[DnD 4E] IC/OOC - Dungeon Delve - Surprise!

Trust

"If I may?" The voice floats out from behind Tanir as he steps forward. "I would suggest having a look a little lower on the hill," the voice continues. A man steps out from shadows, leather armour dulled to blackness. "as I've heard many of these old mansion houses have a basement entrance. It may help get you access without untoward violence."

As he steps out further into the light, his face becomes more visible under the hood of his jacket. His lip curls into a sneer on one side, his dark brown eyes scanning the group, and their armour and weapons.

"Perhaps I can offer my assistance?"

Denada

Dulran responds, still in his cat form. "You're obviously skilled, and if you were here to harm us you would have done that already. Your help would be appreciated, as would your name."

Trust

"Your words are overly kind. I was just lucky to be ca... admiring the house when the orcs took it over. Unfortunately, I've been stuck here ever since. But forgive me, you're correct, I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Cael. Anything further can wait until this situation has been...".

He draws a lamp-blacked dagger from the small of his back, hidden from sight by the jacket. A second blade slides from a sheath hidden up his left sleeve, dropping into his hand easily.

"... shall we say, dealt with?"

3clipse

Tanir nods. "Let us enter, then, and deal with it," he says, moving towards the door.

kuhlmeye

In case anyone was wondering, Trust will be joining us from here on out. I'm going to assume you want to take his special way in.

Cael leads you down the hillside some, everyone with a watchful eye on the house. The few windows on the rear side of the house remain unattended. Cael shows you to a small section of bushes that appear to be a slightly darker shade of green than those around them. Upon closer inspection, the darker shade appears to come from behind the bushes as opposed to the bushes themselves. Pulling aside some of the shrubbery reveals an old wooden door, almost closer to a hatch than a door.

Opening the door reveals a small tunnel running toward the house. It's small enough to require crouched walking, but, luckily, no crawling. Shining a light down the tunnel reveals it runs a good distance toward the house, possibly to the middle of the house, before terminating. It's difficult from where you are to see the end of the tunnel, or anything that could be at the end of it.

Trust

"I suggest I should go first, unless anyone has any objections?"

Cael glances at Tanir, a wry smile breaking through briefly.

In Elven:

Spoiler:

"Although, perhaps your pure-blood eyes would serve better, my friend?"

He shrugs, and starts to tie his jacket open, revealing more of his dull black armour. The clink of metal comes from a pouch at his hip, as he checks himself over, muttering a litany to himself.

His check-list comes to an end, and he looks back up at the group. "Either way, I'm sure we should move swiftly." He turns, his long coat floating out behind him, tied back to expose the sheath at the small of his back, and moves into the low tunnel.

Gonna be fun playing with you fine folks. Finally a chance to play instead of DM, too.

3clipse

Tanir nods, and replies in Elven. "I suppose that makes sense," he says, moving to the head of the group and unlimbering his sword in its scabbard.

Denada

"Lead the way, brothers," Dulran says, then follows.

kuhlmeye

One by one you file into the small tunnel, moving slowly toward the house. The last one in is sure to pull the bushes back over your entry point before closing the door, hoping that no one else saw you enter the house. The trip through the tunnel is a distance that would normally a small amount of time, but the size of the passage lengthens the trip to almost 15 minutes. Upon reaching the end of the small tunnel, you realize it terminates in a ladder going up. You can see that the ladder is almost 20 feet tall, and ends at what looks like a stone block. You can barely see light coming in from the cracks around the edges of the stone block.

Ok, I'm at work currently, so updates will be small until after 5 PM CST. Also, I'm waiting on my maps to download, as they got lost sometime between our last encounter and now.

3clipse

Tanir climbs the ladder as quietly as possible and pushes at the stone block, trying to gauge its weight.

Potentially applicable checks:

Stealth: 1d20+10=28
Athletics: 1d20+7=11

Trust

Cael positions himself under Tanir, ready to climb or catch. He flips his main dagger a couple of times, finding the balance as he prepares to throw it.

"Can't be too careful..." he mutters.

kuhlmeye

Tanir moves like a shadow up the ladder, his footsteps barely audible as he climbs the wooden rungs. Pushing the stone reveals it be rather light for its size.

Passive Perception, 15
You hear the sound of an orc talking from the other side of the stone. "Stoopid humans. This is our house." A slight pause before the voice is heard again, continuing to make comments about the intelligence of humans. It seems to be talking to itself.

