“Oh yes. You. Your … charming manners are coming back to me now.”
Erudisia looks at the villain and Marliza, her bright eyes, the young infatuation. It is so tempting to try and persuade her to see what they have all had to learn in their time — but… it is probably futile as it would’ve been for her in her time.
“Marliza, what is your plan for that money — what will you do now? Because, if it does not go to your family and Korvala for the resurrection of your family’s patron and you leave with this … fellow, I fear there are several likely things that may happen to you.”
”The first, is that for you, your family will be lost to you. You have stolen from them and they will grieve their lost patron, all that you and they have striven for will have been within grasp and for them to feel it so near then to lose it once again, after so much pain and risk, will be a knife in their heart.”
”The second is that this man will not be loyal. He is not your forever person. All beautiful women know bad love before good, and the love of this thief will steal many virtues from you and repay you with only pain.”
“Thirdly, you rob us, or allow this man to harm us, to prevent us from saying what happens now, here, then your life will be forfeit. Little One knows, and through him the long arms of Candlekeep, and my father and Lady mother —adventurers of great fame, to say nothing of Bell’s connections, Nor Meredith’s. Nor my noble patron, an elemental of such power as to make resurrection look a simple magic. You will be quickly caught and your profit short lived.”
”If you allow us to leave, I will inform Korvala of exactly what happens now. What’s more …” Erudisia hesitates. She holds her breath a moment longer. Is this … correct? “What’s more: I will inform Togglepocket of your name, and ours. I will turn our identities over to his demonic master, so that they know who robbed the devils and so that the forces of hell pursue us all. I will suffer to steal to turn evil ends to noble aims but I will not suffer to steal only to enrich this less-than-a-man (and, here I reference only his perfidious deficiencies not his lycanthropic mutability) you find yourself in the power of, and your life and the life of this thief will be far, far worse than forfeit.”
”I vow this. Now, make your choice. This is what it is to be a woman, in a world full of connections. Choose which world we shall all live in. Choose well, Marliza, and may we all live with the consequences.”
Erudisia closes her eyes, turns away from Marliza, and begins to walk away, taking Petey by one arm.
”The Bluestocking Three, let us away. You too, Petey.”
As Erudisia begins to speak, Marliza at first, continues up the stairs, head down and determined. Up a few steps she goes, willfully determined to what? get what she can out of a life which so far has been a disappointment? Or, keep her word to Mushika? or, act with ‘adult’ independence? or, as a rebel? Whatever her motives, she seems intent upon fulfilling them.
But then, Erudisia sharpens her knife and serves the teenager a cold, hard slice of real life upon a crystal mirror. Oh then things change. Marliza slows and stops, turning to regard the Moonshae lady with horror as the blood drains from her face. The moping disappears and she stands taller and taller until she seems to be hanging from an invisible peg, stiff as a rod.
“No! You can’t!,” she says, her voice low and threatening.
“She’s bluffing!,” the wererat shouts. But Erudisia knows she’s won and after only a few more exchanges, Marliza turns briefly to look toward Mushika, who continues to try to reel her in. It is folly. The line’s been cut.
“I have to go!,” Marliza shouts to Mushika. “I have to go home!”
“I’LL HAVE THAT GOLD!!,” the wererat shouts back.
Marliza quickly turns back down the stairs with the box, but (DEX save: 2) trips when one of the old boards snaps under her, and her eyes fly all around, latching on Meredith once again. She shouts and begins to fall.
We are now in initiative.
Bell, please post Round 1 actions. Then the wererat, then Erudisia and Meredith.
After hearing that the dirty rat took a potion of magic resistance, Bell is forced to do what she must... depending on her old skills as a young teen back home.
She brings out her dagger and throws it dead center of the rat's body... hoping he gets the point of this argument.
To hit: 12 Dmg: 5 pts of piercing
Not sure if it even made it to the rat, she will hold position and prepare herself for the coming rat swarms. (( THEY didn't drink potions! ))
Bell readies her dagger, but the wererat is not an available target.
