BMP vs. JPG, Round 3
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2
(OOC - and if things don't go so well, papa might need a new pair of feet. :-) )
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
(OOC - If I recall correctly, Rennik is not in the room directly across the hall, but one room up and across the hall. Correct? Also, if one of the webbed skeletons has burst into flame, then the web is on fire, right? That will do fire damage to the two remaining trapped skeletons, right?)
Farron hears the noise from Rennik's room and, seeing that the skeletons in the front of the lodge are mostly taken care of, he moves towards Rennik's room. (As soon as he can reasonably see what Rennik is dealing with and target Horan, he will cast magic missile. If that is this round, great. If not, he will cast it next round.)
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
"Where is she?" Mission groans. "Where is Anileth? What happened?"
The stink of magery is heavy in the room. Mission pushes himself to his feet and sees the skeletons lurching toward the lodge.
Time for questions later. Mission will follow Sa'id to keep him safe from attack.
(OOC: I've included a map noting where everyone is. Have I got things right, Ty?)
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
OK, unless I'm confused, the character placement should be as I have corrected below. Ty, who, if any of us, is most accurate? (and I'm assuming the "W" is "Wereboar" (i.e. Horan).
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
OK, unless I'm confused, the character placement should be as I have corrected below. Ty, who, if any of us, is most accurate? (and I'm assuming the "W" is "Wereboar" (i.e. Horan).
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Oh, and the "G" is Garyth. Gully should be in Anileth's room with Farron and Mission at the start of this turn.
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Once reaching the common room Cadfael will not slow but will continue to the room where Farron called him to administer healing.
(OOC -- Ok, can we please please please stop saving that map as a bitmap? Today, in under 12 hours, I got over 1.5megs worth of maps for the game. While I appreciate having the maps, it also stuffed my Hotmail account to the brim and I haven't been able to receive any messages of any kind for the past few hours. Along that vein, if anything happened after Karl's message saying that the "G" was Garyth I haven't gotten it. Can someone forward it them to me?)
(OOC2 -- In closing: .bmp = bad .jpeg = better.)
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Hotmail = bad
Yahoo mail= better
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Fair enough, I suppose. Can we get wally_russ@hotmail.com removed from the mailing list and add bobtlawyer@yahoo.ca -- Just to make life easier for me.
Also, based on that snide remark, I'm going to assume that I didn't miss any game E-mails :)
Lastly, I still say .jpgs are better, if only because they take less time to download (and I don't want to appear to be wrong)
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Done.
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
OOC email regarding image formats:
The .bmp format, while uncompressed, is precisely what its name implies: a "bit map." In other words, the reason .bmp files are so big is that each individual pixel, even if it's just white space, is saved. The compressed formats -- .jpg, .png, .gif, and so on -- all use various algorithms to prune out useless data (like all that white space). It's analogous to .mp3 versus .wav for audio -- .wav is uncompressed, and therefore massive, while .mp3 is compressed.
Whenever I get a .bmp map and add my update to it convert it to .jpg and then send that out, so if nothing else there I'm always going to be a source of .jpgs.
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 2 ( now with map!)
Um, excuse the completely incoherent final sentence in that last email. Last night was late and drunken. :-P
From: Ty
Subject: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
OOC: Answer to karl. No, the holy flame that destroyed the skeleton in the webbing did not cause the web itself to catch on fire. There are still two undamaged skeletons caught in it.
Mission looks about him, confused and groggy from his injury and sudden healing. Anileth is clearly gone, but she has left something evil in her wake. All around him, he can hear the sounds of fighting and breaking glass. Out the window in front of him, he can see groups of skeletons moving toward the lodge. Sa'id has been casting spells out the window, by the look of him, and now looks like he is getting ready to climb right outside. "Wizards," Mission curses under his breath. He moves to Sa'id's side, and pushes him gently back, then leaps out the window to defend it. Immediately he is set upon by two skeletons from the right. Without thought, his leg flashes out in two rapid kicks [Attacks 22 and 10]. One of them strikes home, and the skeleton closest to him [Damage 7] collapses into a pile of inanimate bone shards.
When Rennik first saw Horan, his rage came up without a moments thought. Now, as he steps forward in a powerful swing, it focuses down to a white hot intensity, unlike anything Rennik has ever experienced before. Three years of hunting, three years of sorrow over his lost bride and his best friend taken by evil, three years of torment and self doubt, are all compressed into this one second in time. The swing has no finesse, no art to it. There is no attempt at defense, or caution. But in the tiny room, there is nowhere to go, and the blow lands on Horan's side with a sound like the chopping of damp wood [Attack 20]. Horan is flung against the wall with the power of the blow [Damage 17], but rebounds onto his feet, looking wounded but still in the fight.
From the west, the sounds of scratching on wood can be heard. The skeletons are pouring into Gully's quarters, and they begin pounding on his bedroom door to get into the hall. Fortunately, he keeps his rooms locked, and the key is on him, but the thin plank door will not keep them out of the hallway for long.
Farron moves into the hall behind Rennik as his battle with Horan rages on. He is discomfited by the pounding of the skeletons on the door to his immediate left, but is able to focus in spite of it [Concentration check successful]. He casts magic missile into the room, pointing at the slavering werebeast. Three missiles strike, [Damage 5, 4, 2], and three small holes are punched into Horan's leathery hide.
