Aegis Tristalt In-Character Mk. II

[General Patton]

After feigning retreat to bait a potential attack, Sahael pops back out, discorporating into a shifting winged mass cloaked in frightening shapes that seem to distort the very air around them.

He focuses his will like an infinitely sharp spear tip and punches it into the foul creature's gods forsaken excuse for a mind. Who can say whether he'll achieve the impossible?

Will Save DC 25, with an extra +4 bonus on the save.

Edit: 5 ft step out of ground. Nightmare Form, with 20% miss chance. Ranged Mindlock expending focus for Penetrating Fear.

[Aegis013]

[roll0] Will Save vs DC 25

You attempt to puncture the creature's unfathomable mind, but as if the mind is a vast chasm with nothing substantial there to impact or what is there to impact is brilliantly hidden, it remains unaffected.

[Aegis013]

The creature hovers at a moderate speed, adjusting its positioning as the fog continues to spew out of it, drawing close to Sahael and so that the three of you form a line. An enormous blue burst of energy springs out of the impossible depths of its structure, passing over both of its targets.

Ref DC 30 for half damage vs. [roll0] cold damage

After you valiantly attempt (and most likely succeed) in avoiding what damage you can you see the fog briefly crystallize into ice in a perfect wave emanating from the creature. The freezing wave passes over both of you dealing 42 Cold Damage. The cracks on the creature's form appear to be repairing as well.

Polyhedron gains 42 HP and returns to 234 HP.

Finally a strange blue aura, like tendrils of pure cold reach out from its form, touching everything with their forsaken chill. The intensity appears to be much stronger in its immediate vicinity, (10ft emanation) but extends as far as you can see into the fog in every direction beyond that. The more powerful area eclipses Sahael's position and you can feel as if time itself is being slowed by the intense cold.

For Sahael: DC 42 Fort save vs. be momentarily frozen in time, losing all actions.
For Kasha: DC 38 Fort save vs. Slow for [roll1] rounds.

[General Patton]

Reflex [roll0]+4
Fort [roll1]+4

Sahael easily flows around the beam unscathed. Bolstered by Kasha's aura against Evil, he barely avoids being frozen in time.

[Silver Night]

Kasha



Cold resist 10!
Reflex save: [roll0] Assuming Kasha makes it, that would make it 52 damage I believe!

Fort Save: [roll1]

Also, Holy Star is (I think?) still active as spell turning with (I think) 5 turning levels?

[Silver Night]

Kasha

If holy star is still active, she will use the free action to switch it to lazor mode. Not sure if it would be 3d6 or 7d6 since it an already existing effect, but I'll assume the former:

Attack: [roll0]
Miss Chance: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]



Kasha - for one of the first times in these fights - resorts to trying to actually hit something. Hopefully it goes well!


She stays at 15' with the whip. 2 inspiration points to bypass SR/DR.

Attack: [roll3] Miss: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5] + [roll6] vs evil outsiders + [roll7] Desiccating + [roll8] (and [roll9] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]

Attack: [roll10] Miss: [roll11]
Damage: [roll12] + [roll13] vs evil outsiders + [roll14] Desiccating + [roll15] (and [roll16] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]

Attack: [roll17] Miss: [roll18]
Damage: [roll19] + [roll20] vs evil outsiders + [roll21] Desiccating + [roll22] (and [roll23] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]

Attack: [roll24] Miss: [roll25]
Damage: [roll26] + [roll27] vs evil outsiders + [roll28] Desiccating + [roll29] (and [roll30] con) Desiccation damage


(It did not go well)

[Aegis013]

The Holy Star's laser and two of Kasha's attacks land true, inflicting substantial damage to the enemy! Cracks visibly spread across its form, and it appears to be very damaged.

You deal 94 damage plus 5 con damage reducing the creature's HP to 104.

[General Patton]

"That was remarkably effective."

Sahael activates his Reposition Strategy as a Swift Action, allowing the duo to 5-ft step, and enabling an extra onslaught of claws and teeth. He shifts upwards before cutting loose.

Bite 1 [roll0], miss chance [roll1], for [roll2]+[roll3]
Bite 2 [roll4], miss chance [roll5], for [roll6]+[roll7]
Claw 1 [roll8], miss chance [roll9], for [roll10]
Claw 2 [roll11], miss chance [roll12], for [roll13]

His remaining actions depend on the outcome.

[General Patton]

Doubling down on the oh-so-satisfying physical violence, Sahael hopes to one day brag about killing an Elder God with his bare hands.

Previous post's Claw 2 crit damage [roll0]

Bite 1 [roll1], miss chance [roll2], for [roll3]+[roll4]
Bite 2 [roll5], miss chance [roll6], for [roll7]+[roll8]
Claw 1 [roll9], miss chance [roll10], for [roll11]
Claw 2 [roll12], miss chance [roll13], for [roll14]

[General Patton]

With his assault seeming so close to victory, he invokes the offensive powers of the Holy Star, hoping to melt whatever is left of the foul Tridecahedron.

Fire laser [roll0], miss chance [roll1], for [roll2] + an extra [roll3] from having Bane enhancement on all attacks (I think that counts for spell attacks).

[Aegis013]

The two of you unleash your onslaught against the creature before you, flakes of it drifting off as it cracks apart under the pressure, vanishing and reappearing in different places in the confusion that is this entity. It seems to be almost broken, but barely hangs on through the attacks.

The creature takes 95 damage from Sahael's attacks and is reduced to 9 HP.

The creature acts, once again. Its aura stretching out, Sahael, still within the reach of its most potent effect, once again faces being momentarily frozen in time. (DC 42 Fort Save vs. be frozen in time for [roll0] rounds, losing all actions). Kasha is unaffected by the outer effects of the aura, thanks to her new found lichdom.

It rotates rapidly, unleashing its Polar Beam once more, shifting slightly in order to hit both available targets. The pale blue energy passes around you, its unbearable chill like the touch of the reaper's hand.

Reflex DC 30 half vs. [roll1] cold damage

Finally, the cracks rapidly repair as it once again unleashes its ice wave. It passes over the two of you, inflicting a substantial 94 cold damage.

The creature heals itself 94 HP and returns to 103 HP.



Renia and Trasil:
As you rest, peacefully in the luxuriously decadent mansion, utilizing the plush furniture and magically conjured refreshments to their fullest, Renia receives a Sending from Cognitus. "There appears to be a situation outside of your mansion. I don't believe I require assistance, however, it involves Sepecrus, who is a mutual acquaintance." You may choose to respond or not, but you're aware for Cognitus to contact you further, he would need additional castings of Sending.

[Silver Night]

Kasha



Reflex Save:
[roll0]



Assuming Kasha survives:



Holy Star:
Attack: [roll1]
Miss Chance: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]


Whip:
Attack: [roll4] Miss: [roll5]
Damage: [roll6] + [roll7] vs evil outsiders + [roll8] Desiccating + [roll9] (and [roll10] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]
Crit Confirm: [roll11]

Attack: [roll12] Miss: [roll13]
Damage: [roll14] + [roll15] vs evil outsiders + [roll16] Desiccating + [roll17] (and [roll18] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]
Crit Confirm: [roll19]

Attack: [roll20] Miss: [roll21]
Damage: [roll22] + [roll23] vs evil outsiders + [roll24] Desiccating + [roll25] (and [roll26] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]
Crit Confirm: [roll27]

Attack: [roll28] Miss: [roll29]
Damage: [roll30] + [roll31] vs evil outsiders + [roll32] Desiccating + [roll33] (and [roll34] con) Desiccation damage
[roll]
Crit Confirm: [roll35]

[General Patton]

Fort [roll0]
Reflex [roll1]

Sahael once again scrapes by thanks to the protective aura, and weaves around the beam as if it weren't there. He is doing a commendable job resisting the unearthly frost, yet his amorphous form appears to be increasing in viscosity, and little pieces are solidifying and cracking off.

Witnessing Kasha's savage assault that far outstrips his own efforts, he assumes a freezing explosion or division into smaller pieces is imminent, and flies to the edge of his blindsight, towards Kasha.

Standard and Swift action reserved.

[whoiam]

Sending Response: "Kicking Trasil out of bed now. If you're not waiting by the door, we'll come find you."

Renia skips re-attuning to the Potentia piece (so she still has her 'save point' set in the tunnels under the capitol city), drops into her alternate time stream for long enough to prepare a pair of Greater Teleports, then returns to real time to go rouse Trasil.

[Mousedigits]

Renia finds Trasil asleep on a large couch somewhere in the mansion, his sword and armor on a table in front of the couch. At Renia's insistence, he begins to move. All right, all right, I'm up. What's going on?

He stands and begins donning his armor. Also, if you wanna help me with this, it'll go a lot faster. Mithral's light, but this is still 25 pounds of metal.


It will take four minutes to don the armor, or two if Renia helps.

[whoiam]

Renia had just slept in hers - that's what the 'restful' augment crystal was for.

Still, getting Trasil into his armor took 0 minutes (real) and 2 minutes (subjective), as she spent some of the previous afternoon helping him get it on.

"I know, I know. My armor weighs about the same. Anyway, Cognitus says a mutual acquaintance of ours - 'Sepecrus' - has been involved in an incident. I don't recognise the name, but Cognitus isn't wrong about much, so... what do you think the odds are of that being our Necropolitan ally's name?"

