Dire Wolf Battle

Continued from The Great Hall

The DM: The details of the room beyond seem a little less important than the enormous, 12 foot long dire wolf skeleton that bursts out of the room as Vafrandir cracks open the door. Vafrandir, you take-1 pt of incidental damage from the door hitting you. Vafrandir’s roll says you’re not surprised. I need Marcule to roll initiative; d6.

Marcule: I roll a 1.

The DM: I have a 6.

The DM: The wolf attacks Pandred first, being the victim directly in front. It attacks with a bite, a claw and incidental damage to anyone it comes within 1 hex of. Incidental damage is caused by the creature’s size, as it throws its body about in the spaces adjacent – such as getting hit by a tail, a rib, a shoulder or its head. There’s no roll to hit; it’s a 50/50 chance of taking 1 hp (given the creature’s size ... it weighs about 675 lbs).

The DM: The wolf skeleton rolls a 13, missing Pandred with its sharpened teeth; the claw rolls a 5. Pandred is hit by the creature’s body, however, and take-1 point of damage. Players can act.

Party Round 1

Vafrandir: I move to 2227 and attack: 3 raw, 4 to hit.

The DM: Do me a favour, Vafrandir; if your attack or damage is obviously not going to count, please don’t bold it. In this case, you’re going to need at least AC 7 to hit.

Vafrandir: Will do!

Lexent: From which hexes may the wolf be attacked?

The DM: It’s head is in 2126 and its body is in the next room, so only 2027 is open. 2026 has a door in it; you can go there but you’re -2 to hit.

Lexent: I move, S-1, to 2027 and attack. 16 I believe hits AC 4, cau-8.

Marcule:In, sorry for being late. Im up for more.

Pandred: Dropping the handaxe, bopping with the battleaxe. 13+2 hits AC 2 for 4+3 cau-3 damage!

The DM: Pandred’s damage is halved, on account of the bladed weapon.

The DM: I'll give Marcule some time.

Marcule: Move to 2228 unable to attack I will hold my ground.

Round 2

The DM: The skeleton attacks the cleric with the bite, having been hurt most from that direction; Pandred gets the claw. Pandred take-1 point of incidental damage.

The DM: A 6 misses the cleric with the bite. I have been rolling SO BAD lately. And, having written that, I roll a natural 20 with the claw on Pandred. And another 20. Wow. And a 16. That’s triple damage. Pandred, take-9 damage. You’re stunned, thrown back into 2128.

The DM: The dire wolf moves into 2127, shouldering Marcule and causing incidental damage again: take-1. Creatures can, by the rule, roam about this way trampling and making a real mess of things.

Party Round 2

The DM: Vafrandir, Lexent and Marcule can act.

Lexent: I attack. 10 I believe hits AC 10, 5 damage. I then move S-1 to 2026.

Marcule: I swing with my scimitar And fail with a 3. can i back up 1? 2229?

Pandred: I have 3hp, I would appreciate one more body to take a hit that's not me.

The DM: When in melee (adjacent to an active combatant), only stride-1 is possible. Takes two AP to move into 2026, which you have, so no problem. Also takes Marcule 2 AP to move into 2229, but again, you have the movement, so no problem.

Vafrandir: Attack again, roll a 6 to hit. Shit. Gonna be one of those fights.

The DM: Has been for me lately. Repeatedly.

Lexent: So would attacking from 2026 still be at a -2 due to the door, or was it only because of the relative position of the door and the wolf?

The DM: has nothing to do with the creature. The door is in the way. You’re still at -2 to attack from where you are.

Round 3

The DM: the dire wolf hasn’t forgotten about Lexent; it attacks the cleric with the bite again; and uses the claw to attack Vafrandir; I roll 2 dice at the same time and get matching 6’s. Damn.

The DM: As the creature spins in a circle to attack Lexent, swiping and missing at Vafrandir, Pandred take-1 damage. No one else does. Pandred staggers back again, into 2129.

Party Round 3

Everyone except Pandred is free to act; Marcule, 2228 gives +2 to hit from the rear. Vafrandir is +1 from the flank.

Lexent: I move, S-1, to 2126 and attack. 7. 3 damage.

