Aside from calling Biscuit back to his side, Doozey had been content to listen and wait by the panting mastiff's side, giving the beast time to catch his breathe before climbing aboard. "True enough, Mr. Graxx. 'nd either way, we're not gonna get many more answers try'n to speculate here." He says simply. "With unfortunate luck, we'll find plenty enough of those closer to our destination. Don't you agree brother?" As he scratches Biscuit's head, the dog barks its approval. "That's right!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Utar thinks back to the spells he is familiar with. He is sure the gesture the boy described is one typically associated with the casting of protective spells. More specifically, spells to guard against creatures from other planes come to mind. By itself however, the gesture is not usually sufficient to call forth any magic.
Utar is brought back to the present by Neya's words. The conversation and plan-making continue as the adventurers remount their riding horses or tundra mastiff and resume their trip.
Despite the stop to provide aid to the merchant, the group is making good time. Before even lunch time arrives, CRAP can see a small lone dock appear from behind some tall bushes. In this late morning, the weather has continued to worsen. It has become very windy and it has started to drizzle. The sea to your left churns with Umberlee's wrath but a raft seems to be approaching the small dock nonetheless. Another five minutes worth of riding should get the party there, but before CRAP can push forward, a swarm of rats joins the road a good 20 feet in front of them. Dozens and dozens of them join the road from somewhere within the brush to your right, squeaking and rushing in your general direction.
The horses and Biscuit stop advancing instinctively. What do you do?
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Has anyone ever seen something like this before?"
A note of panic is evident in Utar's voice, those rats are small... But there are so many if them...
Animal Handling9, checking if these are rats who happen to be on the same path, just going about their business, or rats on the same path, looking to get in their business?
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Doozey makes ready with a crossbow, but with a heel taps signals Biscuit to be ready to retreat if the group springs to retreat. While awaiting for them to cross the ten feet threshold of 'Okay, that's far enough' for the halfling's trigger finger range, he tries to take a moment to scan the rat horde, looking for some sign of "normalcy" in them, or if they were more unnatural in some way.
Nature: 8(seeing if this is a normal rat swarm, or something more mystical behind them like a rat king perhaps?)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Hoping to arrest the swarm's progress (at least somewhat), she casts a minor illusion, making it look like the road is beginning to crumble into a pit in front of it (Investigation check to see through it {DC 12}, I think spell DC for monks is based off of Ki save DC).
(@Drache: I found this in he text of the Ki feature for monks: "Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier." And this one in the text for Shadow Arts:"you can use your ki to duplicate the effects of certain spells." So, you are right and we'll say your save DC is indeed 12).
Before the swarm reaches them, Utar, Graxx, and Doozey try to quickly study the movement of the rats.
Utar tries to determine how much of a threat they are, but they seem to be approaching fast and the half-orc's fight-or-flight response begins tingling. The small bead of panic in the back of his head prevents him from finishing his analysis.
Graxx has a feeling he has heard of a similar situation before. It takes a second but he eventually recalls a children's tale about a mice charmer and his flute. The difference here being that there aren't any people around that the barbarian can see, apart from the man bringing in the raft in the distance. He chuckles to himself at the memory of the tale.
Doozey prepares a shot while he thinks. There are just so many of them coming straight at the group. That can't be normal... or can it? Maybe they are just frightened.
Neya decides to act rather than examine. Her illusion affixes itself to the road just in time to diverge the rats coming down its center. The illusory pit is only 5-feet wide, however. Although they are fooled by the illusion, the rushed rats simply avoid it by going around (as seen in the previous battle maps, the road is about 15-feet wide). Some of the rats move out of the road, but many continue to come for the group (OOC: I'll roll four of the initially planned six attacks to represent some of the rats moving off the road).
As they begin to pass by the mounts' feet, some of the rodents instinctively bite:
-> Bites vs. Biscuit: (I'll give it disadvantage because of the readied action) Attack: 3Damage: 7 piercing.
-> Bites vs. Brown Horse: (at disadvantage because of the dodge action) Attack: 12Damage: 7 piercing.
-> Bites vs. Glühoof: Attack: 20 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll. piercing.
-> Bites vs. Edith: Attack: 20Damage: 7 piercing.
The mounts begin stepping in place in a defensive reaction, instinctively elevating each leg high while doing so. Glühoof is a bit slower than the others, and gets a couple of bites as punishment (Glühoof takes 2 piercing damage).
The rodent swarm passes the group and keeps moving up the road, never really showing interest in the party once it has moved on. CRAP and their horses/mastiff find themselves still standing in place a good six or seven seconds after the swarm has passed, questioning what that was all about...
