[Game Thread] Shipwrecked on the Shiv!

[Finder of Paths]

Despite the tension you can feel between Captain Korvack and his crew, especially his first mate Alton, the last part of the journey to Eleder is going well. Though hot, the weather has been perfect for the past two weeks, and a strong easterly wind assists your journey. Like every other night, the Jenivere's passengers dine together at the captain's table, whilst the crew eat below deck. Wine and ale are flowing freely, desperately needed to please the taste buds, as the ship's cook seems capable of little more than watery soup. Captain Korvack sits at the head of the table, telling a joke to the varisian scholar Ieana seated next to him, not at all helping the rumour of a tryst between the pair.

The sharply dressed Gelick is the first to collapse, the little gnome suddenly stopping in the middle of another of his long winded complaints about the food and slumping over the table, bowl of soup knocked to the floor. Standing up quickly, Aerys the tight lipped elf is the next to collapse, barely able to say "Gelick wha...." before falling over backwards, sprawled awkwardly on the floor. You hear a harsh barking laughter, and two more loud thumps before following the fate of the others and pass out.

You awake as if from a deep sleep, limbs feeling heavy and mind fuddled. Harsh sun rays scorch your exposed skin, and your tongue passes over dry, cracked lips, tasting of salt. The sound of water lapping against the shore invades your mind, and you can feel cold water sloshing over your feet. Slowly your mind pulls free from that fuzzy half-awake state, and you sit up, feeling hot sand under your hands and seeing nothing but endless ocean on the horizon. Memories rush back to you in a second, dinner on the Jenivere and all the passengers collapsing, but before you can attempt to piece together what happened, there's a scream from somewhere nearby. Looking around you spot almost a dozen other water logged people unconscious on the shore, whilst a large scorpion like creature is nipping at Sasha with its claws, as she shrieks and tries to back up. Two more of its kind are nearby, and look ready to dash forwards to join in the meal.

 

A yellow line indicates the character is still asleep, a red dot indicates it has taken damage last turn, and a red cross means incapacitated/dead.

OOC: And the game is up! Screw taverns, you all met on a beach whilst sea scorpions were trying to eat you, enjoy. Al and Koril are awake (move action to stand up though) , the other PCs will awake next round and I will then post a full initiative list. Just post in any order and I'll sort it out later (either by guessing what you would do if your first target died, or consulting you if you happen to be online), waiting to post in initiative order seems like a lot of wasted time.   Please ensure you post AC/HP/Ongoing Conditions (e.g. Mage Armour, 3 Hours, Sickened, 1 Round) as the title of your post, and in the OOC below your post the actions you are taking if you feel they need clarification. I'll be using maps with labelled grids, so you can write things like 'Move from A4 to B7 and make a standard attack...at the darkness.' Currently only Al and Koril are awake, the rest of you will awake next round. The first round you awake you are Sickened and take a -2 on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks. After one round your head will clear enough to negate this affect, and you feel normal if a bit dehydrated. Also, none of you are currently holding any weapons, but are wearing your armour! There is a pile of gear as marked on the map by barrels, and retrieving your weapon is a standard action. You don't have time to check what else is in there, but you can easily spot your trusted weapon. Magic users can assume they have their normal amount of spells prepared, I'm not too fussed about that. I apologise for the shoddy map, had to rush it a bit...have a far more important map on the distribution of Regent Parrots to make tonight . The scale of a map will always be 5ft squares, unless it specifies otherwise on the map. Similarly tokens are colour coordinated: Red = PC, White = Ally, Silver = Monster. Cherubaddon, Koril is currently Garruk Wildspeaker until you give me a character portrait. Again, apologies, some of the tokens need to be fixed up (open space on Gelik/Jask/Sasha/Welter/Al) and will be done so for the next post.

[arguilios]

Welter wakes in pain to the sound of screaming and wonders briefly whether it is his own. The young man sits bolt upright or thinks he does. This sudden change in position produces an immediate throbbing pain like a ball-peen hammer of fire in the center of his skull; lights spin like a psychedelic hurdy-gurdy before his eyes, though he is uncertain if his eyes are open or closed; he makes a terrible effort to choke back a brackish hurl heavy in the back of his throat and fails. And, he finds himself at once back in the sand, face sticky with wet beach and his own vomit. Shuddering and recoiling in disgust at this sudden vile turn of events, the tanned young man fairly leaps back to his feet, shakes his head against the pain and nausea and tries once more to take stock of where that frightful scream is coming from.

"Where the...." Welter gargles out his surprise and confusion, spits and demands, "What's going on?"

