Episode 1

NOTE UNLOCKED.

The Goat brings his spear up in a great arc with both hands, attempting to bring it down into Qiu's head. Stepping inside the swing, the Goat's arms catch on Qiu's shoulders, completely dissipating the energy of the strike. This close, Qiu realizes that this is just a costume, a man in sheep's skin and goat mask. Clever.

For a moment Qiu pictures himself wearing a goat skull while performing his fire breathing act. That'd be pretty nice, he decides. A second strike arcs behind Qiu and past his hip, Qiu's well practiced infighting acting instinctually and shifting his opponent's weight to throw the strike well outside. Pausing just long enough for the goat masked man to shift his weight back to counter the move Qiu just did, Qiu then lurches hard, throwing the man down. As the man falls, Qiu attempts to rip the mask off his face. "This is my show now." he says, almost under his breath.

Then, dragging the flailing man behind him, Qiu moves up to the Bear costumed man and shoves him back away from Talius, striking him in the axe wielding arm as he does so. He then steps between the bear and Talius, still dragging the goat. To the Bear, "You silent fucks deal with me."

Thorn, shielding his face, is suddenly hit by a body. Remembering his training from Urdav, he lets himself be flung back and rolls a backwards somersault to a standing position, immediately charging after the fleeing Dannein, who has now put some space between them. He sees Fingol rocket down the pier and into the boat, shoving off into the water. The vessel begins to drift away.

Thorn puts every last ounce of energy he has into reaching the boat, from a good 15 feet away. As he charges and leaps, he roars in Dannein, "It's your day to die, Fingol!" He leaps through the air, sword in both hands, pointed at the belly of his prey. He crashes into the boat.


NOTE UNLOCKED.

Qiu
BR3Thrashing violently to resist being pulled over and picked up, the skull-masked man with the sheep cape heaves against Qiu's weight-shifting pull.

Slam success.

Qiu's technique is sound though. The Alijanian hooks the costumed man, gaining a grip under the skull and sheep cape mask as he does. The goat is swung with such force that his legs fly high into the air as Qiu pivots him over and drives him into the root-covered ground.

Goat hits the ground shoulder first, and hard. There is a cracking sound as a couple of the roots beneath snap. Mud and shollow water splatter out in every direction, spraying onto Qiu's legs and soaking an entire side of the goat man's body wraps.

Unmask Disarm success.

Jerking backwards with a great effort just as the slam completes, Qiu tears the draping sheep skin cape and skull mask completely off of the masked man's shoulders and head. The heavy dirty cloak disguise is flung backwards, sailing out of Qiu's hand, and lands behind the Alijanian in a shallow puddle as a soggy heap of fur.

Glancing down, Qiu finally gets a glimpse of the face of one of the attackers. The vision is shocking.

Qiu sees the face of a Dannein man. His hair and beard are black and dirty. His eyes are partially rolled back in his head, and some of the vessels of his eyes are blown, red and brown coloring in the whites. His lips are curled up and twitching, exposing dirty yellowed teeth. The man's jaw is quivering up and down. His teeth are lightly chattering together, ceaselessly. The man's entire face is tense and contorted, a picture of inner agony.

Qiu tears his eyes away from the horror, pivoting and launching himself in a headlong charge into the bear costumed man who is matched in combat with Talius. With a full head of steam, Qiu smashes into the covered warrior, catching the bear man unaware, and driving him with great force back away from Talius. and violently drags the unmasked Dannein back towards the other fighters several steps away. Leaning in with a momentarily free hand, Qiu shoves heavily against the bear-costumed man currently battling Talius.
Success on Shove. But noteworthy: only successful after Advantageous CTC roll.
Qiu forcibly re-positions opponent away from Talius and positions himself in between the bear and Qiu's own allies.

As he shoves the bear forward, Qiu hacks downward against the bear costumed man's arm, seeking to separate the deadly axe from his grasp.Qiu resets his stance and squares off again to continue the battle, with the unmasked goat still held beneath him on the ground.

The bear man squares off for more combat as well, though now against Qiu instead of Talius.

"You...cannot ...stop it," Fingol says, heaving his breath with great difficulty to sound every word. "They... will be ...your GODS..."

Blood spurts out of the witch man's mouth on the last phrase. One last breath escapes in a shudder. The light of life in his eyes, meeting Thorn with a stern gaze up until the last moment, fades away and then is gone. Blood pours out of the low corner of his mouth, as his head tilts slowly backwards and to the side to a final stop.

Thorn is kneeling down, close over Fingol's body. The big Dannein is draped backwards over the center bench seat. One of Thorn's hands is still on the hilt of the sword. The other hand grips the low side rail of the boat. He had grabbed it to steady after the heavy landing.

