As Cain steps aside to finish the Weedwhip, Zorden takes advantage of the rare clear shot at an enemy to loose another round. In a deafening burst of fire, smoke, and now lightning, the bullet crosses the room in an instant, trailing arcs of electricity behind it, and slams into the back of the small plant man, rips through its fibrous body, and dings off Morin's readied buckler before being lost among the fungus covering the floor. The vegepygmy fall to the ground twitching, dead mere moments after trying to water his flower.

Combat over, 200 XP each.

Zorden took a few steps forward to get into the room proper before the door shut again, and then reloaded his weapon.

"We should lock the rest of these doors before we move on."  He suggested as he poured a measure of powder into his gun.

"Sure thing."  Morin replied, going from door to door and locking each panel with his key card.  For good measure, he returned to the door they had come in through and set it to remain open. Assuming nothing jumped out at him while he was doing so, he headed back to the eastern door and casually took up a position beside it. "Sounds like the rest of the welcoming party is getting set up behind this door." He remarked, holding his keycard ready to unlock the door.  "Everyone ready for round two?"

Kelaria leaned over, hands on her hips, and with trembling hands removed her helmet.  And proceeded to vomit mightily.  She chose a distant corner of the chamber at least.

"Give us a moment to recover. Do you have something to use to heal our wounds while we wait?"

OOC: Just giving Kelaria a moment to get ready, Cain is good to go as soon as possible to make the most of his Shield spell. Did Morin pick up that wand of CLW we talked about? Could be good idea to burn a couple charges while we wait.

Also, do we press on through this door, knowing they are right behind it, or do we try to be sneaky and go through the other doors now? Cunning brutality or brutal cunning?

"Hmm?  Oh yeah, sure." Morin turned back to Cain, having seemingly forgotten about his own injury.  The scratch on Cain's side didn't look particularly bad, but Morin reminded himself that the half-elf wasn't as sturdy as some others.  He gave Cain a quick tap with his healing wand, as well as Kelaria if the barbarian was interested.

OOC: I'm using once charge of CLW on Cain (25 left), and another on Kelaria if she wants it (roll 1d8+1).

I'm leaning towards heading straight in once we've caught our breath.  We don't really know enough about the area to do anything tricky, and Cain's shield is ticking down fairly fast.  I'd say maybe one minute of downtime to lock some doors, heal up, and wait for the nausea to fade?

07:18, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 5 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 4.  Wand CLW to Cain
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Fri 26 Apr.

Kelaria needed a swallow of water.  Actually, one to rinse and spit out, and then one to swallow.

"Ugh."  She grimaced, and then the big heavy blackened helmet went back on, and was locked into place.

With a grunt, she hoisted her hammer and tapped it on the floor.  Perhaps she also needed to harness the power of Vegetable in addition to Metal.

lol I just wanted a way to justify Kelaria recovering from her conditions between fights, I'm good now.

"I suggest we figure out who's going to be blocking the door when we open it and who's going to be in charge of either keeping it open or closing it as needed."  Zorden proposed now that they were looking ready to proceed.

ooc: While an ambush could be effective, who knows what else we'll run into along the way.  At least with the door we have a bottleneck and can always disengage as needed (assuming nothing gets in the way of the door).

"Swords to the front, the rest behind?" Cain asks as he gets closer to the doors.

OOC: Cain and Kelaria in front of the doors? Not much room to maneuver here I'm afraid.

"After you." Morin stepped away from the door, letting the party's melee fighters take up position at the front.

Kelaria figured she knew her assignment here, and just hoped whatever was behind this door wasn't so vile.  She set, grunted and raised the hammer.

Cain takes position next to the doors, hoping to ambush whomever rushes though. "Alright, if everyone is ready?" He reaches for the door controls.

OOC: If nobody stops him, Cain is going to open the doors. Also, going to try to hide south-west of the doors, if that is possible. Maybe I can get a sneak attack that way. We may also let one or two of them in, then lock the door again.

01:05, Today: Cain rolled 26 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 16.  Stealth. – 26

As everyone got into position, Zorden shifted one of the chairs away from the tables, sending up a poof of organic dust, and set it closer to the door they came in.  He then took a step up to stand on the seat and give himself a better vantage as he loosely raised his weapon to his shoulder in a ready position.

Ionaya listened to the others and watched as Kelaria moved into place at Cain's direction. She briefly considered stepping up to lend her assistance to the metal woman warrior, but she realized that others in the group were better equipped to fight by her side so Ionaya decided to stay with Zorden until better opportunities presented themselves.

"We're fighting even more of those plant fungus men, right! Well, at least they die much more quickly than the other metal beasts." 

