream; preventing them from drifting during the battle. The stirges, of course, are Dashing at you as fast as their ravenous little batsquito wings can pump the air! They are getting close enough by the end of the first action that you can begin to make out the rough details of their form. Their small bodies look both bloated and enlongated, covered in a leathery bat skin sprinkled with oily-looking hairs. Their wings, too, are batlike and strong; but the rest of their bodies remind you more of the hunting insects. Though the common tendency is to liken them to mosquitoes, the long curved claws on the stirges’ feet and something about the way their plump bodies stretch out at the rear until their tails look almost like needles also strongly remind you of dragonflies. A few dragonflies of ordinary size, in fact, have floated out from the bank the stirges emerged from. You’re not sure what they could possibly stand to gain from the situation, but they definitely are responding to the emergence of the stirges. They hover in their vicinity in a small cloud, sometimes coming nearer to the stirges and sometimes drifting a little way back towards the bank and then returning.
You all of course have had at least one Long Rest since the ambush in the city, so feel free to reset any abilities you might have spent there
After Tarton finishes up his part of securing the boats, he stands up and pulls out his newly bought dagger, looking at the blade while smiling. "Finally, I'll get to test this out." he says with a laugh in his voice. The smile quickly fades and he looks irritated as he asks sourly, "Does anyone know if these things are poisonous?" Then Tarton begins mumbling to himself looking disappointed, like a large beetle had landed in his dessert.
Tarton waits until they are in melee range to attack. Initiative in log: 15
The Black Rose, swiftly rose to his feet, gripping tightly around his quarterstaff with one hand, his movements graceful and purposeful. His ears pricked, tuning into the, ominous sound of wings flapping in the distance.
In the span of a heartbeat, he assumed the defensive stance of his monk order. His body seemed to flow into position, each movement precise and controlled.
——-
Initiative: 18
The Black Rose take the Dodge action as his last action.
"Blasted pests." Artifex says, disgust in their tone. They charge two pebbles with glowing blue energy, skipping them off the surface of the water, sending them hurtling towards the swarm. "You are naught but abominations in the eyes of Erek O'Si, and you will stain Her creation no more."
Despite their confident words, it looks a touch worried. "I don't suppose we have any Pyromancers among us? Flames might make easier work of our enemy than trying to swat them one at a time." Artifex says, somewhat reluctantly pulling out their dagger. "And blood can be oh so hard to get out of my hair."
A gust of wind takes Erolith's second arrow and sends it off course just before it plunges into its target, and it only grazes the stirge. The other arrow and both Artifex' stones hit and drop their targets into the water, and an oily slick of dark blood rises where each fell. The remaining five swoop in to attack. Three miss and swoop past to come around for another try, but two succeed in plunging their beaks into Gwrgi and The Black Rose, and these latch on with their sharp claws. Gwrgi roars and pulls the beak that has sunk into her straight out. She tries to fling the creature against the gunwale of the boat, but it is too quick and flutters to rejoin its pack coming around. "Pull it out!," she calls urgently to The Black Rose. "Otherwise they just cling on and drain you fast."
========
"Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the stirge doesn't attack. Instead, at the start of each of the stirge's turns, the target loses 5 (1d4 + 3) hit points due to blood loss.
The stirge can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. It does so after it drains 10 hit points of blood from the target or the target dies. A creature, including the target, can use its action to detach the stirge."
As Gwrgi finishes her words to The Black Rose, she waves towards him, and he is surrounded by a faint shimmer of light. "That will help guard you until we can get that nasty bite healed." (Shield of faith)
The Black Rose's face contorted in pain as he swiftly grabbed the embedded Stirgi. His fingers clenched around it, his knuckles turning white with the effort. With a determined yet grimacing expression, he pulled it out in a single swift motion.
————-
I use my action to pull out The stirgi and that is The end of my turn.
The Black Rose nodded appreciatively at Gwrgi. "Thanks, but are you okay yourself? Do you need something for that wound of yours?" he asked.