The blade of Urdav's sword is jammed under the base of the center bench, wedged a few inches deep in the wood. Blood pours out of the exit wound on Fingol's back, down the blade, and begins to soak into the old weather-worn deck. Fingol's metal bird skull necklace rests against the blade on the other side, next to the entrance wound in the witch man's chest.

Thorn looks down and sees the antler handled seax blade still in the sheath on Fingol's belt.

The boat is careening back and forth steadily in the water. The vessel is slowly turning around, with the aft end floating around in a slow pivot. One of the oars is floating calmly out away from the boat.

Thorn hears the chirps of distant birds, and sees a tall white egret land in the shallow water nearby. The lanky bird looks briefly at Thorn and the boat, and then turns attention back to the water, hunting for the minnows that teem about in the tall water grass near the bank.

NOTE UNLOCKED.

"Fuck me, I shouldn't have done that."

Thorn stares into the dead man's eyes. He looks briefly over at the egret, wondering if it agrees.

He returns to the present. He sets the sword down, grabs an oar, and guides the boat back to the shore, where he leaps out and hauls it ashore. Getting back in the boat, Thorn relieves the Dannein of Urdav's knife, Fingol's other knife, the bird skull necklace, various charms and talismans, and anything else that appears like it might offer clues to the current predicament. He unsheathes his old guardian's knife, and inspects it briefly before putting it back and strapping it to his belt.Thorn closes Fingol's eyes.

"Go in peace, brother."

Glancing once more at the egret, Thorn shrugs, as if hoping the bird will understand that what we want to happen and what actually happens are rarely the same thing. He hops out of the boat and lopes back up the hill to where he threw his axe.

NOTE UNLOCKED.

Bull
Top of Round 4

Now with some blood starting to bleed through and stain the thick layers of covering on his torso, the Bull lashes out again in a fury of strikes at Kray. Faster and more relentless than any man Kray has ever fought (save likely his uncle Rison who used to spar him at The Eldenmarke), the Bull charges through after his axes swings, trying to barrel Kray over and put him on the ground for good.
Result:
Axe 1: Hit 18 Damage 11
Axe 2: Hit 18 Damage 8
Bull Charge Shove Attempt: 24. Must contest this on STR Athletics to avoid falling to Prone condition.

Goat
TR4

Now unmasked, a wild haired battered man with eyes rolled back in his head and teeth chattering in a grotesque snarl of pain, the Dannein who wore the goat mask stands up without delay after being crashed into the ground. As if he sensed a nearby foe without even seeing him, the big man turns towards Kray and throws his spear, his head hardly even looking over to aim.
He then pulls a small hooking sickle from a sheath on his belt.


Movement to stand. End Prone condition.
Throw Spear attack.

Results:
Spear Hit: 13 Damage 13

goat is still grappeled, cant stand

No. Qiu slammed Goat then moved away to Bear. He's free.
To keep Grapple after Slam, another Grapple attempt required.
I can tell there is some misunderstanding. I apologize. I hope we don't have to argue this.
I'm willing to adjust to a degree and edit the past if you want to keep Grapple on Goat but not with all of the allowances from previous posts intact.
I'll hear it out from you.

Slam was just combining a shove prone with some damage. I am willing to change the Slam rule to make it lose the grapple, it is reasonable since the action economy needs to maintain a balance.

In any case, Qiu's goal is to tie up Bear and Goat, so we can change the Slam to a bonus action Shove. No damage, but I still want to have the Goat's mask pulled off and will happily still burn the disarm maneuver. (Qiu is going to be keeping that trophy.) Shove against Bear wouldn't need to change.

Also, since spear is a melee weapon, but throw is a ranged attack, does the goat get disadvantage for the ranged attack (next to Qiu), or since it is a melee weapon that doesnt apply? I am thinking similar to how thrown weapons dont count as ranged weapons, they are still melee weapons with a range, and thus don't count for sneak attack. (Unless they have the finess tag.)

OK. I'll adjust. Because I was definitely responsible for some of the misconception, and I also misinterpreted what I thought you were describing.

We are going to cut to the chase and say that everything happened pretty much the same, but minus the granted Damage and Disarm Attack against Bear. Keep that Disarm against Bear, that was not spent, but burn the other one on Goat to get the mask trophy. That was cool btw.

I'll change my vision of what happened, and the writing accordingly too.
Qiu Slams Goat, Un-masks him during the slam, picks his freaky ass back up off the ground, drags him 20 feet back to the other fight locale, STILL PRONE, and does a huge bully shove on Crazy Bear and takes away his fighting position.
That's freaking dope 6 second economy if you ask me.

But with that, I'm retroactively adjusting Ex-Goat's TR4 Actions. He sure as heck would not be pitching a spear at Kray if he was still getting choke-hold dragged around by Qiu.

