TOPIC: [R6] Storm King's Thunder - Discussion

I think you are trying to overcomplicate this... there is a feat that does what you are trying to do... Skulker. This provides a character with the ability to hide when lightly obscured (read distracted?).

This is the reason that ninja carry smoke bombs!

in combat - where someone is aware of you because of an attack, they 'instinctively' know someone is there, and track their movements using senses of hearing, feel etc. the skulker feat may allow a character to use distractions, either those caused by others (i.e. the combat) or those caused by himself (smoke bomb, loud bang, "what's that?...(look behind you)" etc in order to create conditions when a hide is possible.

a pretty good discourse on this is found at: merricb.com/2014/08/13/being-stealthy-in-dungeons-dragons-5e/

I liked this guys' reasoning and he appeared to reference all the rules. in the end whether you are hidden is a DM decision. I particularly like DM's rolling stealth dice for players as - lets be fair - we have no idea whether we are hidden in practice until someone spots us... BUT we do think we are hiding!

mikeawmids wrote:
I'd make this the characters Reaction (assuming not already used). I wouldn't give advantage or have the original character knocked prone however. Perhaps the interposing character has to forfeit his next action...

First time in six months I get to wear a nice dress and it's for an occasion like this, thought Jaya Windriver as she walked alongside her new companions out of the fort gate to face the so-called 'mercenaries'. It was a nice dress, though; Jaya had chosen a deep blue satin gown with a plunging neckline (always good for distracting attention) and it fitted reasonably well. She

The Journal of Dragor Taliovic - Day 2

I've never slept in a castle before. Certainly not one perforated like an old bucket. Those giants really did do a thorough job on this poor town. Still, I feel well rested and my skin is tingling with the background hum of the Wild Magic that infuses me. Occasional sparks of electricity arc from my fingers when I touch something.

The sun had barely risen past the ruined gatehouse when the cry went up. Rushing to the battlements, we could see a band of mounted men approaching. Whether it was my own sharp eyes or a some visual trick bestowed by my power, I was the only one able to make anything out of these fellows.

I noted they wore no uniform, garbed as they were in mismatched pieces of armour and clothing. I turned to the others and sneered, 'mercenaries'.

The men entered the lower town and we relocated in secret to the unbroken gatehouse in order to better assess these interlopers. We espied them making a contact with a cowled figure who must have been hiding out in the tavern during our fight with the goblins the day before. Most suspicious.

After a while the mercenaries approached the keep and hailed us, offering their services of protection for a small amount of coin.

I studied these men for a time, trying to gain some insight into their intentions toward us. My time in the dangerous wilds of Narfell has taught me much about understanding the nature of a situation. I wouldn't have survived so long without gaining some skill in reading a potential foe. Despite being some distance removed from us still, I did get the distinct impression that these sellswords had some ulterior motive behind their arrival, and likely a nefarious one at that.

They asked far too many questions about the state of our defences and who was in charge, as if they suspected we were weak and ripe for plucking. Attempts to send them away failed and they retired to the inn to await someone 'in charge'.

I made my suspicions clear to the others about their motives and we hatched a plan. The woman rogue came up with a most amusing ruse. She would array herself in some of the finery in the dead noblewoman's chambers and impersonate the deceased.

After a short time, she reappeared in a finely woven dress with her face painted in the fashion of a noble lady of the court. The whole thing was very convincing, I surmised that this was not the first time she had deceived others about her origins.

Some of the other members of our strange party also disguised themselves, this time as lowly guards, sporting tabards that bore the sigil of this minor house.

The half-orc druid turned himself into a raven and flew off to eavesdrop on the gang in the tavern. A neat trick, I wish I could do that!

The rest of us strode purposefully into town and arrived in the square. Almost immediately, the mercenaries and their female contact spilled out into the street, fanning out across the open ground. There was a sense of inevitably as to the outcome of this encounter yet we all duly played our parts.

Soon the mercenaries' real purpose was revealed and we knew they were resolved to seize the town and take it for their own. We weren't about to let that happen.

Using a trick I often employed against predators in the forests back in Damara, I drew myself up, seeming to expand to threatening proportions, and ordered these soldiers to get gone.

The attempt was somewhat successful and a few of the lackeys seemed a little shaken by my intimidations. Despite this, it was to be a battle anyway.

The barbarian rushed in to engage the leader of this sorry pack of thieves but his mighty blows seemed to do little but scratch his opponent's hide. I suspect some arcane trickery or potion was responsible for this near invulnerability.

For my part, I launched a flurry of magic missiles at the hooded woman in the party, thinking she may be a mage of some sort and therefore a significant threat. The spell struck well and I could tell she had been hurt quite deeply. When no battle magic came my way in retaliation, we realised we had been mistaken. This was no wizard, it was another female rogue!

As I pondered this revelation, the ranger dashed over to the roof of one of the hovels and started loosing arrows in every direction but their intended ones. That man is going take out one of his allies at this rate if he isn't careful.

