Run Away!

Initiative Rolls

Kaspar comes up with an 18+2=20. Castille scores a 1 ... ouch ... +6=7.

Ok Charles, I know I said I understood the scene, but now that my characters are in danger I'm a bit confused. Where exactly is the warforged standing? How far away from the PCs is he standing? Does the vat more or less constitute the whole room? Or is the vat standing on its own in a larger cavern? In other words, are Castille and Humfred below Kaspar, on the ground, or level with him but on the platform? I'll try to do my best, but I could really use some clarification.

The Action

Kaspar yells, "Oh my God!" and then proceeds to stand and dig out his shortbow. He acts out of combat instinct more than anything else. If he can fire off a shot at the hulking monster, he will. (Rolled a 3. No hits today.) If there isn't a clear shot, Kaspar will leap the gap (Jump roll of 20+9=29.) and try to locate the vat's release valve on the other side. "Find the release valve. We have to flush him out! It's our only hope."

Meanwhile, Castille is stunned. He can barely manage to ready his weapon before the warforged reacts. With all his might, Castille will defend whatever is coming his way. Better yet, if he has any feet, he'll simply run for cover and attempt to ready the flash-flower given to him by Scowlen.

Man I hope Humfred has a few tricks up his sleeve. Kaspar is on fire, but the rest of the crew could easily bite it here.

Gnomes Have Sharp Ears

"I heard something," insists Humfred as he takes a few cautious steps forward. Kaspar is 40 feet away from the platform by the tunnel that Castille is on. The five-foot gap is in front of Kaspar, followed by 15 more feet of catwalk and then the vat edge, and darkness beyond. "No one really knows what's down here, you know, and..." He pauses, and tips his head to the side.

(I rolled a Listen check for Kaspar and Castille. Sorry. Nada.)

"Whatever," Kaspar says. He elegantly flicks the body with the spear point and it floats quickly towards Castille. With smooth economy (you did roll a 20 on the die) Kaspar stands back up, looking about with his darkvision. In the meantime, the body comes to a stop, bumping against the platform upon which Castille stands.

"Holdouts, that was the term," Humfred says to himself, rustling through some papers of his. (Rustling rather loudly, too.) "Ah yes, here are those articles from Sharn. Holdouts was the term used to describe lurking warforged who weren't aware that..."

There is a yell of triumph, and a tall humanoid shape, made of wood, stone, and metal composites, with fiberous half-fleshy cables running underneath it, vaults over the vat edge from where it had been stealthily climbing the ladder. The being is over 6 and a half feet tall, and its body is covered by a silvery sheen. (I just made the Int check for you. You identify it as mithril, the warforged has the Mithril Body feat.) "By the Brave Battalion of Thrane!" it yells, hositing a huge greataxe. It's eyes grow red and its fiberous coils seem to grow and bustle. "GEEYARRRGGGHHH!!!!"

(The warforged got a surprise round, which enabled it to vault the edge of the vault and yell. Now we roll regular initiative.)

(Online dice roller...the warforged got a 13 with the Dex adjustment. Humfred got an 11.)

Anxious Trolling

Ah, my mistake. I thought the water level was higher. I think I understand the scene now.

Kaspar overhears Humfred's comment to Castille about the warforged. As he lays down on the catwalk attempting to stick the body with the spear, he turns his face towards the pair in disbelief. "Do you two mind? As if the rotting stench weren't enough, now you all try to scare me 'bout the warforged. Maybe you'd like to climb down that ladder and give me a hand?"

Then he takes a closer look at the ladder. "Gentlemen, do you see that ladder there? You don't really think there's a warforged down here do ya? ... Gentlemen?"

You aren't going to believe this, but I rolled a natural 20 on my touch attack check to tag the body. Assuming nothing jump out of the muck to grab him, Kaspar will proceed with his plan and drag the body closer to either the ladder or the platform--whichever seems like a better place to hoist the body up and out.

Castille's reaction to Humfred's suggestion is on about the same level as Kaspar's. In fact he does attempt to aid Kaspar as the half-orc approaches the platform by grasping his trousers to hold him up.

Are warforged in any way magical? I'm wondering if a detect magic spell would do anygood?

