Close Call

My online group that was playing Tuesdays is now temporarily playing on Saturdays. Our group has been somewhat diminished since we can't all get together, but we've muddled through.

We're trying to stop some piracy going on, and trying to rescue some people who have been shangheid into slavery. Most of us had recently leveled our characters and resupplied. Klemwinkle was able to replace his Half-Ogre Gladiator Protege with a Human DS Diviner named Earnest.

We got ourselves a ship and worked our way down the coast to a town we'd heard might be abel to get us on track. It's a rough and tumble place (ie a shithole watrefront town) and as we blindly disembark the ship one of our crew lets on he's aboard this mission for the same reason we are and we might find someone to help us at a bar called the Broken Rudder.

We get to this place and order a round of drinks. As we quaff our ales Kylie, our resident magic user, spots some bald-headed guy observing us from the rooms on the second level. Since we hope this might be our contact, we don't do much about it. A second round comes for most of us (Kylie and Klemwinkle won't drink a second round). As Klem watches this bald guy, he notices the bugger casting a spell. Those in the group drinking a second round have to make a saving throw versus posion and 5 patrons bum rush us to attack.

These guys are fast! Klem manages a single dagger throw before they manage to cross the room and get to the group. Klem yells at Earnie to get that 12 Guage crossbow loaded and he tries to comply, but gets dropped when Baldy casts Magic Missile on his 1st level ass. Kylie manages to get off her own Magic Missile at a nearby patron and Dargon lucks out and downs Baldy with a Rigor Mortis spell.

After a round or two of combat a drunken dwarf in plate mail and brandishing a long sword staggers over to our group. Thank goodness because we could use the help, but he starts wailing on our halfling torchbearer Viggo. It takes some effort, but Klem manages to down his two attackers. Dargon and Viggo take some wicked hits, with Viggo passing out. Kylie turns invisible and disappears. As Klem moves to take on the drunken dwarf, Dargon calls out to his "kin". A well-placed Command spell later and Klem gets an opportunity to kill the dwarf.

OOC:The GM ruled I needed to make a called-shot to the neck to try and dispatch the dwarf since I was in the process of moving around to get a rear attack on the guy. Fair enough, but I rolled a natural 19, which is a critical hit! Several severity die penetrations later and I deliver a level 30 crit! No use rolling the obscene amounts of damage dice since I cut his head clean off!

Blood splurts everywhere. At this point it's just Dargon and Klemwinkle battling it out with two patrons. One tries to flee and is cut down by Klemwinkle. The bartender, who had been sitting behind the bar observing so far, decides to get involved and fires his own 12 Guage crossbow. Dargon is hit, but manages to heal Viggo enough to bring him back from the brink of death (he was bleeding every round and was down to -6 HP). While Klem battles the last patron, Dargon and Viggo overturn the table and use it as portable cover as they rush the bartender. The bartender must be specialized in the use of a crossbow, because he is getting off a shot every round. Klem is winded and seeks cover behind a pile of bodies.

Dargon and Viggo walk their table/shield over to the bartender's position and manage to knock him down when he fumbles the crossbow. Throwing the table on top of him, Dargon and Viggo jump up and down on the overturned table with enough force to kill the bartender.

The bar is now devoid of hostiles. Viggo, Dargon, and Ernie are way down on HP and Klem is slightly hurt. Dargon heals everyone up and we loot the place.

There is a decent amount of loot on the bodies and we manage to get a lot of documents. Hopefully we can get some more intel from the documents.