Jorune: Strange Allies game (Prologue and Seq 1.1)

Welcome once again to this game of Skyrealms of Jorune. I'm glad that you've joined us, and I'm excited to begin.

STRANGE ALLIES: PROLOGUE
(in which we join our heroes in the middle of the action and flash back to what has come before)


The rain continues to drizzle down on you, and rivulets of water trickle down your neck as you hunch forward to shield your eyes from the downpour. Mud squelches between your toes with every sucking step further into the muck. The rain has suppressed the reek of the swamp a bit, and for that you’re grateful...that, and the fact that the bugs don’t seem to like the water either and they’re leaving you alone for the moment.

*Is becoming a Drenn really worth this?* you think to yourselves, and try to remind yourselves why you want so badly to become Burdothian citizens, instead of thinking of how much you’d rather enjoy a warm meal in a cozy, dry inclep.

Lightning flashes, revealing that you've moved into a new region, moving from fens to mudflats. There's less standing water here, and less vegetation, and a greyness on the horizon suggests that sunrise is not far off. You're tired, wet, slimed, and have had to fight off a number of hostile creatures since you were dumped into the swamp on your way north from Ardoth. You each take a moment to catch your breath as the rain lets up a bit, and you make sure that none of the others have strayed off away from you.

You came down somewhere in Lusail, the northernmost province of Burdoth (north of Glounda and Gauss). Players can tell me if they're going to try to get their bearings with a particular skill like Geography/Wilderness Travel, try to forage, search, or so on.

Here's explanations of how much you each knows about dichandra.

What do you do now?

Marik moves silently away (that's a success) through the muck, but he fails to see that he's backing towards another cluster of crudge, which is slowly rising up as a second dichandra rises up behind him. They see each other simultaneously, and this new dichandra immediately begins to clack its knobby wrists together, making a loud knocking noise, that alerts the first dichandra to the party's presence. Then they both clack their wrists together, a behavior that is weirdly like clapping, but the noise is very loud.

Gythaar is Experienced with the knife; a roll is unnecessary at that time, since you were throwing at a creature that wasn't in combat. But if a roll had been necessary, it would be against your ranks in Knife, which is 12, plus one for your Aim bonus. So you'd have to get 13 or less to succeed on 1d20. The knife pierces the dichandra's soft underbelly; roll 2d6 for damage.

Barragar, being adept at moving silently, effectively disappears to the dichandra. Marik is also already concealed to them, having remained silent despite the surprise of the second creature. Miniri, by virtue of her standing still, barely registers to them. But their ire is raised by the knife and they lumber forward, clacking their stony wrists together, in what Miniri knows is a tactic to startle prey. Their vicious blade-sharp pincers snick open and shut as they advance.

Everyone, roll 2d6 1d20 for Advantage (remember to add your Advantage modifiers, if any).

OOC:
Gythaar was aiming for an eye. Rolled a 1, if that makes a difference :-)

Oops, forgot to apply these modifiers to my rolls:
Strength 16 (+1 Advantage, +1 Hit, +1 Injury bonus)

Gythaar: Your STR and AGL together give you a +2 bonus to Advantage rolls, which gives you an 8 Advantage. With an 8, you can defend against a melee attack, you can evade, or make another ranged attack.

The dichandra with the knife lodged in its chest is making a keening noise, as its mandibles vibrate alarmingly. Normally, I won't break down all the mechanics for you, instead just providing description. But here I will, as this is your introduction to combat.

The five on the damage roll means that the first dichandra has taken a superficial wound to its chest. That gives it a -1 penalty to Advantage, and it loses 2 Stamina (twice the Advantage penalty).

In addition to the Advantage rolls, anyone can choose to roll another Fauna recognition check if he/she wishes.

(edit to add mechanical details of the damage)

Rolling Advantage (Thought it's d20?)

Folks, I apologize! I wrote the wrong thing; after character generation, there are only two types of rolls in Jorune: 1d20 and 2d6. 1d20 is used for everything except the results of a hit. You will only ever roll 2d6 for armor penetration and/or damage. Perhaps I was tired, but I seem to have repeated the 2d6 for Gythaar's damage in the instructions to roll Advantage. That was wrong. I'm terribly embarrassed; I've been running this game for decades; that is probably the most egregious error I've made in that whole time.

So please roll your Advantage rolls over again, using 1d20+5 (for your preparation as the dichandra noticed you), plus your other advantage bonuses, if any. If the result from the 2d6 was better (adding the +5 to that, too), you may use the 2d6 result in this instance, as a bonus for my error.

Here's what the advantages are for round one, as rolled with 2d6. Please re-roll with 1d20 and use whichever is higher.
Dichandra 2's advantage for round 1: 16
Gythaar's advantage for round 1: 13 (6+2+5)
Barragar's advantage for round 1: 12 (6+1+5)
Marik's advantage for round 1: 11 (7-1+5)
Dichandra 1's advantage for round 1: 3

Qralloq can still get Miniri in on this round of combat today.

Gythaar's advantage for round 2: 10 (8+2)

Advantage results:
1 - 5: you may evade only
6 - 10: you may defend, ranged attack, or evade
11 - 15: you may attack or defend
16 - 19: you may attack and defend
20+: you may attack and defend with +5 bonus

Dichandra 1 is going to attempt to recoil from the next incoming attack (evade). It's hurt, confused, and angry.

OOC: Rerolling Advantage

Looks like I'll be keeping my 2d6 roll lol

Marik is close to the dichandra 2, which is going to try to LISTEN for a target. Barragar is in position to attack from the side of dichandra 1. Both are horrified to remember old wives' tales of dichandra spitting venom to paralyze their prey; amusing stories back then, but could they be true? It seems much more likely now that you see them with their dripping mandibles, weakly blinking eye stalks, and tremendously loud clacking of wrist stones.

With an 11 Advantage, Marik needs to decide whether to actively defend, or attack.

Ullis appears to be readying a dysha, much as Gythaar is doing.