Good news. I now have the ability to make up a battle maps again.

3clipse

Tanir turns back down the ladder and signals that there is a single Orc occupying the room.

Trying to determine which way it's facing:
Perception: 1d20+7=27

I SEE INTO YOUR SOUL

kuhlmeye

Tanir - Perception
You know if the orc were facing you the sound of its voice would be louder than what it is, and you make a quick judgement that it's back it to you.

Trust

Cael points to himself then mimes climbing the ladder, ending with a shrug and a questioning look.

How wide is the tunnel? Could Cael shimmy up it without the ladder if needed? Think the bit in the first Matrix inside the walls with the first Agent. I'm thinking of getting up and bracing next to Tanir in order to aid lifting the stone, and also possibly a double team stealth attack on the Orc.

Denada

Dulran is far from stealthy, so I'll hang back and let the ninjas get the element of surprise.

soxbox

Eran hovers just below the others on the ladder, ready to spring into action.

I'm not super stealthy, but if there's any weight to that block you may need my athletics to give you a hand. If so, I'll try climbing up and opening for you.

kuhlmeye

The tunnel is 5 feet wide. It would be difficult to climb without a ladder, but possible. DC 15 Athletics Check

soxbox

I've got a +9 athletics - perhaps squeezing to the top in a ladderless fashion should be my task? I'll leave the decision on who climbs to Cael - if your athletics doesn't cut it, feel free to roll on my behalf.

Speaking of which - does Cael's sheet live somewhere? That will be quite useful for planning my warlordy-ness come combat-time.

3clipse

Let's make sure Interrobang is around before proceeding.

kuhlmeye

Indeed, Cael lives here, and I'll be putting a link into the OP as well.

I took some time tonight to *poorly* recreate maps out of dungeon tile books for the maps. Trust, if you have a particular image you would like to represent Cael in battle, PM me a link to it, otherwise I'll find an appropriate picture for you.

Trust

Athletics check = 1d20+7: 11 [1d20=4], but it doesn't account for my Wood Elf Agility feat, which makes that 4 into an 8, making 15. Depending on if we need Strength help, we can re-order who is where and I'll shuffle up and down the ladder/the walls as needed. Basically, unless I roll a 1, I'm good to go on DC15 checks.

I'll also change my sig to have a link to Cael in, and Kuhl, I'll find a picture.

interrobang

I'm still here! I swear!

3clipse

Hooray!

Anyway. Should Tanir stealth up and try to take him out? I could even (in theory) Sequestering Strike him and drop him down the hole.

Trust

If we get the drop on him, we could try and synchronise. I can get sneak attack damage at range as long as I have CA, and if he's unaware of us, I have that. That could be a hefty chunk, when added on top of your damage too.

As long as we can shift the cap-stone on the tunnel without alerting him, we should both be able to take a crack at him to take him out in one go.

kuhlmeye

Just to let you guys know, tomorrow morning I'm travelling to Seattle for a work trip. This will last until either Thursday or Friday. If you want to get a round in before I head out tomorrow, we can hopefully solve the orc problem tonight.

Stealth DC to not be noticed is a 17. Any other action you want to do, just roll the pertinent dice and I'll let you know the outcome.

Trust

Athletics - Lifting the stone: 1d20+7 17

Stealth: 1d20+9 18

Hopefully enough to get the stone up with Tanir helping.

3clipse

Tanir slips up the ladder and lifts the stone with Cael's help. He slips behind the Orc and, quick as a shadow, slices the beast with his sword. There is a rush of air and suddenly the Orc appears at the bottom of the ladder, Tanir behind him.

Stealth: 1d20+10=28
Athletics: 1d20+7=13
Oath of Enmity on Orc, move to behind it
Sequestering Strike: 1d20+11,1d20+11=19,13 for 18 damage

Trust

Are we counting this as a surprise round?

I figure I can drop from the ladder and nail him with a surprise attack from above, or just throw a dagger into the top of his skull. Just need a ruling on what actions we can take, and whether I can claim CA for the sneak attack damage.

kuhlmeye

This is indeed a surprise round after Tanir's stealth check.

Trust

Cael, still braced between the two walls, looks at the blade held upside down in his fingertips. He glances down, looking thoughtful. He sighs, and... drops the dagger. A rather unpleasant noise is heard from below, and a smirk flashes up on his face.

