(OOC: Xanrym, of course, relies on Liarin and Avery to hold the line against melee attackers. If they want to hide and rest or even just fall back to a different location, he'll definitely follow their plan. We have time to run and hide now if we want, but I guess we'll soon have the guards searching for us. Maybe we can avoid them long enough for a Short Rest.
@Aaggie - If we don't have time for a short rest, the best chance Avery has to heal up is to drink his potion of healing if he didn't do that earlier. If we fight, Xanrym would mostly be using Vicious Mockery and save all of his spell slots for Healing Word to keep Avery on his feet. In that case, as I've said before, it'll be a more efficient use of spell slots to wait until Avery is knocked out to revive him. Xanrym only knows a few spells, and most of them are more like utilities. Other than Heroism, which Avery is already benefitting from, Xanrym also knows Dissonant Whispers, but that's not very useful against a crowd.
I thought of using Calm Emotions on the guards that are coming, but Xanrym didn't offer that because he doubts it'll do more than delay the fight for a moment. Some of the group will probably pass their saving throws, and even shifting all of the cultists from "hostile" to "indifferent" may not be much of a help. Unless we can pass ourselves off as cultists or cult agents, an indifferent guard isn't going to ignore a stranger in the naga's lair. The best case is that they let us leave the lair and go back to the swamp. And if anyone sees the dead / beheaded bodies of Jarvis and Benn in this room, I'm sure that they'll flip back to hostile.
If we want to go with trickery, a better plan is probably to have Xanrym use the Disguise Self scroll to appear as one of the 3 Naga's Teeth. If we're really lucky, he'll be able to convince them to go back to their dorms. Or maybe he can trick a bunch of them to go up to the swamps to search for "the ones who got away." But if that gambit fails, we'll definitely be in a big fight with them, and Xanrym would be starting in a position where he doesn't have cover.
It seems Avery, Theldrin and Xanrym are willing to make a stand. I'll let you all discuss for a bit, but unless you've settled on another plan in the next 12 hours or so the cultists are just going to burst through the door.
12 Cultists burst into the room from the door to the north. 4 of them wear the robes of acolytes to their reptile god, while the others all hold spears and seem to act as guards. They run in yelling and ready to kill the intruders. Initiative:
It seems Avery, Theldrin and Xanrym are willing to make a stand. I'll let you all discuss for a bit, but unless you've settled on another plan in the next 12 hours or so the cultists are just going to burst through the door.
(OOC: As far as I understand it, neither of the exits from this chamber, north or south, actually have doors. They're just open doorways.)
Not sure how much time we have, so I'll lay it out speculatively...
Seeing Avery drink his healing potion and settle in for a fight here, Xanrym pours a flask of oil next to the caltrops. (That is, the first 5' of the tunnel north of the room will have caltrops on the east/right and oil on the west/left.) He hopes that the caltrops will force a few of them to risk the burning oil and get burned as they try to enter the room. The caltrops will hopefully prevent the guards from pouring into the room on the non-flaming side of the tunnel even if the party has to retreat. He says, "I'll try to draw them in. Theldrin, can you light the oil as soon as they get to the end of the tunnel? Avery, Liarin, be ready to jump out and attack as soon as they get to the end of the tunnel. We've got to keep them from pouring in. If we have to retreat, head through the other exit and turn left...just be sure to walk around or jump over the caltrops there."
Xanrym leaves his lantern at the north end of the mud pool, off to one side a little and pulls his hood tightly around his head as Blayze wore hers. If Xanrym still doesn't see the guards at the north end of the tunnel at this point, and then he'll coat 3 of his crossbow bolts with the injury poison they found. That way, if there's a large group of guards, he may be able to disable a couple of them. But if he already sees them coming down the tunnel, skip to the next step.
Finally, Xanrym stands beside the lantern but a little in front of it so that his cloak mostly puts him in the shadows. He holds his crossbow so that it's visible in the light and gestures toward the north (toward the guards). He does his best approximation of Blayze's voice, "Hey! One of them got away. A few of you check up the stairs and down toward the tunnel toward the water. The rest of you, with me to help Jarvis kill or capture the rest!" He immediately turns and heads away from the lantern and around the pool, stopping in the shadow of a pillar both for some cover and to hide.