Finally spotting the blurry image of large crabs menacing a woman up the beach, the young swordsman struggles to identify the only issue now that matters -- the location of his sword. Not there, he confirms, hands flailing around his waist for some purchase on a familiar pommel, even as he's blinking repeatedly for a clearer picture of the imminent threat.

"I'm coming!"

Dice Intimidate (-2 from Nausea):

1d20-2

(19)-2

Total = 17

he shouts, hoping to reassure the screamer if not to scare away the giant scavengers. As soon as he spots the clutter of arms nearby, he's off -- running to put steel in the palm of his hand. "I'm coming!" he reassures himself as he races to equalize the conflict by returning the attack on the first foe to present itself as fast as he can.

[HenryLockwood]

Altraminus groans. I didn't have that much to drink, surely! Let's see...

His introspection is interrupted by a shrill scream, and he sits bolt upright before clutching at his head. A beach? We were on a ship, not a beach!

Right, better chase those things off. Where's my pockets? Where's that stuff? Staggering upright, Al begins rummaging in his pockets for alchemical components.

OOC Taking a double move action, to stand up then move to two squares southeast of Sasha. As a player, I'd shout to wake the rest of you up: but Al doesn't think like that.

[Cherubaddon]

Koril was dreaming. He cannot now quite remember what, but he does remember that he dreamt something, something vaguely pleasant. And although the dream is gone now, like the aftertaste of a good wine, some memories linger. The fresh mangrove smell. The chanting of birds. The sense of peace. The song of the forest. The... cold swamp water around his ankles, trying to suck him down? In an instant, the young man is awake. He opens his eyes with a start, immediately regretting it upon staring into the glaring midday sun. The woods are gone, their song having ceased abruptly for the splashing of the waves around his feet. Squinting into the harsh light, passing his tongue over his cracked lips, he pulls up his legs a little to lie entirely on the warm sands, distantly wondering how he got here. The wide blue sky offering no clues, he turns his head to the side a little: refuse; driftwood; bodies of... creatures; somebody walking around muttering to himself. Scavengers feeding on the dead. Nothing. He cannot make sense of it. Nothing like anything he has ever seen. Koril relaxes, gazing into the sky once more, wondering where this new dream will take him.

DANGER. The feeling rushes through him with searing intensity. Taken aback by the sudden pain shooting from his left arm, Koril flinches, groggily turning over in a hasty effort to get to his feet and appraise the situation. He almost falls down again. His head is spinning, the beach becoming a kaleidoscopic blur in his vision, and it takes him several moments to somewhat regain his bearings.

But the creature inside him will have none of it. Just as he has achieved an almost stable stance, he can feel his left arm waking, undulating of its own accord, before suddenly shooting out strands of vine out from his shoulder, crawling over his body with preternatural speed, splicing and reforming, until, only a few heartbeats later, his entire body is encased in a protective shell of vigorous vines.

OOC Move action to get up, standard action to cast Mage Armour. Ha, and I just noticed this is precisely my 1,000th post. Let's hope that bodes well.

[Peter172]

Bingus drifted on a sea of tranquil green water, his back upon the deck of a small sailing vessel, a glass of cool, mint flavored tea in hand. Two lovely young Gnome maidens knelt by his side, gazing at him with utter adoration. They were dressed in silken garment so sheer that they may as well have been naked for all they concealed. "I see you have almost finished your tea great one, " one of them murmured, "is there anything else you require of us?" the other said in a voice laden with husky desire.

Bingus began to rise and show the young beauties exactly what he wanted, and his hands just began to close on the flowing red locks surrounding the Gnome maiden's cherubic countenance when he was rudely thrust back to reality.

He awoke with a groan of frustration and a queazy sensation churning his stomach, no! It was just getting good! He thought bitterly as the lovely features of beauty were replaced by a scene from a nightmare.

Bingus shook his head, to make sure that he in fact had stopped dreaming, and much to his disappointment, he found that he wasn't, is that a bloody giant scorpion? Oh this just couldn't get any worse! he thought, then realized how wrong he was as he reached for his weapon and found only air. Then he saw the other scorpions and panic awoke him fully, adrenaline flooding in to replace weariness and disbelief with a desperate urge to fight and survive.

He scrambled to his feet, looking desperately around for anything to use as a weapon. His eyes fell on the pile of gear and he ruses over as best he could, his feet sliding on the wet, slippery sand., and went to find something to fight with, before the scorpions closed in.

