[Round 1]

Yulya casts BLESS on Alice, Ashley, and Cat with Ashleys focus.

Still Exhausted1 with a wounded leg, Cat enters rage again, gaining 4 THP, she moves to flank with Alice. Alice runs north and attacks the rightmost ghoul from the east setting up Flank with Cat. She attempts to grapple him and if successful to shove him prone.

[HIT(A) 1d20+3+2+2d4=(22,13)][DMG 1d8+3=7][GRAPPLE DC13 vs 1d20+5+1d4=12][SHOVE PRONE vs DC13 1d20+5+2d4=29]

Alice hits Ghoul3 for 7HP and managed to shove it prone, but is not able to grapple him.

Cat attacks using her Greatsword with Heavy flanking with Alice.

[HIT(A) 1d20+5+2+1-2+2d4-5HEAVY=(25,CR)][DMG 2x 2d6+5+1+2RAGE+10HEAVY=52]

Cat masterfully decapitates the Ghoul, its head pops off and rolls 20 feet toward the arching throne, further adding insult to injury, the head is fried by heavy arcs of electricity. Turning the flesh to crispy bacon-like shreds. Cat returned to her previous position.

Yulya uses Heavenly Wings and retreats 30ft southeast to Alice's previous position avoiding the discharges.

With her last use of the Ring of quick casting and her last sp Yulya casts INFLICT WOUNDS on Ghoul2. Using both the Goblin Staff and Celestial bonuses.

Having used Ashley's focus and it having no bias on Bless, the wild magic was still flowing through her when she cast Inflict wounds. The wild magic once again helped her, giving her a +1d10 to her next magic attack.

[Ghoul3 is not worth attacking, so I switched Yulya's target to Ghoul2][WILD 1d100=35][HIT 1d20+5+2+1d10=27][DMG 3d10+2+3=25]


Yulya's attack struck with a mighty flash of necrotic, nature and radiant energy, dazzling the Ghoul as he takes 25 damage. Melting his ears and nose to the point of being unrecognizable.

Ashley calls rally attack!

Nixie pounces on Ghoul2.
 
[HIT CLAW vs AC18 1d20+5+1d4=(12)]

Failing to hit, she positions herself with Olga to flank. Nixie is immune to apathy.

Seeing enhanced cursed Helga causes Ghoul2 to become apathetic.

[HIT[A] CLAW vs AC18 1d20+5+1d4=(19,18), GRAPPLE vs DC13 1d20+3=9, HIT BITE(A) vs AC18 1d20+5+1d4=(CR,13), CON vs DC15 1d20+1=16,8][DMG 1d6+3+2x(1d6+3+2)=26]

Olga reaches Ghoul2 with a pounce, managing a claw attack and critical bite, doing a total of 26 damage and grappling the Ghoul.

Nixie disengages as a bonus action using her second rally attack to pounce again.

[HIT[A] CLAW vs AC18 1d20+5+1d4=(23,7), GRAPPLE vs DC13 1d20+3=20, CON vs DC15 1d20+1=CR][DMG 1d6+3=7]

Nixie manages a slash and does another 7 damage.

A troublesome Helga approaches. With her first move, she dashes around the arching throne and narrowly out of range of friendly fire, she attempts to bite the ghoul and a stray firebolt hurdles toward it.

[HIT(CLAWx2,BOLT) vs AC18 1d20+5+1d4=(11,10,17)]

Helga manages to miss on all accounts.

Ghoul1 attacks Helga with claws and in an attempt to bite her.

[HIT vs AC12 1d20+7,+3=(17,14)][DMG 2d8+8=16, 2d10+10=22][COUNTER DAMAGE FIRE 2d10=15]

His attacks easily hit but he takes fire damage with each blow. Helga is sent to the negative plane leaving in a spectacular puff of hot sparks and smoke.

Ghoul2, grappled and knocked prone by Olga's pounce, attempts to free itself.

[ESCAPE 1d20+3=20]

He manages to break free, then stands up with half his movement, and attacks Olga with an attempt to bite her.