[Mousedigits]

I'd say fairly high. I guess we'll go and meet Cognitus for more info. Have you gone out and told Sahael and Kasha about this yet?

[Aegis013]

Kasha begins a furious onslaught against the creature, scoring blow after blow against its damaged visage. The cracks in its roiling appearance grow and spread the creature breaks asunder.

The pieces of the creature fall momentarily to the ground, bouncing back up and beginning to shift and change again, the cracks completely gone. There are now four smaller versions of the creature, much like their parent creature, but with fewer sides to their polyhedral forms, like perfect 5 sided dice.

The smaller creatures have 50% miss chance, so roll 1d2 and miss on a result of 1.


Trasil and Renia:
You've now prepared yourselves, in the blink of an eye. However, you're still safe and warm at this time inside of the Mansion. Going to open the door to leave the mansion, you find it's stuck. As if some force has wedged it in place and rendered it locked.

[General Patton]

Sahael mentally cleaves the ground apart in great gouts of earth that explode into the air and bombard the abominations.

[roll0] bludgeoning damage over a 20 ft radius (halved?) creating difficult terrain. Reflex DC 31 for half damage.

He switches the Holy Star to protection mode.

I can't normally activate items in Ecto/Nightmare Form. Would my Skin of Power Damping be an exception? It is already a shapeless mass of ectoplasm that coats the user regardless of their form.

[Mousedigits]

Upon trying the door and finding it stuck fast, Trasil begins pounding on the door. Sahael? Kasha? Are you two out there?

Something was wrong.

When he (presumably) gets no response, he begins attacking the door, landing heavy, vertical hits with his sword.


I assume I don't need to roll to hit? I mean, it's a door...

[roll0] Slashing
[roll1] Slashing
[roll2] Slashing
[roll3] Slashing

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha gambles that the individual creatures will be weaker than their 'parent' creature - or indeed physically weak at all.

She uses Evard's Black Tentacles and the last of her inspiration points to bring down holy fire on top of that.



As far as I can tell reading it, Evard's Black Tentacles doesn't require the attack roll to start a grapple, it moves right to the check, which I *think* should bypass the miss chance (possibly because there are so many tentacles it is hard to miss). However if that isn't the case I would go with something else.

Grapple checks:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

Not sure if the damage starts same round or the following round, but jsut in case:
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]


Flamestrike:
[roll8] DC 29 reflex for half

Holy Star (vs nearest enemy):
Attack: [roll9] Miss: [roll10]
Damage: [roll11]

[whoiam]

After a couple of seconds, Renia puts a hand on Trasil's shoulder. "Wait a moment, " she tells him. "We've got a choice to make. Whatever blocked the door, I can put us back in the enclave - this is my mansion, after all, if I dismiss it with us inside, we'll return to where the entrance was. Or we could work up a Plane Shift, which will get us to the right world... but to a random point on it.

The question is: given that something's managed to lock what's not really a door, do we think it's safe to head back to the enclave directly, or do we want the random return so we can work out what's happening before we face whatever had affected the door?"

[Aegis013]

Creature 1
[roll0] reflex vs. Sahael
[roll1] reflex vs. Kasha
Creature 2
[roll2] reflex vs. Sahael
[roll3] reflex vs. Kasha
Creature 3
[roll4] reflex vs. Sahael
[roll5] reflex vs. Kasha
Creature 4
[roll6] reflex vs. Sahael
[roll7] reflex vs. Kasha

These smaller creatures seem highly nimble compared to their slow moving parent entity, avoiding a substantial amount of the magical fire and fleece covered earth. The tentacles reach out to collect the creatures, but the creatures quite easily evade it, slipping through them as they shift erratically in position while they move. Although sometimes it appears the tentacles pass through their forms. It could be a similar visual effect of the parent entity or something else.

The creatures shift, flying very quickly in wide arcs they line themselves up such that they form a line using you two as the middle points of the line, one dropping in between the two of you, and two clustered together on one end of the line.

The nearest two on the outside, one from each end seem to bring the icy aura to a singular point on their polyhedral forms and fire it as a jagged ray, one aimed at each of you.

The one positioned between the two of you spins rapidly, expanded the aura of intense cold into a oval, rather than the normal circle, catching you both within its icy grasp.

The final one unleashes the enormous polar beam of its parent, catching everything but itself in the beam.

[Aegis013]

Jagged Rays - Fort DC 42 vs Slow for [roll0] rounds. Failure on this also results in a -2 untyped penalty to Fort saves vs some of the effects of the creatures.

The freezing aura isn't quite as potent from the smaller version of the creature. Fort DC 40 vs lose your actions for [roll1] (minimum 1) rounds.

Finally, Reflex save 30 vs [roll2] cold damage.


Each of the creature's then releases its pent of energy, healing itself and even further chilling the area, inflicting a total of 12 cold damage.

Creature 1 took 24 damage and regains 12 HP and has 195 HP remaining.
Creature 2 took 24 damage and regains 24 HP and 61 temporary HP and has 268 HP remaining.
Creature 3 took 24 damage and regains 24 HP and 61 temporary HP and has 268 HP remaining.
Creature 4 took 24 damage and regains 24 HP and 61 temporary HP and has 268 HP remaining.

The item would be subsumed into the new form, as would other magic items. A modified wilding clasp to enable some items in that form isn't out of the question.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil stops swinging, sighs, then curses. As eager as I am to meet whatever's behind this- preferably with a long, sharp piece of metal and a couple thousand volts- It's probably safer to Plane Shift out. We have half our people, and half of our Potentia pieces. We might win, but the risk is too high. After the Plane Shift, we can teleport to the entrance of the Conclave and see what's happening. After we deal with that, we can try to find Sahael and Kasha.

[Silver Night]

Kasha



Saves:

Fort: [roll0]
Reflex: [roll1]

[General Patton]

Fort [roll0]
Fort [roll1]
Reflex [roll2]

Sahael powers through, slowing slightly before invoking the stoic grandeur of the Potentia of Leadership. He again flows around the beam unscathed. Desperately pondering every possible means of turning the tide, it seems like an eternity in his mind before he reaches out to the cosmos, sacrificing the magical essence of his wealth to sustain his will through the exhausting task of bending the fabric of reality. The image of their surroundings, in all the fine detail he can perceive, is compressed into raw thought and projected to Renia.

[whoiam]

Correspond reply: "...Next time, just visualise a map!" It's hard to tell if Renia's mental voice is currently grumpy, worried, or relieved. Her mind's technically all three right now.

Renia prepares Plane Shift (in an open 5th level Cleric slot) and Greater Teleport (in an open 7th level Cleric slot) using her stored time pool. She then drops back into regular time, grabs Trasil, and jumps back into stored time (with him, this time). She'll then perform her Plane Shift and Greater Teleport in her private time stream, and give Trasil just long enough to pick which spot he wants to be when time resumes before dropping back into normal time again.


Assuming that all works, of course.

So Renia's 'current' round runs:
Move action (drop into her stored time)
Standard action (move action - drop into her stored time with Trasil)

Which doesn't let her do much in the combat this round, but she should deliver Trasil in the spot of his choice with his round intact... :smallwink:

[General Patton]

"I provided the others with a target to teleport to, but I don't know how much longer we can last. We could both take cover underground for a moment."

If Kasha agrees, perhaps firing off another volley before going incorporeal, then Sahael will use his Swift Action to return to normal form and 5-ft Step/burrow into the earth.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil positions himself so that, upon exiting the private timestream, he would be to the side of the lone creature on the outside of their formation. He'll also spend a Swift Action to upgrade his weapon from +3 Keen Spellstoring to +5 Keen Holy Spellstoring. Lastly, he'll spend a standard action to use Manifest Body to make a second Trasil opposite him, flanking the creature.

X=Enemy.
S=Sahael
K=Kasha
T=Trasil
Tc=Trasil Clone

X X
--------- Wall of force (14ft wide by 5ft tall) cast by Tc (details in spoiler)
S
X
K
T X Tc


Upon switching timestreams, he and his clone strike as one in an attempt to kill the creature.


Firstly, do previously-stored spells get affected by the magic-impairing effect? I'll roll both, just in case.
Trasil strikes with fury, channeling his rage as fire and electricity.

Spell Combat with an Intensified, Energy Substituted (Fire), Searing, Empowered Shocking Grasp. (Cast Defensively, auto-succeed)
Spells already stored: Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp x2, Intensified, Energy Substituted (Fire), Searing, Empowered Shocking Grasp x2

First Attack
Spending 2 inspiration, one for attack and one for damage.

[roll0] to hit.
[roll1] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)
First Attack Damage
[roll2] slashing
[roll3] Holy (if evil)
[roll4]x1.5 29 fire from spell cast just now.
[roll5]x1.5 53 electric from previously stored Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp ([roll6]x1.5 41 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll7]x1.5 72 electric from previously stored Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp ([roll8]x1.5 35 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll9]x1.5 45 fire from previously stored Empowered Intensified Energy Substituted (Fire) Searing Shocking Grasp ([roll10]x1.5 41 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll11]x1.5 65 fire from previously stored Empowered Intensified Energy Substituted (Fire) Searing Shocking Grasp ([roll12]x1.5 41 if impeded by disruptive field)

If this attack misses, the first hit gets the spells.

