Sam bought up his shortsword and dagger, both pointed downward as he stabbed into the backs of the creatures in front of him, catching them off guard.
Shortsword Attack: 18 Damage: 6
Dagger Attack: 11 Damage: 2
Sneak Attack Damage (applied to Shortsword and if missed applied to Dagger) : 9
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Shortsword)] The sword comes down from above the Splinter Fae and splits it's torso in twain, stopping just above the hip and sending a cascade of twigs down around it.
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Shortsword+Dagger)] The two blades come down, one landing in each shoulder of the creature and Samuel puts his unusual height into play and leverages himself over the fae, ripping it into two pieces!
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Just Dagger)] As Samuel brings down the shorter of the two blades, it lands in the creature's wooden skull, planting itself to the hilt, as Samuel brings it back to his side the head comes with, and the creature crumbles!
Cautious, and unhappy with being in the center of things, Samuel quickly drops into a roll and exits the fray! As he reached the other side of Cicero with lightning speed, he said, "So these ones I can bonk on the head, right?" with no small amount of sarcasm.
Sam sunk his dagger into one of the splinter fae and twisted off a bit of its twiggy flesh, then rolled out of danger. His dagger didn't feel like it did as much damage as it normally did when he put his weight behind it like that.
Just a reminder - attacking a second time uses your bonus action, so we'll just say that the dagger hit as your main action for 1d4+3 (so 7 [cause you rolled 4 dmg] plus your 6 sneak attack for a total of 13, halved to 6 because resistance), and you used your bonus action to roll away.
He rolled away just as Cadenza slashed her rapier along a few of the splinter fae, barely scratching them and not hurting them in the slightest. On the ground, Nora took a deep breath as she regained consciousness to the dulcet tones of Barniss swearing at the splinter fae in front of him...
There was a stunned silence in the clearing as Barniss smashed the splinter fae into dust. It didn't even make a huge sound, just a CRACK interrupted halfway through with a *poof*.
Everyone heard Old May's voice come, angry and quiet from somewhere vaguely behind Cicero.
"Fine. I'll deal with you all later. You have to leave this forest eventually, after all," she said.
After another moment's hesitation, the remaining splinter fae leaped back into action.
The vague vulgar intonations of Barniss reached Nora's ears.
"DAD I SWEAR I DIDN'T SET THE CAT ON FIRE!" Nora screamed as her lungs filled with precious, precious oxygen. Thoroughly disoriented she scrambled to her feet, swatting and smacking her head as she attempted to collect herself.
As Nora stumbled about, a Fire Bolt escaped from one of her hands and drunkenly spiraled toward a splinter fae before Nora. Attack: 27 Damage: 6
Knowing that he was spent, Cicero watched the battlefield before him.
With deft haste he moved over in front of one of the splinter Fae that seemed to be the healthiest from a glance. Keeping his shield raised he placed himself between it and it's prey, mirroring it's movements to block any chance it had to attack one of his friends!
[spoiler]I am posting from a phone so if this doesn't work out format wise you get it. Cicero is going to hold his action and use it to move keeping himself imposed between one of the enemies as a reaction. I have sanctuary up and this is technically non hostile.[/spoiler]
As Dain's arrow flew true and Nora charred another fae, Cicero shoved between Nora and the three remaining creatures, blocking them from her with the body of one of their brethren as his shield.
In their reluctance to slash at their former comrade they hesitated. One struck at Cicero, mostly ineffectually, another turned and lashed out at Cadenza, who stood nearby, and the third whipped its head around, panic beginning to grow as the hopelessness of its situation dawned on it.
Hopeless it was, as the party, lead by Sam and Cadenza, quickly defeated the last three fae.
The clearing became quiet again. Old May was gone.
We'll fast forward to the end of combat here—y'all are definitely gonna crush these buggers :D If one of you wants to leave one alive, you can do so, though keep in mind that they only seem to speak Sylvan, which none of you speak.
