More Jumping About
Our party were outside of a mill, in the midst of defeating some ghouls and a couple of ghasts, along with a mage. We had peeked inside the mill and knew that there were more ghouls inside, and I had seen another mage hiding under a table near the back. One of the main front doors had opened, but the side door remained closed. The ghasts were defeated, the ghouls were defeated, and I had taken out the mage. Monks are good against mages, as monks have high saves across the board, and my monk has the Improved Grapple and Trip feats, which can help to prevent mages from casting effectively.
Nothing had come out of the open door, though. Now, I knew there was another mage inside, and my monk's high base speed, combined with a stupidly-high jump modifier, could get me to the other side of the room to combat him while the others took out the ghouls lying in wait. My plan, therefore, was to get to the mage quickly and let the others worry about everything else. Of course, I maybe should have paid more attention to what the group was talking about rather than thinking by myself. Apparently, they had decided to go to the side door and all go in at the same time. Ah well.
I hustled in through the door, hopped up on to a table that I was going to run across to avoid an attack of opportunity, and started heading down. At that point, I was stopped by the DM as some ghouls hiding on the high ceiling were readied to jump on whoever moved underneath them. Four ghouls jumped down on me, somewhat scuppering my plans. Luckily, all their attacks missed, but I was still surrounded. Plan B! Plan B! I tumbled through them, to avoid attacks of opportunity, and then launched myself upwards with a huge jump to plant my feet, which are comfy in some slippers of spider climb, on the wall some 20 feet up, or so. I also called out to the others to check the ceiling.
And then things started to go a little more wrong. A hidden ghast made itself known and tried to jump up to grab me. It didn't quite manage that, so it took damage when falling back down, but it got close enough to make me smell its stench. And, boy, do they smell. I failed my saving throw and ended up with -2 applied to just about all rolls I made, including attacks, damage, saves and skill checks. Great. The mage had also scurried from under the table and moved further to the back of the mill, whence he cast hailstorm at me. Ouch. He will pay for that.
I launched myself from the wall, tumbling to avoid some falling damage, and got to the mage. I then tried to trip him, as I get a free attack if I succeed, and opponents on the ground are easier to hit and provoke attacks when standing up. Except I was in a weakened state, I didn't manage it. Not only that, but he tripped me up in return. Blast. And then he had the audacity to cast Enervation on me, and I managed to fail my saving throw again. Now I have two negative levels, giving me -2 on some rolls and -10 hit points. Woo! And these negatives were cumulative with the ghast's stink, so I had -4 on most rolls. Still, I managed to trip him on my next turn, from prone even, and then I jumped up and finished him off, with a little help.
Ah yes, a little help. Just where were the others during this? Let me explain. Two of the other four had made their way around to the side door and tried to open it. But, no, it was firmly shut. Our fighter tried to barge it open and rolled really high on his strength check. But, no, the door didn't give way. I heard this bump from the inside, checked the door, and shouted that it was barred and nailed shut from the inside. Ah. So they started back around to the front door. But, being dwarves, didn't really move very quickly.
The cleric was near the front door and waited for the cautious mage to come up from the rear, and they encountered the four ghouls that jumped down from me. The cleric turned them, in to dust actually, and then the mage moved to the door to try to find me, having seen me dash in earlier. He couldn't see me, so cast Improved Invisibility to come and hunt for me. He found me at the back standing over the mage, and cast Magic Missile to finish the mage off.
It was about now that the others had got around to the front door. About time, really. The ghouls saw them and advanced, but this put them in a nice line for our mage to cast Lightning Bolt on them, which they didn't know because they couldn't see where he was. After that, there was one ghoul left and the ghast that had jumped at me earlier. The fighter and cleric took care of him, just as our Rogue got in to range to attack something. The rogue was not impressed. He had missed all of the fighting, spending it moving to the side door and then back around to the front. He was desperate to fight something. So he headed off to finish off the ghoul that was running away, down a spiral staircase.
You know when they say you should be careful what you wish for? Yeah, that applied to our rogue. As he moved forwards, four ghouls and a ghast, hidden in the ceiling and readied for someone to move under them, dropped down and surrounded him. Of course, I had been ambushed by the others and they hadn't seen the invisible mage, so the rogue was the first person to enter the room for them. Things had turned from the rogue being pissed off at not having anything to attack to being separated from everyone and threatened by five monsters. And still being pissed off. Some people are never happy.
Ah well, we finished them off and managed to heal everyone up, including all the negatives I was getting to my dice rolls. We lived to fight another day.