If You Boil It And Strain It

You had one sunrod that Scowlen gave you. I wasn't sure if you had another.

Without a rank in Knowledge Architecture and Engineering, Kaspar can only see that it looks as if something sheared through the catwalk suddenly. Perhaps some spell, back in the war, when there was fighting in these tunnels.

(Nice spot check!) You can see a crossbow bolt sticking out of the body's back, between the should blades - recall that it is floating face down. You can also see that the ladder on your side, which is to say the set of metal rungs bolted into the wall of the vat going down into the vat, has less grime on it that other surfaces. As if it was used recently.

Kaspar can just, just touch the floating body with Castille's shortspear, if Kaspar will stand at the edge of the sheared part. As he approaches it quivers a bit, but otherwise remains stable. To 'tag' the body with the spear, Kaspar has to make a touch attack against an AC of 5.

While Kaspar extends the spear, Humfred is goggling at Castille. "Me? Swim? In that?" Humfred gasps. "Do you have any idea of how deep and filthy - oh I will not, only a warforged would be swimming in that!" Seeing Castille's look he explains "Warforged are immune to diseases and they do not need to breathe. One could be in that vat right...Did you hear something?"

Gently

Just to be clear, I thought I only had the one sunrod? --And it broke? If the team has another, they'll light it up. Otherwise, I think a second torch is in order.

Castille turns to his companion, "Kaspar! This stench is worse than you on a Monday. Careful not to fall in. I don't want to have to make Humfred swim after you."

After shining a bit more light around the cavern, Kaspar moves very slowly onto the catwalk, testing its strength and trying to spot the cause of the break.

A spot check for Kaspar here comes up 16+2=18.

As Kaspar approaches the body, he calls back for Castille's spear. "Give it quick. I'll fish him out. I think I can reach."

If Kaspar can reach the body using Castille's spear, then he'll drag it towards the catwalk, and then slowly back to the platform edge before taking it out of the muck. In this way, the least amount of weight will be placed on the catwalk.

However, before Kaspar begins, Castille turns to Humfred with a smile, "How well do you swim?"

To Clear Things Up

In the previous post, Humfred's musings to himself at the end are what he thinks he will write in his article for the Korranberg Chronicle. I thought that the use of single quotes would delineate them sufficiently, but Tim is using an "insufficient delineation" defense to explain his delay in posting, so I shall change Humfred's musings to italics.

(I still think Tim's too busy playing whale songs backwards.)

The Vat

You move south, treading carefully in the muck. There is a faint slope, causing trickles of water to flow ahead of you. You see marks of the gators passage. Apparently it lived up ahead.

You walk perhaps 100 more feet south than you did north, before you get to the next area. When you went north you came upon another pipe and catwalks. (And yet another pipe, and a grate, and some bodies...) Now you are in a wide area.

Before you is a platform of tiled stone, 10 feet wide and five feet deep. Bolted to the platform is a catwalk made from metal and wooden spars. The catwalk is five feet wide and it has no handrails. It extends into the darkness. With the torch, Humfred and Castille's low-light vision can only see the wide field of water before them. Kaspar can see to the other side, however, where the lip of the tank has a notch (currently unused because the water level has not reached it), and there are some ladder tops, both inside the vat, and outside it, going down. (You did say that you are using a torch, not a sunrod.)

The catwalk has a shattered section. One five foot square is missing. The two spans jut out on either side like a broken-toothed grin.

Past the platform and beneath you is a vast, dark watery surface. The trickles of water running past your feet tinkles into it. To both your left and your right, jutting out of the walls and ceiling, are several feeder pipes, ranging in size from gutter pipes to tubes of ceramic that Humfred could fit through - if he could swim over them. They occasionally splash and splatter, adding to the background din. (-4 on any Listen checks made in this area.)

The stench rising off of the water is, well, it's not all rainwater, let's put it that way.

"Hm, the crocodile probably lived here," Humfred says excitedly, beginning to take notes. "And yes, on the other side of that catwalk would be the valve lever. Oh dear, that looks bad. Hm, 'great heros made the dangerous jump, risking the unknown', or perhaps 'I was the one who saw their brave deaths,' or maybe..."

(I just secretly made spot checks for you. Castille got it.)

"Kaspar!" he whispers, grabbing the half-orc's sleeve. "There!"

