Having had little experience where undead are concerned, Aldric pauses as he surveys the bodies. Should they clear out the remaining creatures or leave them? Will they animate without their "lord" still around?
He finally says to Rumble in almost a whisper, "Hand me your torch."
If Rumble agrees:
After the novice turns over his torch to the old knight, Aldric says, "Back into the previous chamber. If they come, they'll be forced into a bottleneck and easier to dispatch." Then, after the rest have left the smaller chamber, the half-orc walks to the body nearest the corridor and attempts to light it on fire. If it comes to life, he will back down the corridor toward the "Guard Cave" so that they can surround the creature as it follows him. If it doesn't, he will move to the next and the next, burning them all if he can.
Though he had to bite his lips to keep from chuckling over Aldric's warning to the more hasty of the others earlier, Rumble is all business once the group finally arrive at their destination... and the sights that awaited them. With gritted teeth behind closed lips, he slowly nodded at Aldric's request, but never let his eyes waver from the bodies as he passed it over.
"Mnn... If yer sur--mn!"Rumble sighs, shakes his head, then finally looked to Aldric and nodded. "As you wish, sir. But, here's hope'n with that little lordling's demise, they too got to rest as well."He said, gesturing over to the dead, prior to falling back as the more senior knight requested of him. As he did so, his expression softened as a rogue thought only then occurred to him. A glance goes back to the tunnel leading to the entrance, and the shield and greataxe that awaited him there. But with little more than a more annoyed sounding sigh, the earth genasi shook his head in dismissal, before then focusing once more to the side chamber.
The first corpse, little more than a skeleton, takes a fair amount of work to burn. Once its remaining flesh has been caught alight, Aldric moves onto the next, a fresher corpse, though still unrecognizable by any reasonable standards. As this body burns, the sound of bones around the knight rattling echoes into the adjoining chamber. Three of the bodies rise, jaws clattering without air to move through them. The skeletal creatures hold the weapons they fell here with, swords and bows, and rise with what little scraps of armor remain from ages of rust.
Rolls:
Initiative: Party: 11.6 avg Skeletons: 20 avg
Shortbows vs. Aldric:24, 24 for 10 and 14 piercing damage Shortsword vs. Rumble: 23 for 6 piercing damage
Two arrows have lodge themselves in Aldric's back before he's fully realized what's even happened. Rumble's only warning, outside of the chamber, is the rattling quickly growing closer before a skeleton launches itself sword first toward him, nearly disemboweling him with its blade.
Placement: One skeleton is engaged in melee combat with Rumble. The other two skeletons are blocked by this skeleton in the bottleneck, but are otherwise within movement range.
Health: Aldric is unconscious and dying (0 successes, 0 failures). Rumble is badly wounded.
Arkun is letting his mind drift elsewhere, calmly waiting while the bossy orc carries out his burning procedure to rid this cave system of undead once and for all. He’s startled by the sound of arrows flying and steel being drawn, the moan of thud of someone falling and then seeing / hearing the movement of skeletons. “Right… couldn’t just leave the cave, could we…”. His magically imbued staff still in hand, he walks up to strike the nearest skeleton he can reach. If he can see the fallen body of Aldric, he’ll cast healing word, but if he is further in he’ll keep pressing forward to get there.
Shillelagh to the closest skeleton : (Nat 20!) 25, for 13 points of bludgeoning damage.
If possible / visible, bonus action healing word on Aldric.
Whirling around at the sound of combat, Melek raises his sword and points it at the skeleton. Rumble's stocky form is in the way, but there is a crackling sound and the taste of ionised air as a bolt of lightning leaps from the sword's tip toward the cave entrance...
As tough as he was, there was only so much an exterior of living stone could do against a determined enough foe; especially when one's body was still compromised from an earlier beating! Thankfully, while Rumble could only but stagger a step back, shoving the skeleton away in the process, Arkun is quick to strike the skeleton, shattering bone and perhaps even destroying the wretched undead.
But whatever relief or vindication might've bloomed in that moment for Rumble however, may soon have turned instead to fear seeing Arkun so boldly take the place of the fallen skeleton. For even if the genasi understood the intent, and even if there had been successful bit of maneuvering, it wouldn't to change the fact that Arkun might've very well further endanger!
All because Rumble couldn't do his job and hold the bottleneck...
