Talk:Attempt to Close the Gate

The dungeon explored so far

Continued from July 11th

Party's Position

The DM: Entering the dungeon, looking around at the scattered bones, Asger will mutter, “Jesus Mary & Joseph” and Marit will answer, “You said it.”

Vafrandir: I vote we probe the barracks deeper. "Hungry for a little adventure?"

Lexent: Seconded. I head into the barracks (room h). Is the door in there wicker or wood?

Pandred: Joining Lex in H. "Stay close Helga. Odds, load the Crossbow."

Tentative locations for other members of the party

Marcule: I follow in the back.

The DM: the far door is wicker. The wood doors will show a handle. I’m placing Lexent in 1324. I’ll put up a closer map, but if you can, locate yourself and your sapper. Bjarni is working on the rung ladder as ordered.

Vafrandir: I'll be a hex behind Lexent - a higher resolution close up would be appreciated so I can see the numbers a bit better.

Lexent: I suppose Marit is in 1224. Once everyone is in place she opens the door.

The DM: Um, roll a morale check for Marit.

Lexent: I roll 2+6=8

Vafrandir: Thank you, DM. I'm in 1424.

The DM: Marit will turn on Lexent.

Marit: “Don’t take this wrong, sir, but I was led to believe I was a support member of this group. I’ve worked for employers before who felt it was the hired hand’s job to open doors into gawd knows what, but I tell you I’m not comfortable with it.”

Lexent: Sorry, I only had her doing that since you had placed me in 1324. I will gladly trade her places and open the door myself.

The DM: I put you as close as you had to be to ascertain whether the door was wood or weave. That’s in response to your question earlier. It’s up to you to change your position once I’ve placed you. The things I say are not carved in stone. That would take a long time for me to do the work and ship it out to each of you by Amazon.

Vafrandir: Now that would be a Kickstarter to remember...

Lexent: I move to 1224 and open the door.

The DM: working.

Some kind of jelly

The DM: You’re not sure what it is; the size and colour are accurate. It is animated and appears to be some kind of living jelly.

Pandred: Seems like I should have taken all that work you put into the wiki pages for acids as a hint!

Lexent: My thought was 'and there's the acid'

Vafrandir: I admit I suspected it!

Lexent: Hoo boy. How does it react to the door opening?

The DM: It occurs to me that Marit and the others can’t see; your bringing them along will have them all light torches, so there is no need for infravision.

The DM: By Marit’s torch, you can see three normal doors in the room; there’s no evidence of any of them having acid damage. I’d explain a little why, but none of you have any knowledge of the differences between jellies, molds, puddings and oozes. I did acids because it was next; no other reason. In fact, I brought it up as a subtle suggestion that you might want to buy some.

Lexent, it begins to move very slowly towards you.

The Jelly

Lexent: Please correct me if I assume too much here. I ask Marit for her torch and once she hands it to me I move to 1024 brandishing it in my off-hand to see what response it evokes from the jelly.

The DM: None at all.

The DM: {OOC} by the way ... I can’t believe you didn’t identify the two potions.

Vafrandir: That'll be my omission. Sorry, all.

Lexent: I forgot about them too.

The DM: lol... I give you all this nice treasure ...

Lexent: I return to my previous position. I return the torch to Marit, replace my godentag at my belt and draw my sling. "Pandred, now might be the time for that crossbow."

The DM: The creature has occupied 0824 and 0825.

Lexent: I load my sling and aim at the Jelly. For future reference, I assume that this is the same action as load a bow and aim for 4 AP, yes? If anyone else wants to go with a plan other than 'attack!' now is the time for it.

The DM: Your sling is loaded. It's creeping into 0924.

Marcule: Move forward 1624

Vafrandir: Ah, should have fashioned clubs again. After this fight, let's not forget.

Lexent: I fire at the Jelly. To Hit: 8 Damage: 2. I then move to 1425.

The DM: your stone ricochets off the stone in front of the jelly and hits the wall behind. You didn't specify, so I assume you fired a stone and not a bullet.

Lexent: I only have stones.

The DM: my error.

The DM: That wakes the jelly up. It starts to move forward at twice speed: 1 hex per round.

Vafrandir: Marit, can you move back? I'll take your place on the frontage.

The DM: Marit naturally gives way. The creature finishes occupying 0924. It will move into 1024 and 1025 before Lexent can fire again. That will make it too close for a sling shot.

Lexent: Even from 1425?