A body (half-elven it appears) is floating face-down in the muck, just beyond the gap in the catwalk.

Dark and Dank Again

Castille pulls out a torch, lights it, and then begins the decent back into the sewers. "Are you two coming along?" he asks with a crooked smile. "Why don't we inspect the vat first and make sure no one is going to flush us out before we finish the job."

Kaspar follows and the three head south towards the vat after regrouping.

Kaspar calls, "Castille, give me that torch. I think you've seen one too many gators as it is. If another comes leapin' out, then I'll be the one to take the blow. You just get yer spells at the ready and we'll take if from there." He continues to himself, "And I sure don't want no warforged leaping on you either..."

"Sure, I know what this is."

Humfred Manygather puts his spectacles back onand quickly scans the papers.

"Hm, yes, yes, they'd want THAT fixed as soon as possible. Not working for about 20 years, eh? Makes sense, sure."

He blinks at you as he realizes that you are getting impatient.

"Oh, heh, yes, you see a retention vat is what is used to trap water. The feeder pipes in the sewers flow into a big vat. The vat has a notch on one side to let water flow out. Maintenance catwalks go voer the vat and around it. The idea is that the - eh, excrement - floats to the top, and then flows out the notch, so that most of what remains is water."

Castille and Kaspar share a glance that speaks volumes about drinking such water.

"Oh it's not for drinking!" Humfred says, seeing their expressions of disgust. "It's used for fighting fires, you pump it up if necessary. Or you you open it bottom valves. That way a whole bunch of water gets dumped through the sewers in one wave. That sweeps out the garbage, and anybody who shouldn't be there. The vat is big enough to hold near a ton of water, and that much released all at once, well you could send twenty gators like the one you killed flying out of the city and into the eastern bog."

"Anyone who shouldn't be there..." Kaspar wonders.

"Is the date significant?" Castille asks.

"Oh certainly, it's the day before the warforged sodliers appeared on the streets!" says Humfred. "Apparently the valve release lever was broken right before...the warforged - well, that explains something."

(Go to the third paragraph here.)

"What?" Kaspar and Castille ask together.

"Oh yes, you aren't from around here. The warforged who took the town a score of years ago, during the Last War. They came out of the sewers. They must have disabled this first, because the regular Thrane infantry came after them. Warforged don't need to breathe, you see, although they might have gotten flushed out with the sudden release of water. They disabled the valve lever, then came up onto the streets and began their horrible, horrible rampage. Can't trust those things, you know. They were made for war, they just can't stop killing, it's their nature."

Got a sunrod or torch ready? Time to re-enter the sewers.

Make Yourself Useful Shorty

Castille will indeed trust what's left of Eddie's papers to the gnome.

"As long as you're coming with us sir, I was wondering if you might know a bit about something called a 'retention vat?'" Pulling the scraps out of his pack, Castille hands Mr. Manygather what he's found. "I think I know where this 'vat' is, but we'll have to get back to the sewers to check it out. I hope you don't mind getting wet."

Search Results

My second attempt to post. I'm saving this one to disk so I don't have to re-type it.

After Eddie slams the door in Castille's face, he'll have a look around the shop. He tries to get a feel for the type of business Eddie runs, the way things are kept, or if any obvious clues are laying about that would in some way relate to the sewer-delve.

Which means that you should have rolled a Search check. Since you didn't I rolled one for you (not wanting to wait until you did, AHEM). Yeah well, I'm not doing that again because I rolled a 19. You can roll from now on or I assume that you are taking 10.

Anyway...the room has been cleared out recently. There are a few scraps and things here and there, but they do not seem to be of any interest. (In other words, without the Investigate feat to boost your Search skill, there is a limit to what you can find.) HOWEVER, you do find an unusual amount of new ash in a heating pipe. Somebody recently burned a large number of papers. And when you burn a large number of papers that are tightly packed together, there usually are a few scraps in the middle that don't burn. (Trust me, I've tried this. It's why you are supposed to poke at a fire.) You find some few untouched papers.

The papers discuss a "retention vat." They also mention that the exhaust valves for the pipe have not functioned correctly since a certain date (which was during the Last War), and the Electors want the thing fixed already. It is a high-priority to them apparently. The paper shows that the retention vate is to the south of where you first entered (you went north when you first started this if you will recall).