The crackle of electricity zipping past snaps him out of a downward spiral. And after shooting Melek a halfhearted glaring, Rumble tightened his grip on his axes and let them fly past Arkun, aiming to take the next skeleton out of the picture, if not finish off the one that struck him.
Action: Handaxe at (Lead)Skeleton. (Lethal, Thrown(if target outside of melee))Handaxe - Attack #1:16 For 7 slashing damage.
Bonus Action: Handaxe at (Lead)Skeleton. (Offhand, Lethal, Thrown(if target outside of melee))Handaxe - Attack #2:6For 1slashing damage.
Aldric's eyes fly open as he comes back to consciousness. He draws upon his physical reserves, gathering as much energy as he can.
Bonus: second wind: +4 hp
Grimacing, he gets to his feet, stumbles toward the nearest skeleton, and swings at it with his axe!
Attack: I would say to use the 5 since that's the first d20 I rolled, and if you had already said that Arkun had healed Aldric, that's theoretically what I would have rolled to hit.
OOC: Welcome back! Sorry it took so long to resolve this round. Things are settling down for me. Thank you for all the conditional posts, those make it easy on me when my posting is delayed.
DM Screen:
14/14
Rolls:
Shortsword vs. Rylan: 8
Arkun's shillelagh scatters skeletal bones like bird seed, ricocheting them around the corner into the chamber he rushes into, sending magic flowing into Aldric's prone form. As the orc rises wearily to his feet, stumbling as he swings his axe, reinforcements arrive. Lightning crackles across the chamber from Melek's fingertips, striking the far wall in prelude to Rumble's axes. One of the handaxes smacks into the skull of a skeleton, and as the creature stumbles, Rylan slices through its rib cage, collapsing it to the cavern floor.
Round 2 Order: Skeleton Party <=====
Placement: All characters are within movement range of the remaining skeleton.
Health: Rumble is badly wounded. Aldric is wounded.
@DM: Aldric should have 10 hp. 6 from Arkun and 4 from his second wind.
Aldric shakes his big head again, trying to clear his vision after swinging wildly and missing spectacularly. He adjusts his footing, narrows his eyes, and swings his axe horizontally at the remaining skeleton's exposed spine.
Arkun nods to Aldric, then steps forward to swing away at the remaining skeleton. He hefts his magically imbued staff and swings with a good follow through, feels like he has a solid connection.
Shillelagh to the skeleton : 20 to hit, for 7 points of bludgeoning damage.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Rylan hangs back, allowing the others to finish off the abomination, holding any attack action that would only be triggered if the others fail to bring the creature down:
To Hit: 13, Damage: 4
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
Melek's sword remains outstretched, with the arc of lightning extending out still, and bending in toward the remaining skeleton.
Bonus Action: Witch Bolt deals 6 lightning damage to the skeleton originally targeted. If that skeleton is already defeated, well... Melek will zap it anyway because he can.
Action: If there are still any skeleton up: Eldritch Blast24 to hit, 6 force damage.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Another twinge of pain gives Rumble pause, and by the time he recovers enough to go for his last handaxe, no skeleton (at least by his reckoning) remaining standing after the assault of others. Though without further certainty in a spoken confirmation from the others, the genasi remained tight on the last handaxe, and body loosely poised to let it fly at a moment's notice. Both task being easier said than done with ongoing complaints of the body and vision beginning to blur around the edges.
Action: Ready to throw Handaxe at any remaining skeleton. (Trigger: If any remain standing in visual range after everyone else has attacked) (Thrown, Lethal)Handaxe - Attack(#1): 25 Damage: 8Slashing damage. (if triggered)
@DM: Aldric should have 10 hp. 6 from Arkun and 4 from his second wind.
OOC: Good catch, apologies for missing that.
Aldric's follow-up doesn't miss. The axe carves into the last skeleton's rib cage, lodging itself in the undead creature's spine. As it flails helplessly at the end of the weapon, lurching back and forth like a ragdoll as it tries to strike at its next target, Arkun's shillelagh shatters its skull into a thousand tiny pieces of shrapnel. Like glitter floating through the light of lantern light, the dust from the skeleton's cranium slowly settles over the party and the remaining bodies littered around this cavern.
