Those three escapees had about a two hour lead on Morgan and Randa; they ran back to their hideout and the heroes were hobbled by Dallur's injured pace. Randa's Perception, Stealth, and Survival rolls were woefully inadequate (she had some stuff on her mind) during the travel and Morgan's Passive Perception isn't so great either.
With two hours to know vengeance was coming, it didn't make sense to me that Bert and Ernie would just sit around and wait to be killed. They are psycho, not stupid. Based on what the three bandits told them, they figure that the two who were coming would be in fighting shape and the eight who did not come were not in fighting condition. Softer meat.
Of course, dynamite is an amazing tenderizer just to be sure (and conveniently removes the NPCs from battle).
They simply walked around Morgan and Randa while Invisible, outside audible range, since they could see them quite easily.
DM: Randa, you creep forward and it does not take you long to realize you have been hoodwinked and that no one except the gutted and blinded bandit is in the cave. Without Dallur, it is a three hour journey back walking. You can cut that down to two with a run, or one just hour if you are willing to push yourself to Exhaustion by the end.
Morgan cautiously steps into the main chamber. He shakes his head at the sight of the suffering, blinded man. Even just a few hours ago, that same man had tried to kill them... but karma hit fast and heavy.
"I don’t have a single healing potion," he mutters, regretting his poor planning.
He does what he can to help the man, though he knows it’s little (Medicine check: 10). Morgan's gaze sweeps the chamber. Dallur mentioned loot... maybe they got lucky, and the cave is without guardians (Investigation: 18).
Returning his attention to the man, Morgan crouches slightly, voice firm but calm. "I have three questions for you: What happened? Where is the loot? And… do you want to live?" (Persuasion: 8)
DM: They lost the initiative, but are currently still Invisible. Because they lost Initiative, they do not get to Stealth Check, so you have approximate locations based on their sounds and last known location, indicated by their initials. Attacks against them are made with Disadvantage.
EDIT: Don't let the skeletons scare you, they are the only stickers available to me in Inkarnate lol. They are not dead (yet).
Hmm. Sacha is pretty useless against enemies she can’t see or reach. There isn’t much she can do on her first turn. I kind of wish that they had won initiative.
Sacha hesitantly moves up with Ylis and pulls out a handaxe. Although they’re invisible, she connects to the World Tree and tries to feel their position through it (Rage and Reckless Attack). Sacha throws the axe at Bert. Sacha has disadvantage from throwing at long range and because they’re invisible, but reckless attack should cancel that out.
Attack: 8 Damage: 9
”Cowards!” Sacha yells, “Vermin! Disgusting, useless creeps! We’ll kill you like we killed the others!”
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Morgan cautiously steps into the main chamber. He shakes his head at the sight of the suffering, blinded man. Even just a few hours ago, that same man had tried to kill them... but karma hit fast and heavy.
"I don’t have a single healing potion," he mutters, regretting his poor planning.
He does what he can to help the man, though he knows it’s little (Medicine check: 10). Morgan's gaze sweeps the chamber. Dallur mentioned loot... maybe they got lucky, and the cave is without guardians (Investigation: 18).
Returning his attention to the man, Morgan crouches slightly, voice firm but calm. "I have three questions for you: What happened? Where is the loot? And… do you want to live?" (Persuasion: 8)
Randa waited a moment to see if the man was capable of speech and then placed a hand on his forehead ( Spare the Dying)
The sacred fire scortches a small spot on the earth, but there is no indication that it has hit its target. Similarly, the handaxe spins with terrifying ferocity, but flies far past where Sacha believed her target to be. It impacts the dirt some 20ft after that and skids to a stop.
“Hey Bert. This is going to be easier than I thought.”
“Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh.”
Bert appears directly in front of Sacha, but 50ft away. Three daggers fly at Sacha. All land before Sacha’s feet, totally like it was intentional. The daggers evaporate into nothing. He then pops the top of another vial and drinks the contents, vanishing from sight.
DM: All Attacks missed lol.
Ernie on the other hand, does not Attack. Instead he attempts to quiet himself. At least for the moment, he is undetectable without spending an action to hear him. He has eclipsed both of your Passive Perceptions.
Round 2
Heroes GO!
***
Morgan can see that the man is in bad shape and will not survive more than a day or two. If blood loss doesn’t kill him, infection surely will in this foul place. As he asks about the look, the man cowers, clearly protecting his exposed innards.