And with that, combat has ended! Nicely done y'all :D So from here out, we'll slow the pace back down and drop out of initiative order. It's free flowing RP posts - no need to take turns or whatnot, and you can further things as desired. It's a good idea to try to leave some sort of "hook" or something for other players to react to in your post to make it easier as you drive the story forward. Like earlier, aim for 3 posts a week (so maybe check in every day or two). Again—if someone wants to do something and it's seconded and thirded, I'll assume the whole party is doing the thing unless someone speaks up. And now for the part where PbP really shines :)
Cadenza looked around at the party, bruised and battered: "I know that we are hurting, but we can't rest long. We have to go after May and finish her before she has time to heal herself. She is a danger to the loggers and the forest itself. I don't have much left, but I can heal some wounds. But that is just my opinion, I cannot speak for the rest of you."
The party cautiously entered the hag's hut. They'd been here before, but in different circumstances. After some hunting and poking around, they found a small cache of treasure, including some things that might well prove useful for crafting in the future. Not as good as solving their problems entirely, but it was better than nothing.
Cadenza spoke out in favor of moving out quickly, and waited for the party's response.
Realized I'd forgotten treasure & XP, so we moved back in time 10 seconds :D That's 250 XP for each of you, and the treasure is as follows:
2300 cp
900 sp
90 gp
2 pieces of uncommon bone
2 vials of some sort of black fluid (uncommon necrotic)
2 bundles of uncommon life-giving herbs
1 long twisted branch of uncommon wood
I know we've not really finished/gotten much into crafting, but it's in the works, I promise! :D
Y'all can push after Old May immediately, or take a short or long rest, or even go back toward Lindelor/Willowscar.
Dain passed over the coin without much interest, before picking up all the bits and pieces strewn about instead. "Nobody..minds if I take these, right? I know a few trades and could probably make good use of them, I mean if nobody else wants them, ofcourse..heh..? I'll even..uh, pass up my coins!" "Not that I would be able to carry them, of course.." Luckily for Dain, hurts and aches weren't much of an issue. The worst he'd been through was his own doing, back at Lindelor's tower.
Nora paid no mind to any of the leftovers. She could scarcely handle carrying much more. Her exhaustion and condition were more pressing in her mind.
Nora flopped into May's rickety rocking chair. She sank into her robes and played with little flames on her fingertips. "I have been better. Not sure I have been worse. Perhaps I've lead a more entitled life than I had once believed." Nora swatted the flames out on her leg. "I will be more useful in the coming battle if I can rest for a brief period but I understand the urgency. I can manage. May could very well be launching a full assault against the loggers, setting the next trap for us, on her way to kill Lindelore. However, something has kept her from doing that up to this point."
"Lassie, I'm not so shure I'd want ye tae speak fer me," Barniss said jovially. "I recken ya like th shape yer 'ead as it is. I have trouble keepin mine own, speaking as I'm want tae."
He came in and slumped down against a wall in the hut. "That said, I must admit I'm with Nura ere. I don't think I could go anuuther ten rounds with the old bag." "Wot the ell is skinny looking at? Bah, no matter. Won't be able to carry it anywey."
Barniss patted his chest and coughed a bit. No blood. Just pain. Lots of pain. "Ye think a little strategem is in order? Seems if we can keep eyes on the wrinkled biddy, someone of us should be able to, sey, shoot er in the sun-rotted gourd she's currentlay usin fer a skull. Stab her in the side, ruuptcha a kidney, that sorta thing? You smarty folk got anything that'd elp us oot in that department?"
Cadenza nodded her head in understanding "Strategy is a good idea Barniss, we could take an hours rest to make a plan but we cannot take much more time then that because I fear that she will do something to either the loggers or Lindelore. I could not live with myself if something were to happen to the loggers because we took to long" she said leaning against one of the walls.
"Cicero," she said looking at the tired cleric "you haven't said much, what are your thoughts?"
Cicero to this point had fallen into the background, his back turned to the party and at least a dozen feet before the closest member could reach him...
As Cadenza looked over and spoke towards him she could hear the faintest murmur, a giggle, then as he turned his eyes had welled up, his face was red, and he was holding his mouth to keep in as much of the escaping laughter as he could. There was a look of fear in his eyes that betrayed the nearly ear-to-ear smile his cheeks were struggling against. Cicero removed his hand and giggled again-seemingly against his own desires before he wiped his face clean and took a few deep breaths.
"F-forgive me. I-I... I'm thpent." he struggled against another laugh broke his words and he nodded, "A retht. We thhould retht. At leatht an hour, maybe a full night."