For that last action...
Movement: 30' to move around the pool and behind a pillar. Action: Hide behind one of the two northern pillars. Stealth17 Free Action: Talking, trying to trick them into thinking Blayze was giving them orders. He hopes that the cloak and crossbow make the rest of the "disguise" believable in the shadowy lighting. Deception21 (using a minimum of 10 because of his Silver Tongue feature)
Concentration: Heroism round 6 of 10, depending on how many rounds it took for them to arrive.
As the first few guards fail their saving throws, they block the hallway and pile up in the corridor, none of them able to get through.
(I'm using one token for four people in these 10ft squares because it'll be too hectic to throw out 12 different tokens. Also let me know if you wanted to be in different positions in the room, i'd say that with two rounds to prepare you could have set up anywhere you like.)
(OOC: Ugh! Crosspost by a couple of minutes. :-( I mean, clearly, we wanted to prevent them from pouring into the room, so I thought that Avery and Liarin, at least, would block the doorway to the north as soon as they reached our chamber. Otherwise, we would have fought them in the tunnels so that they couldn't surround us.
Also, even if Liarin and Avery failed to jump out and stop them from pouring into the room, the first guard that fails the save vs. the caltrops has to stop moving for the rest of the round. So, they effectively get stuck just before entering the chamber. Every guard behind them should have trouble getting past them that round. They could try to pass their ally, but if they also fail the saving through, then you've got multiple people stuck in one square, probably blocking everyone else behind them. So, guards 1 - 4 should effectively clog the tunnel just before they get into the room, and everyone else should be stuck farther up the tunnel this round.)
(Xanrym's position is fine, but he'd want to put the column between him and the doorway, if possible.)
Xanrym is worried when he sees just how many guards there are, muttering, "Woah. That's a lot of guards." He hopes that they are not as tough as the guards they've fought so far. He takes aim with his crossbow, hoping to thin the numbers quickly and possibly scaring them off. He tries to target one of the guards in the first group that got stuck on the caltrops.
Movement: After firing his crossbow, Xanrym moves back behind the column (opposite the door) to gain some cover from ranged weapons. Action: Attack guard #3, Crossbow, Light (80/320): 21 (if with advantage from hiding: 21) , Damage: 9 (piercing) If he had time to poison the bolt and it hit, then guard #3 must make a DC 13 CON save or have the poisoned. Free Action: Talking. Reloading crossbow.
Concentration: Heroism round 7 of 10, both Avery and Xanrym have their THP set to 3.
I can't see your dice results there Liarin. Feel free to post again. Theldrin's Firebolt hits the wall next to the cultists, unable to ignite the oil. Xanrym's crossbow bolt kills Guard 3.
(Additionally, I am retconning due to a crosspost that Xanrym was successful in tricking 4 guards into turning back and searching, they won't arrive back in the room for a couple rounds.
Avery is up, (And Liarin if she wants to reroll her attacks) You stand at the entrance of the tunnel, with 8 cultists in front of you stuck in caltrops and sliding in oil.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Liarin rips apart 2 guards, while Toska manages to hurt 1. One of the acolytes yells at the guards behind them and they turn around to come back. The last remaining guard and an acolyte take aim at Avery, while two acolytes target Liarin, and one Acolyte shoots a bolt of death at Theldrin:
Guard Spear against Avery Attack: 18 Damage: 3 Piercing
Acolyte 1 Death Bolt against Avery Attack: 14 Damage: 6 Necrotic
Acolyte 2 Death Bolt against Liarin Attack: 23 Damage: 10 Necrotic
Acolyte 3 Death Bolt against Liarin Attack: 17 Damage: 8 Necrotic
Acolyte 4 Death Bolt against Theldrin Attack: 12 Damage: 3 Necrotic
You all are up, the last guard in the hallway is blocked in, covered with oil while acolytes throw bolts of death at you. The other guards will arrive next round.