“I ain’t got nothin! Don’t hurt me! I don’t want ta die, but I ain’t got nothin ta give! Please help me.” After considering his position a moment, he does try to offer something, but nothing that could not have been deduced on your own. “We got back and told Bert an Ernie what happened. They gutted us… They took my eyes! I can see you with them still... but I’m watchin you from behind. Oh gods…”
As Randa’s hand touches his forehead, he starts, but the tenderness of her touch still his movement. As magical energy courses into him, he takes a deeper breath and seems to relax some. His immediate mortal danger melts away, but he is still at risk of infection, as the wound is still quite severe. Death from blood loss is no longer a concern though, and the wound has ceased bleeding.
Morgan is blind here. Fortunately, he can see with his owl’s senses and scans the room. The three bandits here carry nothing of value. They tossed their weapons to run faster. There is a small chest by the alter, which the owl can see is piled high with old, dried ears linked together like a series of paper clips. Looking behind him, he can see the the rubber ducky on the soap dish. The eyes follow Morgan around the room as he moves and look strangely large for a toy of that size.
Morgan snaps his fingers and conjures a small bonfire in the middle of the room (this drops concentration on Suggestion). Warm light flares, chasing shadows up the walls.
He waits as his eyes adjust, scanning the place... half expecting, for some cursed reason, to find a jar full of eyeballs staring back at him.
Instead… there is a rubber duck.
Morgan stares. The duck stares back (probably).
He slowly approaches it, still talking to the man without taking his eyes off the duck.
"You’re a smart man. You understand business. A friend of yours told us there was loot here. And Bert and Ernie."
He gestures around.
"I don’t see any of that. No loot. No Bert. No Ernie. Just… this guy." He nudges the duck with his boot.
Yis stamps her foot but accepts the miss as the price of doing business.
She pats Sacha on the knee and murmurs words of soft gentle power while waving her fingers in front of her. A soft haze begins to form around them, then a full Fog Cloud centered on Sacha and Ylis obscure them from view.
Her grip tightens on her spear and she infuses it again with power. "They should come to us now..."
Morgan snaps his fingers and conjures a small bonfire in the middle of the room (this drops concentration on Suggestion). Warm light flares, chasing shadows up the walls.
He waits as his eyes adjust, scanning the place... half expecting, for some cursed reason, to find a jar full of eyeballs staring back at him.
Instead… there is a rubber duck.
Morgan stares. The duck stares back (probably).
He slowly approaches it, still talking to the man without taking his eyes off the duck.
"You’re a smart man. You understand business. A friend of yours told us there was loot here. And Bert and Ernie."
He gestures around.
"I don’t see any of that. No loot. No Bert. No Ernie. Just… this guy." He nudges the duck with his boot.
"You help us, we help you."
Jacaranda looked at the duck with the mans eyes and hissed softly.
" Give it to him. He'll need eyes if he is to ever walk out of this place.......I doubt he'll be much danger to anyone much from this point on."
" I am concerned......if they would do this to their own men what would they do to those who opposed their men? They did not ambush us on the way here, and my lack of concentration gave them every opportunity."
" I fear for the childr.....uh, our companions......these bandit leaders have some sort of eldritch powers as shown by the ' eye transplant'.......he will tell us what he knows of them and then we will leave him to make his way in the world having learned the price of avarice and cruelty."
“Ernie, they’re hiding. Clever. Funny. They called us cowards but hide like children. Their hurt friends are out here too. Abandoned them and all even after they blew up. Maybe I take their friend's ears while they cower in a cloud, eh-eh-eh-eh-eh.”
Seconds tick by, the thumping of your hearts increasing in speed and intensity until it pounds in your ears. Then you hear the sound of running rapidly approaching you. Bert’s blade fires out into the heavy fog at Ylis’ last known location from a nearby thrown position.
DM: Attacks 25, 8, 7. Piercing Damage 10.
Ylis hears the sound of a bottle top pop open and gulping sounds. A boot grinds dirt as Bert tries to skip away.
DM: Bert lacked the movement to get close enough for you to gain Opporunity Attacks, but he does sound like he is 20ft in front of Sacha, also within the fog.
Ernie remains silent. He seems to be waiting for something or is moving somehwere but doesn’t want you to know where.
Round 3
Heroes GOOOOOOOO!
***
The rubber ducky with the human eyes does indeed stare back, looking up at Morgan as he nudges it with his boot. The eyeless man gawks at Morgan. “How’re… how can you help… me? Like this? I'm all cut open and I got no eyes! Pulled them right out of my head and put them in a bath toy!"
