Ariston Aristides and the Abandoned Automaton!

[The_Snark]

It had looked like it was going to be such a simple job, too.

Oh, House Cannith's most recent renegade scion would have been a formidable foe to most. The slavering gnoll mercenaries roaming the woods would have sent any casual attacker fleeing. The small army of warforged surrounding the tower had been the match of four lesser men each, and would have broken even a unit of trained soldiers—as indeed they had, during the War. The artificer himself had made a potent staff, and the lightning it called made him a foe to be reckoned with.

To Ariston Aristides, it was just another day's work. The surviving gnolls were scattered; the slavishly loyal constructs were inert or dismantled; the staff lay broken on the floor of the tower. The mad artificer had fled to his lab, shrieking half-coherent promises of revenge, and had even had the decency to trip the magical trap on his doorway, falling over with a crackle of burning flesh. A brief inspection revealed him to be quite dead.

"y-yOU kiLLEd the MASter!"

And then something stirred inside the lab. At first glance, it looked like a skeletal warforged, but a second glance revealed it to be composed of adamantine clockwork, rather than smooth wood and flesh. Its creator had evidently been unable to decide whether he wanted the arms to end in blades, or hands, and so had opted for both: each arm split into two at the elbow, giving it a choice of scissor-like blades or grasping fingers. A cheap black wig sat atop its head, a very feeble semblance at humanity.

It lurched stiffly forwards, eyes glowing and periodically emitting sparks. "k-kiLLed hiM! You mU-MUst dIE!"

Any long-running effects—that is, 10 minutes/level or longer—can be active, as desired. As usual, the prior battles are only fluff—you're at full health, with no resources expended.

[The_Snark]

Initiative order:
Ariston Aristides (22)
HNES-V (8)

Damage taken:
HNES-V: 432 (135 healed)
Ariston: 147

Effects and conditions:
[roll0]

[Vox Clamantis]

The man in black armor brushes his hair away from his face. It was an affectation, keeping it long, and at times he questioned his own sanity. Gods know his old master would have broken a hickory switch across his shoulders for being vain when life was on the line.

[roll0]

Stances are Pristine Essence and Hearing the Air.

Maneuvers are:

Perfect Spellstrike
Army of One
Diamond Nightmare Blade
Greater Insightful Strike
Diamond Defense
Long Slash
Iron Heart Surge

((What distance separates us?))

[Salvonus]

((AUDIENCE: Snark, why are you so awesome?))

[Vox Clamantis]

((AUDIENCE: Snark, why are you so awesome?))

I know, right? I want Snark to DM a whole campaign for me! :smallbiggrin:

~Gabriel

[The_Snark]

Distance is... not very much. We'll call it 30 feet. You're currently in a corridor, right in front of the recently trapped and now open doorway; it's inside the lab, which is filled with incomplete machinery, piles of scrap metal, and mysterious bubbling substances in glass tubes... you get the idea. One could find cover inside, but right now both of you have an unobstructed path to the other.

Your move... and thanks! My forays into DMing have revealed that I'm not good at keeping up a consistent pace, but these little short thingies are fun.

[Vox Clamantis]

For a splintered moment, the man in plain armor and the clockwork horror stare at each other across the wrecked laboratory. It isn't until some indiscernible signal that the man's reflexes are triggered, and he moves into action.

The enormous sword comes up for a two-handed salute, but this is no simple gesture of good will. Even as he stands motionless, two perfect copies of the man leap from his body and charge down the length of the corridor. Each terminates their charge with a single perfect slash and then disappears in a sudden haze of raw magic.

That would be Army of One, initiated as a full round maneuver.

Each copy is perfect in every way, right down to its equipment. Their attacks are made with my weapon for all intents and purposes.

Both initiate Greater Insightful Strike. These uses do not expend that maneuver for me.

[roll0]
[roll1] and multiply that by two for damage.

[roll2]
[roll3] x2 also.

Edged Victory counts as magic, epic, slashing, and good. If either of these attacks hit, it will bypass ALL forms of DR on this target for 10 rounds.

[The_Snark]

The two swords strike in unison, catching the clockwork man from both sides in a blow that would have slain a giant. This foe, though, is made of tougher stuff; it staggers, but remains standing. Even as the swords vanish into nothing, wires snake out across the gaping holes in its torso, beginning to reconnect.