Pain across his face Cicero looked over the battlefield and his party's wounds. Finally he walked closer to them and sat down, slumping against the cabin's front and letting his head fall between his knees-defeated.
The party rested for an hour to tend their wounds, for Dain to pack his newfound materials into his bags, and for the rest to divide the coin among their bags.
Take a well-earned Short Rest! Y'all can roll hit dice, etc., in your next posts.
After a bit, they were ready to continue on. Cicero still looked tired, Nora and Cadenza wanted to push to the logger's camp in case Old May was on her way there, and Barniss wanted to formulate some sort of battle strategy.
The logger's camp was a full day's journey through the woods, and it was already late morning. They'd need to hurry if they wanted to catch the hag in time.
So things to discuss in-character and out-of-character via spoilers as you pack up your short rest:
Battle strategy vs May
Divvying up the remaining coin - dern encumbrance! ;)
Cadenza picked up bits of the coin, as much as she thought she could still carry before sitting down on the ground and stretching out her arms and legs to ease the pain in her muscles. After a nice good stretch she pulled out her horn and played a bit of a soft tune hoping to ease the tense and stress of the room.
Cadenza picked up the 90 gold and 100 silver, I can't carry any more than that. Also if you use any hit dice add 4 to one hit die. I use a hit dice 6
After a few minutes of playing Cadenza then spoke "I am low on magic but I think I can manage turning Dain invisible once more, in the hopes that he can surprise May and get a hit on her before she ever knows we are there."
Cicero found some peace in unloading his backpack and neatly organizing everything in front of him. once emptied he began to shovel coins in by the handful. This went on some time into their rest but before long the bag was almost completely full to the top. He shoveled some back out and loaded his things into the bag once more atop the coins. He sighed and struggled some as he lifted the bag, but was able.
624 Silver coins later and my 30lb limit on my backpack is almost full. Should make for a fine weapon. There remains 176 SP, and 2300 CP in the pile (uncounted of course)
After a rest, and some overdue relaxation Cicero began to pick up his things once more. He grunted as he got the now much heavier bag onto his back and said, "I abthtain. Whatever ith dethided ith what I'll do. I cannot suggetht that we continue in thith thtate ath it would be athking all of you to rithk your liveth. But if we do not theek her out thhe will only get thtronger with retht and thhe may very well concoct thome other evil plan or harm innothents. I am at a loth."
Using my last 2 hit-dice for.... Drumroll please! 10 added to my current of 15 with a max of 30!
With that he looked to his allies and awaited their arguments.
I have 4 hit die at 1d6+2. Burnin em all for the short rest. Short Rest Healing: 3647
Arcane Recovery for a 2nd level spell slot. I take no money as it would put me over. I have no idea what speed we should travel. I know its wrong to meta or whatever that means but like I really don't understand mechanically the ramifications of particular choices. I'm looking at the speed table and with fast pace exactly how much quicker do we make it to the logger camp? 24 miles in a day normal speed and 30 for fast? I see fast also comes with -5 on perception checks. We are likely to run into more splinter fae as we try to pursue her. Ugh. I'm like frustrated.
Nora eyed the human and took note of his odd giggling. Both the rogue and the priest seemed to exhibit odd behaviors at times. The situation she was faced with continued to exacerbate her frustration. She longed for her quiet house and sleepy drunken evenings.
"I just intend to blast her into dust." Nora neglected to say more and her eyes fluttered shut as she gave up the fight against her weariness.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
I'll take all 4 of my d12+3. (Looks like I messed up with inputs, so I'll just enter them individually. I was trying to do 3d12+3, and then 1d12+7 to account for Bekah's boost, but it's not registering.)
7 15 10 19
"Right. We should 'ead to the loggers, and tryn 'ead er off at the pass." Ugh, I 'ate that cliche.
"Do we ave any spells or any ideas as to ow we can stop her from her disappearin nonsense? Seems like she's not that strong of body. I agree that skinny ere is a crack shot, but what ife misses? Not tryin to project mine own concerns, but I'd like to beat on er wretched brain and all the thoughts innit." Barniss rose to his feet and grasped his maul. "I'm ready whenever the rest of ye are. I recken that we should tryn stop er from reeekin any more avoc. We have amoong us the means to be able to stop er. That might make it ower responsibility."