After Morin makes a round of the room, locking each of the southern doors and spending some of the wand's power to heal Cain(26 > 25 Charges,) the party forms up at the door to the east. Once everyone has prepared, Cain swipes his brown access card across the door's panel to unlock it, and then presses it to send the door into the ceiling above.

The air in this room is unusually warm and moist, with a thin, pale vapor of mist clinging to the ceiling, causing the lighted panels to diffuse and become muted. Condensation runs down the walls along with a riot of unusual brown and dull green vegetation. The moist, thick-stemmed plants and vines grow out of long earth-filled troughs along the wall, while a tall column of plant matter extends like a tree trunk from a circular planter in the middle of the room to spread a network of vines across the mist-shrouded ceiling. A low humming sound fills the air.

To the east, on the northern wall, a door is open with a vegepygmy watching through it, and in the southern side of a room a strange mass of vegetation resembling a tangle of sturdy vines with jagged purple thorns floats in the air. Its coloration is mottled with brown, green, and yellow mold patches that flake and fall as the creature writhes through the air. Its vines barely conceal two translucent, gas-filled sacks that act as balloons, enabling it to float along above the ground. Stretching from the creature’s center are two longer vines which move about and feel the surroundings. An opening filled with rows of spiky thorns serves as the creature’s mouth and is positioned on the creature’s underside, where it emits a wet, rancid stench.

Everyone wins Initiative, enemies are flatfooted.

When nothing rushes out to attack them, Cain moves in to to close with the vegepygmy instead. He does not even notice the strange floating creature before he is already in the room with it.

OOC: I know the plan was to wait for them to come to our chokepoint, but it seemed like a waste to not use our initiative. Cain can block the other door if necessary.

Swift action to enchant weapon. Abandoning stealth, move to the other doors and sneak attack the vegepygmy.
11:39, Today: Cain rolled 15,14,4 using 1d20+10,1d8+7,1d6 with rolls of 5,7,4.  Attack, Damage, Sneak Attack. – 15,14,4

"Oh, a tsaalgrend!" Morin called out excitedly, following Cain into the room.  "We don't have these back in Taldor, but I hear they're really un-spore-gettable!"  He paused for a second to appreciate what was possibly his weakest pun of all, before adding: "But seriously, watch out for it's spores."

MOVE: Move into room: 4 east, 1 south.
STANDARD: Activate inspire courage, giving everyone +1 attack, weapon damage, and saves vs fear. (10/12 rounds left)

Kelaria interpreted that to mean to use her hammer, which had the property of allowing her to smash things from a surprisingly good distance.  With a loud groan and a mighty hoist, she raised the head of the hammer high and charged forward screaming as she brought it down on the vegetable horror.  Kelaria could potentially be on her way to inventing guacamole.

14:11, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 15 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 8.  Power Attack! – 15

Huh, that's marginal, but they are flatfooted so it might hit or might not.  I'll add a damage roll just in case.

14:11, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 19 using 1d12+8 with rolls of 11.  Potential Damage. – 19

Seeing as the "enemies at the gates" who'd been reported as eager to bust through the door not long ago apparently had decided to give up on that plan, Zorden stepped off and headed into the room.

He circled around to give himself a sightline on both the door and the weird floating thing before raising his weapon to put it to best use.


Zorden will move into the room with the goal of ending up in the SE region where he can hopefully have a line of sight on the gasbag and the NE door.

He'll favor having eyes on the NE doorway if he can't get all the way around the tree thing in the center.

The attack was intended for if it's needed.  Kelaria and Cain may well down their targets, in which case Zorden will not fire.

If he does, his gun breaks from a misfire.


Zorden rolled 11,14.  Attack (PBS, Deadly Aim, Inspire Courage), Potential Damage

Having recovered her javelin from the previous room, Ionaya watched with a moment of dismay as Zorden moved quickly ahead of her into the next room. Following the others inside, she turned and cast her javelin at the monster Morin just identified.

OOC
Ionaya rolled 20 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 16.  Javelin vs. tsaalgrend.
Ionaya rolled 4 using 1d6 with rolls of 4.  Javelin damage.

Seizing the moment, the party rushes in to confront their foes before they can react. Under the guidance of Morin's joke-cracking, Cain crosses the humid room and stabs at the surprised vegepygmy but has difficulty hitting his target through the cover of the doorway. Zorden attempts to fire his musket once again, but instead of a loud crack of fire and smoke the musket grinds and squelches--a bad batch of black powder fizzling and making its way through the mechanisms of the firearm. Ionaya throws her javelin once again, this time sticking solidly into the mass of vegetation hanging from the Tsaalgrend's gas bags(-5 HP) soon after, Kelaria brings her mighty hammer down on the beast and with a loud pop and a wheezing fart bursts the sacks of gas holding the creature aloft(-21 HP).

