ooc: It's a 'weak' argument but I'm in an extremely rare generous mood. Sure, Meadow was very steady so go ahead and roll a second strength save for Jaliera to make it an advantage roll.
DM When the wave of mud hit the group again it was devastating for some of the horses. Four of them are killed by debris and are pushed into the raging river where their bodies slam against the rocks that jut out of the water. They're not the only ones in the water. Bern got hit hard by a large branch that knocked him off his feet and with that the mud drove him into the water where he is now struggling to survive. He's not alone amongst the travelers. Zindra was knocked from her feet and is now on the edge of the river, at risk of being swept away. For Bern the peril is now the storm-fed rapids and hitting rocks. The water will push those in the water downstream. Strength saves starting next round will determine how far and how much damage is taken along the way.
Kriv moves as fast as he can to get out of harms way but to do so he has to leave his horse and it's unconscious and dead and now floating away, in the water, hitting rocks along the way. Jaliera and Davroar try the same but only Meadow, Jaliera's horse, avoid the rushing mud. Zhu's web proves to be a blessing by keeping Aubric, Arus, Sindar, Boris and Aubric's horse from being pushed into the river. Zhu and Pavel were on tree-tops, thinking that they are safe from the mudslide there. Fortunately, their trees don't topple from the muddy soil and the flow of mud.
What has become Pavel's major concern isn't the mudslide any longer, it's the hill giant. It does not, by some quirk of fate, manage to hold on to the tree it had grabbed and starts sliding down the hill, on it's butt. When it gets up it is face to face with Pavel. It looks up and lifts it's great club, swinging it twice at the man in the tree. The first swing is wild but the second one is true and smacks Pavel hard.
Hill giant attack Pavel twice with greatclub (Hit,Dam,Hit,Dam) Neptune rolled 1d20+8,3d8+5,1d20+8,3d8+5 and got 10, 18, 24, 14 Pavel takes 14 points damage
OOC: I need a couple of things now for Pavel. He needs to make either a strength (athletics) save OR a dexterity (acrobatics) save DC 12 to not fall to the ground. If he fails he'll take another 1d6 damage. Second, I need either a nature, religion or arcana check - player choice. DC 15. If you make it, I'll let you know why).
Code
MaxHP/
Init Character Damage Strenth Save and status
Code
22 Sindar 46/11 Saves! Safe from push
19 Aubric 59/13 Saves! Safe from push.
Conundrum 13/13 Saves! Safe from push
16 Zindra 59/22 Fail!
hZi 13/11 Saves!
14 Kriv 60/16 Safe
hK 13/16 Auto-fail - Dead
13 Bern 76/13 Fail! In water.
hB 13/13 Fail! - Dead
13 Pavel 54/20 Safe
hP 13/11 Saves!
11 Zhu 66/0 Safe
hZh 13/13 Fail! - Dead
10 Jaliera 43/11 Saves!
Meadow 13/10 Saves!
10 Mudslide
8 Hill Giant 105/41 Fail! Str save Neptune rolled 1d20+5 and got 7
4 Davroar 67/11 Saves!
hD 13/14 Fails! - Dead
1 Arus 68/11 Saves! Safe from push
1 Boris 19/17 Saves! Safe from push
Davroar goes and the three in the web follow.
Last edited by Neptune; Thu 23/01/202522:09 UTC. Reason: Updating HP and the ilk
Reaching a relatively safe spot out of the way from the majority of the mud slide, he looks back to see Bern is in the fast moving water and further along spots Zindra dangerously close to the water too. Wanting to save Bern first, he summons a water elemental right beside him, and instructing it to rescue Bern from out of the river.
[ooc: I could not move my icon completely off the map as it complained about my movement hitting a wall ]
DM Even though he was smacked hard, Pavel manages to somehow cling acrobatically to a limb and not fall crashing to the ground. Just before getting hit, however, he glanced at the eyes of the hill giant. Something about them was unnatural, lifeless.
ooc: Dugan, I'll move you off the map. You may want to revisit your move: Conjure Elemental Casting Time: 1 minute (or 10 rounds)
OOC: Miales, you have all the info that I'm willing to give you. From the PHB:
Quote
Insight. Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone's next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.
You determine that the hill giant, from it's body language, wants to kill you
DM Davroar conjures a water spirit near Bern, who is floundering in the water. It reaches a hand out to help Bern. ooc: MikeD, Hold onto your roll until I ask for it. See the OOC discussion about why you get advantage then.
Arus and Boris are up. Sindar and Auburic are in the queue.
With the horse and cart now webbed securely in place, Arus has no need to cut Boris loose.
