Zorg's Lost Souls III

(Just leaving it there, to give Mulligan the option of attacking. Alternatively, he can spend his action climbing down to ground level, or anything else he chooses.)

Why not do it all?

     Mulligan drops out of the window and as he drops his thumbs flicker across his fingertips as he gathers his thoughts and draws them into a the shape of psychic daggers.  He deftly chucks one and then the other towards a paid of the tin soldiers, absently wondering if they have a psyche to damage...  As he hits the ground and tucks into a roll to minimize damage (hopefully?) he pauses to telepathically call out to Will, the way he moves dependent upon their response.

     Thumbs up if you got this covered.  A quick wave if you need my help.

     Mulligan pauses only long enough to see a response from Will, running towards the soldiers if Will needs help, otherwise looking for a way back into the tree.

_____

Movement (partial?) - Fall out the window.  A controlled fall, perhaps, but willing to take fall damage to save movement?
Action - Attack Tin Soldier A w/Psychic Dagger - 20 to hit for 7 psychic damage PLUS 4 Sneak Attack damage if their hostage counts as an enemy within 5' of them...
Bonus Action - Attack Tin Soldier (A if still standing or B if not) w/Psychic Dagger - 16 to hit for 7 psychic damage...
Free Action - Telepathically Call out to Will
Movement - Based on Will's response, use whatever movement he has left...

Barria/Rowan

The conjured air elemental moves into the doorway, buffeting the soldier guards (and potentially mini-Skabatha herself) with powerful winds. Even so, Barria and Rowan can see the tiny hag run off further down the corridor and slip through the far door. Meanwhile, the strange girl in the pig-faced mask shambles slowly up the corridor toward the elemental, and two more tin soliders also enter the corridor from the far end. Greginald disappears out the door back into the garden, and a loud boom indicates another of the wizard's spells going off.

While all this is going on, another strange development occurs. The slimy creature on the stairs, which seems to have a sticky hold on the frightened child's arm beside it, reaches through the space between the uprights on the stair banister. But instead of its hand going through the gap between the bars, the hand magically appears right beside Rowan and Barria! This is followed by the arm, then the head, until the slimy creature has stepped almost entirely through the invisible portal, all except one arm that still extends out of the gap in the banisters and holds the child. The creature then half-squats, and a large puddle of oil gets ejected from an orifice, onto the floor. Finally, the creature promptly steps back into the portal, which disappears with a slurping pop!

Greginald

The armor of the tin soldiers outside crumples under the wizard's sonic onslaught, but they remain standing. Pulling the gnome child away from the soldiers, Greg hops over the tree root and finds himself beside a large compost patch at the edge of the pumpkin patch. Another child is there, almost engulfed in the compost, which seems to be actively crawling up and over the child.

On the far side of the pumpkin patch, hiding in a space between the roots of the giant log, is Zennor the orc-child from the Getaway Gang. She seems horrified by the sight of the sentient compost patch, and unsure of what to do. But as Greginald appears nearby, she emerges uncertainly from her hidey-hole, looking to the gnome for direction...

Meanwhile, Greginald senses some action from back the way he came... some kind of violence surrounding the three tin soldiers he just blasted, although his view is obstructed by the tree root.

The gnome child he drags with him promptly runs off into the forest, taking the opportunity to escape the danger.

Mulligan

Mulligan slides down the side of the tree, his psychic blades snapping out from him as he does so. They strike the tin soldiers, but appear to have no effect... at least not the headaches and clutching pain that Mulligan is accustomed to when battling normal sentient creatures. Promptly afterwards, Greginald emerges from the nearby door, blasts the soldiers which some kind of spell, grabs the captive child, and leaps over a tree root into the pumpkin patch beyond.

Will turns at the sound of Mulligan's voice. His face is contorted and feral, but he gives the briefest thumbs-up sign before turning back to the soldiers. Then to Mulligan's surprise, Will transforms. His body shifts and grows, his limbs elongate, and in the matter of a split-second, the pre-teen human boy has been replaced with a large, blue-green-skinned creature, clad in a long shabby cloak, and clutching a huge polearm with a wickedly-curved blade at the end. The monster swings the massive weapon, which clangs against the armor of the tin soldiers that now surround it.

Despite this unexpected turn of events, Mulligan glances around for a point of entry. Four options present themselves, based on his observations and on Will's description of the hag's lair prior to their foray. (Mulligan has just descended the northernmost tree.)