In the distance, the raft reaches the dock.
(@Ori: Feel free to roll that readied attack against the traveling swarm.)
Glühoof neighs in appreciation. Even some of the horses old scars become slightly less bumpy in the healing process. The cleric and his horse then gladly lead the group onward. Garnet neighs in response, and Neya follows Utar atop her newly named friend. Silently, Biscuit, Graxx, Doozey, and Edith all follow along.
Upon arriving at the dock, you notice that an elderly man with an excessively long beard, salt encrusted coat, and floppy hat struggles to bring a large flat bottomed raft to shore. He pulls arm-over-arm along a rope, which is strung between the this little dock and a small island an arrow-shot into the bay. On his face, one squinting eye loses its battle for attention to the unnaturally bulging other. He clenches a battered pipe between his teeth at all times, making it even harder to understand his already angry, mumbled speech: "An 'gry storm is-a comin'. Sumday the sea'll claim its due 'n wash all of the ignorant shore folk 'nto 'ts depths. Now, me saw you approach from afar, ignorant shore folk. Tell mes, whacha want?"
Graxx pats Edith as he is proud of her for not fleeing from the rats. Graxx addresses the boatman.
"Yea, I guess I am one of those ignorant shore folk. When we were comin' up there were a lot of rats runnin' away from here. Does that happen anytime there's a storm?" says Graxx.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Biscuit's Retroactive Ready Bite vs Rat Swarm: Attack: 19 Damage: 7 non-magical piercing damage.
Biscuit be nimble and biscuit be quick! And finding his opportunity as the rats flee, he tries to snag some stragglers for good measure. Doozey keeps him from eating; warning in halfling about what happened the last time.
Later...
Biscuit growls lowly at the seaman as Doozey squints at him, giving him the 'ole Hunter's eye in search of any sign of strangeness about the man. "'nd not to be too much of a bother, I don't suppose we could perhaps convince ya to let us rent that boat of yours as well? For storm or not, we kind of have a need for getting to an island across the way."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Happy to let Graxx and Doozey take the lead with the boatman, Utar hangs back, keen to watch and observe the boatman's mannerisms and gestures before broaching any new topics of conversation regarding night time raids or dracoliches.
Biscuit was able to snatch 3 of those rats in a single bite. It did very little to stop the large swarm, however.
AT THE DOCK
"Rats?" he answers Graxx with a question. "I ain't see no rats. You here tw'ask me 'bout rats? You're mo'ignorant than I thunk."
Next, he turns to Doozey: "Rent Warsh's raft? T'is not goin' anywhere without me, fellar! Besides, there ain't nothing to see on th'island and no reason to visit me village. You dry 'n curious folk should look elsewhere for your'ses entertainment."
He then looks at Neya and Utar, spits on the ground, and turns to look at the sky next: "Storm's a-comin', alright." Looking up, you notice the man is not entirely wrong about the weather. The horses seem to notice it too.
(@Ori: Are you using Hunter's Sense on the boatman?)
Graxx begins to anger and loses patience. His nostrils flair and he lightly prods Edith with his heels to make her approach the boatman. She snorts as Graxx towers above the raft. Graxx dismounts and goes up the boatman.
"Listen Warsh." Graxx growls.
"You're being the ignorant one now and I'm about tired of it." says Graxx.
Graxx points toward the island .
"Now we got reason to believe your island is in danger of a immediate attack and we're here to help. Now, we ain't going to do much good sitting here yappin' trying to convince you of our intentions." Graxx starts to become louder.
"You have two options. You can either help us get to your island and save your people or I'm just going to take it and bring it back to you when we're done saving lives." declares Graxx.
"Not exactly they first impression I had in mind... Yes, there have been reports of a ship attacking settlements along the coast, heading eastward. Possibly with the aid of a dracolich, though I hope that isn't the case." Neya says as she dismounts Garnet. "We would like to help shore up defenses for the upcoming attack."
"It sounds more than a little like our friend Yip..."
"Maybe... But, that contradicts what we know about the timeline of the attacks. Too many questions are being raised and zero answers..."
Extended Signature
"All I know is it sounds like we made it in time. A fight awaits us..." says Graxx as he mounts Edith.
Aside from calling Biscuit back to his side, Doozey had been content to listen and wait by the panting mastiff's side, giving the beast time to catch his breathe before climbing aboard. "True enough, Mr. Graxx. 'nd either way, we're not gonna get many more answers try'n to speculate here." He says simply. "With unfortunate luck, we'll find plenty enough of those closer to our destination. Don't you agree brother?" As he scratches Biscuit's head, the dog barks its approval. "That's right!"