Thinking the safest place away from this ranger was directly beneath him, I dived into the hovel he was standing on and flung the shutters open. A surprised bandit appeared in my line of sight and took a full fire bolt to the face. His clothes ignited and he screamed in agony. I closed the shutters once more just as my adversary loosed one of his arrows at me. Fortunately, the cover afforded me by the window was enough to deflect the projectile away, leaving me unhurt.

The ranger finally found his mark and finished this mercenary off. Perhaps the flames presented an easier target for him.

The sounds of battle raged all around, mercenaries dropped like stuck pigs. I burst out of the hovel to see the paladin and a castle guard engaged in melee with one of the men. While his attention was elsewhere, I ran up, shuffled my feet to absorb some geothermal energy from the soil and grabbed the bandit by the shoulders, unleashing arcs of lightning into his body. It wasn't enough to kill him but it allowed the others to strike the killing blow.

Looking around, the battle appeared to be almost over. By the sounds coming from the tavern, the fight with the leader seemed to have moved in there. Feeling there was little more to do, I sat down at the edge of the crater where the obelisk had been and started munching on a strip of dried venison.

I'm not sure who else saw this but Jaya, our rogue, suddenly dashed out of a building on the other side of the square covered in blood, muttering to herself and ran back to the castle. Weird.

Suddenly, there was a huge crash and the fight in the tavern spilled out the back door. The leader was somehow still standing! He must have taken a quite powerful potion. I shuffled round a bit to get a better view and idly launched another fire bolt at the leader. It struck him full on and he ignited, stumbling backwards into the well. The druid managed to grab the man but it wasn't enough to stop him perishing. I'm not sorry.

And just like that, the battle was over. Some trinkets were looted from the fallen, along with a surprisingly large pile of gold and gems that Jaya had somehow appropriated from somewhere.

With the adrenaline still fresh from the fight, we resolved to immediately go out and find the missing townsfolk and so set off towards a cave system a few miles away where the civilians were likely to be hiding.

Outside one of these cave entrances a lot of footprints, human, goblin and something else, had churned up the earth. Thinking the people had taken refuge inside this cavern, we boldly entered into the darkness. I muttered a simple cantrip to illuminate my staff, while the others relied on their innate dark vision to see.

There was a low rumbling sound coming from within a ring of stalagmites that indicated some beast may be slumbering within. Before we could identify the source of this noise, we were ambushed by more foul goblins hiding up on ledges around the cave.

I manoeuvred into a position where I could attack a goblin above a bubbling pool of mud. The little beast toppled of its ledge and landed in the pool which, much to my surprise, rose upwards and resolved itself into a massive ogre. Fortunately, this behemoth missed me with a lazy swipe and I remained unhurt.

The paladin rushed to my aid and took on this huge creature. As for myself, I felt some terrible force welling up inside me, brought on by fear, and struggling to burst forth. Moving away from the paladin for fear of injuring my would be protector, I let go...

With a huge, throat-searing roar, I unleashed a thunderous wave of energy that blasted the ogre and threw it back into the muddy pool from whence it came. This gave me a chance to retreat safely. Once I'd got my breath back I remarked to no one in particular: 'Well that was new.'

The ranger, lurking by the cave entrance, once again proved himself to be more of a danger to his allies than to his enemies. In a misguided attempt to aid the paladin, he fired an arrow into the melee. The bow twanged discordantly and the arrow veered off, striking the paladin in the side. The paladin cursed loudly and staggered briefly before regaining his composure. In spite of this setback, the paladin fought on and swiftly despatched the ogre, barely giving it a chance to climb back out of the mud.

The rest of the fight raged all around me. The barbarian had discovered the ogre's mate, a truly horrendous looking she-ogre who, while briefly dismayed to find its mate killed, quickly turned the focus of her rampant lust onto the barbarian.

I marvelled as the rogue kept appearing and disappearing faster than the eye could follow to launch her attacks, but one badly misjudged sneak attack resulted in an ogre elbow to the face and she dropped to the floor twitching slightly. I winced in sympathy.

While distracted by this, a stray goblin arrow found its mark and struck me in the shoulder. Gasping in pain, I retaliated by launching my trademark fire bolt at it. The goblin shrieked and plummeted to the floor. Goblins are a cowardly species and the last one standing dropped its crude weapons and ran further into the tunnels beyond.

The she-ogre tried to drag the bleeding barbarian to a dark corner, presumably to try and breed with him. Fortunately, the she-ogre was quickly overcome by the rest of the party and the battle was over.

As we saw to our wounds, I suddenly started trembling all over. The loss of blood from the goblin arrow had weakened me and I could feel the telltale signs of Wild Magic taking advantage of this and strange forces surged uncontrollably within me.

From previous experience these outbursts were usually catastrophic and could last for several days. It wasn't safe for people to be around me at these times. Usually it isn't a problem as I've been alone for so long and the only casualties are surprised squirrels or some nearby foliage. This time was different, too many people around.

While no one was looking, I crept out of the cave, gritting my teeth and clutching my wounded shoulder. I managed to keep it in until I made the cover of a nearby wood. Purple light began spraying out of my eyes and the ground began to tremble.

I plunged deeper into the forest, igniting trees and bracken as I passed. Finally, far from prying eyes, I was able to let go and give myself up to the wild magic struggling to get out.

Once this episode passes, I will head back and rejoin my allies and aid them once more but for now, I must hide...

Therutir Charredwood's entry #2

[written in common]

Those sneaky bastards.
The group of mercenaries who arrived this evening entered the town without a care in the world - how had they known that there was no danger? My question was answered swiftly enough. A short whistle, clearly a signal, chirped from the lips of the one in the finer armour and a hooded figure crept out from the shadows of the tavern.

I looked towards the Paladin and the Wild-Mage; it's clear none of us are likely to follow a specific person, but I felt that their presence, or atleast their personalities would put them in an appropriate position to converse with these scoundrels - the otehrs seemed to have the same idea. Next to me the ranger was bristling for a fight, he insisted we gave them no chance to explain themselves. Perhaps he was desperate to clear the cobwebs from his bowstring, or even seeking some sort of redemption for his ill-aimed arrows previously. He eventually got his way.

The mercs were cleary interested in the wealth that this catsle may hold and insisted they spoek to someone in charge - thankfully, the lady of our party was all too obliging to remove her odourous armour and don a pretty blue dress. Her intention was to play as the lady of the keep. Once ready, the others felt they needed to dress up too and removed the sigilled tabards from the dead guards. Thinking better myself better than a lowly mummer, I channelled energy through my quarterstaff and transformed into the shape of a common crow. My intention was to eavesdrop on the conversations in the tavern, and as I was able to perch upon one of the broken walls, my plan was sure to work, that is until my party crossed the gate into the town.

The band of men in the tavern left their ale and seats as soon as one sighted my party - these were men of action, clearly. I watched from atop the building and assessed the situation; the mage seemed to almost double in size in seconds whilst talking to the mercs and rather embarrassingly, some of them seemed to shuffle back at his imposing figure. Not one to take a sleight such as this, the leader quaffed a potion and casually tossed the bottle to the floor to shatter. The hooded figure, who we now saw was a female rogue, took a stance reminicient of a cat, ready to pounce upon her prey. In perfect position for a sneak attack, I morphed back into my humanoid self and clouted the watcher who had knocked an arrow into his string. The surprise left him unable to dodge my staff and he was sent reeling with a bone-crunching crack. He had not killed, at least not in front of me, therefor it was only fair to prevent him from falling to his death. Unfortunately, still numb from my winged-form, by fingers were not as dextrous as I had expected and he toppled unto the ground, breaking his neck. This was clearly a balance sought after by mother nature herself - as a result, I felt no remorse.

Amongst the ensuing carnage, I overheard a "thunk" of a heavy blade into a human neck, looking up I saw the barbarian, fury in his eyes laying waste to his quarrel - unfortunately, it seems that it made but a scratch on the head-merc's shoulder; whatever potion he has used, it is unnaturally powerful. Whilst the fighting continued, I heard the battle spill into the tavern. I clambered down and hid amongst the barrels of the pickled fish and salted meats - the scoundrel was sprinting for the door, no doubt over powered by the others. Seeing and opportunity, I tripped him and left his open for the others to do their bidding.

Out of nowhere, a flaming ball flew with almost pinpoint accuracy and landed true upon the leader's face. He went up in flames in an instant. Sickened by the smell of burning flesh, and concern for it spreading to the surrounding flowers and trees, I kicked him into the well. He landed with a hiss and crash. Using our rope, we pulled him out and managed to search his corpse (as well as the pockets of his men) and found an astonishing amount of gold. These cretins clearly have enjoyed a few pillaging adventures - my thoughts went to the villagers we had promised to save.

Once things were sorted and we were ready to go on our way, we left the castle in the hands of the remaining guards and set out for the cave. The travelling was made easier as we had stolen the mercenary garrons and in due time we arrived upon a cave mouth, riddled with human tracks. One of the keen eyes in the party identified other tracks also; goblin tracks leading out, but something larger and flat following the humans' tracks. It wasn't a giant, thank the trees, but whatever it was, we geared up ready to fight.

In an instant, we were set upon by those chittering abominations - the goblins. I made for the edges of the cave - I've come to recognise my lack of strength in open combat - and looked for a way to climb up. In the meant time, two ogres had appeared and were flailing their clubs at the party. Even though I had taken the safer route, I still found myself the clear target of a goblin archer who took great pride in nailing me nearly to the wall with his crudely shaped arrow. With some less-than-heroic hiding and loosing, I managed to kill the goblin, and turned my attention towards the ogres.
From the long arrow poking out of the paladin's shoulder, and the look of shame on the rogues face, I could only imagine Rafeous had maintained his streak of poorly-aimed shots. Thankfully the ogre from the pit was downed. I moved towards the ring of stones in which the other ogre was bedding but by the time I had arrived, the she-beast was spluttering her last breath.

*written in druidic*

My dark vision is fading, and my eyes are starting to stick together. The goblin piss, no doubt, has started to take its toll. Telling the group I feared for the lives of the garrons we had tied up outside, I left to go seek healing in a close-by woods. They will need to undertake the next step alone.

4th level for next week ?