The wererat says, “Now, my little pal-i-o’s! Take them! And when nothing is left but bones and buckles, then I’ll prospect fer gold and find my own little dragon’s hoard.” He lifts a little flute to his mouth, blows the same eerie, thin melody you heard before. A thousand tiny rats’ teeth are bared, reflecting Bell’s arcane light, and a writhing carpet of oily fur, beady eyes, and sharp, gnawing mouths engulfs you!
We’ll say Bell’s attack now triggers. Her dagger hits, fending off several rats leaping at her from window sills as she kicks more off her feet and shins.
Meredith leaps up the stairs, halfway to the roof, to help Marliza. The bard succeeds in arresting the young jackalwere’s fall. The box of gold slips, however, and thumps over the bannister, crushing several rats under it and for that reason not bursting open on impact.
Erudisia is up. The wererat is not visible. He is fully hidden on the roof. Three swarms of rats surround you.
Erudisia’s Shadow Blade slashes the tiny peanut-sized rat psyches as well as it might do to larger sapients, and the warlock carves a thunderous path, sending tiny bodies flying like hail in a tornado. When she leaps onto the stairs away from the rats, tiny claws and teeth scrabble for purchase on her calves and robes (Attack of Opportunity), but she parries and kicks them away (3+2=5 to hit: miss!). She climbs the stairs as far as Meredith and Marliza, 1 story up.
Petey is terrified and shouts back to Erudisia, “Yes, Milady!,” but has no opportunity to follow her command. He takes the dodge action and focuses on keeping from being killed.
Marliza seems to be in a state of shock as the rats start to climb the steps after Erudisia. “MUSHIKA! Call them off!!”
“As soon as you fetch me that gold, luv!,” comes the wererat’s reply.
“I told you I’m leaving!,” Marliza shouts.
“You’re going to regret it, my beauty!”
The Swarms of Rats now attack Bell (12 to hit / 8HP), Erudisia (4 to hit / 8HP), and Petey (disadvantage: 10 to hit / 3HP). Petey shouts, pricked and pulled by a hundred tiny teeth, and you see him fall to his knees, down to 1HP, shouting madly. “GET OFF! GET OFF!”
Bell drop kicks a rat that attempted to bite her. As it flew out of the zone of light her staff's crystal gave off, she grumbles about throwing her dagger away instead of having it 'in hand'. "Think smarter, Bell." she lectured to herself. "So that is how he wants to play this..." With a full body shiver, Bell snaps into focus as she speaks a phrase and makes a gesture that ends with her hands presenting toward the rats coming at her.
“Run, Petey, run! Get out of here, we don’t want your services anymore, you hear me? We don’t like you anymore, you hear me, Petey? Get!”
Erudisia’s blade reappears in her hand in a swirl of smoke and a clash of thunder. She swipes at the rats ahead of her and says quietly to Marliza and Meredith — “The flute, all we need do is ruin the flute.” — brandishing her blade she runs as far up the stairs as she can, trying to get within 10 feet of Mushika.
Bell’s magic missiles careen into the nearest swarm of rats, sending up plumes of gravel and trash and rat corpses. The little horde is reduced to half strength as the wiser among them shake free of the wererat’s enchantment and gallop away in full retreat. But the less wise rats remain, clambering up Bell’s ankles and leaping onto her back.
Erudisia blasts away the rats on the stairs ahead of her and they shower down around Bell and Petey like a macabre rodent rain. Erudisia can then ascend to confront the wererat face-to-face on the roof.
Back on the street, all of you mark that Petey is surrounded and unable to disengage from the rat swarm without them simply catching up to him and finishing him off on their turn.
Meredith is up. Petey will almost certainly perish if left alone. All three rat swarms are reduced to half-potency. Mushika the wererat remains unharmed…
Meredith’s quill whistles among the rats surrounding Petey, as if writing poetic verses, but its tip slices through everything it touches. Petey had clamped his eyes shut, giving in to his fate, but now, he opens them fearfully to discover julienned rat bodies all around him.
“Thank you Miss Meredith!,” he shouts weakly, rising to his feet and backing away out of the melee.