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Utar thinks back to the spells he is familiar with. He is sure the gesture the boy described is one typically associated with the casting of protective spells. More specifically, spells to guard against creatures from other planes come to mind. By itself however, the gesture is not usually sufficient to call forth any magic.
Utar is brought back to the present by Neya's words. The conversation and plan-making continue as the adventurers remount their riding horses or tundra mastiff and resume their trip.
Despite the stop to provide aid to the merchant, the group is making good time. Before even lunch time arrives, CRAP can see a small lone dock appear from behind some tall bushes. In this late morning, the weather has continued to worsen. It has become very windy and it has started to drizzle. The sea to your left churns with Umberlee's wrath but a raft seems to be approaching the small dock nonetheless. Another five minutes worth of riding should get the party there, but before CRAP can push forward, a swarm of rats joins the road a good 20 feet in front of them. Dozens and dozens of them join the road from somewhere within the brush to your right, squeaking and rushing in your general direction.
The horses and Biscuit stop advancing instinctively. What do you do?
"Has anyone ever seen something like this before?"
A note of panic is evident in Utar's voice, those rats are small... But there are so many if them...
Animal Handling 9, checking if these are rats who happen to be on the same path, just going about their business, or rats on the same path, looking to get in their business?
Has Graxx ever heard of any event like this of animals fleeing in legends or campfire stories?
History: 13
Doozey makes ready with a crossbow, but with a heel taps signals Biscuit to be ready to retreat if the group springs to retreat. While awaiting for them to cross the ten feet threshold of 'Okay, that's far enough' for the halfling's trigger finger range, he tries to take a moment to scan the rat horde, looking for some sign of "normalcy" in them, or if they were more unnatural in some way.
Nature: 8(seeing if this is a normal rat swarm, or something more mystical behind them like a rat king perhaps?)
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Hoping to arrest the swarm's progress (at least somewhat), she casts a minor illusion, making it look like the road is beginning to crumble into a pit in front of it (Investigation check to see through it {DC 12}, I think spell DC for monks is based off of Ki save DC).
She the moves her horse to dodge.
Extended Signature
(@Drache: I found this in he text of the Ki feature for monks: "Ki save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier." And this one in the text for Shadow Arts: "you can use your ki to duplicate the effects of certain spells." So, you are right and we'll say your save DC is indeed 12).
Before the swarm reaches them, Utar, Graxx, and Doozey try to quickly study the movement of the rats.
Utar tries to determine how much of a threat they are, but they seem to be approaching fast and the half-orc's fight-or-flight response begins tingling. The small bead of panic in the back of his head prevents him from finishing his analysis.
Graxx has a feeling he has heard of a similar situation before. It takes a second but he eventually recalls a children's tale about a mice charmer and his flute. The difference here being that there aren't any people around that the barbarian can see, apart from the man bringing in the raft in the distance. He chuckles to himself at the memory of the tale.
Doozey prepares a shot while he thinks. There are just so many of them coming straight at the group. That can't be normal... or can it? Maybe they are just frightened.
Neya decides to act rather than examine. Her illusion affixes itself to the road just in time to diverge the rats coming down its center. The illusory pit is only 5-feet wide, however. Although they are fooled by the illusion, the rushed rats simply avoid it by going around (as seen in the previous battle maps, the road is about 15-feet wide). Some of the rats move out of the road, but many continue to come for the group (OOC: I'll roll four of the initially planned six attacks to represent some of the rats moving off the road).
As they begin to pass by the mounts' feet, some of the rodents instinctively bite:
-> Bites vs. Biscuit: (I'll give it disadvantage because of the readied action) Attack: 3
Damage: 7 piercing.-> Bites vs. Brown Horse: (at disadvantage because of the dodge action) Attack: 12
Damage: 7 piercing.-> Bites vs. Glühoof: Attack: 20 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll. piercing.
-> Bites vs. Edith: Attack: 20
Damage: 7 piercing.The mounts begin stepping in place in a defensive reaction, instinctively elevating each leg high while doing so. Glühoof is a bit slower than the others, and gets a couple of bites as punishment (Glühoof takes 2 piercing damage).
The rodent swarm passes the group and keeps moving up the road, never really showing interest in the party once it has moved on. CRAP and their horses/mastiff find themselves still standing in place a good six or seven seconds after the swarm has passed, questioning what that was all about...
In the distance, the raft reaches the dock.
(@Ori: Feel free to roll that readied attack against the traveling swarm.)
