RQG 200 - Bossing It

## Content Warnings

Physical violence, zombies. Discussions of: death & injury, human remains. Mentions of: rot, bombs, drowning, electrocution. SFX: continuous water sounds, growling & roaring, rumbling, explosions, electricity, occasional beeps.

## Summary

The party tries to sneak past a horde of zombies but Zolf immediately catches their attention. The zombies gets in a few hits and Hamid has a close call but the horde is quickly destroyed by the party's combined might.

## Synopsis

Everyone enters the large room with the zombie horde and Azu, the last one  in, closes the door behind them. They start sneaking across, moving slowly through the overgrown plants as the sound of destruction and combat is heard from outside the newly closed door. Hamid casts *invisibility* on Azu to help her sneak, Skraak is climbing along the wall to avoid the dense foliage, and Cel drinks their beastmorph mutagen to fly above it.

The zombie horde immediately notices Zolf when he tried to sneak. Hamid, who is still hidden, casts *greater invisibility* on him but the horde swarms over them like a wave and tears into them as they are unable to evade the sheer density of zombies.

Zolf and Azu start to channel positive energy to damage the zombies while Cel throws bombs. Hamid casts *fly* on himself and manages to escape the horde without further damage. The horde gets in another hit on Zolf and Azu but soon falls apart under the party's onslaught. From the number of bodies strewn across the room now, it seems like almost every single person from the complex had become part of the zombie horde.

Skraak has opened the northern door to find a large spiral staircase that leads further down and everyone quickly moves on as the sounds of death and destruction are still coming from the door Azu closed.

## Quotes

**Alex**: "If you can give me a stealth check, please. You are getting horrendeous bonuses."
**Bryn**: "The bonus is plus twenty while moving because of invisibility."
**Helen**: "Oh my god."
**Bryn**: "So that is a score of- I rolled an 11 on my die, so that is a total score of... 57."
**Helen**: "Erm- er-"
**Lydia**: "Goodness me! I didn't know numbers went that high!"
―Skraak sneaks horrendeously well.

**Helen**: "Imagine if Skraak is the only survivor."
**Ben**: "Yeah."
**Alex**: "I finally get everything I wanted since the start-"
**Bryn**: "Oh- I forgot Heroism. 59."
**Alex**: "-an RPG that only features me- 59, oh my god Bryn!"
―Bryn forgot about Heroism on Skraak's outrageous stealth roll.

**Ben**: "Aww, I've only got 54 hit points left. (*mockingly*) Waah, waah, waah."
**Lydia**: "Don't provoke him!"
**Ben**: "I always provoke him. He hasn't killed me yet."
**Bryn**: "I mean, he literally did kill you once though. There was that one time."
―Ben tempts fate and Alex.

**Alex**: "So you take-- aw that's irritating-- you only take 17 hit points each."
**Bryn (?)**: "*[sigh of relief]*"
**Ben**: "Pfft. That's pathetic."
―bad day for Alex (good)
## Dice rolls & mechanics

* Azu takes 10 to shove a zombie into the water.

## Combat Breakdown

**Combat continued from previous episode, ongoing effects:**

* Skraak: +2 on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks from *heroism*, and invisible for another 7 rounds from *greater invisibility*.
* Hamid: +4 AC from *mage armor*.
* Azu: +5 AC for another ~9 minutes from *ironskin*.

**Initiative:** Hamid, zombie horde, Zolf, fossil construct, Skraak, Azu, Cel

**Round 3, continued**

* Skraak: Moves into the big room and climbs the wall to be above the difficult terrain. They start climbing toward the northern door with a Stealth check of 59 to remain unnoticed.
* Azu: Enters the big room and closes the door behind her. Everyone hears movement from outside the door.
* Cel: Moves toward the northern door with a successful Stealth check of 18.

**Round 4**

* Hamid: Casts *invisibility* on Azu, rolling a Stealth check of 24 to cast it silently. Moves 5 feet along the edge of the room toward the door.
* Zolf: Moves 10 feet with a failed Stealth check of 16. The zombie horde notices him and starts to stir.
* Fossil construct: Everyone hears destruction outside the closed doors.
* Skraak: Continues climbing along the wall.
* Azu: Casts *prayer*. All allies gain +1 on attacks, damage rolls, saves, and skill checks, while the zombie horde takes a -1 on such rolls. Everyone hears a cacophony of combat outside the room.
* Cel: Drinks their beastmorph mutagen and gains +4 to constitution, -2 to charisma, +2 AC, wings, and the ability to climb. They fly another 15 feet into the room with successful Stealth check of 23.

**Round 5**

* Hamid: Takes a 5 foot step up to Zolf and casts *greater invisibility* on him with a successful Stealth roll of 34.
* Zombie horde: The horde swarms over Hamid and Zolf, doing 16 damage to both of them.
* Zolf: Channels positive energy to damage the zombies. The horde makes the DC 14 Will save for half damage and only takes 7 damage.
* Fossil construct: The sounds of death and destruction continue outside the closed doors.
* Skraak: Continues climbing along the wall and throws a compass across the room, trying to draw the horde's attention. The zombies don't seem to notice it.
* Azu: Channels positive energy to damage the zombies. The horde makes the DC 16 Will save for half damage and only takes 6 damage. The sound of combat continues outside the door.
* Cel: Flies 15 feet up and 5 feet to the side. They throw 2 bombs, 19 (20 frost damage and 13 splash damage to surrounding squares), 16 (28 frost damage and 13 splash damage to surrounding squares). The bombs are sticky and the horde will take another 24 damage from them next turn.

**Round 6**

* Hamid: Casts *fly* on himself. He succesfully casts defensively with a Concentration roll of 24 and stays hidden with a Stealth roll of 34. He flies up and to the side, escaping their reach.
* Zombie horde: Surges over Azu as well, dealing her and Zolf 22 damage.
* Zolf: Channels positive energy to damage the zombies. The horde makes the DC 14 Will save for half damage and only takes 8 damage. Zolf activates his boots of levitation and rises 20 feet into the air.
* Fossil construct: The sounds of death and destruction continue outside the closed doors.
* Skraak: Continues climbing along the wall and drops down by the northern door. He opens it and sees a large spiral staircase leading down.
* Azu: Channels positive energy to damage the zombies. The horde makes the DC 16 Will save for half damage and only takes 6 damage. The sound of combat continues outside the door.
* Cel: Cel's sticky bombs deal another 24 damage and the horde falls apart until there are just a few individual zombies left. Cel draws their crossbow and attacks 3 zombies. 17 (8 physical damage + 6 electric damage), 17 (9 physical damage + 6 electric damage), 13 (8 physical damage + 2 electric damage). The first two shots each kill a zombie and the third wounds one that is in the water. The electricity from the third attack courses through the water and damages all zombies that are there.

## Trivia

* The zombie horde is, unsurprisingly, a zombie horde.
	+ Alex is especially frustrated that it only deals 22 damage in round 6 as dealing 25 damage would have activated its rend ability, letting it deal another 3d6 damage.