Marliza seems to gather her bearings at the bard’s urging and, seeing the rats swarming Bell once again, sets her jaw. “What have I done…!,” she says before transforming into her jackal form and launching down at the rodents.
Erudisia has reached the rooftop and finds Mushika there, wiping his mouth after having slurped down another potion. He stands confidently with a short sword in hand and adopts a fencing posture.
“You may have reached the top of the dungpile, Milady-o, but you’re still neck-deep in trouble! En garde!”
As more rats rush up the stairs to surround Meredith, the bard and Bell see Erudisia and Mushika dueling along the edge of the rooftop above them.
Mushika vs Erudisia: (2 attacks: 20 to hit for 5HP piercing, 17 to hit, 7HP piercing)
Rats vs Marliza: 23 to hit, 5 HP piercing
Rats vs Meredith: Nat 1 to hit. (I’m going to rule that the rats are crowding over each other. Meredith has advantage to hit them next round.)
Erudisia gasps as Mushika’s blade scores one long hit against her chest up onto her shoulder, and another against her hand nearly disarming her.
((CON Save for concentration: 14))
Erudisia brandishes her blade, threatening Mushika, as her other hand wiggles in his direction.
“I bet that nose has helped you a great many times, helped you sniff out a treasure or two. Well, sniff this. Nristgapon!”
Erudisia targets Mushika’s flute and soils it. She soils it like she has never soiled anything before, she soils it as if her life depends on it. Foul-smelling, dark-coloured, thick and viscous and sticky enough to gum up any keys and the delicate passages and reeds of the flute.
Then she turns and leaps off the (two?) story roof top, away from Mushika’s blade. Hoping her grace won’t fail her now.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The quill coalesced again in her hand its blinding magic spent, but it was still sharp enough.....she threw it at her feet trying to drive the rats back.
Mushika, who has kept his flute stuck in his mouth between his teeth like a cigar, suddenly retches in response to Erudisia’s sullying spellwork. “URGGHH!,” and spits out the pipe. “That was a foul move for a fair lady!”
Erudisia allows herself to fall off of the roof to escape retribution, and manages, by grabbing a rope on a pulley one of the Upper City residents uses to pull water up to their flat, to swing down to the ground, though taking 2HP bludgeoning damage in the process (and having reduced damage by 1d6 with a successful Acrobatics check). The mist overhead begins to thin, and a ray of morning sunlight paints the top edges of the buildings lining one side of the street.
Meredith continues to put her quill to work keeping her assailants at bay, but Bell, rather than shedding rodents, seems to be gaining them. Marliza leaps to her defense, pulling the crawling rats off, shaking them savagely, and tossing their broken forms aside.
But now, following the spitting-out of Mushika’s pipe, the remaining rats revert to their normal states and begin to melt away into sewer grates and cracks between houses. (They are no longer combatants.)
A few windows open up, loaded crossbows looking for danger. “WHAT’S GOIN’ ON OUT THERE!,” someone yells.
“I’ve lost the advantage, lady-o’s but not the battle!,” Mushika says. He follows Erudisia’s example, swinging down on a pulleyed rope, and landing at the crate of gold. He picks it up and hoists it atop his left shoulder, still brandishing his short sword. “Marliza, pet, I’ll miss you but I have an appointment out of town and don’t expect to return! Ta-ta!,” he finishes brightly, throwing a kiss. Just then, the crate, having endured too much of a strain from its earlier fall from Marliza's grasp off of the stairs, suddenly loses its bottom and all the gold falls out onto the ground. “Rats!!,” Mushika shouts.
As the rats suddenly leap off Bell's body, she shivers from head to toe. Seeing Mushika about to escape with the chest of gold, Bell makes a furious gesture and barks an arcane phrase, unleashed a volley of firery rays, each one a burning spear chasing the fleeing enemy.
The air shimmered with the intense heat, and the sounds of the bolts slicing through the wind spurred the enemy to move even faster.
