Old-School Essentials: Stonehell

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Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl , sorry should have said earlier if it changes your decision. I don't have spells yet, not until 2nd level.

Hildegard will remain in position and lob a javelin at one of the pig-faces if she has a clear shot (i.e. no major risk to hitting Bron or Bellitus).
OOC: will remain in position, allowing Hildegard to throw her javelin unmolested.

Edit: Attack roll = 5
 
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LOL this is the moment that I have to admit that I haven't clicked on any of the rolls. So I won't vote on that question...

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten to run through combat - I'm just really lazy and I'll get to it soon.
I've just been using a dice app on my phone. If we're using something else just let me know what and I'll use it.
 
I've just been using a dice app on my phone. If we're using something else just let me know what and I'll use it.
OOC: It seems like most folks are using Orokos, which I hadn't heard about until I saw the rolls posted in the sign-up thread. I basically trust everyone to be honest with dice because why wouldn't they be? Not that I haven't seen it in other places...

In any case, I also use a phone app and will continue to do so because it makes it easier for me.

Speaking of which, here's the first round of combat...


The parlay instantly transforms into a melee as soon as the leader howls with pain and rage. Unfortunately, most of the flaming oil splashes harmlessly underfoot as he barrels forward. As soon as Egare launches the flask, he backpedals from the ranks of the Pig-Faces while tugging his poniard free of its sheath.

Hildegard steps back to draw a javelin as Tessa steps in front of her to receive the enraged Pig-Face leader. They exchange blows - he with his ax and she with her short sword - and neither manages to inflict any real injury, despite a great din of shouting and clashing steel.

From the right flank, another Pig-Face rushes to attack Tess on her flank, though Ruul thrusts his spear spasmodically in its direction. The wary assailant breaks off his attack to ward off the young man's frenzied attack, leading to a stalemate.

Bron faces off alone against the rightmost Pig-Face. He hurls his spear in close quarters as it charges in with a blunt and heavy ax. The spear catches it in the chest. It staggers past him with its ax splitting the air and collapses to never move again.

On the left flank, an outraged Pig-Face rushes forward to skewer Egare with its spear-club. Meanwhile, Ingri steps forward to fend it off. The two clash in confused jumble but no decisive wounds are struck.

Meanwhile, the last of the Pig-Faces on the left flank is faced by Copperhand and Bellitus, and with a quick flicker of its eyes, it leaps towards the dwarf. It's rude spear finds nothing as the two of them cut it down with a series of mortal blows.

Egare's blade free, he reverses course and closes on the Pig-Face who is busy with Ruul. Despite the young man's cooperation, he fails to find a gap in its armor.

At around the same time, Hildegard has managed to draw a javelin and hurl it at the closing leader over Tessa's head. It catches him on the shoulder, the tip wedged deep between two plates. He screams and reels from the blow. With a whimper he goes to one knee and raises a warding hand.

"MERCY!" he cries out.

OOC: I took the liberties of rolling for players when it was called for and making a few obvious decisions on your respective parts. From the geometry of the room, marching order and actions during parlay, the match-ups naturally followed.
 
"CAN YOU UNDERSTAND US. CAN YOU SPEAK LISSEK?" Hildegard shouts at the leader still charged from the frenzy of combat.
 
"CAN YOU UNDERSTAND US. CAN YOU SPEAK LISSEK?" Hildegard shouts at the leader still charged from the frenzy of combat.
"LISSEK...YES! NO FIGHT! YOU STRONG, WE SORRY!" The leader drops his ax on the floor with a loud clunk.
 
"LISSEK...YES! NO FIGHT! YOU STRONG, WE SORRY!" The leader drops his ax on the floor with a loud clunk.
Hildegard speaks slowly and deliberately.

"Good. We will come back. While we are gone, kill Kobolds...little men, mean faces. Then we bring you a lot of booze next time and meat. We will be stronger next time, more people. Do what we say.

Anything else nasty here? Meaner than Kobolds?"
 
"Good. We will come back. While we are gone, kill Kobolds...little men, mean faces. Then we bring you a lot of booze next time and meat. We will be stronger next time, more people. Do what we say.
The leader grins subserviently, nodding vigorously. "Yes boss, kill kobold! We give scalp, you give booze! Yes boss!"
Anything else nasty here? Meaner than Kobolds?"
The leader looks at you with puzzlement. "Yes boss - all others. Us. Zog. Hungry men. Dead men. Worse below. Kobold always scared."
 
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The leader grins subserviently, nodding vigorously. "Yes boss, kill kobold! We give scalp, you give booze! Yes boss!"
"Good. Good booze too. Good deal. Good booze."

The leader looks at you with puzzlement. "Yes boss - all others. Us. Zog. Hungry men. Dead men. Worse below. Kobold always scared."
"Ah...I see"

She turns to the others.

"Well looks like the Kobolds are at the bottom of the ladder, no surprise. Hungry men and Dead men don't sound too good..." she whispers "...they might be lying about attacking the Kobolds, but if they are we lose little. If they're being truthful we've allies down here, sort of"

She faces the pig-men leader.

"Tell me about the Dead men and Hungry men. They're on this level yes? Hungry men and Dead men fight each other?"
 