It whirrs in confusion, taking a step back. "mu-mu-mU-MUSt—" And then it springs into the air, outline blurring as mesh wings like those of dragonflies snap out to either side and begin beating. It darts erratically backwards, moving from side to side and knocking over the glassware on the table behind it.

It now has a 50% miss chance; if you have True Seeing active, you ignore it. It's a good fifty feet away, with several tables, shelves and such between you—Jump or Climb check if you want to move over them.

Also, Army of One does expend the maneuver, I think...

[Vox Clamantis]

Also, Army of One does expend the maneuver, I think...

No, not unless the maneuver in question is 7th or 8th level. Greater Insightful Strike is 6th, and is therefore not expended.[/spoiler]

Puzzled but not feeling particularly threatened, the dark-eyed swordsman leaps a few feet into the air and catches himself on feathered wings that unfurl from the back of his breastplate. With a swoop he closes the distance to the wretched machine and delivers a single cut that could split adamant.

[roll0]

Diamond Nightmare Blade (Standard action)

[roll1]
[roll2] multiplied by four for final damage, the weapon possesses every quality needed to bypass that specific DR (and thus may also deal real damage against regenerating targets).

...if the target weren't immune, that would have crit. :smallbiggrin:

[The_Snark]

The perfectly timed blow slides through the widely beating wings without touching a single one. Edged Victory cleaves through the thing's adamant shoulder like a hot knife moving through butter, nearly cleaving it in two.

Eerily, there is no response from the creature: no retaliation from the sharp blades on its hand, no mechanical shriek of agony or anger. It simply flits erratically backwards, striking the wall almost immediately, and vanishes. Not even Ariston's finely honed hearing can catch a trace of it, though the wings were quite noisy.

Ah yeah, good catch. Also, I'm remembering how scary high-level martial adepts can be right now.

If you can See Invisibility, let me know; blindsense isn't picking anything up.

[Vox Clamantis]

Growing ever more perplexed at his foe's erratic behavior, Ariston draws himself up and holds his weapon high in a deceptively light grip, ready to strike should a target present itself.

Swift action to regain all maneuvers.
Ready standard attack should the clockwork automaton appear within reach.

If the enemy doesn't appear for more than a few rounds, Ariston will just assume that it has retreated and leave. :smalltongue:

[The_Snark]

Nah, it's only out for 2 rounds.

Seconds pass, and there no sign of the clockwork abomination. Our hero surveys the artificer's lab with blade at the ready, examining every piece of glasswork to detect signs of motion; nothing. Five seconds. He listens for the subtle disturbances in the air that a walking creature would make; still nothing. Ten seconds.

The wall behind him shatters with a deafening roar, the sound quite literally painful. Alembics and retorts shatter in the lab, starting fires as the liquids within spill onto the floor. The clockwork creature is framed in the jagged hole in the wall, but even as our hero surges forward, it flies backwards, moving at tremendous speed.

[roll0] sonic damage, Reflex DC 29 half.

It is currently 210 feet away.

[Vox Clamantis]

Lifting into the air in a perfect backflip, the frowning mercenary avoids the worst of the blast.

What a waste of time. I should just leave this hunk of tin to rot with its master...

Despite his grousing, however, he takes wing after it.

Diamond Defense as an Immediate
[roll0]

Double move to close the gap to 80 ft.

I hope this doesn't turn into another chase scene...:smallwink:

[The_Snark]

Lightning arcs from the clockwork man to the relentless warrior pursuing it. Although our hero's enchanted cloak affords him great speed, the unnatural wings grafted to this thing via mad artifice outstrip them; the distance between the two lengthens, and only when it begins a slow loop that will eventually take it back to the tower does Ariston regain any distance.

Ranged touch [roll0], electricity damage [roll1]. This is a supernatural ability, so no SR.

Distance between the two is about 260 feet. To flesh out the scenario here, your employers would like some evidence of the artificer's demise; his staff, his signet ring, and his head would all be solid forms of proof. Destroying all his work isn't technically required, but there's no guarantee his work will leave you alone, either.

[Vox Clamantis]

Held aloft on feathered wings, Ariston shakes his head in disgust at the automaton's aerial acrobatics. Turning about, he flies back into the building and heads for the artificer's body, no longer particularly caring what the bizarre creature does. It's little or no threat, and its antics are wasting his time. At least the walls will force it to come inside, and there's a chance carving off its master's head will get it angry enough to try to retrieve it.

Double move back into the tower.