Vafrandir: I move to 1424 and draw my sword

The DM: Damn, sorry, missed that move Lexent. In any case, Marit would have to move out of the way and Vafrandir is moving between you and the jelly. Vafrandir, I took it earlier that you were in 1424; look up. I think you mean you want to move into 1324. Marit is going to 1525, just to get out of the way.

Pandred: "Odds! Give it here!" I'll take my crossbow and move to 1325.

The DM: NOPE, deleted.

The DM: Can we please agree on these positions before Pandred moves:

Marcule: yep, i'm good there

The DM: Pandred, there is a bunk bed in 1325. With these people in the way, it would take you two rounds to crawl between the beds and on top of the bunk bed in 1325 so you could fire your crossbow. Is your crossbow loaded? I saw no note that you were putting tension on it so it could be loaded in one round. Did I miss that?

Lexent: Marit and I are where I expect.

The DM: If Oddsdrakken did draw the crossbow to get it ready for you (and he would do so without being ordered), you’ll still need a round to fit the bolt into the slot. I concede, that you can do laying on top of a bunkbed.

The DM: Okay. Not organized today. Out.

Vafrandir: Yes, I'm having some issues today. 1324 is good; I'd meant all the way to 1224 earlier, but this looks like a better chokepoint.

Lexent: In.

The DM: In. Funny how in this repetitive every-day-is-the-same world, it feels good to get up in the morning, put in a movie I’ve never heard anything about and enjoy two solid hours of intellectual, meaningful content and dialogue, without plot contrivances, without people carrying idiot balls, without characters breaking consistency and with people showing legitimate virtuous character that gives you a sense that you’d like to know these people. Most of the time, I’m forced into “protagonists” who I’d prefer never lived, and that I’d cross the street if I saw them coming towards me, and that I hope from the beginning of the movie or show that they get hit by a bus before the opening credits run (about which, I am so often disappointed).

The DM: Ready to game. Hope it goes better today than Wednesday. Perk up people. The world is a wonderful place.

Action

The DM: Let’s start with the positions depicted above. Everyone not on the last image including the jelly can be found on an image higher up, under the heading “Party’s Position.” Please give me ONE ROUND of movement and take note carefully of where other characters are; if you want to enter a hex containing a character, please let that character move or ASK for the character to move before stating your movement.

Lexent: So, to be clear, we are starting a new round, correct?

The DM: I think that's sensible at this point. The jelly is in 0924 and moving forward at one hex per round.

Lexent: Before making my move, is it possible to fire a weapon past a single ally? I found some line of sight rules on the old blog, which seems like firing past groups of allies is the only restriction and am not sure if I'm reading it correctly and/or if that has changed.

The DM: The sling is a tricky instrument. Whereas there’s little problem firing a bow or a crossbow in a tight space with an ally in front of you, a SLING takes up a great deal of space, not only in the initial spin but also in how the stone has to be swung in a level arc across the front of the slinger with a reach of 30 inches including the slinger’s arm.

The DM: So, while the arrow prior to release is still, and can be held adjacent to a person without affecting that person, the sling has to be swung THROUGH the person in front before the stone is released. You see the problem.

Vafrandir: Would it be reasonable for me to notice that Lexent intends to sling, and to move back into 1424 to allow room for that action?

The DM: Normally, yes Vafrandir. But the presence of the bunk beds means that Lexent must straddle 1424 and 1425 to use the sling, because he must have a full hex. You could get down on one knee; that would do.

Lexent: It's fine. It seems as though we are in too close of quarters to continue using my sling effectively. I replace my sling in my belt, draw my godentag, and move S-2 to 1224

Vafrandir: Very good. I'll keep that in mind for the next opportunity. I hold my place.

Lexent: Vafrandir, do the sappers have access to any oil?

Vafrandir: There's some back at camp. I did not think to ask them to pack it today.

Lexent: Do each of them have only a single hand axe for weapons?

The DM: You’ll have to answer, Vafrandir; I don’t know myself.

Lexent: Mostly I'm trying to find out on Marit's behalf what options she has available to her, since I am partially running her.

Vafrandir: A single axe, unfortunately.

Lexent: I think the math on this works, Marit Walks S-3 from where she is to the goblin corpse in the hall. Preparing to bring it back here as a distraction if needed.

The DM: you can run that as role-playing, Lexent. You’re not technically “running” Marit. You’re saying where she stands, you’re rolling her attack and defense dice; you’re keeping track of her stats and her equipment. Vafrandir has her equipment and I’ve given her stats. I will step in and veto if you ask her to do something that isn’t kosher. That scene with the door was “iffy” ... I decided to let a morale check determine how she felt about being made point. After all, the ghouls, the bones on the floor, the whole scene is something completely new to her, as is your association with her. Suddenly, you’re shoving her in front to open the door. Seemed questionable to me. I’ve been thinking I ought to increase her morale check to 10, since she failed and your response was, well, a bit wishy-washy, what with the apology and all. In any case, if you want to know what Marit thinks, ask her.