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"And what on earth is a Zog?" murmurs Copperhand, thinking of the smell coming from one of the chambers they passed early on.
 
"Tell me about the Dead men and Hungry men. They're on this level yes? Hungry men and Dead men fight each other?"
The Pig-Face squints with the effort of understanding your speech. "Dead men stay far," he says, pointing in the general direction of where he came. "Skinny dead men and stinky dead men. Hall get smoky and they come on boat..watch out! Kobold knows clever dead men downstairs who eat dead."

Bellitus shudders and hisses under her breath. "Ghouls!"

Pausing to consider, the Pig-Face continues. "Hungry men move around. They eat man-flesh and have no fear. Good fights!"
"And what on earth is a Zog?"
The Pig-Face leader scowls darkly. "Zog new hairy men. Many little Zog like Kobold but stupid. They scared alone but nasty together. But big Zog smart and mean."

Copperhand recalls he's heard some rumors about these Zog from dwarves to the East. He doesn't remember much because they didn't seem significant, and it's been almost a century since treating with an Eastern dwarf. Copperhand remembers hearing that Zog are filthy, stupid and mean, but mostly an irritant for the well-defended cities of his brothers.
 
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"Right well we know who we're up against then for the next while" She then speaks to the pig-men "Good, boss says go. Make us happy, then booze"

Once (if) they've gone Hildegard will suggest back into marching order and onward through the cave.
 
With your dismissal, the leader and other surviving Pig-Face scurry out of the cave in the direction you came from, grinning and bobbing their heads obsequiously.

OOC: Just waiting to hear that a majority are ready to move on.
 
Copperhand is still interested in what's up with that metal prong sticking out of the wall.
 
Egare looks at Copperhand and the metal prong he's fixated on. "Wonder what it does?"" He asks. He slowly approaches it and looks around it without touching it for now.
 
Copperhand is still interested in what's up with that metal prong sticking out of the wall.
OOC: Sorry, missed that.

Copperhand and Egare inspect the rusted metal bar without touching it. It appears to be a very old crowbar that was wedged into a long crack in the wall that extends from the floor of the cave along the wall for about 10' to another point on the floor. The crack is a little bit wider where the crowbar is lodged, but it looks to be jammed in pretty tightly and a little bent near the point it meets the wall.
 
The party musters into formation and continues into the cave from with the Pig-Faced men emerged. The tunnel is more of a narrow opening into an adjoining cavern than a hallway - you squeeze through in single file to emerge into a small roughly circular cavern with an roughly-chiseled floor.

In the center of the room is a stone well, sturdy and crude. A simple pulley spans the opening though there is no rope nor bucket to be seen. From its depths issues a low whistle that echoes off the limestone walls.

Once out of hearing of the Pig-Faces, Ingri exhales explosively. "That was a helluva rush, wasn't it?" she marvels softly. "Don't worry; I learned my lesson about being loud."

Obvious exits:
  • Back to the cave where you fought the Pig-Faces
  • Left through a tunnel that itself branches after 10' as follows:
    • To the left
    • Straight a few feet more, curving slightly to the right and opening into another chamber
OOC: The natural tunnels here are more like 5' wide and must be traversed in single file. You may want to define a single-file marching order, although I can probably extrapolate from the existing double-file marching order if it become necessary.
 
OOC: Natural extrapolation from current double-file everybody? Person on the right of each double file row is ahead of the one on the left? Right-Left as given on our party roster.

Hildegard suggests straight on.
 
OOC: That marching order sounds fine. How far across is the room?

Copperhand will take a look down the well to see if it could serve as a route to lower levels.
 
"We have rope. We could explore it a bit?" Egare says
 
Copperhand will take a look down the well to see if it could serve as a route to lower levels.
Looking down into the well, a cool steady breeze blows into Copperhand's face, and the bottom is barely within range of his infravision. The shaft opens into a wider area, and the floor appears to be solid and relatively smooth. Nothing else can be discerned at this distance.
 
"Drop a torch down?" Egare asks the others.
 
"We seem to have enough torches and hopefully this way leads back to the stairs, but do we risk alerting anything down there?"
 
"Someone who can see in the dark want to climb down?" Egare asks?
 
Ruul asks tentatively, "Didn't the Pig-Faces say there was worse stuff downstairs?"
 
"We dispatched them with ease. Maybe we can handle something they consider hard."
 
"Maybe worry about what's down the well later?" Tessa suggests, although not forcefully. "I'd rather clear through this cave section first, if possible. Unless it leads downward to a lower level, there hopefully shouldn't be too much more before we hit a dead end or connect to that side entrance we first saw shortly after entering."
 
"Maybe worry about what's down the well later?" Tessa suggests, although not forcefully. "I'd rather clear through this cave section first, if possible. Unless it leads downward to a lower level, there hopefully shouldn't be too much more before we hit a dead end or connect to that side entrance we first saw shortly after entering."
"I agree. Whatever's down there is worse according to our new friends. Let's leave it until we have this area sorted out. Might be for our next trip.
 
"If you think those guys are our friends you're not going to live long." Egare teases him
 
Bellitus peers carefully down the well from a pace back as though she's afraid that she would fall in or something would pull her in. "Onwards?" she asks.
 
"Onward," Copperhand confirms. "To the chamber on the right, I think we decided?"
 
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