What a retention vat is will require a Knowledge Engineering or Knowledge Dungeoneering check DC 11. The significance of the date on the paper will require a Knowledge History check DC 15.

As Knowledge checks with a DC higher than 10 cannot be made untrained, that's all you know, unless you want to trust what you have found with a certain gnome who may know...

Between Friends

Quick post for Castille before we get back to the sewers...

After Eddie slams the door in Castille's face, he'll have a look around the shop. He tries to get a feel for the type of business Eddie runs, the way things are kept, or if any obvious clues are laying about that would in some way relate to the sewer-delve.

Once Castille gets a good look at his surroundings he'll head back outside and introduce himself to Kaspar's new companion.

Annoyed at his lack of success with Eddie, Castille huffs, "Pleased to meet you sir. Come on Kaspar, let's get back to it. Eddie's not talking..."

As Kaspar starts in about Mr. Manygather Castille turns around, "What? Oh, I see. Um... Well, I suppose he can come along. But Kaspar, can I have a word with you -- in private?"

"Sure Castille, what do you need?"

"You do realize that if he joins us, your reward will be less, don't you? I don't mind so much, but I know you're in this for the cash."

"Oh, well I guess I didn't think about that. I just thought we could use the help. I mean, after what happened to you..."

"Can we trust him," Castille continues as he glances over Kaspar's shoulder at the gnome.

"Don't care. He has a daggar and he says he's willing to fight. Let's face it, no others are keen to help. Let's just take this one on faith."

"All right Kaspar. I'll have faith in you. Let's make haste."

Mr. Rendell

Inr esponse to your first question, Fast Eddie puts his hand on the handle of his cane-slash-rapier, and growls "My name is Edward Rendell Esquire. And I did not gain my wealth by throwing money about needlessly. I refuse to go over my budget for this small and dank office given that it is only a temporary place. I doubt that I will get many more contracts fromt he city after this, there is no reason to maintain it beyond my lease. Don't worry mercenary, you'll get your money if you do the job."

In response to your second question, he says "Excited? No, I am not. I am relieved. But you are still not done with the work, that is the point. Do not prattle about looking for acknowledgement when you've only scratched the surface. There are far more men down there."

At the mention of military issue weaponry his face clouds over. "Don't you realize that The Last War is over? People were selling surplus weaponry! Do you know how many people walk around toting light crossbows? Like you, for instance? Don't bother me!"

And with that, Fast Eddie slams the door to his office shut, leaving you alone in the spare front room of the building.

Some Check Results

The sigils indicate that Humfred Manygather is affiliated with House Sivis, the Dragonmarked House of Communication. (Altho not every person in the employ or even in the family of a dargonmarked house has a dragonmark.) It is not unusual for House Sivis to be involved with the Korranberg Chronocile, which is the most widely-circulated news source in Khorvaire. You see no evidence of a dragonmark on Mr. Manygather, however.

The gnome answers you in fluent orc. He grins at his own display of fluency.

He has a dagger, and assures you that he was well-trained in the war. He fought for Aundair, and if you have the time you can check up with hsi commanding officer.

Oh and Castille's pathetic Sense Motive goes nowhere, given that it is perhaps half of FE's Bluff bonus.

This is a Test

Checks

Castille scores a miserable 3+1=4 on his sense motive check against Eddie. Kaspar rolls a 10+1=11 on his Int check against the reporter.

Castille

Slightly startled by the glazier's comments to Eddie, Castille almost stumbles over his next sentence.

"Ah... Eddie, it seems you're short in the purse. I'm worried about my reward you see."

After waiting for a response, Castille continues, this time a bit more composed:"Kaspar and I have retrieved two of the bodies. Did you hear? I know you're busy with the shop, but I thought you'd be more excited.

"Then again, Eddie, we also found the broken shaft of a crossbow bolt next to one of the bodies. Scowlen seems to think that it's one of his -- one that he made for the military.

"Do you have any idea how this killer could have gotten his hands on military-grade weaponry? Suddenly I'm truly convinced that you don't think we'll come back alive. You do have that reward ready don't you?"