The DM: you want Marit to bring back the corpse?

Lexent: Yes, I request that Marit bring the corpse.

The DM: That’ll take three rounds. Meanwhile, with only the two of you active at present, you’re in the positions you’ve specified and the jelly is in 1024/25. It’s your round. Do you need a new image?

Round 2

Vafrandir: Lexent, I wonder, with how slowly it's moving, we should back out into the larger hallway to surround it

Lexent: I'm fine without the new image. I think that slowly drawing it out is a good plan, but I'd like to see what we're dealing with first. I move S-1 to 1124, attack with my godentag To Hit: 10-2=8 and then pummel it. To Hit: 3-4=-1. Not that that told us much.

Pandred: In at last. No action for now.

The DM: Lexent, a pseudo-pod emerges from the mass unaccountably rapidly and strikes at you. It misses with a 5. But it was a pretty big bit of protoplasm and it was fast moving; as you dodge away from it, you’re very grateful it didn’t hit you.

The DM: Everyone fine?

Lexent: Are we not waiting for the start of a new round?

Lexent: I took that psuedo-pod attack to be its turn.

Vafrandir: I'll hold for now but I'll ask Marit to move back beyond the beds. "Let's lure this thing back!"

The DM: Um, I’ve been waiting to see what you did after the thing missed you. It never occurred to me that in a one-on-one fight, you were waiting for me to say it was your turn. Okay, it’s your turn.

The DM: Marit obeys.

Lexent: I strike again with my godentag To Hit: 11 Damage: 3. I then retreat to 1224.

Pandred: Still holding. Did we resolve whether or not Odds was giving the Crossbow? If not, I'll request it now.

The DM: Odds hands it to you.

The DM: That causes 3 damage, Lexent.

The DM: With the damage caused, the jelly begins to move away. It doesn't seem to be stunned; it seems to be moving of its own accord.

Lexent: "Well, It didn't seem to like that. What now?" I assume that there does not appear to be any damage to my weapon?

The DM: Nope. No acid. No wood-eating.

Vafrandir: Good to know. Lexent, can you fall back without exposing yourself to an attack?

The DM: He has already. The jelly has moved back to 0924. Not running this by rounds, but as you’re talking, time is passing.

The DM: Your move?

Vafrandir: I wish I had some range. Pandred, where do you need to be to get a shot?

Vafrandir: I have legs. I'll move to 1024 (passing my melee wisdom check with 9) and attack. raw 18, 21 to hit; 5 raw; 7 dmg.

The DM: What are you attacking with?

Vafrandir: My longsword. Ah, it might have a disadvantage in the hallway?

The DM: No, that’s fine; but the sword passes right through the creature as though you stabbed at water. You actually feel the tip of the sword connect with the pavement, but only a touch. The jelly moves back to 0824/25

Pandred: Strongly suspect a shot won't accomplish much. Seems like it's bash or bust. I hold. Lex, you're welcome to chase this thing.

Lexent: OK. I move past Vafrandir and again attack with my godentag To Hit: 3. (0924 I assume)

Vafrandir: Bash or bust it is. I'll move back out of the hallway or at least back far enough to give Lexent the floor.

The DM: It will swing at you as it slides under the door in 0825. I miss with a 2. There isn’t enough of it to hit; though you try, and it causes no damage.

Lexent: I check the door to see if it is secured, but do not yet open it. "Shall we pursue? Is there anything else we'd like to do first?"

The DM: Before you open the normal, unsecure wooden door, I want to confirm the location of Lexent, Vafrandir and Pandred.

Vafrandir: I'm in 1224.

Lexent: I am in 0825, waiting to see if the party wishes to proceed.

Marit: {holding the corpse} do you still want the corpse?

Vafrandir: Yes, let's proceed.

Lexent: "It's looking like we probably won't need it for now, thank you. If you would just set it down on one of the beds in case we later need to use it to distract whatever that was."

Lexent: I'll wait to hear from the DM before affirmatively stating my action, since he was wanting Pandred's location.

Pandred: Call me 1625.

Lexent: I open the door.

The DM: Okay. Roll surprise, Lexent.

Lexent: That is a d6, correct? I roll a 2.

The DM: That's yes, that's surprise. working.