His hand then traveled down to his own injury, a frown creasing his brow. "But you're right, I could need treatment myself," he murmured, assessing his injury with a thoughtful expression.
——————
I Want to say this aswell. It is not my turn anymore, but I hope it's okay. My character does not do anything extra but speak. If it's not okay, I will delete it.
"Get your retched fangs off of him!" Artifex snarls, a tattoo of thorny vines on their arm briefly glowing green, before actual thorns burst from the tattoo, wrapping around the creature that had just been torn off by The Black Rose, yanking it ten feet towards Artifex.
The creature is pulled ten feet towards Artifex, since that would be leaving The Black Rose's melee range, he should get an attack of opportunity correct?
Tarton swipes at one of the Stirge with his dagger. "Well, if there's one thing about my fighting, it's that I'm consistent. Consistently missing my targets." Tarton says regretfully. He then pulls out another dagger in his other hand.
The Black Rose nodded appreciatively at Gwrgi. "Thanks, but are you okay yourself? Do you need something for that wound of yours?" he asked.
His hand then traveled down to his own injury, a frown creasing his brow. "But you're right, I could need treatment myself," he murmured, assessing his injury with a thoughtful expression.
——————
I Want to say this aswell. It is not my turn anymore, but I hope it's okay. My character does not do anything extra but speak. If it's not okay, I will delete it.
=======
(oh sure, I'm pretty easygoing about talk up to a few sentences or so not needing an action/BA/whatever as long as its not part of something you do need an action for, like [ability]Persuasion[/ability] for instance)
Artifex' vines quickly snare and impale the little horror that was attacking The Black Rose just as he flings it from himself, and the blow of his staff literally causes the creature to explode in midair in a burst of mangled flesh and blood, some of which formerly belonged to The Black Rose himself. Meanwhile, Erolith fells another with a quick arrow; and even Tarton only just misses as a freak ripple makes the boat bob at just the wrong time. There are three stirges remaining. The one with the scratch is closest to Tarton, and it viciously drives its beak into the hand he tried to stab it with, while another manages to swoop around quickly enough to get in under Artifex' guard; the third misses and is promptly dropped into the water as Gwrgi seizes her crossbow and drops it with a well-aimed bolt.
The Black Rose looked at everyone and realized he only had enough of his serum for one person. He then decided an offensive display would be the best course of action. He jumped over to the other boat, trying not to transfer too much momentum to it, and attacked the two remaining Stirgi. One swing with his quarterstaff at the one attached to Tarton and one punch at the one attached to Artifex.
---------------------------------------- Waiting to see if Tarton needs to take any action to deal with the Stirges.
(nope, that pretty much splatted 'em LOL)
================
The Black Rose's blows send the two remaining stirges flying into the bilges of the boat. They are clearly dead, their backs broken by the humming staff as it sliced gracefully but irresistibly through the air. Their beaks, though, tear out sideways from the flesh they were embedded in instead of being pulled out straight. Artifex and Tarton each take one more point of damage, but the combat is then over.
Gwrgi takes a deep breath. "I hate those damned things. Our order tries and tries to keep the roads and waterways safe, and so close to the Haunted Lands to the south and the Hagbogs northwest of here ... that's the part of the Feywild Landes you might not find as entertaining and pleasant to visit, Artifex ... Well, between those two, the last thing we need is to have to deal with pests too."
Even as she grumbles, though, she is pulling out her healers' kit and preparing to focus on more immediate things. "The other thing about stirges is the nasty puncture wounds they leave, worse even than a stiletto. I'll bandage us up as best I can now, but we should probably camp for the night and recover. Wouldn't have gotten much farther anyway before the light began to go. The bank near their lair looks like it has a couple of dry places nearby, and we could poke around a bit in the morning. Not terribly likely to find anything, mind, but there's a chance one of their former victims made it to shore." She accordingly leads the way paddling to the Ulvsnesshjolm shore, where you soon find a raised spot just north of the lair that looks dry and cozy enough.