Sam bought up his shortsword and dagger, both pointed downward as he stabbed into the backs of the creatures in front of him, catching them off guard.
Shortsword Attack: 18 Damage: 6
Dagger Attack: 11 Damage: 2
Sneak Attack Damage (applied to Shortsword and if missed applied to Dagger) : 9
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Shortsword)] The sword comes down from above the Splinter Fae and splits it's torso in twain, stopping just above the hip and sending a cascade of twigs down around it.
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Shortsword+Dagger)] The two blades come down, one landing in each shoulder of the creature and Samuel puts his unusual height into play and leverages himself over the fae, ripping it into two pieces!
[IF THE ATTACK KILLS (Just Dagger)] As Samuel brings down the shorter of the two blades, it lands in the creature's wooden skull, planting itself to the hilt, as Samuel brings it back to his side the head comes with, and the creature crumbles!
Cautious, and unhappy with being in the center of things, Samuel quickly drops into a roll and exits the fray! As he reached the other side of Cicero with lightning speed, he said, "So these ones I can bonk on the head, right?" with no small amount of sarcasm.
Bonus Action to Disengage with Cunning Action
Sam sunk his dagger into one of the splinter fae and twisted off a bit of its twiggy flesh, then rolled out of danger. His dagger didn't feel like it did as much damage as it normally did when he put his weight behind it like that.
Just a reminder - attacking a second time uses your bonus action, so we'll just say that the dagger hit as your main action for 1d4+3 (so 7 [cause you rolled 4 dmg] plus your 6 sneak attack for a total of 13, halved to 6 because resistance), and you used your bonus action to roll away.
He rolled away just as Cadenza slashed her rapier along a few of the splinter fae, barely scratching them and not hurting them in the slightest. On the ground, Nora took a deep breath as she regained consciousness to the dulcet tones of Barniss swearing at the splinter fae in front of him...
"Crush ye up and smoke ye like I did yer muther," Barniss spat.
He swung his maul at the splinterfey before him.
Attack: 20 Damage: 23
There was a stunned silence in the clearing as Barniss smashed the splinter fae into dust. It didn't even make a huge sound, just a CRACK interrupted halfway through with a *poof*.
Everyone heard Old May's voice come, angry and quiet from somewhere vaguely behind Cicero.
"Fine. I'll deal with you all later. You have to leave this forest eventually, after all," she said.
After another moment's hesitation, the remaining splinter fae leaped back into action.
Ho. Ly. Crit. Batman ... er ... Barniss. Dang.
Dain, Nora, and Cicero, you're up in that order.
Dain winced as Barniss brought down the hammer. "Boy am I glad I'm..supposedly on his good side... H-Hey Barniss, I've got your back!"
Pulling back his bowstring yet again, Dain let another arrow soar towards one of the lesser splinter fae surrounding his ally. Attack:26 Damage: 13
The vague vulgar intonations of Barniss reached Nora's ears.
"DAD I SWEAR I DIDN'T SET THE CAT ON FIRE!" Nora screamed as her lungs filled with precious, precious oxygen. Thoroughly disoriented she scrambled to her feet, swatting and smacking her head as she attempted to collect herself.
As Nora stumbled about, a Fire Bolt escaped from one of her hands and drunkenly spiraled toward a splinter fae before Nora. Attack: 27 Damage: 6
Knowing that he was spent, Cicero watched the battlefield before him.
With deft haste he moved over in front of one of the splinter Fae that seemed to be the healthiest from a glance. Keeping his shield raised he placed himself between it and it's prey, mirroring it's movements to block any chance it had to attack one of his friends!
[spoiler]I am posting from a phone so if this doesn't work out format wise you get it. Cicero is going to hold his action and use it to move keeping himself imposed between one of the enemies as a reaction. I have sanctuary up and this is technically non hostile.[/spoiler]
As Dain's arrow flew true and Nora charred another fae, Cicero shoved between Nora and the three remaining creatures, blocking them from her with the body of one of their brethren as his shield.
In their reluctance to slash at their former comrade they hesitated. One struck at Cicero, mostly ineffectually, another turned and lashed out at Cadenza, who stood nearby, and the third whipped its head around, panic beginning to grow as the hopelessness of its situation dawned on it.