- The door that Greginald just emerged from, that enters the base of the central tree. There is a strange wind blowing out of the doorway, and sounds of combat.
- The balcony above this door, which Will just jumped from. It's an option, and way into the central tree's upper level, but would require going vertical again.
- The stairway going up the southern tree, just beyond the tree root, where Greginald just went. This leads to the children's dormitory (L8), and then down into the soldier barracks (L7), and could potentially be an easier ingress than the windy doorway nearby, and allow him to access the action from the flank.
- Beyond the pumpkin patch, there is a small balcony close to ground level, which Mulligan knows grants access to the sewing room (L9). Light can be seen illuminating the balcony, suggesting that the door there is open.

     G'ReG saved the kid and will says he's a-ok.  Sure he turned into some kind of creature but the kid seems OK with that so who is Mulligan to argue the point?  Toss in the fact that his psychic knives seem useless against the tin soldiers and that Mulligan carries no other weapons and... Well wait... He does have a couple of daggers.  For utility purposes only, of course.

     Anyone know where the hag is?

     Mulligan asks over the group chat even as he heads towards the door G'rEgInAld just emerged from.  He's unsure it's usefulness since the gnome just abandoned the area but he has no reason to believe the hag to be anywhere else yet so he has to head in some direction.

     Meanwhile, as he passes by, Mulligan will toss a real daggers at the tin soldiers... Because why not?

___

Movement - towards the door G'rEg came out of
Action - Attack Tin Soldier with a dagger - 22 to hit for 6 piercing damage and 10 Sneak attack damage
Bonus Action - Dash - another 30' of movement towards the G'ReG door since I can only BA attack with the psychic daggers...

Not sure if squares are 5 or 10 feet but I think all that movement gets Mulligan back into the tree?  If so, if someone can provide him with info on where the hag went, he heads in that direction with whatever remains of his 30' move and 30' dash...

Rowan's eyes widen as he sees the air elemental in action. As the whirlwind subsides, Rowan grabs his sword, steps around the oil spill, and races past Barria, over the tin soldiers and presses past the near side of the air elemental, while at the same time replying to Mulligan "She's very small and very fast and is complaining a lot but is still getting away. She's headed down the hallway towards the other end of the tree. The end she didn't come from."

Rowan at the moment has no idea which way is north or south so hopes that's enough direction for Mulligan to make sense of.

Running down the hallway he takes in what is between him and the escaping hag. "Is this little girl on the hag's side, or is it the mask?" Rowan calls out to anyone listening. Holding his sword in one hand, he reaches out for the 'pig' girl and tries to rip off her mask.

((Attack One - Rip off Mask - Grapple? - 17, 18; Attack Two - if the first grapple to take the mask fails, will try again: 18, 26; if the first attack succeeded, does the 'pig' girl still look like she's going to attack, or did taking the mask off change her? If she's still attacking, Rowan will use that second attack to actually strike her with his longsword 27 (Nat 20) to hit for 14+2 rage = 16 damage - if the first attack took the mask off, and the girl suddenly became less hostile because of that, Rowan would reach past her to use that second attack on the first tin soldier))

Regardless of what sequence of grapples and attacks happen, a spiritual Flumph pops into existence right between the two tin soldiers, and then explodes (DC 15 Dex Save taking 1 force damage on a fail, none on a pass)

     A pig-masked girl kidnapped the hobbit fiancee back at the carnival.  

     Mulligan supposes that doesn't mean she's all in evil and in league, it could be under some kind of control, but Mulligan isn't about to let fine details obstruct their main goal if he can help it...

G'Reg knowing that wil has the soldiers outside in hand, gives the gnome child a nod as he scrapers off into the treeline and to safety. But now to save this second child? Zennor seems ready to help and Greg quickly wracks his brains. "ZENNOR! THROW THEM A ROPE! ANYTHING THAT THEY CAN USE TO GET OUT." then looking to the stuck child he meets their terrified gaze and tries to encourage them. "You're stuck, but I can harm this thing and draw it's attention to me, if it doesn't let go then grab zennor's rope and pull as hard as you can, I believe in you! Things are about to get very smelly" Lifting his orb he casts Hellfire (cha save DC 15 for compost, 3 fire, 5 necrotic on fail, and due to potent cantrip half on success)

A ring of acrid flame circles the compost and begins burning and decomposing the already filthy pile, Greg hopes this distraction will give the child chance to escape, with zennor's assistance. Greg then runs halfway up the stairs and peers over the edge to watch if the child escapes or not. Prepared to cast more damage at the mound if needed.