If Boris could talk he'd probably thank Aubric later for the Bless but for now the horse simply looks profoundly confused. Arus has seen similar reactions on animals being eaten alive by predators; sometimes confusion is better than comprehension.
As for Arus, his main concern now is getting to Pavel... [Nep, how tenable is it for Arus to free himself from the web, move over the terrain between the cart and Pavel and attack. It feels like it might be more than one round, barring some clever magic.]
ooc: Breaking free of the web is a full action and requires a strength save vs. Zhu's spell DC which is 16. Then there's the move which (you should recall) is in difficult terrain so halved.
The triton tears through the web, intent on the fight happening uphill. The holy symbol on his shield is ringed with the glow of divinity as he summons the spiritual weapon on Persana, the trident. It appears mid-air behind the hill giant and strikes as if wielded by an invisible foe.
As the trident distracts, Arus himself scrambles up the slope as best he can.
[Free self from web, Arus makes Str save, 22 in total Cast Spiritual Weapon as bonus action with free attack, 21 to hit, inflicting 6 damage to Hill Giant]
Last edited by nem; Wed 29/01/202517:22 UTC. Reason: Movement
DM A spiritual trident comes to Pavel's rescue. It materializes over the giant's head and strikes and harms it. Arus decides to let Boris fend for himself and the horse, in a slight panic, tries to break free from the webs and does. The cart lurches as it the horse turns away from the water, with no regard to the cart, the people riding on it or the goods it's transporting.
Boris Tries to break free of the web Neptune rolled 1d20+4 and got 23
I need an animal handling for Arus. DC 10...let's call it a save, to control the horse enough to prevent a dumping of the goods into the river. Also, Arus and Sindar both need to make either a DC 10 athletics or acrobatics save. Your choice.
DM Sindar quickly determines that the giant is a threat that he can deal with and so he shoots it with bolts eldritch energy. One of the bolts strikes true but the giant doesn't seem to care.
Zindra stands and trudges back up away from the shoreline as best she can. There's not much she can do for her horse so she fires two arrows at the giant. One of them strikes it.
Since Boris was cut from the cart, Sindar and Arus don't need to make saves. The cart stays put but Boris is still in a bit of a frenzy.
Zindra Fires 2 arrows and applies Hunter's Mark to the roll Neptune rolled 1d20+8,1d8+3,1d6,1d20+8,1d8+3,1d6 and got 17, 7, 1, 10, 9, 1
Aubric goes. Then Zindra. I went already for her.
Kriv and Bern are on deck. Kriv is out of the mud and combat. He can decide to re-enter as his action if he likes. Bern is in the water and needs to try and get out as his only full action. He can still use a bonus action (like hunter's mark?) and if he makes the athletics check I'll move him out of the water. That will require a strength/athletics check. Roll 1d20+5. DC 10.
The cleric sees the giant sliding down the hill, perhaps a few seconds away from being able to hit him as hard as Pavel just got hit, and he has to decide how best to defend against that threat.
He is still restrained by the web, which limits his ability to move to dodge any attack, and in fact by remaining restrained he'd make an easy target. He ponders spells that might avoid close contact with the giant, but none of them are guaranteed to be effective, particularly given the unknowns of the giant's goals and the mudslide.
However, much has changed since his last decision point to not attack. The giant's aggression is on full display and the rest of the party is doing a good job inflicting damage on it. Perhaps the best defense is a good offense, and he hopes the only thing that comes close to him as the mud washes it down the hill is a giant corpse.
Drawing upon his divine connection, Aubric raises the amulet around his neck and intones the solemn words of the Toll the Dead spell.
Aubric Toll the Dead AquaDyne rolled 2d12 and got 11
Giant to make DC16 WIS save to avoid damage.
Conundrum
Aubric's horse watches the giant nervously, but doesn't move.
Last edited by AquaDyne; Tue 04/02/202502:40 UTC. Reason: make toll the dead a link
DM A loud ringing around the head of the hill giant makes it wince in pain.
ooc: You don't need to post spell effects in the thread (probably against some WOTC rule anyway). You could always point a link to the correct (legacy/2014 version) in DnDBeyond like this: Toll of the Dead. It's much neater
Hill Giant Wisdom save vs Toll of the Dead Neptune rolled 1d20-1 and got 11
†Restricted forums can only be accessed by DreamLyrics members of the age of 18 years or older. Access which is granted by the Behind Closed Doors Procedure. ™DreamLyrics Play-by-Post. DreamLyrics Play-by-Post does not own copyright on DreamLyrics texts or graphics, except trademarked DreamLyrics logos and logotypes. The works contained in DreamLyrics are copyrighted (automatically, under the Berne Convention) by the original authors and may be available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence. (See Copyrights for details.) Privacy Policy