Kaspar

Kaspar shouts out his thanks to the crowd as they disperse on Einan's orders. He then turns his attention to the reporter.

"Pleased to meet ya Mr Manyga... Manyergut... Mernyget.... Pleased to meet you sir. That's quite the impressive resume you got there. I tell you what. I talk a good game, but the plain truth is that we could use the help. You got a weapon or should we stop off at the armorer first?"

Just to test him on his language skills, Kaspar poses his final question in orc.

Wow, our very own embedded reporter!

"Can I Join?"

The crowd murmurs appreciatively, and Kaspar's ears catch comparisons to his actions and the heros in tales of old. The only ones still worried are the women whose men have not been found yet.

Kaspar's oratory has gained him some popularity amongst the listeners. Several people, workingmen and not, are offering to form little watch groups and stand over the various sewer entrances. They do not want the serial killer, or any of the various beasts that may be down there, to slip out. Einian has some of his men organize the volunteers.

The volunteers do not stop with the grate and manhole watchers. The gnome reporters, his spectacles falling off as his shoves his notes into his bag, comes up to you and shakes your hand.

"Hello, hello, good Kaspar sir, I am Humfred Manygather, reporter for the Korranberg Chronicle!" (Make a DC 10 Int check as you notice some sigils on his collar.) "I wasn't always a journalist, in the war I was a scout, and a good one. Would you care to have be in the action with you, right in the thick of it, bringing my readers the story straight from the front lines?"

Humfred rattles off a quick resume, which includes the fact that he is an accomplished linguist. He speaks Gnome, Common, Orc, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, and Abyssal. He also has the Research feat.
Do you keep him?

Meeting Unscheduled

(I'll have to type up the response to Kaspar's actions later in the weekend, maybe Sunday, but first I need to know how well he worked the crowd. Roll a Perform (Oratory) check for Kaspar, but he gets a +5 circumstantial bonus. As I don't think he has any Perform ranks, that's a straight up Cha check, which means -2 mod and +5 circumstantial, total of +3. Let me know what you rolled via email or post, and then I can type the response.)

Castille enters via the door, since going through the window is impractical. Eddie is there haggling with the glazier. You catch a snatch of conversation fromt he glazier about not doing a 'short-fix' job, even if Eddie won't be in the city any longer than necessary. Then Eddie hushes the glazier and whirls around to glare at you. The fat man has very sharp ears.

"Eddie. I thought I'd never see the likes of your face again," Castille begins. "I need to ask you a few questions."

"I'm busy," Eddie growls. "And you get no reward until ALL of the men are back."

"You're not busy with me," the glazier says, putting on hsi hat and heading out the door. "I'll go get my tools and do the job that you requested, but you're signing a waiver first, no one will believe me that even you demanded such cheap material." He leaves as Eddie growls at him.

"What?" Eddie snaps. (Roll a Sense Motive and then ask your questions.)

Don't Drop It

Scowlen gives you a round sphere of some lightweight fired clay. There is a yellow band of thin brass around it, and several carved symbols.

"Don't drop it," he tells you. "It's a flash-flower. You squeeze your eyes shut and throw it at something that isn't used to bright light, like an orc, and it's in some serious pain."

Range increment 30 feet, area of effect 30 foot radius, alchemically mimics a double-strength daylight spell. Dazzling effect will stack with any magical dazzling effect, like a flare spell, since it is alchemical in nature. Thrown touch attack (with Dex mod not Str mod) applies.

A Mighty Tale

My next move, eh? It's been a while, but I'm feeling up to it now. First off, once at full health Castille will make his Diplomacy check against Scowlen. He scores a 19!+5=24. I hope that's enough to manage some extra equipment.

As the healing power of Scowlen's spells take hold of Castille, the half-elf looks up and says, "Thank you sir. It's been a rough morning. Where's my partner off to?"

Looking for Kaspar, Castille then continues to his companion, "Kaspar! You saved my life, did you not? I owe you. I thought it would be the sewer waters that would do me in. As it turns out, I should have been paying more attention to what was swimming within them."

Both men listen carefully to the investigators and to the tale, particularly to the details surrounding Fast Eddie's venture into arms dealing. The latter surely affects Castille, although he manages only a subdued grimace.