Vafrandir: Third time's the charm. 11 raw, 13 to hit; 6 raw, cau-4 dmg.

The DM: Yep. That hits. And what’s more, you’re sure of it now. The sword is +1 to hit and damage. That means, 7+1, or 8, halved for edged weapon against skeleton. Doesn’t stun.

Vafrandir: Woohoo!

Lexent: Interesting. +1, but not magical.

Marcule: I hit with a 19 adjusted 7 damage.

The DM: Hits; adjusted to cau-3 on account of a bladed weapon. That doesn’t stun either.

The DM: I’ll call it there for the day; there’s only 13 minutes left until 2. The skeleton wolf is going to turn around and bite Vafrandir and slash at Marcule, as they did 4 dam and 3 dam each. Lexent and Pandred are off the hook, and Pandred is free of incidental damage this next round. I’ll begin with the creature’s attack. Be well, and out.

Lexent: In.

The DM: In. I'm being visited today by a small human grandchild, so I'll be in and out. Working on the creature's attack now.

Vafrandir: In.

Round 4

The DM: The skeleton wolf turns as promised and bites Vafrandir, rolling an 11 and missing. It claws Marcule, rolling a 3. I’m back in form again. Pandred is exempt, but the others are close enough to receive incidental damage. Marcule is struck by it’s head; take-1 point of damage.

Party Round 4

Everyone is free to move, including Pandred at last. Go ahead.

[OOC-DM: I trust everyone’s getting a good rush from the images and artwork; doing my best to keep it logical and straight]

Vafrandir: I assume the head is 2127? If so, I can attack directly. 19 raw, 22 to hit; 3 raw, 5 dmg: cau-2 (correct?).

Vafrandir: The wolf is terrifying. I'm getting vibes from the bear in Annihilation.

Lexent: I attack. Attack: 6. Damage: 5. I then move S-1 to 2125

The DM: Yep, that hits Vafrandir. Today, I think we'll wait for Pandred and Marcule. I'm not killing to play, what with distraction.

Marcule: 18 , 1 damage.

The DM: Good. Guys, I'm ready to just wait for Pandred until noon. Then I'll move on if he isn't here.

The DM: Okay, no Pandred. I'm sorry, all, I'm just too distracted. We'll get on with this tomorrow. Don't be sore at me. Out.

Pandred: I don't want to hold everyone up tomorrow, so I'll post now even though it's late.

P: I step into 2029 and whomp with the battleaxe. 8+2 is 10 hitting AC 7, potentially 5 if rear strike is applied. Damage is 6+3 9, reduced to cau-4.

P: Out of AP. Incidental will stun me again next round.

The DM: Trust me, Pandred; yesterday was my fault. I simply wanted to play with the grandchild than be here.

The DM: In. Starting the skeleton’s move.

Vafrandir: We certainly have no issues with that!

Round 5

The DM: With Pandred’s last hit (and yes, +2 from behind), the creature is stunned. For those unfamiliar with the rule, it requires ¼ damage to stun a creature with 1 attack, but 1/3 damage to completely stun a creature with 2 attacks. That should tell you where you are in the fight.

However, while the creature won’t get an attack, it is still flailing around, so incidental damage is still potentially a thing. Vafrandir take-1 and Marcule take-1. The creature’s rear swing away from Pandred’s hit, giving no one a flank next round.

Party Round 5

No one is stunned as far as I know, which means you can all act. As always, the arrows indicate the movements made in the previous round.

Pandred: In. Step up into 2028 and swing. 8+2 hits AC 7 for 5+3 or cau-6 damage, reduced to 4.

Lexent In

Vafrandir: In. Attack, only 4 raw, 7 to hit.

Lexent: I move S-1 to 2126 and attack. Attack: 10. Damage: 8.

The DM: Done. Pandred has dropped it.

Lexent Do we appear to be out of immediate danger?

Pandred: I'll take that Cure now, ha!

The DM: Experience (10% accounted for) :

Lexent – 176

Marcule – 170

Pandred – 495

Vafrandir – 176

Lexent I move to Pandered, cast and discharge cure light wounds for 4+4=8 hit points. "Praise <Apt gnomish deity> that's over. You look about ready to fall over."