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Avery could use some healing before the next bought, he is a little worse for wear.
(OOC: Up for taking a stand here if that's what everyone wants to do.)
(OOC: Xanrym, of course, relies on Liarin and Avery to hold the line against melee attackers. If they want to hide and rest or even just fall back to a different location, he'll definitely follow their plan. We have time to run and hide now if we want, but I guess we'll soon have the guards searching for us. Maybe we can avoid them long enough for a Short Rest.
@Aaggie - If we don't have time for a short rest, the best chance Avery has to heal up is to drink his potion of healing if he didn't do that earlier. If we fight, Xanrym would mostly be using Vicious Mockery and save all of his spell slots for Healing Word to keep Avery on his feet. In that case, as I've said before, it'll be a more efficient use of spell slots to wait until Avery is knocked out to revive him. Xanrym only knows a few spells, and most of them are more like utilities. Other than Heroism, which Avery is already benefitting from, Xanrym also knows Dissonant Whispers, but that's not very useful against a crowd.
I thought of using Calm Emotions on the guards that are coming, but Xanrym didn't offer that because he doubts it'll do more than delay the fight for a moment. Some of the group will probably pass their saving throws, and even shifting all of the cultists from "hostile" to "indifferent" may not be much of a help. Unless we can pass ourselves off as cultists or cult agents, an indifferent guard isn't going to ignore a stranger in the naga's lair. The best case is that they let us leave the lair and go back to the swamp. And if anyone sees the dead / beheaded bodies of Jarvis and Benn in this room, I'm sure that they'll flip back to hostile.
If we want to go with trickery, a better plan is probably to have Xanrym use the Disguise Self scroll to appear as one of the 3 Naga's Teeth. If we're really lucky, he'll be able to convince them to go back to their dorms. Or maybe he can trick a bunch of them to go up to the swamps to search for "the ones who got away." But if that gambit fails, we'll definitely be in a big fight with them, and Xanrym would be starting in a position where he doesn't have cover.
)
Avery will drink his potion of healing and prepare to make a stand of it 6
It seems Avery, Theldrin and Xanrym are willing to make a stand. I'll let you all discuss for a bit, but unless you've settled on another plan in the next 12 hours or so the cultists are just going to burst through the door.
And i meant 12 hours in real time obviously. We're talking moments in Greyhawk
12 Cultists burst into the room from the door to the north. 4 of them wear the robes of acolytes to their reptile god, while the others all hold spears and seem to act as guards. They run in yelling and ready to kill the intruders. Initiative:
Group 1: You All
Group 2: Guards and Acolytes
(OOC: As far as I understand it, neither of the exits from this chamber, north or south, actually have doors. They're just open doorways.)
Not sure how much time we have, so I'll lay it out speculatively...
If Xanrym still doesn't see the guards at the north end of the tunnel at this point, and then he'll coat 3 of his crossbow bolts with the injury poison they found. That way, if there's a large group of guards, he may be able to disable a couple of them.But if he already sees them coming down the tunnel, skip to the next step.
For that last action...
Movement: 30' to move around the pool and behind a pillar.
Action: Hide behind one of the two northern pillars. Stealth 17
Free Action: Talking, trying to trick them into thinking Blayze was giving them orders. He hopes that the cloak and crossbow make the rest of the "disguise" believable in the shadowy lighting. Deception 21 (using a minimum of 10 because of his Silver Tongue feature)
Concentration: Heroism round 6 of 10, depending on how many rounds it took for them to arrive.
Saving throws for all of them over the caltrops:
Guard 1: 3
Guard 2: 14
Guard 3: 12
Guard 4: 10
Guard 5: 4
Guard 6: 13
Guard 7: 21
Guard 8: 6
Acolyte 1: 19
Acolyte 2: 9
Acolyte 3: 20
Acolyte 4: 4
As the first few guards fail their saving throws, they block the hallway and pile up in the corridor, none of them able to get through.
(I'm using one token for four people in these 10ft squares because it'll be too hectic to throw out 12 different tokens. Also let me know if you wanted to be in different positions in the room, i'd say that with two rounds to prepare you could have set up anywhere you like.)