DM: Another Persuasion Check, Morgan. Because Randa’s advising you, I will call it Help. So take Advantage.
An especially twisty twist!
Those three escapees had about a two hour lead on Morgan and Randa; they ran back to their hideout and the heroes were hobbled by Dallur's injured pace. Randa's Perception, Stealth, and Survival rolls were woefully inadequate (she had some stuff on her mind) during the travel and Morgan's Passive Perception isn't so great either.
With two hours to know vengeance was coming, it didn't make sense to me that Bert and Ernie would just sit around and wait to be killed. They are psycho, not stupid. Based on what the three bandits told them, they figure that the two who were coming would be in fighting shape and the eight who did not come were not in fighting condition. Softer meat.
Of course, dynamite is an amazing tenderizer just to be sure (and conveniently removes the NPCs from battle).
They simply walked around Morgan and Randa while Invisible, outside audible range, since they could see them quite easily.
DM: Randa, you creep forward and it does not take you long to realize you have been hoodwinked and that no one except the gutted and blinded bandit is in the cave. Without Dallur, it is a three hour journey back walking. You can cut that down to two with a run, or one just hour if you are willing to push yourself to Exhaustion by the end.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
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Morgan cautiously steps into the main chamber.
He shakes his head at the sight of the suffering, blinded man. Even just a few hours ago, that same man had tried to kill them... but karma hit fast and heavy.
"I don’t have a single healing potion," he mutters, regretting his poor planning.
He does what he can to help the man, though he knows it’s little (Medicine check: 10).
Morgan's gaze sweeps the chamber. Dallur mentioned loot... maybe they got lucky, and the cave is without guardians (Investigation: 18).
Returning his attention to the man, Morgan crouches slightly, voice firm but calm.
"I have three questions for you: What happened? Where is the loot? And… do you want to live?"
(Persuasion: 8)
Initiative:
Heroes!
Villains!
DM: They lost the initiative, but are currently still Invisible. Because they lost Initiative, they do not get to Stealth Check, so you have approximate locations based on their sounds and last known location, indicated by their initials. Attacks against them are made with Disadvantage.
EDIT: Don't let the skeletons scare you, they are the only stickers available to me in Inkarnate lol. They are not dead (yet).
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
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"Stay by my side Sacha, we'll take down these dirtbags back to back." Ylis says gravely
She then moves forward about 20 feet to get just within range to "Eat the Moonweaver's Sacred Flame!" she shouts at the yellow man(?)
DC 14 Dex save vs 7 Radiant damage.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Hmm. Sacha is pretty useless against enemies she can’t see or reach. There isn’t much she can do on her first turn. I kind of wish that they had won initiative.
Sacha hesitantly moves up with Ylis and pulls out a handaxe. Although they’re invisible, she connects to the World Tree and tries to feel their position through it (Rage and Reckless Attack). Sacha throws the axe at Bert. Sacha has disadvantage from throwing at long range and because they’re invisible, but reckless attack should cancel that out.
Attack: 8 Damage: 9
”Cowards!” Sacha yells, “Vermin! Disgusting, useless creeps! We’ll kill you like we killed the others!”
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Randa waited a moment to see if the man was capable of speech and then placed a hand on his forehead ( Spare the Dying)
Round 1
The sacred fire scortches a small spot on the earth, but there is no indication that it has hit its target. Similarly, the handaxe spins with terrifying ferocity, but flies far past where Sacha believed her target to be. It impacts the dirt some 20ft after that and skids to a stop.
“Hey Bert. This is going to be easier than I thought.”
“Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh.”
Bert appears directly in front of Sacha, but 50ft away. Three daggers fly at Sacha. All land before Sacha’s feet, totally like it was intentional. The daggers evaporate into nothing. He then pops the top of another vial and drinks the contents, vanishing from sight.
DM: All Attacks missed lol.
Ernie on the other hand, does not Attack. Instead he attempts to quiet himself. At least for the moment, he is undetectable without spending an action to hear him. He has eclipsed both of your Passive Perceptions.
Round 2
Heroes GO!
***
Morgan can see that the man is in bad shape and will not survive more than a day or two. If blood loss doesn’t kill him, infection surely will in this foul place. As he asks about the look, the man cowers, clearly protecting his exposed innards.