Area Description:
Motionless humanoid figures dressed in dirty clothes or scraps of armor are propped against the walls of this cave. Some are little more than skeletons with wisps of hair and skin stretched tightly over their bones. Others are fresher. A few old shortswords lie on the dusty floor.
OOC: Each character has received 30 XP for defeating the skeletons!
"Now. Please. Before one more friggin thing happens. Can we get out of this blasted cave?" He looks over to Rylan, saying "I bet Brandy is pissed at you at this point. She's going to nibble your bum watching you hobble out of this cave... sheesh."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Aldric's shoulders rise and fall with his heavy breaths. Finally, he stows his axe and stomps back through the narrow passage to the larger chamber. "Let us take our leave."
As he reaches the mouth of the cave, Aldric removes his kettle helm, wipes his gray-green brow, and then replaces the helm. Bending over with a grunt, he picks up his sack and throws it over his axe arm's shoulder.
Turning to Melek, the old half-orc says, "We will now return to Red Larch. There is a woman there, Kaylessa, who we should report to. Would you like to accompany us? On the way, you can tell us more about your dream."
Rumble lets out the breath he hadn't realized was being held while waiting for confirmation on the skeletons defeat. "Mn... I mean, *ahem*.. Yes sir." The genasi gives the senior knight a weak salute, before leading the procession back outside. That is of course he hadn't needed to retrieve any handaxes thrown during the battle. Either way, once back outside, and if his greataxe and shield had remained where he left it, his eyes would practically light up with relief as went about retrieving them.
Even his most recent wound failed to sour his uplifted mood... for a time. At which point, he'd set aside some of his gear once more to work on at least a temporary bandage job while the others sorted out next steps with Melek. But even then, he can't help but chime in with, "There was that little nugget there, wasn't it?"He snorts, cringes, and after taking a moment to steady himself, carefully finished up treating his wound. "I know one thing though, fellas. At least odds are some adventurous kid can't get up to too much trouble braving the rock. But, we prolly aughta leave those signs up while we're at it."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
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Having had little experience where undead are concerned, Aldric pauses as he surveys the bodies. Should they clear out the remaining creatures or leave them? Will they animate without their "lord" still around?
He finally says to Rumble in almost a whisper, "Hand me your torch."
If Rumble agrees:
After the novice turns over his torch to the old knight, Aldric says, "Back into the previous chamber. If they come, they'll be forced into a bottleneck and easier to dispatch." Then, after the rest have left the smaller chamber, the half-orc walks to the body nearest the corridor and attempts to light it on fire. If it comes to life, he will back down the corridor toward the "Guard Cave" so that they can surround the creature as it follows him. If it doesn't, he will move to the next and the next, burning them all if he can.
Though he had to bite his lips to keep from chuckling over Aldric's warning to the more hasty of the others earlier, Rumble is all business once the group finally arrive at their destination... and the sights that awaited them. With gritted teeth behind closed lips, he slowly nodded at Aldric's request, but never let his eyes waver from the bodies as he passed it over.
"Mnn... If yer sur--mn!" Rumble sighs, shakes his head, then finally looked to Aldric and nodded. "As you wish, sir. But, here's hope'n with that little lordling's demise, they too got to rest as well." He said, gesturing over to the dead, prior to falling back as the more senior knight requested of him. As he did so, his expression softened as a rogue thought only then occurred to him. A glance goes back to the tunnel leading to the entrance, and the shield and greataxe that awaited him there. But with little more than a more annoyed sounding sigh, the earth genasi shook his head in dismissal, before then focusing once more to the side chamber.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Arkun is pondering what is seen, saying "Burn them. End any of his foul experiments. Then let's leave. Agreed?"
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
The first corpse, little more than a skeleton, takes a fair amount of work to burn. Once its remaining flesh has been caught alight, Aldric moves onto the next, a fresher corpse, though still unrecognizable by any reasonable standards. As this body burns, the sound of bones around the knight rattling echoes into the adjoining chamber. Three of the bodies rise, jaws clattering without air to move through them. The skeletal creatures hold the weapons they fell here with, swords and bows, and rise with what little scraps of armor remain from ages of rust.
Rolls:
Two arrows have lodge themselves in Aldric's back before he's fully realized what's even happened. Rumble's only warning, outside of the chamber, is the rattling quickly growing closer before a skeleton launches itself sword first toward him, nearly disemboweling him with its blade.