If crit, add:
[roll13] slashing
[roll14]x1.5 fire from spell cast just now.
[roll15]x1.5 electric from previously stored Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp ([roll16]x1.5 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll17]x1.5 electric from previously stored Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp ([roll18]x1.5 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll19]x1.5 fire from previously stored Empowered Intensified Energy Substituted (Fire) Searing Shocking Grasp ([roll20]x1.5 if impeded by disruptive field)
[roll21]x1.5 fire from previously stored Empowered Intensified Energy Substituted (Fire) Searing Shocking Grasp ([roll22]x1.5 if impeded by disruptive field)

Second Attack
[roll23] to hit
[roll24] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Second Attack Damage
[roll25] slashing
[roll26] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll27] slashing

Third Attack
[roll28] to hit
[roll29] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Third Attack Damage
[roll30] slashing
[roll31] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll32] slashing

Fourth Attack
[roll33] to hit
[roll34] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Fourth Attack Damage
[roll35] slashing
[roll36] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll37] slashing



Spell Combat with Wall of Force, in a location noted above in the positioning spoiler. (casting defensively, auto-succeed)

First Attack
Spending 2 inspiration, one for attack and one for damage.
Power Attacking.

[roll38] to hit.
[roll39] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)
First Attack Damage
[roll40] slashing
[roll41] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll42] slashing

Second Attack
[roll43] to hit
[roll44] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Second Attack Damage
[roll45] slashing
[roll46] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll47] slashing

Third Attack
[roll48] to hit
[roll49] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Third Attack Damage
[roll50] slashing
[roll51] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll52] slashing

Fourth Attack
[roll53] to hit
[roll54] to crit confirm (15-20x2 crit)

Fourth Attack Damage
[roll55] slashing
[roll56] Holy (if evil)

If crit, add
[roll57] slashing

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha turns incorporeal and runs away! Probably not too deep, a dozen feet or so at most.

[Aegis013]

The four creatures move together, each one in contact with another. One fires the Polar Beam upwards, hitting them all, and they begin to freeze back together. It appears they are trying to reform their parent creature. They move to the exit location of Renia's teleport and the group of them spins frantically, emanating their aura of deadly cold.

Polar Beam

Creature 1 now has 207 HP and 75 temp HP.
The others now have 207 HP and 87 temp HP.

Renia and Trasil may choose to change their actions. As you're in the alternate time stream, you are unaffected by the aura of intense cold (Fort DC 3x vs. lose [roll]1d3-1 minimum 1 1 round of actions), however if you exit the alternate time stream within that area, you must immediately save. If you succeed, your attacks will hit all four of the creatures as they are partially merged, and they only have the benefit of the 25% miss chance of their parent creature.

[Aegis013]

[roll0] minimum 1

[Mousedigits]

Action changes: Move both Trasil and the clone to be flanking with the merging creature. Instead of casting Wall of Force, the clone will cast an Intensified, Energy Substituted (Fire), Searing, Empowered Shocking Grasp.
Also, I forgot to add the +2 from flanking to all my attacks.

Miss chances:
Trasil:
[roll0] 1 is miss.
[roll1] 1 is miss.
[roll2] 1 is miss.
[roll3] 1 is miss.

Clone:
[roll4] 1 is miss.
[roll5] 1 is miss.
[roll6] 1 is miss.
[roll7] 1 is miss.


Spell Damage:
[roll8]x1.5 41 fire from previously stored Empowered Intensified Energy Substituted (Fire) Searing Shocking Grasp.

[whoiam]

Renia doesn't have anything more to contribute this round once she drops out of her personal timestream, since for her this is technically the end of the same round she teleported in. She will, however, materialise close to the monster (not actually in combat range, but still near to it). Trasil may not need her as a flanking buddy, but she still doesn't want to tempt the thing too far away from him.


[roll0]
[roll1]

[General Patton]

Feeling his companions hit the ground, Sahael burrows 15 ft away and pops up onto the surface, covered in frost and with several pieces of his shell having cracked off to expose raw flesh covered in bloodsicles. He is not in great condition, but his apparent resolve would say otherwise.

"We're saved! And it is almost scary how much Trasil is laying into it while being in two places at once."

He invites them back into the Collective.

"Watch out! Its cold can distort time itself, and it can suppress magic like a partial AMF. We don't know our current location nor the whereabouts of the Necropolitan's group."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha also pops back up!

Holy Star Attack: [roll0] Miss: [roll1] Damage: [roll2]

She casts Mass Resist Energy (Cold)!

I think this probably gives resistance 20 based on the magic suppression

[General Patton]

Holy Star attack [roll0]
Miss [roll1]
Damage [roll2]

[Aegis013]

[roll0] Unsure if any bonuses are from magic items.

The group lays waste the creature before them, fire and lightning erupting in from Trasil's flurry of attacks, embers of flame causing steam to rise from the blood-frozen ground. Lasers fire from the magic stars accompanying Sahael and Kasha into the fray. You hear a sharp crack as the creature shatters! Trasil's clone manifests, but succumbs to the intense cold, becoming frozen in time for 1 round.

The creature splits into eight one sided beings. The very sight of them causes enormous strain on the mind, unable to comprehend the non-euclidean things before you. The cold recedes substantially, as Kasha's aura of heat begins to effectively counter the combined power of the small beings before you. The magic dampening field has also subsided.

The creatures begin to flee in all directions! They fly with strange adroit motions, and they're surprisingly fast, and it appears they are still accelerating! If you can't catch them all in time, they may escape. Their sudden departure gives those of you who they pass by give you the opportunity to reflexively attack them.

These creatures have no miss chance.
All of them provoke from Trasil and the Clone, assuming it isn't frozen in time. However, your normal AoO limits apply to both of you.

E1 travels upwards 100ft.
E2 travels 100ft passing Sahael, provoking.
E3 travels 100ft passing Kasha, provoking.
E4 travels 100ft passing Renia, provoking.
E5 travels 100ft.
E6 travels 100ft.
E7 travels 100ft.
E8 travels 100ft.

You would require a 100ft radius AoE to catch them all in it. Based on their acceleration, they will likely travel 200ft next turn, 400ft the round after that, up to whatever their top speed may be.

If you are subject to mind-affecting abilities, make a Will save vs. a DC of 44 each turn you can see any of these creatures vs. suffering the effects of Confusion for the round. Using alternative sources of sight other than your eyes protects you from this, somewhat like a gaze attack.

[Aegis013]

[roll0] forgotten in previous post

[Silver Night]

Kasha

AoO


Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1] + [roll2] vs outsiders + [roll3] & [roll4] Desiccating + [roll5] con

[Mousedigits]

Trasil, stunned by the incomprehensible shapes before him, closes his eyes. He takes his attack of opportunity, gripping his sword in two hands, striking at the shard traveling straight upwards.

He is also power attacking.
[roll0] miss chance from closed eyes (1-50 hits, 51-100 misses)
[roll1] to hit
[roll2] to confirm (15-20x2 crit)
[roll3] slashing+[roll4] holy if evil.
If crit, add [roll5] slashing


Next turn, he casts Magic Missile, as does his clone (who also closes its eyes)


We each get 5 missiles, for 10 total.
3 missiles on 2 creatures, 4 missiles on 1 that didn't provoke AoO from Sahael, Kasha, or Renia
Creature 1: [roll6] Force damage
Creature 2: [roll7] Force damage
Creature 3: [roll8] Force damage


Then, both use Spell Recall to regain two uses of Magic Missile, spending 2 Arcane Pool points.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha will use a Disintegrate: Attack: [roll0] Damage: [roll1] Fort DC 31 for [roll2] damage

[General Patton]

AoO [roll0] for [roll1] + [roll2] + [roll3] if Evil

Sahael manifests Energy Wall (fire), Overchanneled by 2 levels for [roll4] damage on self. With a range of 270 ft and a length of 340 ft, he places it to overlap 2 of the creatures and put it in the way of any extras he can manage. The overlapped creatures take [roll5] fire damage, DC 29 Reflex save for half.

He flies 130 ft, cutting ahead of one of the entities that has not been assaulted yet, and lets the Holy Star blast it.
Attack [roll6] for I think [roll7] fire damage. If Sahael's ability to have Bane against everything works with spells/powers that have attack rolls, then add +2 attack and [roll8] damage.

Everyone remember you've got Holy Star and it has a range of 90 ft, firing as a free action.

[whoiam]

Renia doesn't use her mace much against the sorts of foes this party goes up against... and the reason why is glaringly obvious, as her mace does only a fraction of the damage the other three are capable of.


[roll0]
[roll1]

If the target's evil, add [roll2] Holy damage
If it's an evil outsider, add [roll3] instead.


Renia follows more or less after the piece that ran past her - aiming to go half-way between it and an 'adjacent' un-aood piece. (She's slower than them - at 60' for the round - but it should be enough to keep her in range of both without cheating. This round, anyway.)

The Holy Star is aimed at the piece she swung her mace at before:
[roll4]
[roll5]

While she concentrates on casting Chains of Light (Reflex save, DC 30) on the other piece she's within range of.

[Aegis013]

You each manage to slay one as they pass by, they fizzle out of existence leaving what appears to be a darkened spot in space. The four remaining beings continue attempting their escape, trying desperately to resist the magics being thrown at them.

E1-4 are dead, and the others ranked up so it's easier for me to keep track.

E1 Reflex vs. Wall of Fire [roll0]
E2 Reflex vs. Wall of Fire [roll1]
E3 Fort vs. Disintegrate [roll2]
E4 Reflex vs. Chains of Light [roll3]

Renia's golden chains seem to appear from the ground and miss the creature entirely... it's still stuck. It's quite taxing on the mind seeing such a ridiculous thing. How or where it even exists is madness.