[The_Snark]

Another burst of lightning plays over our hero as he returns to the lab. Although such things are not enough to leave him fazed, the clockwork creature has more in store for him this time. There is a series of staccato popping sounds, and several tiny blurs shoot past him... followed by a stinging pain, as one of them strikes home.

Essentially, you couldn't quite get behind cover with a double move, since you started out from the tower while in the open. Next round, a move action can get you to the artificer's body, and behind the wall/door, if you like. In the meantime, it gets to make a full attack:
Ranged touch [roll0], electricity damage [roll1]

Spikes: [roll2], damage [roll3]
[roll4], damage [roll5]
[roll6], damage [roll7]
[roll8], damage [roll9]
[roll10], damage [roll11]
[roll12], damage [roll13]

The lightning hits, I believe, as does the last spike, unless you have a counter prepared.

[Vox Clamantis]

Nope, that last spike and the lightning do hit. I don't see how it could attack me after I move into the tower on my turn, unless it has some sort of quickened supernatural ability. :smallconfused:

Shrugging off the thing's attacks like irksome gnats, the mercenary flies through the tower towards the artificer's body, inwardly wondering how he's going to explain why he's leading a clockwork golem back to his employer like some arcanist pied piper...

Plan is to get to the artificer's body and use it as bait to lure the golem into a closed space where it can't run. Beyond that, there's not actually anything Ariston (or any character, actually) can do against an opponent with ranged attacks and vastly superior maneuverability.

[The_Snark]

Ah. I explained it poorly—when you first left the tower, you were in plain view of the outside, since it had just blasted a hole through the wall. You flew out of the tower, and then flew back at the same speed, which puts you more or less in the same place you started from.

While the foe is out of sight, the distant humming of mechanical wings does seem to get a little louder. The thing's return is heralded by another stroke of lightning inside the workshop. It is at first glance an ill-aimed blow, striking nowhere near Ariston... but then metal begins to stir in the lab. Scattered bits of armor assemble themselves into a man-shaped suit, still crackling with residual lightning.

The patchwork suit of armor seems to have been sized for a giant, and the sharp-edged tears its components suffered from the clockwork man's sonic pulse make it seem more fearsome. It would be intimidating... to one who has not faced warforged titans in single combat.

Summary- there's now a Large-sized construct creature in the tower. The original enemy, should Ariston venture back out into the lab, is about 180 feet away from the lab, and closing.

[Vox Clamantis]

With a visible heave of his shoulders, Ariston sighs. The target is dead already and he's still making a hassle out of this. Why are these things never simple?

Without giving the new monstrosity time to cause a ruckus, the sometimes employed swordsman closes his eyes to concentrate, tuning out the mundane world to listen to the thrum of magic through his veins. Once again two copies appear at his side and dash forward with weapons at the ready, but these move to flank the construct before striking with vastly different techniques.

Having struck, the duplicates disappear in a puff of expended energies.

Army of One as a full round, each duplicate gets a move and a standard. One moves to each side of the thing, granting each the other flanking bonuses.

The first duplicate is expending Ariston's use of Diamond Nightmare Blade.
[roll0] - moving the flanking bonus into Power Attack
[roll1] x4

The second is being much more prosaic and using Greater Insightful Strike, no expenditure.
[roll2] includes the +2 flanking bonus
[roll3] x2

The weapon still has all of its base qualities, plus whatever it needed to overcome the clockwork's DR.

[The_Snark]

The magic holding together the suit of armor is no match for one stroke of Edged Victory, much less two. Battered metal is sent flying in all directions, fit for nothing more than the scrap heap.

Before the parts have even stopped clattering, another deafening pulse of sound rips through the long-suffering laboratory. The mad artificer's last creation held its "father" in the highest regard, but apparently its attachment does not extend to his old workplace...

In the wake of the blast, the clockwork abomination hovers, situated in the middle of the lab. It spots Ariston at the same time as he spots it—but the swordsman's battle-honed reflexes are quicker than whatever bizarre magic animates the thing.

[roll0] sonic damage, Reflex DC 29 for half damage.

It is within 60 feet.

[Vox Clamantis]

[roll0]

Seeing his chance (and inwardly cursing himself for wasting such an excellent technique against that last mechanical creation), Ariston ducks back out the doorway, out of sight, and waits for the creature to follow with upraised blade.

Move around the corner, swift action to recover maneuvers, readying a standard attack if the clockwork golem follows.