Placement:
One skeleton is engaged in melee combat with Rumble.
The other two skeletons are blocked by this skeleton in the bottleneck, but are otherwise within movement range.
Health:
Aldric is unconscious and dying (0 successes, 0 failures).
Rumble is badly wounded.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
Arkun is letting his mind drift elsewhere, calmly waiting while the bossy orc carries out his burning procedure to rid this cave system of undead once and for all. He’s startled by the sound of arrows flying and steel being drawn, the moan of thud of someone falling and then seeing / hearing the movement of skeletons. “Right… couldn’t just leave the cave, could we…”. His magically imbued staff still in hand, he walks up to strike the nearest skeleton he can reach. If he can see the fallen body of Aldric, he’ll cast healing word, but if he is further in he’ll keep pressing forward to get there.
Shillelagh to the closest skeleton : (Nat 20!) 25, for 13 points of bludgeoning damage.
If possible / visible, bonus action healing word on Aldric.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Whirling around at the sound of combat, Melek raises his sword and points it at the skeleton. Rumble's stocky form is in the way, but there is a crackling sound and the taste of ionised air as a bolt of lightning leaps from the sword's tip toward the cave entrance...
Witch Bolt: 12 to hit (10 damage)
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
As tough as he was, there was only so much an exterior of living stone could do against a determined enough foe; especially when one's body was still compromised from an earlier beating! Thankfully, while Rumble could only but stagger a step back, shoving the skeleton away in the process, Arkun is quick to strike the skeleton, shattering bone and perhaps even destroying the wretched undead.
But whatever relief or vindication might've bloomed in that moment for Rumble however, may soon have turned instead to fear seeing Arkun so boldly take the place of the fallen skeleton. For even if the genasi understood the intent, and even if there had been successful bit of maneuvering, it wouldn't to change the fact that Arkun might've very well further endanger!
All because Rumble couldn't do his job and hold the bottleneck...
The crackle of electricity zipping past snaps him out of a downward spiral. And after shooting Melek a halfhearted glaring, Rumble tightened his grip on his axes and let them fly past Arkun, aiming to take the next skeleton out of the picture, if not finish off the one that struck him.
Action: Handaxe at (Lead)Skeleton.
(Lethal, Thrown(if target outside of melee))Handaxe - Attack #1: 16 For 7 slashing damage.
Bonus Action: Handaxe at (Lead)Skeleton.
(Offhand, Lethal, Thrown(if target outside of melee))Handaxe - Attack #2: 6 For 1 slashing damage.
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
(OOC: Okay, I'm back... Is it still possible to engage a skeleton in melee or do the others have him surrounded?)
Rylan, holding back, waits for an opportunity to rush forward and attack the moment there's an opening.
Readied Action... Longsword attack
To Hit: 14, Damage: 9 + Sapped
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
If Arkun can't see Aldric:
Death save: 5
If Arkun raises Aldric with healing word:
Aldric's eyes fly open as he comes back to consciousness. He draws upon his physical reserves, gathering as much energy as he can.
Bonus: second wind: +4 hp
Grimacing, he gets to his feet, stumbles toward the nearest skeleton, and swings at it with his axe!
Attack: I would say to use the 5 since that's the first d20 I rolled, and if you had already said that Arkun had healed Aldric, that's theoretically what I would have rolled to hit.
OOC: Welcome back! Sorry it took so long to resolve this round. Things are settling down for me. Thank you for all the conditional posts, those make it easy on me when my posting is delayed.
DM Screen:
14/14
Rolls:
Arkun's shillelagh scatters skeletal bones like bird seed, ricocheting them around the corner into the chamber he rushes into, sending magic flowing into Aldric's prone form. As the orc rises wearily to his feet, stumbling as he swings his axe, reinforcements arrive. Lightning crackles across the chamber from Melek's fingertips, striking the far wall in prelude to Rumble's axes. One of the handaxes smacks into the skull of a skeleton, and as the creature stumbles, Rylan slices through its rib cage, collapsing it to the cavern floor.
Round 2 Order:
Skeleton
Party <=====
Placement:
All characters are within movement range of the remaining skeleton.
Health:
Rumble is badly wounded.
Aldric is wounded.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
@DM: Aldric should have 10 hp. 6 from Arkun and 4 from his second wind.