1 - to hit: 8 2 - to hit: 23 fire dmg: 10 3 - to hit: 14 fire dmg: 3
Bell stomps her foot in frustration as the first ray of fire goes wide. Clamping her jaw, she makes certain the next ray hits it's mark dead center. The last ray? She is distracted by Petey running up to her.
(forgot my concentration save, and lost the blade, so ignore those weapon attack rolls on the sheet).
Con save: 8 Shadow Blade spell lost.
Using her Inspiration, Erudisia uses the stumbling steps from her dismount from the rope to stop, drop and roll, like some sort of medal winning dance routine (if only the wererat was not also going for the gold) and swings around with the sword in hand, flinging it at Mushika, who has tried to kill them several times over. Or, at least she would have, but she realises the spell form on her tongue and the arcanum in her mind have vanished and so has the blade, discorporating a final time into strands of sticky smoke and thunder.
“Oh yes. You. Your … charming manners are coming back to me now.”
Erudisia looks at the villain and Marliza, her bright eyes, the young infatuation. It is so tempting to try and persuade her to see what they have all had to learn in their time — but… it is probably futile as it would’ve been for her in her time.
“Marliza, what is your plan for that money — what will you do now? Because, if it does not go to your family and Korvala for the resurrection of your family’s patron and you leave with this … fellow, I fear there are several likely things that may happen to you.”
”The first, is that for you, your family will be lost to you. You have stolen from them and they will grieve their lost patron, all that you and they have striven for will have been within grasp and for them to feel it so near then to lose it once again, after so much pain and risk, will be a knife in their heart.”
”The second is that this man will not be loyal. He is not your forever person. All beautiful women know bad love before good, and the love of this thief will steal many virtues from you and repay you with only pain.”
“Thirdly, you rob us, or allow this man to harm us, to prevent us from saying what happens now, here, then your life will be forfeit. Little One knows, and through him the long arms of Candlekeep, and my father and Lady mother —adventurers of great fame, to say nothing of Bell’s connections, Nor Meredith’s. Nor my noble patron, an elemental of such power as to make resurrection look a simple magic. You will be quickly caught and your profit short lived.”
”If you allow us to leave, I will inform Korvala of exactly what happens now. What’s more …” Erudisia hesitates. She holds her breath a moment longer. Is this … correct? “What’s more: I will inform Togglepocket of your name, and ours. I will turn our identities over to his demonic master, so that they know who robbed the devils and so that the forces of hell pursue us all. I will suffer to steal to turn evil ends to noble aims but I will not suffer to steal only to enrich this less-than-a-man (and, here I reference only his perfidious deficiencies not his lycanthropic mutability) you find yourself in the power of, and your life and the life of this thief will be far, far worse than forfeit.”
”I vow this. Now, make your choice. This is what it is to be a woman, in a world full of connections. Choose which world we shall all live in. Choose well, Marliza, and may we all live with the consequences.”
Erudisia closes her eyes, turns away from Marliza, and begins to walk away, taking Petey by one arm.
”The Bluestocking Three, let us away. You too, Petey.”
(Marliza INT save: 12+1=13)
As Erudisia begins to speak, Marliza at first, continues up the stairs, head down and determined. Up a few steps she goes, willfully determined to what? get what she can out of a life which so far has been a disappointment? Or, keep her word to Mushika? or, act with ‘adult’ independence? or, as a rebel? Whatever her motives, she seems intent upon fulfilling them.
But then, Erudisia sharpens her knife and serves the teenager a cold, hard slice of real life upon a crystal mirror. Oh then things change. Marliza slows and stops, turning to regard the Moonshae lady with horror as the blood drains from her face. The moping disappears and she stands taller and taller until she seems to be hanging from an invisible peg, stiff as a rod.
“No! You can’t!,” she says, her voice low and threatening.
“She’s bluffing!,” the wererat shouts. But Erudisia knows she’s won and after only a few more exchanges, Marliza turns briefly to look toward Mushika, who continues to try to reel her in. It is folly. The line’s been cut.
“I have to go!,” Marliza shouts to Mushika. “I have to go home!”
