Dido hops down between the two gnolls. "Here! I'll try to help make this a challenge for me... here's my backside!" he faces his back to the gnoll who told him to die. Then he uppercuts the gnoll he's facing in the sternum with a loud crack! "If you pups surrender, my friend Callie can heal you up! There is still hope for you to live, even if your hope for winning is ZERO!"

---

Move: Shift south 1 (haha EXITING difficult terrain is fair game!)
Standard: Valorous Smite v Huntmaster 1. Hit(26)!
 dmg: 14
Minor: Call of Challenge
 Every enemy is now subject to Dido's divine sanction.

Gnoll 1 HP: 17 - 14 = 3

The gnolls yelp in pain!  Two shoot at Dido and start backing away.  Another abandons the attack and flee to the southeast!
This message was last edited by the player at 05:49, Sat 10 Aug 2013.

  Terdisas's streak of shooting Hyenas in the face takes a dive, as he strikes the hay instead of Gnoll behind it.  How embarrassing!

---

Move duh, miss duh.

The death threat gnoll backs up then runs away!

With a look of determination, Callie sprints, amazingly covering the entire room as she hops over the barricade like it wasn't there, then swoops past Kitau, causing a small breeze to blow Kitau's hair a little! Her reckless charge causes her to miss, but at least she's in the gnoll's faces! "By surrender, we don't mean run! We mean lay down arms and lets us tie you up!"

---

Move: RUN South!
Standard: Charge at RUN speed to Gnoll 1! Miss(11)

Kitau switches to her vanguard weapon and charges the nearest enemy, hacking it in a vulnerable spot!

---

gnoll 4 hp: 41-29=12

The gnoll's opportunity attack against Callie fails.

Mits activates her stoneskin armor then follows suit with the reckless rushing past enemies, but this time the gnoll hits!

"Ow!  You'll bay for that!  Geehee."

Fwoosh!  Fire engulfs 2 of the fleeing gnolls!

---

Gnoll 1 HP: 3-15=burnt
Gnoll 3 HP: 31-15=16 and ongoing 5 fire
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:21, Sat 10 Aug 2013.

Dido rushes past all the gnolls to block their path. "THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!" he yells, blocking and weaving all the attacks the gnolls try. He blocks the farthest gnoll and growls. "I. Said. Surrender."

---

Move: Double move to block the enemy's path!
Intimidate check: 32! Crit!

The gnolls yelp and wimper, drop their weapons, and grovel!  Including the one who's on fire.  Well he more rolls around in pain, but that counts as groveling too.

---

Gnoll 3 HP: 16-5=11 Makes the save.

Callie bursts out some pleasant warmth. Kitau's wounds close. Then Callie starts to head north again. "I'm going to heal Steeltooth." and with that, she leaves it to her allies to bind the prisoners while she begins casting Healing Word on the boar.

When Callie gets to healing the boar, she coos softly to him. "Steeltooth, I'm Callie. Ulthand Deepgem sent me to rescue you." She would be sure to throw another hyena corpse into the cage just to reassure Steeltooth she is on his side.

---

Moon Touched. Haha regain 6 hp without spending surges.
D8 rolls: 1, 7, 2. Kitau gains 2 more HP. Keep forgetting this only works on bloodied allies.
Healing word used on Steeltooth:
 1st casting: 3+5+3 = 11 (+21surge value = 32)
 2nd casting: 2+5+3 = 10 (+21surge value = 31)
 If Steeltooth has 2 surges to spend, he can be healed to full.

Kitau HP: 41 + 8 = Full HP
This message was last edited by the player at 08:24, Sat 10 Aug 2013.

  "I believe I can learn to live with anticlimax, especially when it means less injuries for you while I hide behind everyone."  At least that strategy usually works for Terdisas.  Hiding behind cover and others didn't do much for the lifespan of a certain Gnoll.

"Steeltooth," Mits chuckles, "That name still gives me flashbacks."

Kitau ties up badguys and Mits lends a hand.

"Pff.  Anticlimax.  What you tend to call anticlimax sure seems epic to me.  Shoving a death cult leader into a Shadowfell rift to be ripped apart by his dark lord on the other side for example.  And today we have a paladin daring several attacks in order to block off escaping torturer gnoll slavers and making them surrender with a mighty shout!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:33, Sat 17 Aug 2013.

"You remember Ulthand Deepgem, don't you, piggie?" Mittens says, conjuring an image of the dwarf's head.

The boar goes crazy furious seeing it's master's floating disembodied head and charges the cage.

Mits changes strategies and goes with full-body illusion followed by ghost sound to emulate his voice.

"You can trust these people, Steeltooth," the image says, "I sent them to rescue you.  Follow them."

The pig blinks in confusion then calms down.