Hopeless it was, as the party, lead by Sam and Cadenza, quickly defeated the last three fae.
The clearing became quiet again. Old May was gone.
We'll fast forward to the end of combat here—y'all are definitely gonna crush these buggers :D If one of you wants to leave one alive, you can do so, though keep in mind that they only seem to speak Sylvan, which none of you speak.
And with that, combat has ended! Nicely done y'all :D So from here out, we'll slow the pace back down and drop out of initiative order. It's free flowing RP posts - no need to take turns or whatnot, and you can further things as desired. It's a good idea to try to leave some sort of "hook" or something for other players to react to in your post to make it easier as you drive the story forward. Like earlier, aim for 3 posts a week (so maybe check in every day or two). Again—if someone wants to do something and it's seconded and thirded, I'll assume the whole party is doing the thing unless someone speaks up. And now for the part where PbP really shines :)
Cadenza looked around at the party, bruised and battered: "I know that we are hurting, but we can't rest long. We have to go after May and finish her before she has time to heal herself. She is a danger to the loggers and the forest itself. I don't have much left, but I can heal some wounds. But that is just my opinion, I cannot speak for the rest of you."
Realized I'd forgotten treasure & XP, so we moved back in time 10 seconds :D That's 250 XP for each of you, and the treasure is as follows:
I know we've not really finished/gotten much into crafting, but it's in the works, I promise! :D
Y'all can push after Old May immediately, or take a short or long rest, or even go back toward Lindelor/Willowscar.
Dain passed over the coin without much interest, before picking up all the bits and pieces strewn about instead. "Nobody..minds if I take these, right? I know a few trades and could probably make good use of them, I mean if nobody else wants them, ofcourse..heh..? I'll even..uh, pass up my coins!" "Not that I would be able to carry them, of course.." Luckily for Dain, hurts and aches weren't much of an issue. The worst he'd been through was his own doing, back at Lindelor's tower.
Nora paid no mind to any of the leftovers. She could scarcely handle carrying much more. Her exhaustion and condition were more pressing in her mind.
Nora flopped into May's rickety rocking chair. She sank into her robes and played with little flames on her fingertips. "I have been better. Not sure I have been worse. Perhaps I've lead a more entitled life than I had once believed." Nora swatted the flames out on her leg. "I will be more useful in the coming battle if I can rest for a brief period but I understand the urgency. I can manage. May could very well be launching a full assault against the loggers, setting the next trap for us, on her way to kill Lindelore. However, something has kept her from doing that up to this point."
"Lassie, I'm not so shure I'd want ye tae speak fer me," Barniss said jovially. "I recken ya like th shape yer 'ead as it is. I have trouble keepin mine own, speaking as I'm want tae."
He came in and slumped down against a wall in the hut. "That said, I must admit I'm with Nura ere. I don't think I could go anuuther ten rounds with the old bag."
"Wot the ell is skinny looking at? Bah, no matter. Won't be able to carry it anywey."
Barniss patted his chest and coughed a bit. No blood. Just pain. Lots of pain.
"Ye think a little strategem is in order? Seems if we can keep eyes on the wrinkled biddy, someone of us should be able to, sey, shoot er in the sun-rotted gourd she's currentlay usin fer a skull. Stab her in the side, ruuptcha a kidney, that sorta thing? You smarty folk got anything that'd elp us oot in that department?"
Cadenza nodded her head in understanding "Strategy is a good idea Barniss, we could take an hours rest to make a plan but we cannot take much more time then that because I fear that she will do something to either the loggers or Lindelore. I could not live with myself if something were to happen to the loggers because we took to long" she said leaning against one of the walls.
"Cicero," she said looking at the tired cleric "you haven't said much, what are your thoughts?"
Cicero to this point had fallen into the background, his back turned to the party and at least a dozen feet before the closest member could reach him...
As Cadenza looked over and spoke towards him she could hear the faintest murmur, a giggle, then as he turned his eyes had welled up, his face was red, and he was holding his mouth to keep in as much of the escaping laughter as he could. There was a look of fear in his eyes that betrayed the nearly ear-to-ear smile his cheeks were struggling against. Cicero removed his hand and giggled again-seemingly against his own desires before he wiped his face clean and took a few deep breaths.