Aftermath

The DM: Yes, for the present, you do feel relatively safe. An inspection of the room from which the skeleton wolf emerged shows it is some kind of small kennel, 25 ft. by 20, with three stalls. The two other stalls also have dire wolves that have been reduced to skeletons, but these are not animated (and yes, you may trust me on this; I’m not going to jump scare you).

Vafrandir: Pandred, how are you feeling? I believe you're the most wounded at present, so its up to you if we dive further today.

Pandred: No further exits from that room?

P: I think I can push on a little farther guys, but how much healing do we have left among us? My salve is done and so is the spell. I think I'm going to have to pull out the Shield and Handaxe, which dips into my murder quotient a little.

Lexent At this point all I will be able to do is bind your wounds if you need me to.

The DM: showing a map of the new room.

That is a chest in the room.

Lexent I inspect the exterior of the chest, visually first.

Pandred: I swap to shield and handaxe and start manhandling the wolf body back into the kennel.

Lexent "Excellent idea, Pandered. Let us make sure we leave as little evidence of our presence as possible."

The DM: Lexent, I don’t typically trap chests. This chest has been regularly opened, but not apparently for a long time. In any case, the latch isn’t in place, so it is open.

The DM: Pandred, with the destruction of the beast, it is in about 20 pieces (not depicted accurately in the last image).

Lexent I open the chest.

Lexent Or did you mean the lid is already open, not just unsecured.

Pandred: I was just looking to clear the Hall so we could fight in it depending on the next doors.

Vafrandir: That fight pushes me up over into Level 3 (4,088 XP total). Do I wait until we are resting to apply any changes?

The DM: Unsecured.

It is a large chest, capacity 375 lbs. There are various halters, muzzles and bridles in the chest, consisting of quite a lot of raw metal and leather ... about 79 lbs. of ironmongery and 52 lbs. of leather pieces – the size indicates these are clearly for the worgs. This is quite a bit of value. One bridle is fixed with about 3 lbs. of gold gilt & studs, with 50 walnut sized cairngorm gems fixed into it as well.

The DM: That’s fine, Pandred. Just explaining what the job entails. Yes, I was expecting that Vafrandir.

The DM: Pandred, did you ever choose your 5th proficiency? You did get a new weapon proficiency with 4th level, if you weren’t aware.

The DM: Vafrandir, you don’t heal any hit points, but roll a d10 for your new ones and add them to both your maximum total and your present total. Adjust your sage abilities, and your thaco (which is 18 now).

Lexent While creating my character I realise that I did not plan on a way to secure my weapon to my person while not carrying it in hand. What is the most appropriate way of doing so for a godentag?

The DM: Normally, a belt. I won't let you retcon that; maybe someone can lend you a belt.

Lexent I have a belt, just wasn't sure if I needed something to secure it to that belt.

Pandred: I was not, and I had not! I'll have to think about it today.

P: After some deliberation, I'll go for Longsword.

Pandred: How heavy is the studded bridle? We should consider if we're taking the chest up now or leaving it for a future delve.

Vafrandir: 5 additional HP. Sage abilities adjusted.

Vafrandir: We can take the chest up when we leave. We'll need to discuss at some point if we'll camp here or go back to the cart (with associated supplies) and camp there.

The DM: because of the shape of the worg’s head, which needs a complete closure of the skull, the bridle is about five times as large as a horse bridle: or about 15 lbs.

D: Are you guys up for another combat?

Vafrandir: That's a hell of a loaded question! I certainly am. I suppose if we're committed to investigating this room we'll go for Door (h).

Lexent I suppose it depends on the combat.

The DM: Uh huh.

Lexent "Let's move the chest to the entrance of the hall and secure the extra swords therein"

Pandred: I agree to move the chest, assist, and when that's done open door (h).

Lexent I move the chest with Pandred, then move to 2228 and prepare myself for whatever is on the other side of the door.

Vafrandir: I assist, moving to 2127.

Marcule:In, sorry for being late. Im up for more.

The DM: We should move this to a new page. The new page is Door H.