Inside, the tiny hag flees from the air elemental, but it is not deterred by moving through keyholes or under gaps in doors as it uses its full 90ft hover speed to chase her down. When it does find her it cannot use it's whirlwind again to slow her down (failed it's recharge) so instead it slams down upon her with ferocious force. (19 to hit, 13 bludgeoning. 9 to hit. Miss?)

Barria is starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by everything happening, but is focused on the hag that has that poor gnome in a bag!  She runs after Rowan, sidestepping that gross goo as well - holding her breath as she does as she doesn't want to smell that stuff, and as she gets into the stuffed hallway, she quickly disappears in a puff of smoke as she misty step herself over to the door into L7 and tries to open it.

If it is locked, she will hack at it with her war hammer as well (4 whole damage - I really hope it isn't locked!)

If it isn't locked, she has another action... holding to see what happens (the misty step is a BA)

Mulligan dodges past the jolly green giant and the tin soldiers as he sprints along the outside of the fallen log, releasing one of his more substantial daggers at the nearest tin soldier. With a thump it falls to the ground, the dagger still protruding from its metal-plated shoulder.

Mulligan spots the oil slick in the doorway and vaults over it as he charges into the room. There's a lot going on, but Rowan's shouts direct the rogue down the corridor. Finally Mulligan has rejoined his companions.

Rowan also charges into the corridor, and is the first to reach the pig-mask girl. Without a second thought (probably without any thought at all), the elf reaches out and grabs the mask, ripping it away from the girl's face... to discover this isn't a little girl at all... at least not now, if it ever was. The razor-sharp teeth, dead eyes, clammy grey skin, and slavering jowls are a stark contrast to the patched dress and the bright lollipop.

With just as little thought as before, Rowan sweeps his sword around at the not-girl, slicing a huge gash right through her dress and deep into her torso. Rotten intestines spill bloodlessly out of the gaping hole in her abdomen, and the pathetic creature looks about ready to split in half and fall over... and yet the dead eyes stare at Rowan as if nothing has happened.

Further down a corridor, yet another flumph pops into existence. In contrast to its creator, a myriad thoughts pass rapidly through its nascent consciousness: "Wow, where am I? What is this place? How did I get here? What's the meaning of life? I hope I can accomplish something wonderful and good in whatever time I..."  BOOM! The flumph explodes, but unfortunately it's far too close to the ceiling to have much impact on the soldiers, and only leaves a small dent in the helm of one.

Barria also wants to help, but the corridor is looking congested... an elf, a human, a pretty ghoul, two soldiers, a flumph... no, scrap that last one... stand between her and the hag. But a festus cleric is not one to miss a party, and so she opts for the magical shortcut and BAMF! there she is at the far door. Throwing the door open, Barria finds the party...!

Inside this small room is a full-size Skabatha Nightshade. She barks orders at a tin soldier and three oily boggles, while stuffing a young drow elf boy into her sack. Three more children are crammed into the room, held tightly by the sticky boggles... one of whom is the dwarf boy from the treehouse - Bobi. Apparently his part of the rescue didn't go so well. Through a far door, Barria can also see the she-elf gang member, Sloane, trying to pull another child out from inside a rolled-up carpet.

Enough is enough as far as Barria is concerned, and she intends to put a stop to all this. Before the hag has a chance to notice her, Barria reaches out under the large spinning key in the hag's back, and grabs the neck of the bag from behind, yanking it back toward her. The hag's grip slips, but still she manages to hang on, although it has put her off balance.

(nat20! Barria will have advantage on her next roll to wrest the bag from Skabatha's grip)

A strong wind blows through the premises from north to south... no ordinary wind, but a living, sentient manifestation of elemental air. Spiralling over the heads of Mulligan, Rowan, the not-girl, the two soldiers, and Barria, the air elemental reforms in the room right over Skabatha's head. Following the orders of the one who summoned it, the air elemental raises two swirling appendages and slams them down onto the hag. Still gripping the bag, Skabatha almost drops to her knees under the blow (haha, blow!) but manages to hold her ground.

Outside, the orc girl nods and runs around in the pumpkin patch, trying to grab some vines to use as rope. Greginald meanwhile unleashes his fire magic at the compost heap... only to discover that it is rather too damp and soggy to burn much. Parts of it do wither though, but it seems like it will take a lot of magic to wear this pile of trash down. Hoping he has done something constructive, Greg continues on and up the stairs. He finds himself looking into a circular room full of small beds, with two open doors leading into another small chamber.