“I’LL HAVE THAT GOLD!!,” the wererat shouts back.
Marliza quickly turns back down the stairs with the box, but (DEX save: 2) trips when one of the old boards snaps under her, and her eyes fly all around, latching on Meredith once again. She shouts and begins to fall.
We are now in initiative.
Bell, please post Round 1 actions. Then the wererat, then Erudisia and Meredith.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
After hearing that the dirty rat took a potion of magic resistance, Bell is forced to do what she must... depending on her old skills as a young teen back home.
She brings out her dagger and throws it dead center of the rat's body... hoping he gets the point of this argument.
To hit: 12 Dmg: 5 pts of piercing
Not sure if it even made it to the rat, she will hold position and prepare herself for the coming rat swarms. (( THEY didn't drink potions! ))
Meredith bolts to the stairs trying to arrest Marlizas fall as best she could.....by providing a slightly softer landing spot if nothing else.......
Athletics- 14
Round 1 Results
Bell readies her dagger, but the wererat is not an available target.
The wererat says, “Now, my little pal-i-o’s! Take them! And when nothing is left but bones and buckles, then I’ll prospect fer gold and find my own little dragon’s hoard.” He lifts a little flute to his mouth, blows the same eerie, thin melody you heard before. A thousand tiny rats’ teeth are bared, reflecting Bell’s arcane light, and a writhing carpet of oily fur, beady eyes, and sharp, gnawing mouths engulfs you!
We’ll say Bell’s attack now triggers. Her dagger hits, fending off several rats leaping at her from window sills as she kicks more off her feet and shins.
Meredith leaps up the stairs, halfway to the roof, to help Marliza. The bard succeeds in arresting the young jackalwere’s fall. The box of gold slips, however, and thumps over the bannister, crushing several rats under it and for that reason not bursting open on impact.
Erudisia is up. The wererat is not visible. He is fully hidden on the roof. Three swarms of rats surround you.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Surrounded, Erudisia calls her Shadow Blade to hand.
”Aha! Have at thee, rodentia! May this cut your eternally growing teeth down to size!”
She strikes out at the rats between her and the stairs.
To hit: 20, (if dim light or dark then advantage, but second roll was worse [11])
Damage: 13 psychic and 2 thunder.
“Fie!” She says, dropping her sword and leaping for the stairs, and moving up them as far as she can.
“Petey! Take the chest, back to the inn, post-haste!”
Erudisia’s Shadow Blade slashes the tiny peanut-sized rat psyches as well as it might do to larger sapients, and the warlock carves a thunderous path, sending tiny bodies flying like hail in a tornado. When she leaps onto the stairs away from the rats, tiny claws and teeth scrabble for purchase on her calves and robes (Attack of Opportunity), but she parries and kicks them away (3+2=5 to hit: miss!). She climbs the stairs as far as Meredith and Marliza, 1 story up.
Petey is terrified and shouts back to Erudisia, “Yes, Milady!,” but has no opportunity to follow her command. He takes the dodge action and focuses on keeping from being killed.
Marliza seems to be in a state of shock as the rats start to climb the steps after Erudisia. “MUSHIKA! Call them off!!”
“As soon as you fetch me that gold, luv!,” comes the wererat’s reply.
“I told you I’m leaving!,” Marliza shouts.
“You’re going to regret it, my beauty!”
The Swarms of Rats now attack Bell (12 to hit / 8HP), Erudisia (4 to hit / 8HP), and Petey (disadvantage: 10 to hit / 3HP). Petey shouts, pricked and pulled by a hundred tiny teeth, and you see him fall to his knees, down to 1HP, shouting madly. “GET OFF! GET OFF!”
Please post for Round 2 in any order.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell drop kicks a rat that attempted to bite her. As it flew out of the zone of light her staff's crystal gave off, she grumbles about throwing her dagger away instead of having it 'in hand'. "Think smarter, Bell." she lectured to herself. "So that is how he wants to play this..." With a full body shiver, Bell snaps into focus as she speaks a phrase and makes a gesture that ends with her hands presenting toward the rats coming at her.