(OOC: Ugh! Crosspost by a couple of minutes. :-( I mean, clearly, we wanted to prevent them from pouring into the room, so I thought that Avery and Liarin, at least, would block the doorway to the north as soon as they reached our chamber. Otherwise, we would have fought them in the tunnels so that they couldn't surround us.
Also, even if Liarin and Avery failed to jump out and stop them from pouring into the room, the first guard that fails the save vs. the caltrops has to stop moving for the rest of the round. So, they effectively get stuck just before entering the chamber. Every guard behind them should have trouble getting past them that round. They could try to pass their ally, but if they also fail the saving through, then you've got multiple people stuck in one square, probably blocking everyone else behind them. So, guards 1 - 4 should effectively clog the tunnel just before they get into the room, and everyone else should be stuck farther up the tunnel this round.)
Avery would hold the door like he has, to slow them down and perhaps clog it with the fighting.
As the cultists enter the area where Xanrym spread the oil, Theldrin shoots a Fire Bolt in attempt to ignite it.
Attack: 8 Damage: 7
Liarin will move up to the doorway and attack and block as many cultists as she can.
Bite: Attack: 12 Damage: 12
Claws: Attack: 23 Damage: 12
Coriana - Company of the Grey Chain
Wagner - Dragon Heist: Bards.
DM - The Old Keep
Xanrym: Round 1
(Xanrym's position is fine, but he'd want to put the column between him and the doorway, if possible.)
Xanrym is worried when he sees just how many guards there are, muttering, "Woah. That's a lot of guards." He hopes that they are not as tough as the guards they've fought so far. He takes aim with his crossbow, hoping to thin the numbers quickly and possibly scaring them off. He tries to target one of the guards in the first group that got stuck on the caltrops.
Movement: After firing his crossbow, Xanrym moves back behind the column (opposite the door) to gain some cover from ranged weapons.
Action: Attack guard #3, Crossbow, Light (80/320): 21 (if with advantage from hiding: 21) , Damage: 9 (piercing)
If he had time to poison the bolt and it hit, then guard #3 must make a DC 13 CON save or have the poisoned.
Free Action: Talking. Reloading crossbow.
Concentration: Heroism round 7 of 10, both Avery and Xanrym have their THP set to 3.
I can't see your dice results there Liarin. Feel free to post again. Theldrin's Firebolt hits the wall next to the cultists, unable to ignite the oil. Xanrym's crossbow bolt kills Guard 3.
(Additionally, I am retconning due to a crosspost that Xanrym was successful in tricking 4 guards into turning back and searching, they won't arrive back in the room for a couple rounds.
Avery is up, (And Liarin if she wants to reroll her attacks) You stand at the entrance of the tunnel, with 8 cultists in front of you stuck in caltrops and sliding in oil.
Avery attacks the first one in the door: attack 21, damage 5
Liarin Bite Attack: 12 Damage: 9 Piercing
Liarin Claw Attack: 22 Damage: 11 Slashing
Toska Throws a Sacred Flame against a guard. DC 12 Dex Save: 9 or 1 Radiant Damage.
Liarin rips apart 2 guards, while Toska manages to hurt 1. One of the acolytes yells at the guards behind them and they turn around to come back. The last remaining guard and an acolyte take aim at Avery, while two acolytes target Liarin, and one Acolyte shoots a bolt of death at Theldrin:
Guard Spear against Avery Attack: 18 Damage: 3 Piercing
Acolyte 1 Death Bolt against Avery Attack: 14 Damage: 6 Necrotic
Acolyte 2 Death Bolt against Liarin Attack: 23 Damage: 10 Necrotic
Acolyte 3 Death Bolt against Liarin Attack: 17 Damage: 8 Necrotic
Acolyte 4 Death Bolt against Theldrin Attack: 12 Damage: 3 Necrotic
You all are up, the last guard in the hallway is blocked in, covered with oil while acolytes throw bolts of death at you. The other guards will arrive next round.