“I ain’t got nothin! Don’t hurt me! I don’t want ta die, but I ain’t got nothin ta give! Please help me.” After considering his position a moment, he does try to offer something, but nothing that could not have been deduced on your own. “We got back and told Bert an Ernie what happened. They gutted us… They took my eyes! I can see you with them still... but I’m watchin you from behind. Oh gods…”
As Randa’s hand touches his forehead, he starts, but the tenderness of her touch still his movement. As magical energy courses into him, he takes a deeper breath and seems to relax some. His immediate mortal danger melts away, but he is still at risk of infection, as the wound is still quite severe. Death from blood loss is no longer a concern though, and the wound has ceased bleeding.
Morgan is blind here. Fortunately, he can see with his owl’s senses and scans the room. The three bandits here carry nothing of value. They tossed their weapons to run faster. There is a small chest by the alter, which the owl can see is piled high with old, dried ears linked together like a series of paper clips. Looking behind him, he can see the the rubber ducky on the soap dish. The eyes follow Morgan around the room as he moves and look strangely large for a toy of that size.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
"Let's talk like civilized people…"
Morgan snaps his fingers and conjures a small bonfire in the middle of the room (this drops concentration on Suggestion). Warm light flares, chasing shadows up the walls.
He waits as his eyes adjust, scanning the place... half expecting, for some cursed reason, to find a jar full of eyeballs staring back at him.
Instead… there is a rubber duck.
Morgan stares. The duck stares back (probably).
He slowly approaches it, still talking to the man without taking his eyes off the duck.
"You’re a smart man. You understand business. A friend of yours told us there was loot here. And Bert and Ernie."
He gestures around.
"I don’t see any of that. No loot. No Bert. No Ernie. Just… this guy." He nudges the duck with his boot.
"You help us, we help you."
Yis stamps her foot but accepts the miss as the price of doing business.
She pats Sacha on the knee and murmurs words of soft gentle power while waving her fingers in front of her. A soft haze begins to form around them, then a full Fog Cloud centered on Sacha and Ylis obscure them from view.
Her grip tightens on her spear and she infuses it again with power. "They should come to us now..."
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Sacha grabs her spear from her back and focuses on her connection with the world tree (bonus action to continue Rage). And waits.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Jacaranda looked at the duck with the mans eyes and hissed softly.
" Give it to him. He'll need eyes if he is to ever walk out of this place.......I doubt he'll be much danger to anyone much from this point on."
" I am concerned......if they would do this to their own men what would they do to those who opposed their men? They did not ambush us on the way here, and my lack of concentration gave them every opportunity."
" I fear for the childr.....uh, our companions......these bandit leaders have some sort of eldritch powers as shown by the ' eye transplant'.......he will tell us what he knows of them and then we will leave him to make his way in the world having learned the price of avarice and cruelty."
Round 2
“Ernie, they’re hiding. Clever. Funny. They called us cowards but hide like children. Their hurt friends are out here too. Abandoned them and all even after they blew up. Maybe I take their friend's ears while they cower in a cloud, eh-eh-eh-eh-eh.”
Seconds tick by, the thumping of your hearts increasing in speed and intensity until it pounds in your ears. Then you hear the sound of running rapidly approaching you. Bert’s blade fires out into the heavy fog at Ylis’ last known location from a nearby thrown position.
DM: Attacks 25, 8, 7. Piercing Damage 10.
Ylis hears the sound of a bottle top pop open and gulping sounds. A boot grinds dirt as Bert tries to skip away.
DM: Bert lacked the movement to get close enough for you to gain Opporunity Attacks, but he does sound like he is 20ft in front of Sacha, also within the fog.
Ernie remains silent. He seems to be waiting for something or is moving somehwere but doesn’t want you to know where.
Round 3
Heroes GOOOOOOOO!
***
The rubber ducky with the human eyes does indeed stare back, looking up at Morgan as he nudges it with his boot. The eyeless man gawks at Morgan. “How’re… how can you help… me? Like this? I'm all cut open and I got no eyes! Pulled them right out of my head and put them in a bath toy!"
DM: Another Persuasion Check, Morgan. Because Randa’s advising you, I will call it Help. So take Advantage.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
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Check out my life-changing
Sacha moves up next to where she suspects Bert is and gives him the ol’ stab-‘n-smack.
Attack: 17 Damage: 11
Savage Attacker: 7
Pope strike: Attack: 11 Damage: 7
Savage Attacker (only apply if the stab misses): 8
”Who’s hiding?” Sacha snarls.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms