This site is an online accumulation of the Post Reports for my current ongoing D&D Campaign - for anyone who might be interested in reading them.

Thursday, August 27, 2020

PBEM, Episode 133 - Cleanup Time

 ONE HUNDRED THIRTY THREE

(I/C)

Sighing, Wyn bent down in front of the first fallen kobold and began looking over the dead for anything of interest. Pointing at the Ballista, he suggested, “Someone dat knows someting about ballistas shud disarm dat ting. Den we shud damage eet so we don't hafta worry bout eet any more.”

Rubbing her tongue on her sleeve and spitting crumbling bits of cinnamon, Lyra shrugged her aching arm and said, “WOW OW, what the fuck was that all about?? Yea, I’m alright... How is everyone? Does anyone need healing or bandaging?”

“Lady Layra,” Abraxas limped over, “if you can ask Annie for some healing majik, I could use some.”

“I’ll drink my potion,” Brendon offered. “Heal Abraxas.”

Rolling his eyes sarcastically, Abraxas replied, “Oh! Thanks for the 'help' Brundine.” Lyra laid her hands on the Fighter muttering benediction to Aine (CLW 1d6+1, White 4 – Heal 5 Abraxas!) and Brendon drank him potion (Heal 1d6: Red 6 – Heal 6).

“Whatever,” the Scout shook his head. “I’m going to check the other room.”

"Anyway,” Lannis said, “I have an idea for how to disarm this ballista safely, but I'll need someone stronger than myself to help. First, we should release the tension on the cord first, then remove the bolt, so that if the ballista goes off or the string snaps the dry fire won't kill everyone around it…”

Kovid shook his head, “Let’s not break it or take it apart, we may need it in future.”

“Si,” the Fighter agreed, walking the room slowly, looking at the two statues. “Anyways, Señor Lassie, we should maybe just leave the Ballista as it is, no? Point it at the opposite wall, or whatever, who knows if we may need it later?”

“Yeah but leaving it in place wasn’t such a good idea.”

The Dwarf’s fire finally guttered out, “Woo. I think I’m starting to cool off. Which reminds me, we should refill our oil flasks in the classroom before pushing on.” He gave the room a last look over and then addressed the Magic User, “Just crank the tension bar back up, unload the bolt, and crank it back down. If the kobolds can it, you can too. Like Abraxas said, turn it to the wall and keep the tension off in case we need it at some point.” He called out, “Brendon, hang on, I’ll come help you.” And then walked out to the help the Scout look around the Warren. Before he left, Abraxas took out a torch and had Kovid light it so they would still have a light source.

“Yeah, great,” Lannis sighed. “I can do this. I’m smarter than a kobold. Easy peasy.” (<Int Check -2 penalty, Pink 3) The Magic User spent a few minutes looking over the Ballista, working the tension crank up until the chock was against the woven rope band. He locked it in place, withdrew the bolt from the cradle, and then dry fired the machine, the tension bar releasing and settling almost immediately on the chock. He then unlocked it and slowly wound the entire thing back into a resting postion, feeling really good about himself in the process. “Who needs fighters? Brains over brawns, baby.”


Meanwhile Wyn was going body to body, inspecting them, rolling them over, fumbling about the necks, shoulders, pockets, or anything to see if the kobolds had anything of value on them (<Wis, Orange 7). He did manage to uncover 2 Stone Daggers [10 per], 2 Stone Tipped Javelins [15 per], and (5d6 CP: 2,5,4,2,2) 17 Copper Pieces. In addition (Orange 19), one of the Arrows he had fired was still useable and he added it to his quiver. “Eight,” he muttered. “Not going to last.”

Lyra and Abraxas meanwhile were giving the Statue Room a solid once over, Lyra staying away from the statues themselves, and avoiding the “business” end of the Ballista as Lannis was screwing around with it. Most of the room had little more to offer but the two plinths did have some symbology to Theystra along the bases, and the words “Hilva” were written in alternating Elven and Common along the bottoms. “Senora,” Abraxas called out.

“What?”

“This plinth here, it moves.” Abraxas slid the top of the stone where the Statues would be standing to the side. Inside was a fist sized bit of quartz that had some cracks in it and was glowing very faintly. “Brujah! It’s majiik?”

“Looks like it,” Lyra said, fumbling with the top of the other plinth and showed another similar crystal there. “Another one here too.”

Lannis glanced over (Magic User, >12 Int) and grunted. “Manacrystals. Pretty old ones too.”

“Si?”

“They are used to empower something magical.”

“Like…Stautes?” Lyra asked.

“I would say yes.”

“Do we take them?” Abraxas asked.

“Let’s see what everyone else has found before we make that decision.”

Meanwhile Brendond and Kovid went through the Warren slowly and methodically. They moved chairs, slid boxes, and poked through the bricabrac all over the place with care (<Search Wis, Yellow 4..<Search Wis +2 Thief bonus, Red 6), uncovering one item after another and piling them up near the door. Working together they managed to get through the entire room in a bit over 10 minutes and discovered: 3’ Diameter Tiger Beetle Shell [75], 150 Copper Pieces, 8 Cinnamon sticks [1 per], 2 Slowburn Candles [1 per], 2 Torches [5 per], 20 lbs of scrap iron pieces [200], 3 Cloth Bandages [1 per – surprisingly very clean], Small Pouch of dried Blueberries [5], and finally an old elven sketchbook filled with 60 pages of kittens [10]

Satisfied there was little else to see, they came out and rejoined the group in the Meeting Room where Abraxas was using his torch to burn the slime pile in here. “Ok, we found a bunch of stuff,” Kovid said, “But when we’re done, we are going to need to top off on some oil.”

Time now is: Day 4, 8:34 AM

(OOC)

XP: Explore 2 Rooms @ 15 per: Everyone Add 30 XP each.

Treasure: Everyone add 28 Copper Pieces, except for Lyra, Add 27 Copper Pieces.

Ok – taking anything? Manacrystals? Any of the other stuff? What’s the plan and after divide up, where are we going to go next?

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