When we last left off our heroes, they lost pointless elf wizard #1 and gained pointless elf wizard #2, who tells them of pointless encounter #3. Wow... I didn’t expect myself to be so bored of this... Guess the combat really ruined a bit of the experience for me. {sigh} Well, let’s not keep the game waiting. This is Encounter Three of the Starter’s Game.
[Arcana DC: 19. Roll... 25]
And our game begins with Agent Smith looking into the water and receiving another vision. The vision this time? Some furry guy. Huh. Hugh sees this and calls him out on it, and so Smith explains that he was trying to find out what his buddy Malareth was doing. He then goes on to explain on how Malareth was a backstabbing jackass who cut him out of the newest deal of his and he wanted to stab his back by fucking him over. He then explains his name is Adran, but I wanna keep calling him Smith, just because.
Anyways, our heroes, fully rested, decide to head out to the next area, where they see some kobolds. Thank God that their HP is only one.
- Darerris: 25
- Kobolds: 17
- Hugh: 17
- Hollyhana: 16
- Dragon *: 10
- Agent Smith: 8
So Darerris starts up the assault by attempting to stab one of the kobolds.
[Attack Roll: Dagger (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 7]
... I see how this will end... {sigh} One of the kobolds sees this and tries to alert the others. The other Kobold tries to fight with Darerris.
[Attack Roll: Javelin (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 18] [Damage: 4]
Yeah. Hamete the Dice Goddess is unfavourable with me. I guess my daily D4 sacrifices weren’t enough. Hugh goes up next, and he decides to run after the Kobolds. He then through a curtain and attacks the kobolds in the room, switching to a poised assault.
[Attack Roll: Sword (+9) vs. AC (15). Roll... 29, natural 20]
And kills one of the kobolds to shit so hard that the other Kobold runs off to the next room. Hollyhana decides to... hang around a statue and pray. Welp, yeah. Perfect. Agent Smith just fires a Magic Missile at the Kobold that Darerris was having trouble with. Darerris turns and bitches at Smith for stealing her kill. Great, let’s her and him fight, why don’t we? Instead she decides to go after the kobold that is about to alert the Kobolds, alerting the kobolds in the process. She goes deft strike on him.
[Attack Roll: (Deft Strike) Dagger (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 16]
The other kobolds don’t wish for the death to be in vain, so they go to attack Darerris.
[Attack Roll: Javelin (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 19]
[Attack Roll: Javelin (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 11]
Only one of them seemed to hit. Hugh then rushes through a door that the Kobolds were holding up.
[Strength DC: 16. Roll... 13]
But only manages to knock hard on it... That is until he uses his Human Versatility, which gives him a plus four to that, making it more than enough to smash through the door with his sword. Gonna see if the broken door hits them by rolling their reflex.
- Kobold #1: 10
- Kobold #2: 18
- Kobold #3: 5
Only one of them gets killed. She then... goes to some runes on the ground of the first room Hugh went into... WHAT? Okay, some explanation here would be nice, lady!
[Religion DC: 19. Roll... 12]
And she doesn’t manage to read the symbols on the ground. I think I’m actually gonna hate clerics. Smith’s turn. And he... zaps another Kobold dead with Magic Missile. Darerris is getting more and more pissed off, so she decides to stab the Kobold she’s facing.
[Attack Roll: Dagger (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 8]
And misses. Let’s see...
[Attack Roll: Javelin (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 14]
O_O Okay, maybe Hamete is being stubborn for everyone. Hugh then enters and does some killin’.
[Attack Roll: Sword (+9) vs. AC (15). Roll... 14]
WHAT THE... that’s the same result! Fuck it, the Kobolds decide to fuck off and tell the dragon. One of them reaches to the Dragon and boy is he pissed when the kobold interrupts his sleep.
[Intimidate DC: 12. Roll... 5]
But he’s too sleepy to be pissed off so he asks the Kobold to make it quick. The Kobold then says that there are intruders. The Dragon sighs and just sleeps more. Wow, what a lazy dragon. Hollyhana decides to flank.
[Attack Roll: Mace (+6) Vs. AC (15). Roll... 26. Natural Twenty]
And she brains the Kobold. Darerris is none too happy with the kill steal, and to make it even more like a Yank the Dog's Chain for her, Agent Smith decides to Magic Missile the last two. Welp, battle with the Kobolds is over, now they have to encounter the Dragon, who is pretty mellow and thus wouldn’t chase after the group. Though he should probably bother talking to them.
Agent Smith is the first to talk with him. He lays down his weapon before the Dragon and he pretty much tells him that the guy made a good decision. He then expects the others to do the same and have them drop their weapons. Who wants to make a bet Hugh will fuck this all up, seeing as he’s still in the room of slaughtered Kobolds? So now we entered a Skill Challenge, which... is probably gonna be my most favourite of the features here, because it doesn’t really rely on combat, rather it relies on skills and roleplaying. It also allows for some story building, which I will do through my recapping.
[Diplomacy DC: 8. Roll... 12]
Agent Smith tells him about how he hates Malareth and knows that the dragon hates him too, and thus impose a team up. However, the Dragon doesn’t trust the wizard’s cool new friends. Hollyhana then tells the Dragon how she prayed at Bahamut’s altar and proceeds to tell him about who Bahamut was.
[Religion DC: 12. Roll... 15 (+2 for the preparedness)]
The Dragon seems pleased by her knowledge. Huh, the cleric is useful after all. Then Darerris cloaks herself in case the Dragon tries to attack.