Turning again to Kaspar, "Why don't you follow Einan and talk to the reporter? I'll pay our friend Eddie a visit and find out what he knows about crossbow bolts."

Kaspar returns, "Are you sure you're feeling up to it? I know you took quite a blow, but that's no excuse for doing anything stupid."

"Kaspar, I'll be fine. Now just give that reporter the story as it happened," Castille finishes with a wink.

With that Kaspar turns abruptly to the crowd and to the reporter. As there are many gathered, Kaspar roars a devilish laugh to interrupt the murmurs and then shuffles amongst the people as he tells his story.

"As water and raw sewage splashed at our feet, we hoisted the killer's victims over our shoulders. Their bodies had no riches left. We had no way to know who they were. But we were honor bound to bring them back as best we could.

"The danger was building. Our light was dying. And then in the distance the beast made oh such a terrible noise! If the great gods had not, in their mercy, taken the lives of our cargo so completely, surly they would have quaked from beyond the grave. I say my friends, that the monster's growl was a weapon all its own.

"And then it lunged, the great tail cutting the dank stink..."

* * *

As Kaspar works the crowd outside, Castille enters Fast Eddie's shop. In fact, if the broken window is large enough, he'll climb right through it.

"Eddie. I thought I'd never see the likes of your face again," Castille begins. "I need to ask you a few questions."

The First-Aid Cometh

As you rise out of the manhole, the crowd noises increase to a fevered pitch. The two dead men are laid out, and the women who recognize them begin to weep. The other people gathered there feel a mixture of pity and relief - relief being that for the families of these two men there is an answer at least.

Your Diplomacy check worked, Scowlen comes over and casts curing spells. Both Kaspar and Castille are up to full hp. (Altho if I recall Kaspar wasn't hurt, but whatever.)

You're prescient. Fast Eddie left about 10 minutes ago. He and a glazier are in his office, arguing over how much it will cost to fix the glass pane that was broken by one of the rioters. (You can go see Fast Eddie if you wish.)

Two constables are charged with going to retrieve the dead gator. The crowd gasps with shock seeing the size of the monster that you killed. A gnome who is with the Korranberg Chroncile, the newspaper of reknown in Eberron, is pestering the constables to let him thru to talk to 'the heros!'.

The constables cut the dead gator's belly open and only find rats. This gator has not fed on any humanoids, or at least not recently.

Scowlen and Einian are being straight with you, as far as you can tell. Castille has yet to try a Diplomacy on Scowlen. If he rolls high enough he may get more equipment from the man.

Einian's men examine the corpses. As some of them have the investigation feat, they can tell that the men were working on clearing the grate of debris when the murderer attacked from a distance. The thigh wound is particularly troubling, because it indicates that the sniper got a critical hit or a sneak attack.

Scowlen recognizes the mark on the bolt head. It's his.

"This was a masterwork bolt," Scolwen tells you. "I made hundreds of these during the war. After the Treaty of Thronehold the town military retained some but sold the rest as surplus."

Guess who one of the middlemen was for these surplus masterwork crossbow bolt deals was? Yep, he's in there talking to the glazier.

Scowlen recognizes the wire, too. Very high tensile quality. Stolen no doubt from a merchant who was one fo the sewer sniper's first victims. The man had been carrying samples on him.

"We've got something of a profile of the killer, based on what you said," Einian says, coming over to you. "Someone without much physical strength, he was obviously stripping the bodies in shifts from what you say. Someone cowardly. Someone who is good at rigging traps. And someone quiet and careful enough to avoid becoming gator food. Why he or she has been taking fingers we don't know."

Scowlen fills Einian in about the masterwork bolt, and Einian looks grim, glancing towards Fast Eddie's place. "You might as well confront him," Scowlen says.

"He was one of dozens of people unloading surplus military stuff," Einian says, hastily. "No sense bothering him." Einain scuttles away to deal with the gnome reporter who is being very loud indeed.

Scowlen frowns and says to himself "Why is he afraid of that man?"

Just then an attending constable comes up to you. The two dead men have been identified. Both human. Dagen Oldtowner, a veteran of the war, age 41, who just started a second marriage. The other (the one hid in the pipe) was Victor Dimmales, a refugee from Cyre. Victor has an ornate brass buckle on his belt with a depiction of the capital of Cyre on it. That buckle is missing, apparently it was the first thing that the killer took.