Utar pats Glühoof's neck, casting cure wounds, pinpricks of light apparent on the horses legs where the nicks and cuts seal themselves.
"Take care of me, Glühoof. I'll take care of you."
Healing for Glühoof - 10
Turning to the other members of CRAP, "Don't want to miss the boat, do we? C'mon Glühoof, let's ride!"
Utar and Glühoof take off at a gallop towards the dock.
"Let's go, Garnet!" Neya urges her horse, also giving it a temporary name, "We don't want to be left in the dust!"
Extended Signature
Glühoof neighs in appreciation. Even some of the horses old scars become slightly less bumpy in the healing process. The cleric and his horse then gladly lead the group onward. Garnet neighs in response, and Neya follows Utar atop her newly named friend. Silently, Biscuit, Graxx, Doozey, and Edith all follow along.
Upon arriving at the dock, you notice that an elderly man with an excessively long beard, salt encrusted coat, and floppy hat struggles to bring a large flat bottomed raft to shore. He pulls arm-over-arm along a rope, which is strung between the this little dock and a small island an arrow-shot into the bay. On his face, one squinting eye loses its battle for attention to the unnaturally bulging other. He clenches a battered pipe between his teeth at all times, making it even harder to understand his already angry, mumbled speech: "An 'gry storm is-a comin'. Sumday the sea'll claim its due 'n wash all of the ignorant shore folk 'nto 'ts depths. Now, me saw you approach from afar, ignorant shore folk. Tell mes, whacha want?"
Graxx pats Edith as he is proud of her for not fleeing from the rats. Graxx addresses the boatman.
"Yea, I guess I am one of those ignorant shore folk. When we were comin' up there were a lot of rats runnin' away from here. Does that happen anytime there's a storm?" says Graxx.
Biscuit's Retroactive Ready Bite vs Rat Swarm: Attack: 19 Damage: 7 non-magical piercing damage.
Biscuit be nimble and biscuit be quick! And finding his opportunity as the rats flee, he tries to snag some stragglers for good measure. Doozey keeps him from eating; warning in halfling about what happened the last time.
Later...
Biscuit growls lowly at the seaman as Doozey squints at him, giving him the 'ole Hunter's eye in search of any sign of strangeness about the man. "'nd not to be too much of a bother, I don't suppose we could perhaps convince ya to let us rent that boat of yours as well? For storm or not, we kind of have a need for getting to an island across the way."
When you realize you're doing too much: Signature.
Happy to let Graxx and Doozey take the lead with the boatman, Utar hangs back, keen to watch and observe the boatman's mannerisms and gestures before broaching any new topics of conversation regarding night time raids or dracoliches.
RETROACTIVELY
Biscuit was able to snatch 3 of those rats in a single bite. It did very little to stop the large swarm, however.
AT THE DOCK
"Rats?" he answers Graxx with a question. "I ain't see no rats. You here tw'ask me 'bout rats? You're mo'ignorant than I thunk."
Next, he turns to Doozey: "Rent Warsh's raft? T'is not goin' anywhere without me, fellar! Besides, there ain't nothing to see on th'island and no reason to visit me village. You dry 'n curious folk should look elsewhere for your'ses entertainment."
He then looks at Neya and Utar, spits on the ground, and turns to look at the sky next: "Storm's a-comin', alright." Looking up, you notice the man is not entirely wrong about the weather. The horses seem to notice it too.
(@Ori: Are you using Hunter's Sense on the boatman?)
Utar furrows his brow,
"Why wouldn't we want to visit your village, Warsh? "illy
Letting the question lie for a moment he follows up,
Where will you be when the storm hits? Seems to me that the best place for us ignorant dry folk, might be with someone like you."
Graxx begins to anger and loses patience. His nostrils flair and he lightly prods Edith with his heels to make her approach the boatman. She snorts as Graxx towers above the raft. Graxx dismounts and goes up the boatman.
"Listen Warsh." Graxx growls.
"You're being the ignorant one now and I'm about tired of it." says Graxx.
Graxx points toward the island .
"Now we got reason to believe your island is in danger of a immediate attack and we're here to help. Now, we ain't going to do much good sitting here yappin' trying to convince you of our intentions." Graxx starts to become louder.
"You have two options. You can either help us get to your island and save your people or I'm just going to take it and bring it back to you when we're done saving lives." declares Graxx.
Intimidation: 10
"Not exactly they first impression I had in mind... Yes, there have been reports of a ship attacking settlements along the coast, heading eastward. Possibly with the aid of a dracolich, though I hope that isn't the case." Neya says as she dismounts Garnet. "We would like to help shore up defenses for the upcoming attack."
Extended Signature