[Finder of Paths]

Koril and Al are the first to act, probably managing to throw off the effects first by way of a mysterious infection, or a lifetime of messing around with potions. One of the sea scorpions rushes up to Koril as he begins to stand, and in blind panic he casts a protective spell. Without it however, the sharp claws of the scorpion would have sliced through skin and bone, rather than just a few thick tendrils. Al didn't fare so well however, another scorpion clatters across the sand and scores a cut with its claw (1 damage). Trying to dig herself into the sand and move backwards at the same time, Sasha's wriggling allows her to dodge the stinger of the third scorpion as it came flashing down towards her.

 

OOC: It is now round 2! I already have actions from Peter172 and arguilios, the rest of you need to post your round 2 actions now. Remember, move action to stand (prompts an AoO...but don't worry too much, these are only baby sea scorpions ), and a standard action to retrieve your weapon from the pile.   Name Initiative Sea Scorpion 3 22 Al 17 Koril 13 Sea Scorpion 1 11 Sea Scorpion 2 8 Gardrel 5 Welter 4 Bingus 3

[Aldra]

Gardrel groaned as he came to. Uuugh… I haven’t felt this bad since Nermel got me to try his ‘special brew.’ And I doubt the rocking of the ship is helping… Wait… Struggling against the fog in his mind, the Halfling pieced together the information around him: the warmth on his skin, the grit against his hands and feet, the lack of the rhythmic back-and-forth he had gotten used to over the long months; all of them deadened by the… whatever had knocked him out, but unmistakable in their presence (or lack). He was on a beach, and… and…

Dinner on the ship! Poison! Gardrel struggled to regain full consciousness, desperate to know what was going on. The sound of a scream merely made him redouble his efforts. He struggled to get up, but faltered. Whatever had done this had planned on human-sized people; Halflings are tough, but he had still received twice the dosage than was necessary. By the time he managed to get a look at his surroundings, a few of the others were already stumbling towards the source of the scream. With a groan of cramped muscles stretching, he finally stood up and reached behind himself to grab his… my starknife!

Gardrel snapped awake and out of the daze, pushing away the nausea that threatened to keel him over again. He quickly took start of his surroundings; there was a cache of items near him with blades and various other weapons, but more pressing were the scorpions currently attacking Sasha. ”Dreamless nights!” he cursed as he grabbed at his neck, pulling his holy symbol out from behind his clothes and nearly breaking the string that held it in the process.

”Desna, lead us safely down this road and let us reach our destination safely,” he prayed, reaching out to his goddess for power. Within moments, he felt the familiar pulse of power pass from the butterfly symbol in his hand to him, and he channeled it though himself. Reaching down, he lay his hand on the ground and released it, resulting in a quick pulse of faint golden energy to expand outward, leaving a small shimmering behind on each person on the beach.

OOC Move action to stand Standard action: Bless: All allies within a 50 ft radius receive a +1 moral bonus to attack rolls and saving throws against fear effects. Lasts for 1 minute (5 rounds)

[HenryLockwood]

Al's first instinct is to flail ineffectually at the nasty creature attempting to chew his leg. Fortunately, he manages to discard this idea, and grabs his dagger out of the pile of weapons on the sand. There's not time to notice how strange it is that the weapons washed ashore, nor to search for something more useful - like the usual contents of his pockets, with which anything can be set on fire.

Deciding that discretion is, if not the better part, at least a significant portion of valour, Al steps smartly away from the beastie. He reaches down to Gelik, shaking the flamboyant gnome and shouting in his ear "Wake up! Scorpions! Wake up!"

OOC Standard action: retrieve weapon. 5ft step SW. Move action: shake and shout at Gelik.

[Cherubaddon]

Koril does not think. It is doubtful in how far he is even aware of the situation. There is no fear in him when the beast lashes out, no feeling of relief when the pincer is stopped short by his verdant ward, no hasty considerations on how to proceed. If anything, there is silence. Things move slowly, without sound. As if both combatants were deep underwater, all movement is predictable and sluggish, all sound muffled out, all screams and groans only silent movements of the lips disconnected from reality. With only the faintest sense of realization, the young man sees his arm, estranged from him, undulating and slowly drawing back. Far removed, he feels a sharp pain, like a thousand needles piercing his skin, when the powerful vines growing from his shoulder suddenly sprout small, vicious thorns through their bark. Koril is almost relaxed, like a spectator watching from behind the safety of his eyes, when the powerful wooden cudgel rises up to come crashing down on the giant scorpion.