Rolling dice for that attack here, just in case they're needed:

[roll1]
[roll2]

Overcomes DR, etc etc.

[The_Snark]

The beating of the clockwork man's wings thrums louder, giving away its approach. A moment later, the creature pads through the doorway, and is met with a blow—but a wayward wing beats Edged Victory aside.

It takes up a defensive stance beside its master's body, and begins to speak, but whatever stuttered words it might have had are drowned out by the familiar pulse of sound and force. The stone walls and floors further down the corridor collapse in a shower of dust, letting daylight into the corridor.

Remember, it still has a 50% miss chance. High roll hits: [roll0]

[roll1], Reflex halves, you know the drill.

[Vox Clamantis]

Diamond Defense:

Well. At least we're all back near the dead guy. Small blessings.

Again Ariston draws himself up, a few feathers from his wings drifting to the floor from that last vibrational assault. Two Aristons burst from his body and wing across the intervening distance, each making a single cut as he passes the automaton before fading into mist.

Army of One (yeah, it's my only way to get odds on the miss chance)

Two Greater Insightful Strikes

[roll=51+ hits]1d100

[roll3] x2

[roll=51+ hits]1d100
[roll5]
[roll6] x2

[Vox Clamantis]

I didn't edit that last post, but it says the roll count doesn't match. WTF does that mean? :smallconfused:

Anyway, I guess '+' symbols don't work when you put them in the [roll=] code.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Aaand both attacks miss. Hurray. :smallamused:

[The_Snark]

Snapping wings continue to beat back Edged Victory. This time, the automaton does not retreat under the assault. Currents of lightning shoot through its hands as it lashes out, attempting to batter through the swordsman's defenses with adamantine fists. Worse still are the foot-long scissors, snapping incessantly as they attempt to find Ariston's flesh.

It finally gets to make a full attack! Which is an option for you too, if you don't want to take your chances as much with the concealment.

Blade 1 [roll0], damage [roll1]
Blade 2 [roll2], damage [roll3]
Rend damage (if both blades hit) [roll4]

Slam 1 [roll5], damage [roll6]
Slam 2 [roll7], damage [roll8]

Electricity [roll9] melee touch, damage [roll10]

[Vox Clamantis]

Fairly well battered about by the thing's thrashing around, Ariston spares a smile for the brave creature. The fight's over, even if the thing doesn't have the sense to know it. Sorry, beastie... Moving so swiftly that after-images hang in the air after him, the weathered mercenary burns a considerable portion of his remaining stamina to see the fight ended swiftly.

Perfect Spellstrike, taking the full 70 hp sacrifice. Yes, that leaves him extremely weakened, but it should be worth it.

Attack 1:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Attack 2:
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

Attack 3:
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]

Attack 4:
[roll9]
[roll10]
[roll11]

Attack 5:
[roll12]
[roll13]
[roll14]

Still bypassing DR, et cetera. Wow, only a single hit bypassed the 50% miss rate. Ariston's toast. :smalleek:

[Vox Clamantis]

Re-rolling the concealment dice, just for my own edification:

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

Those are the attacks that missed. :smallwink:

~Gabriel

P.S. Yeah, needless to say: that made a huge difference. Major misunderstanding about the nature of that miss chance.

[The_Snark]

I rolled in the OOC thread too, but no matter whose rolls we use, the outcome is the same. So...The beleaguered creature's mesh wings finally give way before the swordman's relentless assault. The first blow cleaves through the shoulder again, all but removing one of its arm. The second drives Edged Victory cleanly through its armored chest.

The clockwork man freezes, outstretched scissor-hands twitching feebly. Copper wire continues to spool out from the cut, trying to reconnect broken chest pistons, but Edged Victory's wide blade blocks their path. With a twist, the sword is wrenched free and readied again, but there is no need. The mad artificer's unnatural "child" collapses atop its master, the light in its eyes winking out in a spurt of sparks.

Job finished.

[Vox Clamantis]

Breathing heavily and bleeding from various nicks, skin discoloured by the occasional contusion, Ariston taps a jewel on Victory's pommel. In moments it has shrunk down to the size of a dagger, and he slips it into a sheath along one thigh.

He looks down at the artifice and its creator, musing to himself as is often his wont. Rough luck, I suppose. But then it's always somebody's time to go. Heaving the clockwork golem aside, he lifts the corpse' arm and pulls the ring off its finger. Just a matter of when your name gets called.

FIN