============
(OOC: Go ahead and take a long rest at this point; also post anything more you might want to do or say before tommorrow morning. Gwrgi's bandages heal another 1 hp for Artifex, but only stabilize the other two (Medicine rolls in log: 8, 9, 12). The)
With a crisp salute and a determined expression, The Black Rose replied, "Aye aye, captain," to Erolith. His hands gripped tight around the oars of their boat. His senses were fully engaged, every muscle and instinct attuned to the subtle sounds of the water around them. With calculated precision, he guided their boat. Each stroke of the oar was deliberate, bringing them steadily closer to the other boat.
Erolith nods to the Black Rose with a smirk. A prevailing thought enters his mind that the party is becoming a team that works well together. That thought gives him the strength to pull the notched arrow back even further awaiting the impending flight towards its victim.
The boats are quickly anchored together, and you soon feel more stable and ready to meet the approaching flock of parasites. Not that you think you will be able to use heavy weapons any better; you realize instead, now you have a chance to think about it, how impossible accurate aiming of even light missile weapons would have been in the separated light boats. Now they stabilize each other to some degree and allow you to use one handed weapons that are not Heavy without the boat rolling away under you from the reaction; and other weapons as described in the last post
Those characters who spent an action to help anchor the boats have one left; the rest have two. You can post both your actions at once or one after the other (if, for instance, what you do is affected by or dependent on what someone else does and you want to wait for your second post until after they react to the first) Go ahead and incorporate a roll for initiative in the ensuing combat into the description of your second action. Any characters who want to make missile weapon attacks on the stirges may do so; these will be at long range if taken as your first action, and medium range if as your second. Gwgri will spend her actions thrusting several long poles into the mud on the river bottom in a way that roughly moors the boats in the middle of the stream; preventing them from drifting during the battle. The stirges, of course, are Dashing at you as fast as their ravenous little batsquito wings can pump the air! They are getting close enough by the end of the first action that you can begin to make out the rough details of their form. Their small bodies look both bloated and enlongated, covered in a leathery bat skin sprinkled with oily-looking hairs. Their wings, too, are batlike and strong; but the rest of their bodies remind you more of the hunting insects. Though the common tendency is to liken them to mosquitoes, the long curved claws on the stirges’ feet and something about the way their plump bodies stretch out at the rear until their tails look almost like needles also strongly remind you of dragonflies. A few dragonflies of ordinary size, in fact, have floated out from the bank the stirges emerged from. You’re not sure what they could possibly stand to gain from the situation, but they definitely are responding to the emergence of the stirges. They hover in their vicinity in a small cloud, sometimes coming nearer to the stirges and sometimes drifting a little way back towards the bank and then returning.
You all of course have had at least one Long Rest since the ambush in the city, so feel free to reset any abilities you might have spent there
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1
After Tarton finishes up his part of securing the boats, he stands up and pulls out his newly bought dagger, looking at the blade while smiling. "Finally, I'll get to test this out." he says with a laugh in his voice. The smile quickly fades and he looks irritated as he asks sourly, "Does anyone know if these things are poisonous?" Then Tarton begins mumbling to himself looking disappointed, like a large beetle had landed in his dessert.
Tarton waits until they are in melee range to attack. Initiative in log: 15
Erolith aims at the closet of the stirges and fires an arrow hoping to bring it down.
He lets loose another arrow at either the same stirge (if not down) or the next closest stirge if the first one fell in combat.
Initiative roll = 7
1st attack roll = 22, damage 11
2nd attack roll = 15, damage 5
The Black Rose, swiftly rose to his feet, gripping tightly around his quarterstaff with one hand, his movements graceful and purposeful. His ears pricked, tuning into the, ominous sound of wings flapping in the distance.
In the span of a heartbeat, he assumed the defensive stance of his monk order. His body seemed to flow into position, each movement precise and controlled.