Aldric shakes his big head again, trying to clear his vision after swinging wildly and missing spectacularly. He adjusts his footing, narrows his eyes, and swings his axe horizontally at the remaining skeleton's exposed spine.
Attack: nat 20 for 23, damage: 12 damage
Arkun nods to Aldric, then steps forward to swing away at the remaining skeleton. He hefts his magically imbued staff and swings with a good follow through, feels like he has a solid connection.
Shillelagh to the skeleton : 20 to hit, for 7 points of bludgeoning damage.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Rylan hangs back, allowing the others to finish off the abomination, holding any attack action that would only be triggered if the others fail to bring the creature down:
To Hit: 13, Damage: 4
DM - Classic Adventures Reborn
Rylan - L1 Human Paladin - Barty's "Princes of the Apocalypse"
Melek's sword remains outstretched, with the arc of lightning extending out still, and bending in toward the remaining skeleton.
Bonus Action: Witch Bolt deals 6 lightning damage to the skeleton originally targeted. If that skeleton is already defeated, well... Melek will zap it anyway because he can.
Action: If there are still any skeleton up: Eldritch Blast 24 to hit, 6 force damage.
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Another twinge of pain gives Rumble pause, and by the time he recovers enough to go for his last handaxe, no skeleton (at least by his reckoning) remaining standing after the assault of others. Though without further certainty in a spoken confirmation from the others, the genasi remained tight on the last handaxe, and body loosely poised to let it fly at a moment's notice. Both task being easier said than done with ongoing complaints of the body and vision beginning to blur around the edges.
Action: Ready to throw Handaxe at any remaining skeleton. (Trigger: If any remain standing in visual range after everyone else has attacked)
(Thrown, Lethal)Handaxe - Attack(#1): 25 Damage: 8 Slashing damage. (if triggered)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
OOC: Good catch, apologies for missing that.
Aldric's follow-up doesn't miss. The axe carves into the last skeleton's rib cage, lodging itself in the undead creature's spine. As it flails helplessly at the end of the weapon, lurching back and forth like a ragdoll as it tries to strike at its next target, Arkun's shillelagh shatters its skull into a thousand tiny pieces of shrapnel. Like glitter floating through the light of lantern light, the dust from the skeleton's cranium slowly settles over the party and the remaining bodies littered around this cavern.
Area Description:
OOC: Each character has received 30 XP for defeating the skeletons!
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
"Now. Please. Before one more friggin thing happens. Can we get out of this blasted cave?" He looks over to Rylan, saying "I bet Brandy is pissed at you at this point. She's going to nibble your bum watching you hobble out of this cave... sheesh."
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Melek resist the temptation to kick the last of the bones, fearing they may somehow rise once again.
Yes, he replies grimly to Arkun. I have spent enough time here. But for your aid I might have become one of these.
Dismissing his sword back into mist, he hoists his pack and walks toward the cave entrance.
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Aldric's shoulders rise and fall with his heavy breaths. Finally, he stows his axe and stomps back through the narrow passage to the larger chamber. "Let us take our leave."
As he reaches the mouth of the cave, Aldric removes his kettle helm, wipes his gray-green brow, and then replaces the helm. Bending over with a grunt, he picks up his sack and throws it over his axe arm's shoulder.
Turning to Melek, the old half-orc says, "We will now return to Red Larch. There is a woman there, Kaylessa, who we should report to. Would you like to accompany us? On the way, you can tell us more about your dream."
Rumble lets out the breath he hadn't realized was being held while waiting for confirmation on the skeletons defeat. "Mn... I mean, *ahem*.. Yes sir." The genasi gives the senior knight a weak salute, before leading the procession back outside. That is of course he hadn't needed to retrieve any handaxes thrown during the battle. Either way, once back outside, and if his greataxe and shield had remained where he left it, his eyes would practically light up with relief as went about retrieving them.
Even his most recent wound failed to sour his uplifted mood... for a time. At which point, he'd set aside some of his gear once more to work on at least a temporary bandage job while the others sorted out next steps with Melek. But even then, he can't help but chime in with, "There was that little nugget there, wasn't it?" He snorts, cringes, and after taking a moment to steady himself, carefully finished up treating his wound. "I know one thing though, fellas. At least odds are some adventurous kid can't get up to too much trouble braving the rock. But, we prolly aughta leave those signs up while we're at it."
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.