Magic Missile (2nd lvl)
Four glowing darts of magical force fly from her hand as each dart strikes a rat
MM 1 = 2 pts force dmg
MM 2 = 5
MM 3 = 5
MM 4 = 4
She groans as she wishes she had burning hands or some other wide area spell about now. "No sense wishing for what is not at hand.."
She will grasp her staff firmly and prepare to swat what she may.
“Run, Petey, run! Get out of here, we don’t want your services anymore, you hear me? We don’t like you anymore, you hear me, Petey? Get!”
Erudisia’s blade reappears in her hand in a swirl of smoke and a clash of thunder. She swipes at the rats ahead of her and says quietly to Marliza and Meredith — “The flute, all we need do is ruin the flute.” — brandishing her blade she runs as far up the stairs as she can, trying to get within 10 feet of Mushika.
To Hit: 19
Damage: 14 psychic and 2 thunder
ROUND 2 Results
Bell’s magic missiles careen into the nearest swarm of rats, sending up plumes of gravel and trash and rat corpses. The little horde is reduced to half strength as the wiser among them shake free of the wererat’s enchantment and gallop away in full retreat. But the less wise rats remain, clambering up Bell’s ankles and leaping onto her back.
Erudisia blasts away the rats on the stairs ahead of her and they shower down around Bell and Petey like a macabre rodent rain. Erudisia can then ascend to confront the wererat face-to-face on the roof.
Back on the street, all of you mark that Petey is surrounded and unable to disengage from the rat swarm without them simply catching up to him and finishing him off on their turn.
Meredith is up. Petey will almost certainly perish if left alone. All three rat swarms are reduced to half-potency. Mushika the wererat remains unharmed…
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith has nothing....she looks around desperately.......
" Marliza.....your teeth.......Petey will die......"
She desperately tries to think of something.
" Ok......no magic left......no weapons to speak of......what have you got? "
" Hadiya.", she whispered as a long black feather quill coalesced in her hand......and she threw it at the rats surrounding Petey.
Attack: 12 Damage: 3 When the quill hits a burst of black ink spills out blinding the target, an action to remove the ink.
(Round 2 results, cont’d.)
Meredith’s quill whistles among the rats surrounding Petey, as if writing poetic verses, but its tip slices through everything it touches. Petey had clamped his eyes shut, giving in to his fate, but now, he opens them fearfully to discover julienned rat bodies all around him.
“Thank you Miss Meredith!,” he shouts weakly, rising to his feet and backing away out of the melee.
Marliza seems to gather her bearings at the bard’s urging and, seeing the rats swarming Bell once again, sets her jaw. “What have I done…!,” she says before transforming into her jackal form and launching down at the rodents.
Erudisia has reached the rooftop and finds Mushika there, wiping his mouth after having slurped down another potion. He stands confidently with a short sword in hand and adopts a fencing posture.
“You may have reached the top of the dungpile, Milady-o, but you’re still neck-deep in trouble! En garde!”
As more rats rush up the stairs to surround Meredith, the bard and Bell see Erudisia and Mushika dueling along the edge of the rooftop above them.
Mushika vs Erudisia: (2 attacks: 20 to hit for 5HP piercing, 17 to hit, 7HP piercing)
Rats vs Marliza: 23 to hit, 5 HP piercing
Rats vs Meredith: Nat 1 to hit. (I’m going to rule that the rats are crowding over each other. Meredith has advantage to hit them next round.)
Please post for Round 3 in any order.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia gasps as Mushika’s blade scores one long hit against her chest up onto her shoulder, and another against her hand nearly disarming her.
((CON Save for concentration: 14))
Erudisia brandishes her blade, threatening Mushika, as her other hand wiggles in his direction.
“I bet that nose has helped you a great many times, helped you sniff out a treasure or two. Well, sniff this. Nristgapon!”
Erudisia targets Mushika’s flute and soils it. She soils it like she has never soiled anything before, she soils it as if her life depends on it. Foul-smelling, dark-coloured, thick and viscous and sticky enough to gum up any keys and the delicate passages and reeds of the flute.