Kasha nails one with a ray, vaporizing it. There isn't even dust remaining, just a strange dark blot in space.

The wall of fire erupts on top of two of them, however, they push through, without being killed. Sahael then flies in front of the bound one, blasting it.

Trasil, fires his magic missiles in as close to his previous targetting priorities as possible, nailing the two affected by Wall of Fire first, followed by the one bound by the chains, turning it into another dark blot.

E1 takes 25 damage and has 5 hp remaining.
E2 takes 25 damage and has 5 hp remaining.
E3 is bound and takes 45 damage and is destroyed.
E4 is vaporized by disintegrate.

E1 and 2, barely clinging to what may be life, spin wildly just briefly. The wall of fire around them is extinguished by their cold. They then proceed to fly yet another 200ft away. Placing them 300ft from the nearest party member. You can tell they're still accelerating. Who knows what will happen should they escape?

The six dark blots still remain where the others died, forming a strange pyramid like shape currently encompassing the whole party with the exception of Sahael, who is the furthest at this point from the last living creatures, just over 400 feet away.

[General Patton]

"Just focus on destroying them. I'll extract you from the pyramidal region before their death throes destroy everything."

Sahael quickly surveys the region for the first time since the fog cleared up.
Spot [roll0]

He flies another 130 ft away, just in case, and readies to manifest Reposition as soon as the creature's destruction is assured. Whether they invoke freezing, permanent temporal stasis, or dimensional annihilation of space itself, the party shan't be there when it happens.

[Mousedigits]

Don't worry, I got this. With that, Trasil and his clone disappear, each reappearing 305 feet away in opposite directions, positioned so that if they don't kill the shards this turn, they will provoke attacks of opportunity.

You're not escaping that easily!


Both Trasils are using Spell Combat
Casting Dimension Door (range of 400+40/CL, so 960 ft)

Trasil Prime:
Expending 3 charges from my Brute Gauntlets to add +4 to damage.
First Attack
[roll0] to hit.
[roll1] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll2] slashing+[roll3] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll4]

Second Attack
[roll5] to hit.
[roll6] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll7] slashing+[roll8] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll9]

Third Attack
[roll10] to hit.
[roll11] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll12] slashing+[roll13] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll14]

Fourth Attack
[roll15] to hit.
[roll16] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll17] slashing+[roll18] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll19]



Trasil Clone:
First Attack
[roll20] to hit.
[roll21] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll22] slashing+[roll23] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll24]

Second Attack
[roll25] to hit.
[roll26] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll27] slashing+[roll28] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll29]

Third Attack
[roll30] to hit.
[roll31] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll32] slashing+[roll33] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll34]

Fourth Attack
[roll35] to hit.
[roll36] to crit (15-20x2 crit)
[roll37] slashing+[roll38] holy if evil
If crit, add [roll39]

[whoiam]

With both of her 'lines' collapsed to 'points' (even if only because Trasil had decided to kill one of them for her...), Renia doesn't join the chase like the others do. Instead, she goes over to one of her 'points', and attempts a mace/holy star attack against it. Mainly just because it's the fastest way to figure out if there's still anything there that can be attacked...


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[Silver Night]

Kasha

If any of them survived:


Chain Lightning [roll0] and then try to get out of any suspicious geometric shapes formed by blots



If none survived:

Just try to get away from blots!

[Aegis013]

Renia swipes her mace fruitlessly through the strange visual occurrence. There appears to be nothing physically present at that location. Trasil and his duplicate teleport into the path of the last two fleeing remnants, and dicing them to ribbons, Sahael warps everybody (as needed) out of the space contained within the blots.

There's a brief distortion of the light and you notice the blood from the area within the effect is gone, however the wool remains. The fog has now lifted and due to Kasha's aura, the area has become quite hot. You appear to be somewhere in the northwestern foothills. Based on the amount of fleece in the area, after a brief survey you'd estimate that the fleece came from a herd of around two thousand sheep. Perhaps once shepherded by the nomads and barbarians supposedly descended from the northern country turned into the great desert by Vrakmul.

It also doesn't take long for you to identify the now rapidly thawing corpses of the Necropolitan's group. The two birds, the elf and the Azurin lie scattered some distance away among the area of still bloody fleece. You would guess that their contingencies were ineffective when subjected to the magic dampening power of the creature.

You also notice that this far realms creature hasn't produced an Iuramentum fragment upon being vanquished.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil lowers his blade, sweat streaming down his face. He looks across, 600 feet away, and dismisses his clone. With that, he hastily flies back to the group. Are you all okay? What happened?

He then notices other group, sprawled on the ground. His face twists to a look of sorrow. Oh, that happened. He walks over to them, examining their bodies. This could have been you two, couldn't it have. If we hadn't shown up. He turns to the group. What do you think? Can we afford to Rez them?

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"It looks like they weren't up to fighting... whatever that was. We should find out what happened from their leader. He was still alive last we knew." She suppresses her aura again,"We can take the bodies with us. It seemed like there was something wrong with him, but perhaps the necropolitan will know more. And if they had funds saved up to facilitate resurrection."

[General Patton]

"It's great to have you back. Especially you, Trasil the Problem-Solver, Obliterator of Many Annoyances."

Sahael swoops in, deftly coming to a stop in front of Renia. He thinks in quick bursts of sentence fragments, clearly wanting to save precious milliseconds on a matter of extreme urgency. "Alternate time stream. Psychic Reformation. Chained Reach Spell. Revenance and Revivify. Can you pull it off?"

[whoiam]

Renia takes Sahael by the hand (or whatever he's using right now that passes for a hand, if he's switched to a more combat oriented form while I wasn't watching), and the others immediately stop moving. "Get started. My supply of time's pretty limited when two of us are using it."

[General Patton]

Sahael manifests Psychic Reformation, augmented to 13 pp so that there are no penalties.

[whoiam]

As suggested, Renia prepares a Revenance and a Revivify, and attempts the Revenance using a Divine Metamagic'd Chain Spell and Arcane Reach to affect all the corpses Sahael and Kasha had found.

[Aegis013]

After the psychic reformation in the alternate time stream, Sahael Bends Reality to eek out even more power from Renia's next spell. The magic chains to each of the corpses.

The elf gasps as life returns to his body, and the birds both begin to twitch, eventually moving to an upright position and stretching their wings. Not long after they move onto the corpse of the Azurin, one tenderly pecks him a couple times and the other seems to beat its wings on him, as if they were trying to wake him from a deep sleep.

The elf slowly shifts himself to a sitting position and coughs vigorously a few times. He shifts his head and sees you and after a moment surprise clearly registers on his face. He coughs once more and grumbles "I hate being resurrected. But I suppose I owe you my thanks, things didn't go as planned here." He looks towards the still cold corpse of the Azurin but doesn't seem to be concerned that his comrade remains lifeless.

[General Patton]

"Unfortunately, it's going to happen again. You have 16 minutes of life, but we have preparations for properly resurrecting you the instant that time ends... with your essence completely unmarred. He..." Sahael somberly glances at the Azurin " was not so lucky. It's already hard enough to apply these spells en masse, let alone over a minute and a half post-mortem." Sahael reconfigures, swapping 40 ft of Flight speed for Increased Size. He gingerly hefts the corpse onto a shoulder. "Gonna have to settle for a regular Raise Dead.

Your leader is still alive, at the Conclave, though he seems to be mentally compromised in some fashion. If he had called upon me even a few moments earlier, things might have been different. We pulled out all the stops for you. It was costly and painful. I would hope that now you actually trust me enough to partake of the single greatest strategic asset that can possibly exist. I might be able to do more for you next time, or prevent there from being a next time."

They feel the friendly telepathic presence of Sahael attempting to invite them into the Collective.

Conversation becomes telepathic if they all accept.

He also attempts free-action Sense Motive via DHI to determine whether any of them are NOT immune to mind-affecting. He will address one of them with the following.

"I'm about to request some Teleport assistance from the Conclave. They'll probably need to Scry someone, and we are shielded, so you'll want to expect that and not resist it."

He twirls his Wand of Sending and fires off a message to Cognitus. "Frosty magic-suppressing non-euclidean abomination vanquished. 7 living 1 dead. Resources low, requesting transport. Kaki/Raikou/Star Elf has been advised to accept Scrying. Status update?"

"Now, what happened? Last I heard, you were attempting to make amends with the Assassin's Guild."

[Aegis013]

The Elf shifts himself and stands up laboriously and the bird scatter as you lift the corpse of their comrade, flying up in a circle and eventually landing on the elf's shoulders. "Sixteen minutes until I go through it again, wonderful." he says, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He gives you a strange glance when you claim their leader is alive.

It appears none of them are currently immune to mind-affecting. You extend the invitation but none of them accept. "It's not that we don't trust you, or that we don't appreciate what you've done for us here. We're simply following instructions of someone we trust even more. If our leader hasn't been utterly destroyed, we will continue following our given tasks. Regarding the Assassin's Guild, we were on our way to do so. Their main fortress is South-southwest of here. We stopped here in order to take on some additional preparations, but you've probably deduced the rest of the story. As far as your resources expended, the Conclave should provide you reimbursement as long as our leader isn't destroyed. If he is, or if no one can fix whatever condition you claim has befallen him then I suppose the Conclave's accord with us would be complete and it is unclear to me what standing we would have with them then."