"F-forgive me. I-I... I'm thpent." he struggled against another laugh broke his words and he nodded, "A retht. We thhould retht. At leatht an hour, maybe a full night."
Pain across his face Cicero looked over the battlefield and his party's wounds. Finally he walked closer to them and sat down, slumping against the cabin's front and letting his head fall between his knees-defeated.
The party rested for an hour to tend their wounds, for Dain to pack his newfound materials into his bags, and for the rest to divide the coin among their bags.
Take a well-earned Short Rest! Y'all can roll hit dice, etc., in your next posts.
After a bit, they were ready to continue on. Cicero still looked tired, Nora and Cadenza wanted to push to the logger's camp in case Old May was on her way there, and Barniss wanted to formulate some sort of battle strategy.
The logger's camp was a full day's journey through the woods, and it was already late morning. They'd need to hurry if they wanted to catch the hag in time.
So things to discuss in-character and out-of-character via spoilers as you pack up your short rest:
Cadenza picked up bits of the coin, as much as she thought she could still carry before sitting down on the ground and stretching out her arms and legs to ease the pain in her muscles. After a nice good stretch she pulled out her horn and played a bit of a soft tune hoping to ease the tense and stress of the room.
After a few minutes of playing Cadenza then spoke "I am low on magic but I think I can manage turning Dain invisible once more, in the hopes that he can surprise May and get a hit on her before she ever knows we are there."
Cicero found some peace in unloading his backpack and neatly organizing everything in front of him. once emptied he began to shovel coins in by the handful. This went on some time into their rest but before long the bag was almost completely full to the top. He shoveled some back out and loaded his things into the bag once more atop the coins. He sighed and struggled some as he lifted the bag, but was able.
624 Silver coins later and my 30lb limit on my backpack is almost full. Should make for a fine weapon. There remains 176 SP, and 2300 CP in the pile (uncounted of course)
After a rest, and some overdue relaxation Cicero began to pick up his things once more. He grunted as he got the now much heavier bag onto his back and said, "I abthtain. Whatever ith dethided ith what I'll do. I cannot suggetht that we continue in thith thtate ath it would be athking all of you to rithk your liveth. But if we do not theek her out thhe will only get thtronger with retht and thhe may very well concoct thome other evil plan or harm innothents. I am at a loth."
Using my last 2 hit-dice for.... Drumroll please! 10 added to my current of 15 with a max of 30!
With that he looked to his allies and awaited their arguments.
I have 4 hit die at 1d6+2. Burnin em all for the short rest. Short Rest Healing: 3 6 4 7
Arcane Recovery for a 2nd level spell slot. I take no money as it would put me over. I have no idea what speed we should travel. I know its wrong to meta or whatever that means but like I really don't understand mechanically the ramifications of particular choices. I'm looking at the speed table and with fast pace exactly how much quicker do we make it to the logger camp? 24 miles in a day normal speed and 30 for fast? I see fast also comes with -5 on perception checks. We are likely to run into more splinter fae as we try to pursue her. Ugh. I'm like frustrated.
Nora eyed the human and took note of his odd giggling. Both the rogue and the priest seemed to exhibit odd behaviors at times. The situation she was faced with continued to exacerbate her frustration. She longed for her quiet house and sleepy drunken evenings.
"I just intend to blast her into dust." Nora neglected to say more and her eyes fluttered shut as she gave up the fight against her weariness.
I'll take all 4 of my d12+3.
(Looks like I messed up with inputs, so I'll just enter them individually. I was trying to do 3d12+3, and then 1d12+7 to account for Bekah's boost, but it's not registering.)
7
15
10
19
"Right. We should 'ead to the loggers, and tryn 'ead er off at the pass."
Ugh, I 'ate that cliche.
"Do we ave any spells or any ideas as to ow we can stop her from her disappearin nonsense? Seems like she's not that strong of body. I agree that skinny ere is a crack shot, but what ife misses? Not tryin to project mine own concerns, but I'd like to beat on er wretched brain and all the thoughts innit."
Barniss rose to his feet and grasped his maul. "I'm ready whenever the rest of ye are. I recken that we should tryn stop er from reeekin any more avoc. We have amoong us the means to be able to stop er. That might make it ower responsibility."