Then she turns and leaps off the (two?) story roof top, away from Mushika’s blade. Hoping her grace won’t fail her now.
[Acrobatics - Disadvantage: (16, 13 + 2 + 4) 19]
The quill coalesced again in her hand its blinding magic spent, but it was still sharp enough.....she threw it at her feet trying to drive the rats back.
Attack: 15 Damage: 5
Bell is spinning in place, trying to dislodge the rats that have climbed up on her.
Unarmed Strike: 8
Lots of flailing about.. not much to show for it. Frustration level as she groans and trys to keep from screaming... increasing.
Round 3 Results
Mushika, who has kept his flute stuck in his mouth between his teeth like a cigar, suddenly retches in response to Erudisia’s sullying spellwork. “URGGHH!,” and spits out the pipe. “That was a foul move for a fair lady!”
Erudisia allows herself to fall off of the roof to escape retribution, and manages, by grabbing a rope on a pulley one of the Upper City residents uses to pull water up to their flat, to swing down to the ground, though taking 2HP bludgeoning damage in the process (and having reduced damage by 1d6 with a successful Acrobatics check). The mist overhead begins to thin, and a ray of morning sunlight paints the top edges of the buildings lining one side of the street.
Meredith continues to put her quill to work keeping her assailants at bay, but Bell, rather than shedding rodents, seems to be gaining them. Marliza leaps to her defense, pulling the crawling rats off, shaking them savagely, and tossing their broken forms aside.
But now, following the spitting-out of Mushika’s pipe, the remaining rats revert to their normal states and begin to melt away into sewer grates and cracks between houses. (They are no longer combatants.)
A few windows open up, loaded crossbows looking for danger. “WHAT’S GOIN’ ON OUT THERE!,” someone yells.
“I’ve lost the advantage, lady-o’s but not the battle!,” Mushika says. He follows Erudisia’s example, swinging down on a pulleyed rope, and landing at the crate of gold. He picks it up and hoists it atop his left shoulder, still brandishing his short sword. “Marliza, pet, I’ll miss you but I have an appointment out of town and don’t expect to return! Ta-ta!,” he finishes brightly, throwing a kiss. Just then, the crate, having endured too much of a strain from its earlier fall from Marliza's grasp off of the stairs, suddenly loses its bottom and all the gold falls out onto the ground. “Rats!!,” Mushika shouts.
Please post for Round 4 in any order.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
As the rats suddenly leap off Bell's body, she shivers from head to toe. Seeing Mushika about to escape with the chest of gold, Bell makes a furious gesture and barks an arcane phrase, unleashed a volley of firery rays, each one a burning spear chasing the fleeing enemy.
Scorching Ray
The air shimmered with the intense heat, and the sounds of the bolts slicing through the wind spurred the enemy to move even faster.
1 - to hit: 8
2 - to hit: 23 fire dmg: 10
3 - to hit: 14 fire dmg: 3
Bell stomps her foot in frustration as the first ray of fire goes wide. Clamping her jaw, she makes certain the next ray hits it's mark dead center. The last ray? She is distracted by Petey running up to her.
(forgot my concentration save, and lost the blade, so ignore those weapon attack rolls on the sheet).
Con save: 8 Shadow Blade spell lost.
Using her Inspiration, Erudisia uses the stumbling steps from her dismount from the rope to stop, drop and roll, like some sort of medal winning dance routine (if only the wererat was not also going for the gold) and swings around with the sword in hand, flinging it at Mushika, who has tried to kill them several times over. Or, at least she would have, but she realises the spell form on her tongue and the arcanum in her mind have vanished and so has the blade, discorporating a final time into strands of sticky smoke and thunder.
Erudisia curses and then curses.
To hit: 1, 23 Damage: 11 force and 2 thunder
The quill coalesced once again in her hand and she casts it as hard as she can at the noisome varlet.
Attack: 23 Damage: 7
(Time to find out what the second potion did! Also that quill is awesome!)