----------------

Mulligan is looking for a way down the corridor, when he feels an oily pressure on his leg. Looking down, he sees a greasy arm protruding from thin air, and grabbing at his ankle. The boggle from the stairs has abandoned its captive child, and now extends it arm through a new makeshift portal in the nearby doorway, with the arm emerging at Mulligan's feet. The solider guard nearby also grabs for Mulligan's arm, but fails to find purchase.

(Mulligan: DC 19 Athletics/Acrobatics to break the boggle's sticky grapple)

The not-girl swipes at Rowan with a diseased claw, but the arm is loose on the severed torso, and swings wide (12 to miss). One solider moves up close enough to lunge a metallic fist at the elf, but also misses (another 12).

Barria sees the boggles move around the room, still gripping their captive children and ready to help stuff them into the hag's sack, but also leaving oily puddles on the floor. The solider on the stairs stands motionless, as does the child at his side, who isn't restrained, but is watching the melee below with narrowed eyes.

Skabatha glares up at Barria, as the air elemental whirls overhead. "Meddler! I'll cook you for my dinner when I return. Now give me my bag, and CLUCK OFF!"

No sooner does Barria hear those words, than she feels the urge to preen her feathers, and go lay an egg....

(Barria: DC 14 WIS save please, to avoid being Polymorphed into a chicken.)

Greg turns back to look down at the pumpkin patch. Will of the Feywild is there now, beside the compost heap, calling out encouraging words to the trapped child inside. There isn't much time to watch closely, but the gnome wizard knows magic spells when he sees them... and as Will reaches his arm deep into the compost heap, there is a mental flash of magic, and the child within suddenly transforms into a gaseous vapour, and floats up and out of the compost heap. Where Will appeared from in such short order, Greg isn't sure, but he also notices that the big green giant who was fighting the soldiers at the nearby entrance is no longer present.

There is another shout of alarm from the pumpkin patch, and Zennor, the orc child, seems to be in a tussle with a small animated doll in the pumpkin patch. Sloane, the elf child runs out from the balcony below to aid her fellow gang member. There is a nasty cackling noise, but Greg can't stick around to help children... there's a hag to attend to.

EVERYONE IS UP

     Feeling the tug at his ankle Mulligan jukes right but then jumps left, thinking back to his old pee-wee football days.  Or what he would have done if he had indeed played pee-wee football…. (Acrobatics - 8.  Not having played pee-wee football he’s not nearly as effective at breaking tackles as he would imagine.  But Mulligan does have a good imagination and tries again!  Using his Heroic Inspiration he does better…. But not good enough.  Heroically Inspired Acrobatics - 10…. Sad trombone time.  Sad, sad trombone…)

     Mulligan, unable to tug away from the grasping hand, is at a bit of a loss.  He figures he could keep trying to pull away but the bugger seems to have a pretty good grip on him!  He could throw a couple psychic daggers down the hall at the had but it’s a pretty packed hall and he’s not sure he has enough of a view of his target to be effective…

     Going stabby stabby on the hand it is!  Snapping his fingers and using his force of will, Mulligan summons a couple of psychic blades and stands down at the hand that grasps his ankle!

_____

Movement - None! *sob*
Action - Attack grasping hand with Psychic Dagger - 12 to hit for 8 psychic damage
Bonus Action - Attack graspy again - 23 to hit for 7 psychic damage
     Sneak Attack - If either hit then 11 extra damage!

_____

     Your possessions are on fire, witch.  Your room. Your dollhouse.  Your gross eye you had hidden in the book.  It’s all going up in flames as you run around grabbing kids.

     Mulligan isn’t sure what the priority would be for the hag but if him mentally telling her that can distract her at all it is worth a shot…

Rowan's hope of the mask being the source of some evil influence evaporates at the sight of the zombie girl.

His energy levels even more amped up and borderline frantic now, Rowan sees Barria locked in battle with the hag. Unfortunately there's still a not-pig-faced zombie girl and two tin soldiers in the way. As per usual, he relies on not thinking and bulldozes his way forward, dropping the mask, gripping his longsword with two hands, he swings recklessly first at the zombie girl, then at the tin soldier who took a swipe at him.

With too many seemingly friendly faces in the next chamber, the next appearance of a spiritual Flumph is right between the two tin soldiers in this corridor. Like the others, it barely has time to come to terms with its existence before it explodes.

((Action - Attack 1 against zombie girl - Reckless Attack - 14, 26 for 4+2 rage = 6 slashing; Attack 2 against tin soldier 16, 22 for 4+2 rage = 6 slashing

Bonus Action - Spiritual Flumph - DC 15 dex save from two tin soldiers - 5 force damage on fail))