Cognitus responds, his voice coming through slightly off-tone as if the message was fluctuating between coming in too quickly and slowly: "I face the creature you described at this time. Its magic-resistant nature is proving problematic. Particularly due to its recent sudden empowerment. Please hold."

[whoiam]

Once Sahael relays the response, Renia's first thought is: "Feeling up to another potentia surge? I could grab some of Kasha's power to put together a second Greater Teleport... That'd get us as close to the conclave as their wards allow, then we just need to reach Cogitus quickly..."

[Mousedigits]

I've got a Teleport ready. We can use that.

Trasil will also begin channeling new spells into his weapon.

Channeling Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp, an Intensified, Energy Substituted (Fire), Searing, Empowered Shocking Grasp x2

[whoiam]

"Well, if that's the best we can do in a hurry..."

"Alright, we're going to try and teleport back to the enclave. Fingers crossed, link hands, and then it's over to Trasil..." Matching actions to her words, Renia takes one of Trasil's hands, and one of Sahael's. The others would have to join the chain as best they could, and hope Trasil could carry all of them...

[Mousedigits]

I can take four others with me. That makes Sahael, Renia, Kasha, one of you, he points to the other party, and me. Though the birds may be small enough to count as half a person each. In addition, I should be able to carry the body of the Azurin with us, since it's technically an object. Funny, maybe it's better he didn't come back the first time around.


Could the two birds possibly count as half a person each, akin to how a large person counts as two people? The spell does specify one small or medium medium or smaller creature per 3 CL, but that may have simply been because, well, if one small creature counts for half a person, that's generally not too useful.


Trasil walks over and puts the Azurin's body over his shoulder. Assuming it doesn't weigh more than about 200lbs, it should be fine. If it weights too much, Trasil hands the Azurin's equipment off to the Elf.

All right, everyone, gather up. Please keep all arms and legs inside the ride at all times. Pray to your respective gods and goddesses that we arrive at the Conclave.


[roll0]

[Aegis013]

The Elf shrugs and comments "I have a solution." you see the birds, seemingly knowing the idea, move start rooting around on the Elf's pack, eventually getting it open, they pop in one after another into the extradimensional pocket space within. "Let's go they won't last long in there without air." he says, grabbing onto one of Kasha's hands, apparently rather comfortable with Intelligent undead.

You warp into the conclave. Appearing in the room designated for your group's quarters where Renia had set up her Magnificent Mansion. There are icicles hanging from the ceiling and a deep thick frost across the ground and sprawled up the walls. Kasha's aura causes the ice to quickly begin to start dripping, becoming very slick.

Cognitus hovers in front of you, arcane energy appears to be dissipating from the depths of his empty eye sockets returning to the meager points of light indicating the presence of his conscience within the mostly skeletal body. The Necropolitan lies on the ground, unresponsive and still.

"Welcome back. The threat has been neutralized for now, though it proved more difficult than I initially anticipated." Cognitus' jaw clicks as he speaks. You don't detect anything hostile in the immediate vicinity. "My magical resources are substantially reduced. I will be in my study. I will investigate Sepecrus' condition when I have recovered and prepared." He turns and floats away slowly.

The Elf quickly opens his pack and the birds both scramble out, clearly gulping down the air like it was sorely missed. Another creature starts to stick its hand out as well, and the Elf pulls their group's Slaymate out, roots around for her harness attaches it and sets her onto his chest.

[Mousedigits]

Well, what now? Do we go on, with so much expended resources? Or do we spend more time here?

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"It looks as though he might have brought back a passenger or something when he came here."

[whoiam]

"Quite possibly.

Cogitus, before you go, did the 'threat' drop anything when you defeated it? It bore a few similarities to other creatures we've found guarding artifacts we need for that whole saving-the-world thing, and they usually dropped from the final 'piece' defeated. Which, from your message, would appear to be on this end..."

[Aegis013]

Cognitus' head rotates 180 degrees as he continues to slowly float away. "I didn't defeat the being, I merely Banished it to its native plane of existence."

[General Patton]

"We are forgetting to piece together our knowledge of its transformations. There might be much more to it here than we thought. I don't believe it is entirely gone, for we have previously received an artifact fragment even after parts were Banished.

We observed a 13-sided one, which broke apart into 4 5-sided ones. We didn't strike them down until they were in the middle of merging back together, but they turned into 8 1-sided entities. They dispersed in all directions at ever increasing speeds. Snuffing out the last one seemed to scrub all formerly living material from the volume contained between their death locations."

[Aegis013]

Cognitus slows his exit and responds "I witnessed a single entity, long enough to see it both consume a homunculus and attempt to become one with, or possibly consume, Sepecrus. In its half-fused state I couldn't discern its shape accurately. I was able to separate the two without destroying Sepecrus though I know not what damage it did to him during its attempt. After I separated the two, I attempted to gain more information about its capabilities when it unexpectedly became much more aggressive, just prior to your Sending. As it seemed to be highly resilient to magic, I determined the optimal course was simply to send it away before my reserves of magic were further reduced. It's possible there are still more pieces lurking, or perhaps some of its essence still exists inside Sepecrus. I will look into the matter further when I have recovered and prepared." He seems very calm and nonchalant about leaving Sepecrus' unresponsive corpse lying in the room.

[General Patton]

Sahael scrutinizes Cognitus for any external influence.
Sense Motive [roll0]

"Can either of you detect any unexpected Evil presence?" He inquires of the two Clerics.

[Aegis013]

He doesn't appear to be under external influence.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha is more interested in the necropolitan. First, though, she re-ups her Superior Resistance and converts Hero's Feast into a Harm to heal herself. "Is anyone in need of any healing? Sounds like a piece came back here, maybe it was the one carrying something useful. Or perhaps none of them were. In any case, particualrly after that last fight, I think we could all use time to recover. Unless anyone has any better ideas?"

She studies the injured? Damaged? Necropolitan. Of course, Cognitus has probably already done an examination, but it can't hurt.


She would probably use a Detect Magic
Knowledge: Planes [roll0]
Knowledge: Religion [roll1]
Heal: [roll2] (I guess? Heal: Undead Edition?)
Spellcraft: [roll3] (In case she does see any weird effects still going)

[Aegis013]

The Necropolitan appears to be a corpse, which is a normal condition for him. He, however, is not responsive. It's possible he is merely paralyzed, or some other condition has afflicted him, but the root cause doesn't appear to be magical in nature.

[whoiam]

"I ought to be fine for healing, but the recovery time is seconded. Especially now we have to start it all again from the beginning... Why couldn't they have gotten themselves into trouble a couple of hours earlier?

Before we rest, however, we've got to use that prepped Revivify on our allies, and then I shall have to trouble Sahael for another reformation. Resurrecting teams isn't exactly my preferred combat role..."

[Aegis013]

A few minutes pass with the elf complaining about his impending death and resurrection. The elf and the two hengyokai die, and your team hits them with the Revivify, returning them to life, the elf coughing violently again as the breath of life returns to his very briefly dead lungs.

"As much as I hate experiencing that, thank you again. I'll do what I can to handle the situation with Sepecrus and Garron's conditions, I don't wish to utilize any more of your resources, if you need anything, we're indebted to you and I'll do what I can as acting leader of our group to provide any support or repayment within reasonable limits as I hope not to become further indebted to you. Sadly, purchasing those flocks of sheep used up most of our liquid assets, so I can't reimburse you in coin currently." He whistles a sharp whistle and numerous homunculi scurry into the area. He indicates for Sahael to put the Azurin's body on the cluster of homuculi as some of them hoist the Necropolitan's body up for transport.

"We'll be in our group's normal quarters here if you need anything." He tells you how to get there or says you could send one of the homunculi if you so chose.

[General Patton]

"That may need to wait until after we rest. I am so drained that I literally can't do that, unless we use the Potentia to exchange power.

The amount of power I wasted on circumventing planar boundaries, and our own defenses against information-gathering, would have sufficed."

Sahael tactfully lets judgements go unspoken. Renia is smart enough.

[Aegis013]

The Elf shepherds his group to some other place in the conclave, leaving you to determine what your next course of action will be. Rest seems like it is very likely.

Do you do anything special during your rest time?

Once you are rested, will you:

Return to the scene of the crime? Or wait to see what Cognitus discovers?

Go to the East to the Temple of the Sublime Way mentioned by the Living Armor?

Head North at the Conclave's request to the alleged lair of Vrakmul to determine what the Skull Lords are planning?

[whoiam]

"Well, re-attune to your Potentia piece, I'll lend you the power for the reformation before I go back to bed. And next time, yell through the door if something goes wrong instead of taking off without us; you never know when you'll need Trasil to butcher something for you.

Anyway, last chance before I re-attune - do we think today went badly enough we want to use the do-over?"

[General Patton]

Sahael takes 5 minutes to re-attune to his Potentia piece, and after receiving 13 pp worth of power, spends 10 minutes manifesting Psychic Reformation.

"Today was acceptable."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"I think that costs outweigh the benefits, unfortunate as the day was for our sometime allies. It may be worth returning to the site of the encounter to ascertain if there is anything there we missed."


Once rested, assuming there is no further shenanigans:

"I suggest we investigate the scene of the summoning, at least briefly, and then go to the Temple of the Sublime Way. Thoughts?"