---

Calming the Savage Beast
Skill Challenge
The PCs can attempt to calm the dire boar and get it to
accept them as friends. Since the dire boar is a trained
creature, it is predisposed to be friendly to nonhostile
humans and dwarves. Unfortunately, the cruel treatment
it has received from the gnolls has frightened it and made
it both scared and angry.
The PCs must achieve four successes before they
attain two failures to convince the boar that they are not
its enemies.
Success in the skill challenge means that the boar fights
along with the PCs against the hyenas and gnolls. It fol-
lows them as long as they feed it and don’t mistreat it, but it
obviously wants to leave this place and return to its rightful
owner. While the dire boar follows the PCs, it can be used
as a mount or a pack animal, but it won’t fight beyond this
battle unless it is specifically attacked by an enemy creature.
Failure indicates that the dire boar attacks whoever is
nearest to it, friend and foe alike. It tries to escape from
the Well of Demons at the first opportunity.
DC 22 Nature checks: You use your understanding of ani-
mals to calm and reassure the beast.
DC 17 Heal checks: You try to ease the creature’s pain.
Only one success with this skill counts toward completing
the skill challenge.

GM handwave: Callie's cure / feeding of the animal counts as an auto success.  Mit's crit fail is followed by 2 successes.  Callie will finish off with successful heal check.

Callie finishes calming the boar and begins the process of getting the cage unlocked. She starts by having the captives explain how.

Whatever it takes, Callie takes the time to work on getting the pig free and able to go with the group.

---

Rolled a 13 and got success.

  "I suppose it would be unprofessional to suggest using the boar to help clear out anything still standing in this building.  Not to mention foolish considering how poorly it has fared on it's own."  At best, it would be something else getting attacked instead of his friends.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 06:09, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

Mits is happy to help with the opening of the cage with her thieving skill.  Once it's open, Kitau steps in, pulls the spike up that was keeping the boar changed to the ground, steps back out with the chain in one hand, and gives it a tug to have the boar follow.  She then offers the chain to Callie.

"Heh.  How does a pretty halfling cleric intimidate a monster?  Carry a chain around and say 'I have a dire boar on the other end of this chain.'  Oh.  And she really does have a dire boar at the end of the chain."

Kitau then steps on a captured gnoll's chest and brings a blade to it's nose.  "Are the slaves still alive?"

"Hehee.  The sacrafices?  Hehee yes!  Maldrick will offer them to Yeenoghu soon!  Hehee!"

Callie says, "Then let's make our enemies sacrifices to Steeltooth. He's likely still hungry." she starts leading Steeltooth southbound. As she does, she pets his side and continues to give him a little doting.

She then looks at her allies. "As for Steeltooth, I agree with Terdisas. Let's have the big guy stay behind when we are ready to enter combat. I'm sure he'll understand a simple command like 'stay'."

Dido says, "Fair enough. Though if things look dire, we'll need to call on his help."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

  "Somehow, I suspect if Callie were riding Steeltooth into battle with her sword strapped to it's head, our enemies would still charge right at her."

  "You say that like we don't do things just as stupid bossman, chirp."

Just then a demon phases into the room and attacks Mittens!

"Ow!  Hey!"

---

Mittens HP: 38-9=29

Kitau steps over and readies an attack for when Dido attacks.  As soon as the paladin flanks with her, she cuts two deep wounds into the demon's back!

---

Balgura HP: 108-39=69
This message was last edited by the player at 21:02, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

Having stepped in to flank, Dido slams his hammer down onto the demon's toe. A crunch can be heard.

---

Standard: Valorous Smite v Balgura. Hit(20)!
 dmg: 13

Balgura is marked by Dido

Balgura HP: 69 - 13 = 56

"Burning hands!" Mittens announces before stepping away from the monster and blasting it!

The demon laughs.  "Fire?!  Foolish mortal, I resist the elements!"

"That's twice now!" Mittens says, happily, "Being called 'foolish mortal' never gets old!"

---

Balgura HP: 56-9=47
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:12, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

  Terdisas wisely moves out of the blast radius of Mittens O'Clock, and takes cover behind the hay bales while sending a bolt of lightning right at... past the demon's head.

  "Tweet, Maybe if you spent more time aiming than running that would have hit?"  "It was a three"  "Oh, right.  Nevermind then. chirp"

---

ROLLED A THREE.

Callie rushes over and blasts her allies with more HP. She narrows her eyes at the demon. "Didn't resist the cutesy little gnome filleting  your back like a fish, did you?"

---

Hymn of Resurgence misses
Effect: Each ally in blast can choose to either gain 5 temporary HP, or make a saving throw.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:15, Tue 27 Aug 2013.

The monster howls from the sudden onslaught!

"What manner of mortals are you?!  No matter.  I shall slay you all!  Starting with this god-loving fool and the gnome!"

CLANG!  Whiff!  The demon fails to do any damage, and is punished with divine radiance!

"Impossible!"

---

Barlgura HP: 47-7=40
This message was last edited by the player at 21:23, Tue 27 Aug 2013.