Bro, gotta be blunt to say that I'm really not following your objection to the spear throw. People throw spears all the fucking time. It has the "Thrown" descriptive quality. A published range. That throw was within range. The only Disadvantage that I was considering was if Kray ended up being Prone. Some other Disadvantage you are suggesting ?-- you're losing me there. Moot point I guess since there is going to be no spear throw now.

And alright...
Get out of here with that shit, tough guy. Even if you were UNWILLING I wouldn't be thinking about that too much anyway when I say that Slam House Rule was not intended to be used and then still maintain a Grapple condition along with it. I probably did allow something like that by mistake in the past, so I can gladly concede on this one. But to me this isn't a change that you are letting me do, it's me clarifying if there was any confusion. No more maintaining Grapple condition on an opponent after a Slam unless you make another successful Grapple after the fact.

Here's a smiley face in case you need it to show that I'm not mad :)
Here's a winky face too with hopes that you don't feel like you need to keep arguing ;)

Peace, Love,
J

Ex-Goat
TR4 RevisedAfter being slammed down on the ground and then dragged along the rough roots by Qiu, the unmasked Dannein grips tight on his spear, draws out a small sickle from a belt sheath, and begins to stab and slash upward violently, trying to kill the man who has such a vicious hold on him.

Results:
Miss on both Spear stabs.
Sickle Hit 15. Not sure on that. Damage 4 if hit.

Phantom
TR4

Still partially captured in the damaged net, the robed masked man is forced to take effort and time to free himself.

Attempt to free from net.
Circumstance adjustment: Disadvantage DEX saves for Restrained. Advantage because net is damaged and previous capture was incomplete (opponent had partial control of net). Cancel out dice adjustment for normal roll DEX save.

Result: opponent success. Restrained condition ends.

In fluid motion, the phantom twirls the net off of his shoulders and head and then tucks the net under his arm for carry. With that he steps slightly away from Ivor, seeking to avoid the reach of the dangerous trident, and then launches in a gliding leap upward towards the roof of the house.Opponent Action triggers PC Reaction opportunity via Sentinel Feat.

Bird
TR4

Throwing his long arms wide, the tall bird masked man leaps towards Ivor and tries to wrap him, hoping to manhandle the ex-gladiator and tear at him with his sharp-clawed gloves at close range.

Grapple Attempt.
Claw Slash.

Results:
Grapple 15. Ivor must win check comparison or begin Grappled condition.
Claw Hit: 16. Damage if hit: 10.

Bear
TR4

Shifting attention from Talius to Qiu after being forcibly shoved backwards, the bear-costumed warrior launches at Qiu, his heavy wrapped arms flung wide. Still holding his big one-sided axe, the bear seeks to grapple Qiu.

Result: 21. Qiu needs comparison to equal/beat that or become Grappled.

[note="Xorthan"]Fingol has a good sized shoulder bag and a smaller (but still sizeable) belt pouch. Everything you want could be tossed in there to loot this guy. Hey just to mention it now before I forget, it includes all of the supplies needed to complete a Ritualist Pack.

Thorn finds his axe near the shoreline after a search. It was covered in some brush, a little hard to spot, but he's recovered it.

Hey, man. Sorry to have to ask again for your patience, but I really have to let the other guys catch up. Thorn is heading back to the witch hut, but in the timing of it all, the next bit of story for them will have occurred slightly before Thorn's development out here at the small pier.
Hang in there, bro. I feel bad about it, but I guess it is tough sometimes being the side-story-arc hero who kills the level boss single-handedly while others are bogged down on the soldiers. Right? (It's not exactly like that really, but kind of turned out that way in the mix.)

[note="DMJ"]Hey J, it's no problem at all; I would personally not be able to bear having a story where 20 seconds passed for one group while the other guy fit 2 minutes worth into the same time period. Major plot hole!

Just a few questions while I wait:

Am I right in assuming that Fingol's second knife is a ritual dagger?

Dude have any cash on him?

And just because it feels better to have a ticket with a number on it when you're at a government office to tell when it's almost your turn:
if everyone else is at the top of round 4, what round would you say Thorn just completed in finding his handaxe?

[note="Xorthan"]Bad news up front: honestly, and I'm ballparking here, Thorn is probably around Round 12 looking at it that way. Time flies you know when you are counting by 6-12 seconds.
Don't despair and rip up that high ticket number though. Things might be changing fast for the bulk group. As you might guess (spoiler for you, but you and I need to not spoil it for the others), your girl Rutcranna is about to emerge on the upper deck and change the ballgame. I think at least. But what do I know? This scene did not go in any manner how I predicted.

Fingol has 12 sp and 10 gp and 2 pp. A mix of mostly Jeresian coin, but also some old Mathian mints.

Yes. Small ritual knife is available for capture if Thorn wants to toss that in the bag.

Haha. Not sure if you made your Patience check. I hope so, but DC determined by PC in this case.