[Aegis013]

This time, the group successfully rests without incident. It is now a few hours before dawn and eight days remain.

So it's not a surprise, the last day the "final" events unfold. There are things that can happen afterward, but the main plot will be resolved. So you effectively have seven days before the climatic encounter/s on the last day.

[General Patton]

Edit: Before the buffing session begins, Sahael seeks out some of the presiding liches in order to make a request.

"I am about to make an egregious expenditure of power for our preparations. So much so, that it would be unwise if not for the fact that most of these powers will last one and a half or two days, providing significant utility for that down payment and saving energy in the long run. Would anyone here be willing to contribute spells into a Dweomer of Transference to mitigate our costs? I will soon be able to repay the assistance with Hypercognition, if anyone has difficult questions they need answered."

End edit

Sahael begins the buffing session.

10 minutes, 13 pp, Psychic Reformation. Swap Penetrating Fear [Psionic] for Extend Power [Metapsionic], Insightful Terror [Psionic] for Echoing Power [Metapsionic] (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/feats/echoing-power-metapsionic/), Cleanse Body for Danger Sense, Trigger Power for Dispelling Buffer, Dimension Swap for Psychic Bodyguard, Bend Reality for Personal Barred Mind.
7 pp, Extended Hidden Pocket
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 17 pp, Shared Extended Personal Barred Mind
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 13 pp, Shared Extended Adapt Body
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 11 pp, Extended Empathy
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 15 pp, Shared Extended Danger Sense,
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 13 pp, Extended Dispelling Buffer
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 13 pp, Extended Psychic Bodyguard
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 3 pp, Extended Conceal Thoughts
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 9 pp, Extended Echoing Detect Hostile Intent
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 15 pp, Extended Divert Teleport
5 minutes reattune & surge share, 15 pp, Extended Energy Conversion
10 minutes, 13 pp, Psychic Reformation. Swap everything back, except for Dispelling Buffer.

Total
70 minutes
157 pp
10 Potentia Surges, providing plenty of opportunities for buffing and for sharing Renia's duration-doubling technique in order to hit as much of our buff stacks as possible.

Now is the time for everyone to use the spreadsheet!

[Aegis013]

Sahael goes looking for the resident magic-using liches, but mostly finds the homunculi. When asked to lead you to the liches, the homunculi seems to gesticulate unintelligibly but don't lead you anywhere. You go by the Living Armor's quarters, and it appears to be meditating. Eventually you come across the Elf, and the birds, Kaki and Raikou. They're sitting in front of a door covered in mystic runes: a ritual chamber. It seems that all of the magic-wielding liches are currently inside, likely working to restore Garron and Sepecrus to their respective states of living.

"It seems there are some complications, it may be some time before they complete the ritual. They've specified that the ritual is not to be interrupted outside of the most dire and urgent of circumstances and that doing so could pose significant danger to all parties involved. We're not initiated, so they refused to let us participate. They said they left a parting gift for Kasha should she wish to take it." He provides the location.

Upon investigation it seems that the Conclave has prepared a creature for Kasha to animate, should she wish. The creature is so desiccated that its original race is unclear. It seems to have salt deposits encrusted into its dried husk that once may have been flesh.

You animate an Necrocarnum Salt Mummy (MM 3, pg. 146).

[Mousedigits]

Trasil looks at the corpse with a slightly disturbed expression.

Well, looks like he's not having a great day.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha studies the corpse, then smiling (which is now a rather unattractive look on her, for those who can see through her illusory 'living thing' disguise), "How thoughtful!"

She does indeed animate it.

[whoiam]

"I'll be out in the hall, " Renia tells the others (rather quickly), before fleeing the scene. She didn't really have anywhere to go right now - they couldn't move out until Kasha was done creating her new pet monster - but anything was better than just sitting there and watching it happen.

Sigh.

When time wasn't such a pressing issue, she'd have to look into adopting something celestial... and ideally big enough to do more damage to Kasha's new toy than the reverse...

[Silver Night]

Kasha

It doesn't take Kasha long to animate her new abomination. She sticks her head out into the hall, "All done. Sorry, I'll give you a little more warning if I can next time."

To the collective: "I'm ready whenever everyone else is."

[Aegis013]

The creature gets up, now animated and kneels before Kasha, placing one fist on the ground and one over where its heart may or may not still reside. It states simply. "I live and die to serve." It seems the creature may retain some of its pre-mummification personality. Possibly skills as well.

This one has proficiency with all martial weapons, shields and all armors. It also has a greater selection of skills and higher Int and Dex than your typical salt mummy, whose brains are often damaged during the conversion.

Ability Scores: Str 27, Dex 16, Con -, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 16
Saves: Fort: 4, Ref: 7, Will 8
AC: 22 (FF: 19, T 13)

Skills include:
Hide and Move Silently: +18
Bluff and Disguise: +18
Spot and Listen: +15
Use Magic Device: +18

Otherwise, same as normal statblock.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Rise. Serve you will." To the others, "While we are preparing, I might see about getting my new friend - do you have a name already or shall I name you? - something more appropriate to wear."

If they aren't leaving that second, she will inquire with the living armor about equipment.

[Aegis013]

The salt mummy rises, but keeps its head bowed. "I don't remember a name. Only my purpose. That is enough for me."

The Conclave's armory contains a large variety of equipment, pretty much anything one could want, but as the Living Armor is really the only one proficient, other than its personal stash the best they have is +1 of whatever equipment you want to equip your servant with.

[General Patton]

Sahael invites the creature into the Collective.

"I believe it would be prudent to go after the Skull Lords first, before they have time to make further preparations against us. And Renia seems quite eager to vaporize something with her newfound power. Since teleporting is out of the question, would we rather make an aerial approach or a subterranean one, if we do decide to go after them first?"

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"I would suggest an aerial approach to within a short distance as most magic that can pierce invisibility only works within a limited range, and then an assessment of the defenses to decide on our final path. However, I remain in support of going to the Temple of the Sublime Way. I believe that whatever additional power we are able to gather there will offset the preparations the Skull Lords might make during the ensuing delay. In particular while Trasil is already immensely effective, I have undergone the Sere Rite and both of you have shards of the Potentia. This is a place that might profit him similarly."

[whoiam]

"I doubt the Skull Lords are preparing anything for us right now. Either they don't know about us or they've known for a long, long time - either way, I doubt whether we go after them first or last will make much of a difference to how well prepared they are.

My vote's to try and hit the non-Skull-Lord targets first."

[Mousedigits]

I think I agree with Renia on this one. I doubt it will make much difference whether we go for the Skull Lords now or later.I say we try the Temple.

[Aegis013]

So it seems the party has determined in a 3 to 1 vote that they will proceed to Temple of the Sublime Way. How will you travel there?

[Aegis013]

You seek out the Living Armor, who happily paints you a surprisingly vivid word picture of the marvels of the Temple doors and their location. You teleport to the described place.

You instantly materialize, buffeted by hot Eastern winds and sands, powerful enough to severely limit normal visibility. The early morning sun already glows dimly through the storm on the Eastern horizon like a blazing eye curiously watching you. Just within the limits of visibility from the sandstorm is a steep mountain face jutting upwards from the sands, an enormous, lone mountain.

You push towards the mountain and the cover it provides and you find that etched into the side of the mountain is a passage way that leads deep into the mountain's side. Based on the descriptions, you expect this must lead to the Temple. You quickly move forward and it grows dark within the passage, however that is no obstacle to your group. The rough walls give way to hewn stone, clearly created unnaturally.

You eventually come to a small opening, at the other end are three doors, each with intricate ornate carvings. In front of the doors appears to be a set of twisted, distorted armor. The pungent scent of blood emanates from the room and the bones of challengers long dead lie strewn about haphazardly, many crushed or broken during battles with new challengers.

The room is pitch black with no lighting whatsoever, no issue for your group. The bones are old and brittle enough that they can easily be crushed underfoot and cause you no issue in moving around, but it's unclear if anything sinister lies beneath them, they blanket the floor pretty well, you can tell via special senses there are no pits underneath, at least.

[General Patton]

Spot [roll0]
Int [roll1]

Sahael assesses the equipment, or lack thereof, in the bone pile, for surely these challengers must have been well-equipped. If equipment is conspicuously absent, what do the positions of more recent bones imply about the method of equipment removal? Are there any visual indication on the walls that acid or ooze may have been present? Does the armor seem distorted and twisted as a result of damage, as an aesthetic, or as the result of imperfect repeated damage and repair? Anything else these rolls would reveal that I'm not smart enough to ask?

[Aegis013]

Carefully peering into the room, you manage to spot a second set of twisted armor hanging from the ceiling of the room. This one is smaller and slimmer than the one on the floor and quite well camouflaged.

There is no equipment in the room from the bodies, and neither of the twisted armors seem to have weaponry either. Based on the position of the bones and the lack of signs of acid or similar, you'd guess that the equipment was simply stripped off the dead.

The twisted armor may be an aesthetic, but it does show signs of repeated damage and repair as well.

You can easily deduce that while this has claimed the lives of many, it has been defeated at least a few times. The armor on the floor appears to have parts where the armor has been broken more often and its defense may be compromised. (If you choose, you make take a -5 penalty on an attack to attempt to target a structurally compromised part of the armor, if you hit, you ignore any DR or Hardness)

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha stares around the room. It's hard not to stare, when you don't really have eyelids anymore. Well. She can blink, sort of. At least, it's like blinking, and the darkly opalescent... stuff that replaced her eyes dims. "Guardians? A test? Hopefully not as effective as you, Trasil."