——-
Initiative: 18
The Black Rose take the Dodge action as his last action.
"Blasted pests." Artifex says, disgust in their tone. They charge two pebbles with glowing blue energy, skipping them off the surface of the water, sending them hurtling towards the swarm. "You are naught but abominations in the eyes of Erek O'Si, and you will stain Her creation no more."
Despite their confident words, it looks a touch worried. "I don't suppose we have any Pyromancers among us? Flames might make easier work of our enemy than trying to swat them one at a time." Artifex says, somewhat reluctantly pulling out their dagger. "And blood can be oh so hard to get out of my hair."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To hit
A1: 16
A2: 22
Damage
A1: 9
A2: 8
A gust of wind takes Erolith's second arrow and sends it off course just before it plunges into its target, and it only grazes the stirge. The other arrow and both Artifex' stones hit and drop their targets into the water, and an oily slick of dark blood rises where each fell. The remaining five swoop in to attack. Three miss and swoop past to come around for another try, but two succeed in plunging their beaks into Gwrgi and The Black Rose, and these latch on with their sharp claws. Gwrgi roars and pulls the beak that has sunk into her straight out. She tries to fling the creature against the gunwale of the boat, but it is too quick and flutters to rejoin its pack coming around. "Pull it out!," she calls urgently to The Black Rose. "Otherwise they just cling on and drain you fast."
========
"Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the stirge doesn't attack. Instead, at the start of each of the stirge's turns, the target loses 5 (1d4 + 3) hit points due to blood loss.
The stirge can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. It does so after it drains 10 hit points of blood from the target or the target dies. A creature, including the target, can use its action to detach the stirge."
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1
As Gwrgi finishes her words to The Black Rose, she waves towards him, and he is surrounded by a faint shimmer of light. "That will help guard you until we can get that nasty bite healed." (Shield of faith)
===============
The order of combat for the first turn:
Init. 19
Stirge #1: deadStirge #2: deadStirge #3: deadInit. 18:
Init. 15:
Init. 12:
Init. 7:
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1
The Black Rose's face contorted in pain as he swiftly grabbed the embedded Stirgi. His fingers clenched around it, his knuckles turning white with the effort. With a determined yet grimacing expression, he pulled it out in a single swift motion.
————-
I use my action to pull out The stirgi and that is The end of my turn.
Upon his turn of action, Erolith notches another arrow and sends it flying towards the nearest stirge.
”Take heed of her warning to us! Don’t let them attach to you,” he calls out.
To hit: 22
Damage: 8
The Black Rose nodded appreciatively at Gwrgi. "Thanks, but are you okay yourself? Do you need something for that wound of yours?" he asked.
His hand then traveled down to his own injury, a frown creasing his brow. "But you're right, I could need treatment myself," he murmured, assessing his injury with a thoughtful expression.
——————
I Want to say this aswell. It is not my turn anymore, but I hope it's okay. My character does not do anything extra but speak. If it's not okay, I will delete it.
"Get your retched fangs off of him!" Artifex snarls, a tattoo of thorny vines on their arm briefly glowing green, before actual thorns burst from the tattoo, wrapping around the creature that had just been torn off by The Black Rose, yanking it ten feet towards Artifex.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attack: Nat 20, total 25
Damage: 4
The creature is pulled ten feet towards Artifex, since that would be leaving The Black Rose's melee range, he should get an attack of opportunity correct?
Tarton swipes at one of the Stirge with his dagger. "Well, if there's one thing about my fighting, it's that I'm consistent. Consistently missing my targets." Tarton says regretfully. He then pulls out another dagger in his other hand.
Attack in log: 12
Seizing the moment, the Black Rose swung his quarterstaff with precision and force. "Thanks," he smiled and nodded appreciatively at Artifex.
——————
Quarter staff Opportunity attack.:
To hit: 20
Damage: 6
I wrote this in cased im allow to do a Opportunity attack. If not then i Will deleted it.