[HIT vs AC12 1d20+7=11]

He misses.

A voice fills the air, the same droll, somewhat arrogant one from before, "Oh so my little pets aren't doing as well as I hoped, and I see we have a summoner in our midst. Well we'll have to take care of that!"



The air fills with magic static, in a moment, three zombie bandits rise and attack Ashley.

Ashley looks around, trying to detect an invisible foe, but sees nothing. "if they knock me out, do not resuscitate!" She braces for the impact.



Zombie 1, 2, and 3 attack; 2 and 3 attack with flanking. Ashley's Shield braces against the first hit only.

[HIT vs AC13,AC11 1d20+3, 1d20+3(A)=CR,(19,19),(10,8)][DMG 2x(1d6+2)+2d6+4=16,10]

Ashley takes a critical slash to the head, causing blood to run down her face, then she's hit again in the head knocking her out, she is exhausted1 and has no other effects since she does not personally attack, but she is unconsious. Death knocked on her door and she faced him head on and shook his hand.

Ashley has perished... again.

[Olga and Nixie will continue to fight but will not benefit from rally cries. A quick glance shows there are no further intact bodies or skeletons laying around to be zombified.]

The voice booms through the cave, cheering on his zombies. "There you have it! And soon she'll join me in zombie form!"

[Make your moves]

Ashley tosses Yulya her 1MP focus with a use action. "Yulya, Bless us again! Don't forget about your meta magic and ring of quick casting! And if there was ever a time to sprout wings, now's the time."

Yulya looks perplexed, not sure what to do in this situation. Since the ghouls look more alive then dead Yulya casts BLESS on Alice Ashley and Cat with Ashleys focus.  Though she cannot make much sense of Ashleys words Yulya uses Heavenly Wings and retreats 30ft southeast  to Alices previous position avoiding the discharges. With her last use of the Ring of quick casting and her last sp Yulya casts INFLICT WOUNDS on the right ghoul.  If he is still up after Alices grapple and Cats attack. Otherwise on the middle one. Amplified with the goblin staff and the radiant bonus from from her celestial revelation.

Where Kashtan?
Is Yulya sulking because her plan does not work?
We will see what happens, and how we fight the end boss if we go all out on those ghouls.

Does it look like we're having fun? The game is a terrible, terrible nuisance to all of us! We hate it!


I just hope Cat hits the ghoul and not me! Be careful with your heavy greatsword strikes while I'm grappling the enemy!
And oh no, looks like the whole area will be flooded with something dangerous. That's why Ashley and Cat were conveniently placed on elevated positions and Yulya was ordered to fly. Guess it will only hit me then. After I was hit by Cat. But that's ok. I'm pretty sturdy after all. And apparently I need to become a 'hero' before totally going out. So I'm not worried.

>So what to do about this?

This is one of the best benefits of being DM. We don't do anything about this, I decide.

>give us a hint

Certainly! So far you have experienced this enemy type before, and so you have learned things, like you know they're not undead because they had a zombie form and that form cannot exist after dying as undead. You can only live once and you can only undead once, so if you die as undead, you stay dead dead. You also know they're tougher than the classic ghoul, but their zombie form was closer to the classic definition. If you like, call these elite commander pre-undead ghouls.

>low level cunning enemies

That's a great idea! When you're DM, I think you should do that.

>execute every attack perfectly

That's the one, good luck! Frankly the dice have been super nice to you so often I wonder if SheShe is actually interfering subconsciously in some way, like a DID way which is rather frightening.

>isn't really fun.

So sorry you're not having fun, my main objective is to make it as fun as possible but I am regrettably forced to have a Bear brain with inherent limitations.

>scripted story

Do we need more operant conditioning? I think this is a projection of an Alice problem of perception. It's serious, but I do believe it has improved.

>Does that sound good?

It sounds great! Good job in resolving this issue. As the supreme world leader says, thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Ashley] And God bless America! He should totally add that.