The widows of both men can be interviewed if you wish, but they've declared that their men had no enemies.

You next move?

Let Someone Else Play Detective

Checks

Kaspar checks sense motive against Scowlen: 7+2=9. Kaspar checks his diplomacy against Scowlen at an 8-2=6. So much for that. As for Sgt Einian, Kaspar makes a sense motive check at 4+2=6. Man!

Castille is in no mood to play the diplomat, but he will check his sense motive against Scowlen at 14+1=15.

Actions

After surfacing, Kaspar turns his attention to Castille. He checks Castille's wounds over in the daylight and continues talking to him.

"Castille. You just hang in there. That gator was a monster. I don't even know if you realized it, but you took that tail right in the jaw. I bet you ain't feeling like yerself, but those woman-folk will be sure grateful for you deed."

"Kaspar," Castille whispers, "just get me a drink."

If no one helps Castille, Kaspar will give him the second potion.

Turning to Scowlen, Kaspar peers around for their employer. "Where's Eddie? Didn't he think we'd make it back out alive?"

And then to Sgt Einian, "Sergeant, I think you better have a look at those bodies. We found a couple good shots from some crossbow in 'em. There's more than rampaging gators down in those sewers. Someone is sure angry at you all. We don't even know that guy, but I bet he was the one who let loose that beast on Castille." Handing the damaged bolt to Einian, "Here, we found this on one of the bodies. Any idea whose symbol that is there?"

Collapse

The Gator lunges forward, jaws flashing, and slams into Kaspar!

All out of momentum.

The beast is dead. Well done. Kaspar hears shouting coming down from the manhole. But he does not have time to respond just yet. I am assuming that you are running over to Castille and pouring Castille's cure light wounds potion down the half-elf's throat. (DM rolls) Castille is now awake and has 2 hit points. (Note that Kaspar still has a cure light wounds potion.) The one casualty is Castille's sunrod, which shattered from the Gator's blow.

Strong hands belonging to watchmen and Scowlen help you haul up the two workmen's corpses, and you hear the weeping of spouses. Do you want to bring the Croc corpse up as well?

Whatever you do when you go up, make a Sense Motive check regarding each person you talk to. A Diplomacy check DC 8 will get Scowlen to cast enough cure spells to bring Castille back up to full. An even higher Diplomacy check might get you more equipment from Scowlen.

And of course you have that evidence to show. And since Sgt Einian has the Investigate feat, he might find out some more clues from the bodies that you could not.

So: Decide, type, roll, and post.

One More Time

Kaspar knows that one chomp from the beast could spell his doom. After briefly considering the distance from here to the nearest ladder, he lunges at the gator again -- this time yelling incoherently at the top of his lungs.

Let's make it happen Kaspar... Rolled a 16+3=19. Man I hope that's a hit. Damage would come out as 3+4=7.

That Hurt!

The Gator shivers and twists, horribly wounded. Gore spews forth from the wound.

Castille lies against the pipe wall, his lifesblood seeping out of him. (His hp now stands at -2)

The Gator eyes Kaspar (The DM makes a morale check - ooh, high!), and its dull reptillian brain tells it to attack, ignoring the fact that one more blow will finish it.

The Gator lunges...(d20 roll comes up 6, plus 6 for Str and BAB, -1 for the flare = 12)...and misses! Kaspar again dodges out of the way just in time!

Kaspar's turn.

Stick it in His Gut

Kaspar would like nothing more than to scream out for his fallen comrade, but he knows better. Better to kill the beast once and for all then to draw it's attention back and die alongside Castille.

Not even a whisper leaves his lips as Kaspar maneuvers himself next to the gator and thrust his blade as hard he can at its soft belly.

Here we go again. Two-handed flanking attack allows the sneak bonus. Rolled a ... 18! (Tim dances) That's a possible crit with the rapier. Just for good measure, the total is 18+3+2(flanking bonus)=23. Rolling again ... 7+3+2=12. If I can spend an action die on the second roll I will, giving me an extra ... 1. Damn.

Damage for the first attack, assuming no crit, comes out at 5+4+2=11.