=======
(oh sure, I'm pretty easygoing about talk up to a few sentences or so not needing an action/BA/whatever as long as its not part of something you do need an action for, like [ability]Persuasion[/ability] for instance)
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1
Artifex' vines quickly snare and impale the little horror that was attacking The Black Rose just as he flings it from himself, and the blow of his staff literally causes the creature to explode in midair in a burst of mangled flesh and blood, some of which formerly belonged to The Black Rose himself. Meanwhile, Erolith fells another with a quick arrow; and even Tarton only just misses as a freak ripple makes the boat bob at just the wrong time. There are three stirges remaining. The one with the scratch is closest to Tarton, and it viciously drives its beak into the hand he tried to stab it with, while another manages to swoop around quickly enough to get in under Artifex' guard; the third misses and is promptly dropped into the water as Gwrgi seizes her crossbow and drops it with a well-aimed bolt.
=========
The order of combat for the second turn:
Init. 19
Stirge #1: deadStirge #2: deadStirge #3: deadStirge #5: deadStirge #6: deadInit. 18:
Init. 15:
Init. 12:
Init. 7:
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1
The Black Rose looked at everyone and realized he only had enough of his serum for one person. He then decided an offensive display would be the best course of action. He jumped over to the other boat, trying not to transfer too much momentum to it, and attacked the two remaining Stirgi. One swing with his quarterstaff at the one attached to Tarton and one punch at the one attached to Artifex.
———
Quarter staff:
To hit: 17
Damage if it hits: 5
Punch:
To hit: 20 + 5 = 25
Damage if it hits: 9
----------------------------------------
Waiting to see if Tarton needs to take any action to deal with the Stirges.
(nope, that pretty much splatted 'em LOL)
================
The Black Rose's blows send the two remaining stirges flying into the bilges of the boat. They are clearly dead, their backs broken by the humming staff as it sliced gracefully but irresistibly through the air. Their beaks, though, tear out sideways from the flesh they were embedded in instead of being pulled out straight. Artifex and Tarton each take one more point of damage, but the combat is then over.
Gwrgi takes a deep breath. "I hate those damned things. Our order tries and tries to keep the roads and waterways safe, and so close to the Haunted Lands to the south and the Hagbogs northwest of here ... that's the part of the Feywild Landes you might not find as entertaining and pleasant to visit, Artifex ... Well, between those two, the last thing we need is to have to deal with pests too."
Even as she grumbles, though, she is pulling out her healers' kit and preparing to focus on more immediate things. "The other thing about stirges is the nasty puncture wounds they leave, worse even than a stiletto. I'll bandage us up as best I can now, but we should probably camp for the night and recover. Wouldn't have gotten much farther anyway before the light began to go. The bank near their lair looks like it has a couple of dry places nearby, and we could poke around a bit in the morning. Not terribly likely to find anything, mind, but there's a chance one of their former victims made it to shore." She accordingly leads the way paddling to the Ulvsnesshjolm shore, where you soon find a raised spot just north of the lair that looks dry and cozy enough.
============
(OOC: Go ahead and take a long rest at this point; also post anything more you might want to do or say before tommorrow morning. Gwrgi's bandages heal another 1 hp for Artifex, but only stabilize the other two (Medicine rolls in log: 8, 9, 12). The)
Famh Thrawn Fiadhaich - 'half elven' sorcerer (wild magic) 2, Sleeping Gods - A Dragon Warriors campaign in the Lands of Legend
Quspira Inirali - tiefling cleric (Life domain) 4, Painted's "He'll be the father of my child"
---RETIRED HEROES' REST HOME---
Sae Ivui Nailo - wood elf rogue (inquisitive) 5 , Sea of Death: Captain Hailstorm's Lost Treasure
Ryshraxea "Shra" Naranthi - tabaxi artificer 1, Nyx's Tomb of Annihilation - Group 1