Detect Magic (Probably would have cast this a bit earlier)

Spot: [roll0]
Listen: [roll1]

Knowledge (Arcana): [roll2] for the armor (I'm assuming they are constructs, can change this if they are something else.)
Knowledge (History): [roll3] This and the Architecture rolls for the doors and room. Any info on the carvings, etc.
Knowledge (Architecture): [roll4]

Lore [roll5] because it never hurts!

[Mousedigits]

We can only hope, Kasha. I imagine that they will be of comparable, if not greater, skill than I. They likely have much more battle experience than I. My hope, however, is that we can talk to them. According to the Armor, our numbers are few. It wouldn't do to slaughter my brethren.

With that, Trasil floats in, sword sheathed, making sure not to touch the ground.

Hello? I come to learn more of my kind, the Kreshen.

[General Patton]

Listen [roll0]
Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) [roll1]
Knowledge (History) [roll2]

Sahael concentrates on Empathy, and Senses Motive as a free action if they're within 30 ft.
Ground [roll3]
Ceiling [roll4]
Assess Opponent Ground [roll5]
Assess Opponent Ceiling [roll6]

As usual, Sahael relays everything.

His thoughts sputter out incredulously. "We don't have a plan!"

[Mousedigits]

Trust me on this. My gut says we can talk our way through this.

[whoiam]

"My gut suggests they'll probably make us fight a little however we approach them; just to see there's more to us than words alone. But I'm perfectly happy to follow your lead on this one - if nothing else, it shouldn't hurt to try and be diplomatic first."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Speaking of guts, hopefully this won't end with anyone's spread all over the floor. At least I've cleverly put mine in a safe place."

[Aegis013]

Kasha:
The creatures themselves give a universal magic aura, but the strength of the aura is indeterminate. There's something not right about the aura itself, as if its very essence might be tainted and twisted rather than the raw faith of divine magic or the logical patterns of arcane. (detect magic)

You see the armor on the floor. After Sahael shares with you about the armor on the ceiling, you manage to catch that one too, nestled in among the reinforcements to the cave room. (spot)
The room seems utterly quiet, the creatures before you don't appear to breathe or move. (listen)

(Arcana swapped to Planes, the 2 less bonus wouldn't affect what you know) - You recognize the creatures before you as Reth Dekala. Evil outsiders who are bound by an extreme sense of honor and loyalty. Reth Dekala are widely varied in capability, but are the remnants of ancient warriors who sold their souls for power. Some are supposedly unbeatable in combat, while others wield magic powerful enough to raze cities. Many have honed their skills fighting for countless eons in the infinite wars of the lower planes, so their full capabilities are unknown. You recall from stories that they are rumored to be able to find footing even on the air itself, that their twisted essence can debilitate those around them or even be used as a weapon itself.

The room is well constructed, it would be very difficult to cause enough damage to collapse the room, but not impossible. Reinforcements line the walls and ceiling. (engineering)

You recall a bit of legend about this place:
Lore - Legends tell of an ancient temple dedicated to mastery of the martial arts; one which welcomes all who wish to pursue its secrets. Press through the trials placed before you as far as you can and earn your rite; press too far, and meet your death. But beware! The temple often looks unkindly upon those who proceed with power not of their own body! Go, brave warrior to the heart of the temple. But know this, only a god among warriors can inherit the final secret.


Sahael:
The room seems utterly quiet, the creatures before you don't appear to breathe or move. (listen)
The room is well constructed, it would be very difficult to cause enough damage to collapse the room, but not impossible. Reinforcements line the walls and ceiling. (engineering)
You recall legends of a temple of martial prowess. Many come looking to learn secrets and many meet their end in the attempt. However, there are a handful of stories of skillful warriors, pure of heart shieldmaidens and other such folk heroes who have learned powerful techniques in its bowels and returned as heroes or villains. Supposedly, none have ever grasped its most powerful and elusive secret. Many speculate that it's just hearsay that anything more is left within.

Both seem wholly devoted to some task, with construct-like dedication. (Empathy)
Neither of them seem like they present any true threat to your group, if they were alone. (Assess Opponent: Easy)

Trasil floats into the room, but provokes no response from either of the twisted armors. As you draw closer, you can see tell-tale signs that these twisted armors, while suspiciously similar to Kreshen, must be some other thing. Neither are they the Warforged.

[Silver Night]

Kasha


Kasha shares all of the above (her bit) telepathically, "Sounds like using weapons rather than spells as much as possible might be a good idea? Maybe ask them what their duty here is, Trasil?"

See Invisibility, because why not?

[Mousedigits]

Trasil nods, then turns to the armor on the floor.

Reth Dekala, what is your purpose here?

[Aegis013]

The Reth Dakala are unresponsive. Within the room now, you have a better view of the doors, each is intricately marked with distinctive patterns, but there don't appear to be apparent characters, labels, or clues regarding what they are for, or where they might lead.

[Mousedigits]

Well, they appear to be either passive to us, or more likely, they are waiting to ambush us. Or, perhaps, they were recently defeated by someone else, and have a reset period.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Or perhaps they have specific orders. Like if we come within a certain distance, or try to open one of the doors."

[General Patton]

"Should I make them freeze up from nightmarish horror? We can just disable them and be on our way."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Unlike some of our other endeavors, this is meant to be a test I think, and it seems specifically a test of arms. Perhaps better to keep the nightmarish horror in our back pocket." She carefully arranges the coils of her whip to her liking, then moves forward, though she lets Trasil lead, "That and since this is only the first test, we may want to keep your full abilities in reserve, in case things become substantially more difficult."

Keeping an eye on the Reth Dakala, she bends down to pick up a piece of debris from the floor, "If no one has any objections, i'm going to throw this toward one of the doors and see what happens."



Int Check [roll0] to discern any pattern or meaning in the stuff on the doors.

[Aegis013]

The patterns have no obvious meaning. They appear to be decorative, though each of the doors has a different design. It's possible that the lines may be some kind of esoteric manner of communication, but it's unlikely. There also appears to be places for other ornaments in the doors (such as gems, for example) which have long since been looted, lost, broken, or otherwise been removed. Perhaps this place was once actually more akin to a traditional temple.

[whoiam]

"No objections, I just doubt it'll do much. If they intended this place to test the arms of great warriors, I doubt the doors will be trapped - we'll just be challenged when we try to move further in. May as well get it over with, and have Trasil try a door."

[General Patton]

Trying to ascertain as much detail about the anti-magic pro-strength-of-arms nature of this place and what specifically is allowed or frowned upon in various circumstances.
Knowledge (Psionics) [roll0]
Knowledge (History) [roll1]
Knowledge (Arcana) [roll2]
Knowledge (Religion) [roll3]
Knowledge (Planes) [roll4]
Martial Lore [roll5]
Sense Motive [roll6] In case this whole thing can be modeled as a sentient force subjectively judging our actions.

"I'm not sure if allowing my presence to violate their minds would agitate the anti-magic nature of this place. Would you be opposed to us stepping outside for 10 minutes while I revert to some of my previous more mundane techniques for making foes stand down?"

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha rolls the knuckle bone she picked up around in one hand. It's large - maybe from an ogre? She shrugs, "That makes sense, though we can probably just do it just down the hall. It'll tell us if they attack to stop people leaving too."

[Aegis013]

Sahael's results: (only taking the results that matter or provide new information)

Religion: There is a small group that consider the Sublime Way to be a religious devotion. Mastery of the body and the martial arts considered to be a path to achieving esoteric goals such as enlightenment. Some were rumored to have achieved such things as spawning fire from their body heat, or even balancing on air. However, this group is in no way mainstream.

Martial Lore: The temple of the Sublime Way frowns upon magic in most forms. There are martial feats that stretch beyond the normal limits of what is considered possible to achieve with the body and these are welcomed in the temple (such as the above mentioned fire from their body heat, known to you as the Desert Wind school). Otherwise, it is expected that one can proceed using magic, but the temple curators and guardians will supposedly attempt to slay such trespassers without remorse.

Sense Motive: The temple walls and doors appear to be made of rock, pockmarked with scars from many battles. They don't have a motive.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Once Sahael is done reconfiguring, and if no one has any objections, Kasha chucks the bone at the middle door.

[General Patton]

Sahael relays everything relevant, including his opinion that they only need to worry about upsetting the guardians with magic and not some godlike rule-enforcing presence. As for what exactly might be able to skirt around their judgement, even he could not guess.

He manifests Psychic Reformation outside, swapping Insightful Terror [Psionic] for Imperious Command. He also reconfigures, swapping all 4 Energy Resistances and 20 ft of Flight speed for Increased Size and Reach.

He walks back in and approaches one of the doors. Touching it and examining it up close.

[Aegis013]

Kasha lobs the bone at the middle door. It bounces off and clatters against other bones on the cave floor.

Sahael approaches the doors, reaching out and upon touching one ephemeral green flames erupt from the joints of the Reth Dekala on the ground, it rises to a standing position and its helmet slowly makes a full rotation, taking in each of you and your positions.

"You seek the secrets of the Sublime Way?"

The Reth Dekala on the ceiling doesn't appear to have reacted.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil draws his sword, a metallic ringing echoing in the chamber. He points it at the Reth Dekala.