Cadfael rushes into the hallway, having heard Sa'id yelling for healing help. He runs into Gully and Cutter, who block most of the hallway. Gully has an expression on his face close to panic, but he grips a bedwarmer he picked up from somewhere in both hands, and looks ready to swing it at the next skeleton to show its face. By his side, the big wolf, Cutter, rumbles out a steady growl and shows its teeth in a frightening display. It is clear that any skeleton trying to get to Gully will have to go through the wolf first. (I put Cadfael's move on hold for a moment)
Sa'id is momentarily irritated by Mission pushing past him like that, but gets over it quickly when he sees the monk engaged in hand to hand combat with two skeletons right outside the window. Sa'id realizes that that would be him, trying to kill the undead things with his bare hands, had Mission not taken his place. Still, he wants to carry on with his original plan, so trusting to Mission to protect him from the closer skeletons, he leans out the window, tearing his shirt a bit on the jagged glass, and casts a fireball spell at the skeleton group moving toward the front window of the lodge (skeletons in red circle). He aims it carefully, trying to hit as many of the undead as possible, without lighting the lodge or the outhouse on fire [Touch attack 9]. Unfortunately, the awkward position throws off his perspective, and the edge of the blast hits the front wall of the lodge. The heavy and rain soaked logs of the lodge do not catch fire easily, but the window pane, made of lighter wood, does burst into flame. On the positive side, all five skeletons caught in the blast are instantly annihilated.
At that same moment, Sa'id's dominated skeleton attacks one of his comrades. It swings with both of its bony claws [Attacks 17 and 11], and one of the blows connects [Damage 5]. The skeleton it struck mindlessly returns its attack [Attacks 14 and 10], also landing one blow [Damage 4].
Garyth can hear skeletons breaking through a door into the kitchen behind him, he can also see skeletons starting to come through the broken front window, though only two make it in before a sudden blast of fire outside annihilates the rest of the group and sets the window frame on fire. Those two skeletons immediately attack him [Attacks 16, 1, 9, 14]. Two of the blows hit [Garyth's AC is 14 versus the 1st skeleton, and 13 vs the 2nd] inflicting painful scratch like wounds [Damage 2 and 2].
Garyth had been looking for a good blunt weapon, and had his eye on the fireplace poker. But now, backing away from the two skeletons that stand between him and it, he takes one last desperate glance around the room. Partially hidden by a hanging cloak, and leaning on the wall right behind him, is a stout walking stick. He quickly grabs it up, and it feels like it could make a useable weapon. In fact, it is almost exactly the same length and weight as the practice stick he would use when training to fight with a two handed sword. He knows that it can deliver a powerful blow in a two handed grip. Now equipped with a weapon, he steps forward and swings at the first skeleton facing him [Attack 14]. He is not accustomed to fighting with a heavy two handed weapon, and his attack lacks his usual finesse, but on the unarmored skeleton it still lands home [Damage 10] and the undead thing is crushed.
All around the lodge there is the sound of breaking glass and shattering doors. Directly north of Gully, in the empty room, the window shatters and skeletons begin to enter the room. (now unpausing Cadfael). Cadfael quickly steps up to the doorway to block their access into the hall.
Inside the room with Rennik, Horan, heavily wounded by the axe blow and magic missiles, launches himself at his opponent. The wereboar swings its vicious claws and then tries to gore with its heavy tusks [Attacks 23, 17, 10]. Both claws hit, though luckily the tusks do not [Damage 4 and 7]. Outside the window at Horan's back, skeletons are already crowding around and trying to climb in.
(Round four after you guys all check in. By next round, the lodge will be crawling with skeletons. As you can see from the map, they are entering in at least five different locations.)
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
Garyth hears the sounds of skeletons entering the kitchen and knows that if he lets them gain entry to the common room he will soon find himself overwhelmed. He quickly disengages from the remaining skeleton and jumps over the nearer table. As fast as he can he overturns the other table and jams it against the kitchen door.
(OOC: Keep his Dodge point on the remaining skeleton.)
From: Karl
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
As Farron sees the horrible sight of the wereboar in the room with Rennik, he hears cracking wood to his left and a snarling wolf to his right. It takes only an instant to realize that the snarling is not a threat to himself. The cracking wood can only be bad, but he puts his hope in the strength of Gully's door and casts Summon Monster III (1 Dire Badger) in the room, hopefully between Rennik and the wereboar, but a little to the side to give Rennik room to swing. If possible, he will direct the dire badger to full attack (2 claws and bite) on the wereboar.
From: Dan
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
Cadfael desperately tries to keep the door closed against the skeletons, but knows he is fighting a losing battle. As skeletal hand bursts through the door, clawing for his face he suddenly gets an idea.
He lets go of the door and does his best to place himself between Gully and the oncoming skeletons and prays to Pelor to protect him and his companions from evil (Magic Circle Against Evil centered on himself).
From: Matt
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
Rennik sacrifices his body to the attack from Horan's claws to avoid the tusks aimed at his throat, bending his head and neck out of the way at the last moment. Bolstered by the satisfying crunch of his first attack and the holes that ripped through the beast's chest a moment ago, he presses his advantage and swings again at Horan's main body mass, hoping to split the beast in two like cordwood and ignoring everything else in the room. (power attack +4)
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
"Thanks," Sa'id says to Mission as he clambers fully out of the window and onto the lawn. Circling past Mission and his own controlled skeleton, he moves over to the web, muttering a short prayer to Pelor and then preparing to cast Burning Hands, targeting Farron's Web to deal with both trapped skeletons.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
We are only waiting on Scott at this point. :)
From: Scott
Subject: Re: Something Wicked; Dead men siege 3
Mission gives Sa'id a nod. "You're welcome." But his tongue is thick and his voice rough, and there is less welcome in it than ever before.
He was so close to his child. So close to redemption. To have it snatched away, and then not be able to pursue is infuriating. But Mission remembers his duty-- and reminds himself that if Anileth has disappeared, he knows he will find her. Eastward.
Mission will attack the remaining skeleton in front of him, and continue to watch Sa'id's back.