[Darerris’ Stealth VS. Dragon’s Perception. Roll... 28 for Darerris, Natural 20, and 25 for Dragon]
Darerris hides out and even moves out to go tell Hugh, who is more combat orientated, to not pick a fight with the Dragon, even going as far as bluffing to him that the Dragon is more powerful than they think. For this, I’m gonna give the opposing check to Hugh an intelligence check, because if he decides to attack the dragon, it’s a bone-headed move.
[Darerris’ Bluff VS. Hugh’s Intelligence. Roll... 18 for Darerris, and 17 for Hugh. That was close]
Hugh understands the implications, so he decides to hide out for now while Holly and Smith talk with the Dragon (counting this as a success). Smith then recalls the history he and Malareth had and why they should team up to kill him, trying to recall the dragon’s involvement.
[History DC: 12. Roll... 14]
He tells it pretty well, and the story of how Malareth entered the temple with him. Although they knew the Dragon was there first, Malareth gave the Dragon a good share of the booty he had, thinking it would appease him. He then tells him that Malareth had kept some things of interest from the Dragon and the mention of that pisses him off some more. Hollyhana then decides to use insight to figure out why he’s so pissed off, even though I can guess right away. However, I need eight successes.
[Insight DC: 12. Roll... 23]
She then concludes that the Dragon is pissed that he’s not getting more treasure. ACE DETECTIVE!
The dragon agrees to this. Smith then says that it’s more than enough evidence for him to forge an alliance with them.
[Diplomacy DC: 12. Roll... 10 (+2 for the successful check before)]
However, the dragon isn’t exactly convinced that he should join them, especially when he can take down Malareth himself. I’m gonna do another religion check.
[Religion DC: 12. Roll... 23 (+2 for preparedness)]
Hollyhana then tells the dragon of how Bahamut would have told them to team up in the name of justice, and... Okay, what the fuck. This Dragon’s a white dragon. A Chromatic Dragon. If he’s supposed to be worshipping a dragon god, why not Tiamat? You know what? Fuck it. I’m retconning that.
Hollyhana tells the dragon that they need to follow both dragon gods’ teachings. They’ll defeat Malareth, while the Dragon keeps the treasures for himself, save for a small wooden box that is an heirloom, and both gods will be pleased.
[Diplomacy DC: 12. Roll... 25 (+2 for the successful check before)]
The Dragon agrees to this, and decides to team up with them to kill Malareth, or at least bring him into justice. While they were doing that, Darerris was sneaking around...
[Darerris’ Stealth VS. Dragon’s Perception. Roll... 23 for Darerris and 25 for Dragon]
But this time, he tripped something up when he tried to take some magic armor, and the Dragon turned around, chilling him. Damn you Darerris! Do you want to have us get killed? One more failure, and we have to fight him! Darerris decides to try and lie her way out of this, saying how she needs some protection herself.
[Bluff DC: 12. Roll... 10]
But the dragon had enough of the thief’s bullshit and decides to freeze her ass... That is, until Hollyhana interferes and tells him that Darerris is on their side (I know that there’s three failures, but we only have one success left. If we get this, we succeed, if not, then we start with the battle.)
[Diplomacy DC: 12. Roll... 8 (-2 for failure)]
And now they just sealed their fate. Thanks a fucking lot, Darerris. Thanks a fucking lot. The Dragon then decides that the party should die alongside the thief. The good news is we don’t have to fight him. We can just escape. The bad news is we have to run to the exit. The good news is two of my characters are near the exit. The bad news is my two other characters aren’t. The good news is that it’s the Wizard and the Cleric, who can take on the dragon. The bad news is that the Dragon has a strong attack range. The good news is that if this is a Total Party Kill, I’ll just reset it so that the Dragon is cool with Darerris taking the magic armor (that’s what I was aiming for). The bad news is that then I just rejected reality and substituted my own. Then again, those seven successes do mean something, so I’m not gonna abolish that in vain.
- Darerris: 25
- Hugh: 17
- Hollyhana: 16
- Dragon: 10
- Agent Smith: 8
Darerris tries one last time to steal the darkleaf leather armor.
[Thievery DC: 12. Roll... 15]
She steals with ease and is the first to get the fuck out. Next comes Hugh, who is the next to get the fuck out. Hollyhana’s turn, and she realizes that she can’t outrun the Dragon, so she tries to hide away for a while. Then the dragon comes, ready to unleash a flurry onto Agent Smith.
[Attack Roll: Cold Breath (+4) Vs. Reflex (15). Roll... 7] [Damage: 6]
Agent Smith decides he’s going to give the Dragon a scar to remember him by and casts his daily at him.
[Attack Roll: Fountain of Flame (+5) Vs. Reflex (11). Roll... 16] [Damage: 42 (I multiplied the original result, 21, by two due to the fire damage)]
It gave him some massive damage, but not enough to scathe him. He then tells Hana to run like hell while she has the chance. The Dragon then goes over and tries to take a bite out of Agent Smith.
[Attack Roll: Bite (+6) vs. AC (15) Roll... 26, natural 20... Is he dead?]
[Odds: So-So. Chaos Factor: 5. Roll... 78]
[Okay. Damage: 8]
Hollyhana leaves in time, but the Dragon catches up to Agent Smith as he is about to go to the exit... Hm...
[Secret Arcana DC: 19. Roll... 15]
And we cut to Hana exiting the room, not seeing Agent Smith following her... Well fuck. He’s dead too. Now I need to roll up a completely new Wizard! These wizards don’t make themselves, you know! Arg, fuck it. They enter the next room and see that they have another fight ahead of them. Great. Tune in next time for a botched fight.
[50 EXP earned.]