But just as the northern door closes and the party feels they have gained control of this room, the docile plants around them seem to rise up. Two vegepygmies spring out from hiding about the plants, including their Adonic leader wielding his glowing hammer. The northern door opens once again as the vegepygmy behind it leaves cover and the leader moves to flank Cain. The Vegepygmy manages to get a claw through the half-elf's defenses for a minor scratch(-2 HP), but the attack leaves Cain unbalanced as the deceptively strong leader moves in and brings his hammer down on Cain's lower back--audibly cracking bone(-9 HP). Adding more injury to injury, the leader also swipes with his free claw and gashes Cain's thigh(-4 HP, Fort DC 15 or 2 Con damage.) The other hidden pygmy lunges at Ionaya with both claws, but does not have the luck of its siblings.


17:18, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 8,3,10,3 using d20+1,d4,d20+1,d4 with rolls of 7,3,9,3.  Vege v Ionaya.
17:08, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 15,6 using d20+3,d4+3 with rolls of 12,3.  Crit Confirm.
17:05, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 24,9,23,4 using d20+10,d4+7,d20+3,d4+3 with rolls of 14,2,20,1.  Vrill Hammer, Claw v Cain.
17:00, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 6,4 using d20+1,d4 with rolls of 5,4.  Crit Confirm.
16:59, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 21,2,10,3 using d20+1,d4,d20+1,d4 with rolls of 20,2,9,3.  Vege v Cain.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:54, Yesterday.

"Wha? Ha!" Morin laughed in shock as some of the nearby plants revealed themselves to be vegepygmies. "You cheeky bastards, you got us good!"  Scrambling up into the planter to reach Cain, Morin cast a spell to patch up the worst of the half elf's injuries.

STANDARD: Cast Cure light wounds.  Not casting defensively, so the nearby pygmy gets an AoO.
MOVE: Move 1 square NE, into planter.
FREE: deliver CLW charge to Cain.  Heals 7 HP.
SWIFT: Maintain Inspire courage (9/12 rounds left)

16:15, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 28 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 19.  Concentration if vegepymy hits me. – 28
16:00, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 7 using 1d8+3 with rolls of 4.  Cure light wounds on Cain. – 7

With vegetable based threats suddenly around him, and his weapon momentarily useless, Zorden attempted to dash away out of their reach so he could clear the jam in his gun.


OOC: Intent is to move west into the space where the tsaalgrend was.

That should provoke 2 AOO, 1 from the Vrilledt, and another from the Vegepygmy on the central planter.  Will attempt to avoid via Acrobatics check.

Zorden rolled 18,17.  Acrobatics x2

18 vs Vrilledt
17 vs Vegepygmy

Kelaria wanted to get into the fray at the other corner of the room but saw no clear way in, so she'd have to pound one out.

She stepped forward methodically and brought down another powerful stroke, determined to kill everything in the room that was not a mammal.

All right there's not a clear path across so I'll do the next best thing I see to do and try to kill that nasty that got in our back line.

5 ft. step one square south.  Attacking Ionaya's buddy.

21:18, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 16 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 8.  Hammer Time. – 16

With Inspiration (if that's +1, it's included if it's better add the difference) I'm guessing that hits.

Let's see if that Power Attack damage is good again.

21:20, Today: Kelaria Ironclaw rolled 13 using 1d12+10 with rolls of 3.  Damage Roll. – 13

Not so much, but maybe it's enough?

"Son of a..." is all Cain can say before he is nearly hacked and smashed to pieces. Fighting for his life, he twists away from the leader's claws and tries to get out of being flanked by the two vegepygmies before striking back.

OOC: Well, that did not go as planned. I did say the Dice roller was just biding his time, didn't I? Alright, first Twist Away to avoid the poison.
11:03, Today: Cain rolled 25 using 1d20+11 with rolls of 14.  Twist Away. – 25

Then 5' step SE so that Cain flanks the leader with Ionaya. And sneak attack the leader.
11:06, Today: Cain rolled 19,11,2 using 1d20+13,1d8+8,1d6 with rolls of 6,3,2.  Attack, Damage, Sneak Attack. – 19,11,2

Couple of assumptions here. First, that it is possible for Ionaya to flank with a javelin since it can be used as a melee weapon. If that's not the case, that's -3 from my attack roll and no sneak damage. And second, that Cain can take a 5' step in those planters. If those are a difficult terrain, that's not gonna happen, so no sneak attack either. In that case, and should Ionaya leave her current square, can Cain make 5' step there instead?