OOC Swift Action for Arcane Strike Standard Action to attack (Roll 20, damage 7)

[Finder of Paths]

Whilst others rush in panic to reach weapons, and wake the others so they don't fall prey to the beasts, Koril is tranquil and calm, his movements one of pure instinct. If anyone else had time to look his way, they would see him swiftly deal with his foe in one crushing hit. With a spray of salty foam the scorpion leaps from the water, intending on knocking Koril over and finishing him with one stab of a wicked tail. In one swift movement, he slams one armoured arm into the beast as it rises, arresting its flight. With its dying thoughts, the scorpion lashes out with its stinger, but the tendrils surrounding the man cushion the blow, and a spurt of green poison does little more than make Koril sticky.

Meanwhile Al manages to dodge another attack from the scorpion nearest him, grab a weapon and jump backwards, shaking Gelik awake. Before the scorpion can twist around for another attack, the gnome has been yanked to his feet and yells "What in the hells is this?!" raising one arm over his face defensively. Dodging another stinger, Sasha jumps deftly to her feet and tumbles to the pile of weapons. Al and Gelik both hear her giggling madly to herself, a look of manic glee on her face...what they also catch however, is a glimpse of a tattoo through a ripped shirt. It looks to like the arm of a mantis, but a deep red colour. Still giggling, Sasha pulls a kukuri and rapier from the pile, turns back to the scorpion and simply says. "Well come on then!"

Finally rousing from their sleep, Garudrel, Welter and Bingus all join the battle. The cleric casting a blessing upon the group, bolstering their strength, whilst the other two race for their weapons, knowing they can do their best with a sword in hand.

 

OOC: As mentioned in the OOC thread, I don't need a post from Peter172 and arguilious if you don't want to. Your actions for round 3 will be to pick up your weapon, and a move action to get closer to the fight, no reason to wait around for you to post that action. But if you want to RP it, by all means do so. Bless is now in affect - +1 on attack rolls for the next 5 rounds

[HenryLockwood]

"Argh, too cluttered, too untidy, can't blow them up!"

Altraminus mutters under his breath, grimacing as he shifts his weight this way and that. The dagger in his hand seems more a distraction than a weapon, but eventually he steps forward again and stabs at the nearer scorpion.

OOC Forgot to include bless in the attack roll, so total attack roll is 17. Damage 1. Action is a 5ft step NE, then an attack.

[Aldra]

His spell finished, Gardel looked around as the last of the ill feelings left him. He was no good in a direct fight, he knew, and there wasn't anything nearby he could throw that would cause any real damage. What he did have, however, was luck, and the ability to give a bit of it to others thanks to his goddess. So, as the others began to fight and grab their weapons, Gardel instead moved to get behind one of them, waiting until they got into position then giving them a quick touch on the back to grant his luck.

OOC Delay action until after Walter and Bingus move Move: Stand 'behind' one of the two above once they position themselves next to a scorpion. Standard: Bit of Luck: My target may re-roll all d20s for the next round, taking the better of the two values.

[Peter172]

Bingus almost grinned at the sight of one of the scorpions going down to Koril's attack. Almost...though the proximity of the other scorpions in correlation to his position drove any kind of celebration far from his mind. He went to the pile of gear, found his hooked hammer and bent to pick it up, comforted at the familiar feel of the weapon in his hands.

[Cherubaddon]

Well that felt good, Koril muses distantly as he watches the ichor rain down on him from the vanquished vermin. And although somewhere, within the recesses of his mind, something trembles at the realization, the rest of his consciousness just shrugs, phlegmatically leaning back to watch the coming events unfold.

There is no need to search around for targets - Koril has already zeroed in on his next foe before even consciously registering his location. Striding swiftly through the shallow water, the young man brings himself in position behind the scorpion attacking the human girl. Do I know her? Seems like I know her. I'll have to ask. Or not - that's like the lamest pick-up phrase ever. Meanwhile, the murderous instincts in control of his movements have more prosaic priorities: using his last steps to gather momentum, the three tightly-wound strands of barbed wood springing from his shoulder crash into the beast's chitinous shell.

OOC Move Action: Move to flanking position across from Sasha Swift Action: Arcane Strike Standard Action: Attack (13, damage 9)

[arguilios]

*Whoa!* Welter appreciatively observes of what may be a small treantish fellow laying waste to the scorpions among the breakers at the shoreline. He nearly misses his grip as he lunges for his own blade standing visible in the barrel of blades among the other collected belongings.

No time to reflect on how we got here, he muses. That green goblin'll kill everything before I get a chance to get my swing on.

Determined, the human swordsman moves to get what taste of battle he can before the targets are all gone.