"Ah, to business then."

Grasping the ladder, he peeks over the edge into the room above...

Deft Strike vs AC (with CA) against Orc: 1d20+11 28 1d4+5 8 2d6 12

Using the movement part of Deft Strike to take me to the top of the ladder, 'dropping' dagger is fluff for thrown attack. +1 damage from Subtle Dagger for CA. Nice first attack of the campaign for me, maxing Sneak attack damage, hehe. Think that covers everything.

kuhlmeye

That orc is toast. I'll have a full update tonight, and I hope to start a proper encounter tonight as well.

kuhlmeye

With the orc properly taken care of, you proceed to climb the ladder, and slowly but surely proceed into the room he was occupying. Someone silently replaces the removable panel, covering the dead orc at the bottom of the ladder. You find yourselves in a small room, not larger than 20 feet, with slit widows on every side of the room. There is a small bed in the northwest corner of the room, with stairs going leading down to what looks like a hallway.

Eran looks out the widows the orc was standing by, and sees the path up towards the house, barely making out the guards down by the small command post. He then takes a moment to look out the eastern windows, and immediately ducks down, motioning the others to do the same. He goes on to describe what he's seen down below.

Spoiler:

The map doesn't really represent the actual room(thank you dungeon tiles). It is apparently the main room of the house. Dotted areas represent tables/chairs etc. You will get another surprise round, as they are not aware of your arrival.

Status: Does not include initiative yet.

Spoiler:

B1
HP: 32/32 AC: 13 Fort: 13 Ref: 12 Will: 11

B2
HP: 32/32 AC: 13 Fort: 13 Ref: 12 Will: 11

O1
HP: 46/46 AC: 17 Fort: 15 Ref: 14 Will: 12

O2
HP: 46/46 AC: 17 Fort: 15 Ref: 14 Will: 12

Tanir
HP: 44/44 AC: 20 Fort: 14 Ref: 17 Will: 17 Surges: 8/8

Eran
HP: 33/33 AC: 19 Fort: 16 Ref: 17 Will: 14 Surges: 7/7

Dulran
HP: 35/35 AC: 18 Fort: 13 Ref: 16 Will: 17 Surges: 8/8

Sonna
HP: 48/48 AC: 22 Fort: 16 Ref: 17 Will: 16 Surges: 11/11

Cael
HP: 34/34 AC: 18 Fort: 12 Ref: 16 Will: 14 Surges: 7/7

Post init when ready.

3clipse

Are we elevated, is that what I'm seeing on this map? Also, is it still 1 action in the surprise round?

Tanir cleans the orc's blood from his sword and draws his hood over his face, his features disappearing into shadow. He holds his sword in front of him and says a prayer to Kelemvor under his breath.

Initiative: 1d20+5=10

Trust

Initiative: 1d20+4 18

Surprise round is one action each, right? I'm tempted to move up to O1 in order to Positioning strike him closer to everyone else in the first round, where we could all deal with him in one go. That would lesson the impact if we could finish one enemy off before they even swing. The other option is for me to Deft Strike him, which realistically could knock off nearly 1/3rd of his health before combat really begins.

What say you guys?

kuhlmeye

Correct about actions in surprise round. 1 action each.

The room you are in is 10 ft above the the room the enemies are in.

Denada

Initiative: 1d20+5 20

I'm fine with either strategy. I can either blast the guy once you move him over, or blast him through the window.

Trust

If you blast O1 as your surprise action, I can nail him with DS and get sneak damage. I'll do 15 or so on average, which added to your damage will put him near death. When combat begins, I can run over to him and finish him off before he hopefully gets a turn. Any objections, or alternatives?

soxbox

"Right... we've got two orcs just below us and a couple of other critters down the back. Those don't look so tough - if we concentrate on downing the orcs, we should have no problem cleaning up. One swift charge from Tanir, Sonna and I coupled with ranged support from Cael and Dulran should be able to take one or hopefully both of them out."

Are those beetles at the back?

Initiative: 1d20+5 17

Remember also that you all get a +2 initiative bonus due to my pure awesomeness - Tanir is init 12, Cael is 20. Also surprise rounds are all about charge. Charge charge charge.

3clipse

I was planning on using Angelic Alacrity =P