Game: Blades of Git'riban : Primal State

... (dice roll behind the screen)

The party moves quickly down the alleyway, the sounds of pitched battle getting louder. At last they catch sight of the ruined buldings and empty lots, and a scene of utter chaos unfolds before them. There are githyanki and illithid thralls slaying each other, true, but there are also several gith in brightly colored, if tattered and dirty, outfits, wielding broad sabers and firing flintlock pistols at both sides. These gith pirates pillage bodies wherever they fall, without discrimination. Closer at hand, in an empty lot strewn with razorvine, close to a dozen savage gith wearing naught but filthy rags and bone jewelry attack any and all comers. These savages are armed with a mish-mash of weapons, from Sigilan-style shivs, to bone-tipped spears, to attacking with viscious bites and bare hands.

The thralls, along with two illithid taskmasters, are trying to fight their way through the closest ruin, aided somewhat by the overall confusion of the situation. If anything, it is the githyanki warriors who are in the most dire straights, as they are for the most part split up and fighting as individuals against a multitude of foes.

So far, none of the combatants has caught sight of the five gith, and one undead headless ulitharid, emerging from the alley.

[Layout: The party is standing at the top of a rise, so they have a good view of the ruins ahead. The empty lot, strewn with rubble and razorvine, is to their right, while the bulilding they can see is straight ahead. One has to go through a gaping hole in the lot's wall and about ten yards, before being able to enter the building through a doorless archway, though a good climber could make it up the rubble pile and ruined wall where the alley abruptly ends, and make it to the second floor of the ruined bulding, though it would take a couple of rounds.

There are two illithid visible. They are curently on the second floor, surrounded by thralls [DMing: 75% - 95% cover.] The ruined walls offer a patchwok view of the second floor, and a clear view of the more heavily ruined third floor.

The empty lot is fairly large, about 90' x 120'. The crumbling archway that offers access to the building is about 30' from the gaping hole in the in the wall between the empty lot and the alley. The lot is strewn with piles of rubble and vertible bushes of razorvine. There are a few other places where the walls are crumbling, and it is through one of these that the savage gith are still coming, being the second-newest arrivals on the scene.

Currently there is hand-to hand fighting on the second floor of the ruin, and probably the first. The third floor is held by half a dozen laughing pirates firing flintlock pistols at the lot and the second floor. A pair of githyanki warriors stand in the archway, defending it from both within and without.

The empty lot is total bedlam. There must be more than one group of pirates, because although they are the most numerous, many are clashing with other pirates. The savage gith are, well, fighting savagely. There are only two living githyanki in the lot, besides the one defending his side of the archway.

What the PCs, as residents of Git'riban, know beyond what they can see:

The "alley" that goes to Gith Lane from here, goes through the lot, the archway, up to the second floor, to the second floor of another ruined bulding, down to the basement, and through a pair of cellers (with private basement apartments connected to the second one), and back up to street level. It is by this route, in reverse, that the illithid must have fled from the Heart.

Additional Info for PCs:

Jank'kor: The access to Undersigil is a sinkhole in the sub-basement of the visible ruin.

Du'minh: One of those illithid is a spell caster carrying a wand, and he's worming his way through the crowd of thralls towards the stairs!

Ar'dru: It sounds like there is a battle going on, not just in this lot and building, but in the building behind as well.

Daraz: You've got a clear shot at any of those swashbucklers on the third floor, but between the rubble and the razorvine everyone in the lot has 25% - 50% cover.

Rey'arteb: You so saw one of the savage gith eating a chunk of flesh from a fallen foe.

]

[DM: Sorry Ben, I didn't see your post before I posted

The 6 pirates on the 3rd floor are unarmored, but armed with sabers and flintlock pistols. One is defending the stairs up from the second floor, the others are firing down the stairs, and target practicing on combatants in the lot.]

Spot Checks

[Round 1]

After quickly coordinating their plan, the band spings into action.

Du'minh runs down the ramp, followed by Ar'dru. With a few powerful beats of his wings, Ardru is airborne. He swoops forward and lifts Du'minh with him into the air.

'Vivic' prods his creation, and the headless zombie stumbles forward down the ramp. Meanwhile, Vivic does his best to remain hidden behind the large undead, and readies a spell.

Taking aim at one of the gith pirates firing from the third floor, Daraz shoots a crossbow bolt straight through his neck. The pirate pitches forward and falls into the the lot, landing on a pair of pirates fighting off a savage gith. The other pirates on the third flood seem to pay little attention to the fall of their comrade, and continue loading and firing their pistols.

Jank'kor concentrates, and marshals the inate powers of his mind. Folding himself between the spaces of Sigil, he emerges in a shadowy corner of the third floor, next to a pile of broken bricks. The five remaining pirates do not notice him, despite the fact that Jank'kor is cringing under a blinding migrane as the bleeding sigil reacts to the activation of a psionic power. [ Max penalty, i.e. -5, on all rolls for the next 3 rounds ]

The illithid, their thralls, the githyanki and gith pirates, are all too occupied with fighting to notice the small party of newcomers thusfar, but as Ar'dru and Du'minh mount into the air, a feral shout is heard from the savage Athasian gith. They redouble their efforts in the lot and surge toward to ruin. A pair of them teleport themselves to the third floor and start attacking the pistol-wielding pirates there.

[Ben, let me know what spell Jank'kor is going to try and cast. Other than the warlock's actions, I can do round 2.]

[Round 3...

Dun, the illithid is slipping between thralls down the stairs from the second floor to the first,, so to attack it you have to do one of two things: 1) Jump down to the stairs below, or 2) lean waaaaay over. If you choose # 1, you may be cut off. If you choose # 2 you'll be precariously ballanced and, in addition to having negative mods on your attacks, need to make a DC15 reflex roll or fall down the hole anyway. BTW the gith pirate you hit cleared the missing steps and landed on a thrall that was trying to defend the hole from further down this flight of stairs.

Az, Ar'dru can draw his sword and make a single attack this round, or continue to full attack with fang and claw.

Tri, Rey'arteb will reach the 2nd floor this round. If he attacks this round he will be precariously bananced (see Dun's paragraph above) or if he waits 'till round 4 he'll have gained stable footing. He will be able to reach the second illithid from behind, but there are six big thralls surrounding it, including three grimlocks. You can go with your current 18 on stealth or roll again and take a gamble (I'll roll their listen checks after I know which you'll go for). There are at least another half dozen thralls currently engaged in combat on the second floor.

Ben, yep, Jank'kor's fire burst spell fizzled. Darkness spell too. Round 3's a bust for you, sorry. Round 4 will be the last round of your maxed penalty tho.

And, just for the record, he's not a vampiric gith, he's a gith with a vampiric touch wild talent

Just to make it interesting, and give Du'minh something to think fast about, I'll show the Athasians' hand one post early, even tho you guys have the higher initiative...]

The same savage gith that disappeared a few moments ago pops in once more. This time he is locking arms with two other savages, both armed with sharpened shanks of thighbone, while the teleporter has a dagger of githyanki make clenched in his teeth.

Jank'kor and Ar'dru are close enough now to notice clearly the physical differences between these savage gith and their astral cousins. They are taller and even more lanky than a githyanki. They have longer faces and more reptilian features, and so resemble duthka'gith more than githyanki or githzerai (the pirates, by contrast, could have passed for 'zerai except for the clothes). Most striking, of course, is their ramient. They are wearing copious amounts of bone jewelry, with multiple piercings in every concievable place. The two newest warriors are wearing breastplates of bone [think native american].