We do. I assume you're going to try to stop us?

[Aegis013]

The Reth Dekala doesn't turn its head, but responds in its voice, echoing out of the hollows of the twisted helm.

"Maybe. My first priority is to explain the rules of the temple. If you wish to learn secrets of the might of the body, choose the door on the left. If you wish to learn secrets of the discipline of the mind, choose the door on the right. If you wish to learn secrets of the vigorous spirit, choose the door in the center. All paths lead eventually to the heart of the temple."

It's helmet again rotates stopping briefly as it faces each of you in turn.

"Be warned, however, I smell the foul stench of magic on each of you. If you wish to earn the secrets, shed the crutch of magic. Items of magical nature may be carried, but not utilized. If such is outside of the scope of your abilities, such as a curse, I can suppress most magics on your behalf until the next sunrise.

If you wish to use your magic to steal the secrets, then I still won't try to stop you; I will end you, as I have countless others before you." The creature indicates the bones scattered about the cave, though the threat doesn't seem to carry quite the weight it might with others considering all the damage in the Reth Dekala's armor and the fact that it is without a weapon.

[Mousedigits]

Which door, you guys think? Also, should we risk using magic? No magic means no buffs, no telepathy, and a severe limit on my damage-dealing, not to mention not being able to use Potentia pieces.

[General Patton]

Sahael would have used FMF while he was briefly out of the room.

"I would have been fine with us splitting up along whichever paths most suit each of our personal goals, had he not forbidden the magic we already have active. That's too long to disable it for, given our schedule. I feel it would be most advantageous to forego the challenge and raid this place for everything it's worth. Ironically, their measures to restrain our behavior are potentially backfiring by making us completely unfettered. If you think we should systematically loot everything as a group while dispatching the guardians, then I shall see how their resolve holds up against... ME." You can feel Sahael's satisfaction at this opportunity.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"I wonder if this means they have a method of suppressing magic without our say-so. One can hope not." She studies the armor for a moment, "I don't suppose you can just suppress our magic until we leave the temple? We have other appointments where we will need it. Also, some of us are intrinsically magic, and/or need it to stay existent to some degree or another. I'm also curious - I think I understand 'mind' and 'body' but what is 'vigorous spirit?'"

"I suspect, Sahael, that the path will end up being the one you anticipate. However, I would like to at least have a chance to examine their testing process rather than just rip through it.

[General Patton]

Martial Lore [roll0]

Sahael will try to answer Kasha's question aloud if possible, clarifying what exactly is meant by 'discipline of the mind', 'might of the body' and vigorous spirit', hoping to earn some respect with his knowledge of martial disciplines.

[whoiam]

"You can hope all you like; There's probably still at least one anti-magic-field in there somewhere if they're that serious about this being a test of martial might. Or else someone would have just teleported to the center before now.

It sounds like we should leave and come back at the end of the day. That way we don't have to go through that buffing routine again... today. We can just dismiss the current set, and send Trasil on to beat things up until he reaches martial enlightenment..."

[Aegis013]

Sahael's martial lore results:

Vigorous Spirit would include disciplines such as Devoted Spirit which can inspire allies and the user causing them to rally, it could also potentially include particular Iron Heart maneuvers that allow one to shrug off status effects, or reinvigorate themselves. Whether the secrets within the temple are like the known schools of fighting is unclear, but this may have a higher focus on utility compared to slicing and dicing.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"I'm not opposed to that plan, Renia. Though I will defer to Trasil as I think this place is likely to mean more to him than to us, and he can perhaps best make the decision as to whether looting it will be as effective in getting what he wants as performing the tests as they are meant to be performed would be."

"If we did do that, though, we would need to decide if we will go directly after the skull lords now. The more I have considered it the more likely it seems to me that many of them together - and perhaps empowered by a center of necromantic energy - might be a serious threat to try to tackle. I would encourage caution - and perhaps even an attempt to find one or more isolated on their way in to even the odds."

[Aegis013]

The Reth Dekala shakes its helmet indicating that it is beyond its power to shorten the duration of the magic suppression.

[General Patton]

"Perhaps we should restart the day, and come here without making our extensive preparations. And if we grow in power after this endeavor, we may be able to make stronger, more energy efficient, preparations before going after the Skull Lords."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"That sounds like an excellent idea, Sahael. Most of all it conserves time, which is precious at this point."

[Mousedigits]

I like that plan as well. I'm eager to see what awaits us inside the temple.

[whoiam]

While it wouldn't necessarily be her first choice of approach, Renia had to admit to herself she'd done stupider stuff before. Bard 'Training' had involved an awful amount of it, for a start. In fact, beyond the songs, it had pretty much been a series of drunken bets by a set of bards who didn't realise just how alcohol-resistant the half-angel was...

"Before we do this, just a warning: If we do get into trouble inside the temple, and it is under an anti-magic field of some kind, I may not be able to reverse us out of it. Also, despite the armor, I'm not all that competent in entirely mundane combat... So, uh, if we hit trouble, and we're not sure we can take it, we should back off and try to find an exit. Can't afford to die in there, and if we start losing members, I probably can't fight my way out on my own.

If everyone's happy with those as our rules of engagement, I'll start the rewind."

[General Patton]

"Give me a moment to gather some info."

"Must the trials be faced individually, or may we progress as a group? Is each person restricted to the secrets of a single path, or can one face all the hardships to earn all the rewards?"

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) [roll0] Sahael inspects one of the walls, examining the material, mainly to determine if it is as hard as typical stone (8).

"Is the entire structure made of this? And, if I am naturally able to burrow into the floor, would using such a means of hit and run combat violate the rules of the trials?

I am also curious, how do you suppress magic? Is that a martial technique one could learn here? It seems invaluable for offense."

[Aegis013]

The Reth Dekala responds "You may progress as a group. Some trials may require you to select a champion to face the trial alone, or you could split up as you see fit. Not all challengers will be capable or compatible for all secrets, even if they face all of the tests.

I don't know what the temple is forged from, however, there is no rule against using your environment to your advantage.

My power of magic suppression is a technique bestowed to me by my patron. It is not magic. I can't say what techniques you will discover within the temple walls because I do not know. It's not outside the realm of possibility that one may learn such a skill."

The stone here falls within expected ranges for density and hardness. (It is indeed the typical hardness)

[General Patton]

"Well, that's certainly useful enough to know.

Renia, it just occurred to me, that we may be able to scout a great deal of this place in your alternate time stream before going back. Stealing the prizes may be an option, but I suspect we would not be able to claim everything we want in that state. Regardless of what time manipulation you are going to use, it may be wise to do it outside so that the guardians do not try to interrupt. If we are going to scout, I would recommend you stay outside, in case there is an anti-magic field or similar that could disrupt us.

I volunteer to be the scout, due to my combination of infiltrative mobility, perception, general knowledge, and specific martial knowledge. You could use a Chain of Eyes to supplement my capabilities and gain advanced warning in the unlikely event that there is something for us to be concerned about."

[whoiam]

"I've only got enough saved to keep you moving for about 30 minutes, " Renia notes, "and remember that you can't manipulate the environment much - no burrowing, for instance, because I'd have to move the ground into the timestream as well - you'll be abusing either intangibility or teleportation to move around since you won't be able to operate doors. Other than that, go nuts."

Renia didn't really need to carefully hoard her saved time; since they were about to rewind the day to before she'd saved it, she would have lost that pool anyway. Might as well let Sahael use it before the reset.

[General Patton]

Sahael decides that it would be best to team up with Kasha and her incorporeality for this, requesting her to join him in the alternate time stream. In the frozen time, he Reconfigures everything into his Flight, for a ludicrous speed of 330 ft, and then enters Nightmare Form. He attempts to probe the entire interior of the structure, examining everything of interest. If he encounters anything that he can't bypass, but Kasha can, then he uses Dimension Swap to get through by piggybacking off of her mobility.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha - cautiously - goes along with this plan. She doesn't have a week to waste getting reconstituted and getting revivified at this point would be extremely inconvenient after all.

[Aegis013]

It seems the doors are sealed air tight, so gaseous forms and similar wouldn't allow you passage inside. You dimension swap in order to bypass that limitation by using Kasha's Incorporeal form. With 20 minutes, you have enough time to explore many of the rooms in the paths behind the three doors, however, if you stop to carefully examine a room, it takes up time that could be used scouting later rooms. You may explore up to 10 rooms, if you choose "Investigate Closely" it counts as if you had explored two rooms (In essence, you may open 10 spoilers, all the doors are sealed air tight. So each time would require dimension swapping with Kasha, in the unlikely event you run out pp).

You enter the room of the first trial. The walls appear to be made of stone still with a flat floor. The room is illuminated by veins of magma frozen in time through the wall. Somehow, this room isn't unbearably hot. There is another door at the end, and in the center of the room appears to be a construct coated in ancient glyphs. It doesn't appear these are classical magic glyphs, and their purpose is unclear. There is a large hammer resting on the ground in front of the construct. The construct appears to be created in such a way that when it is defeated, its parts shift changing the strange glyphs on its body into a kind of martial text, allowing one to learn some kind of technique from it. It also seems the floor is designed to be able to be knocked out by the construct's hammer, checking below, it seems it would drop you into a vat of lava. It seems particularly resilient rocks also form spikes jutting out from the lava, in case that weren't enough.

It appears in this room there is a different kind of challenge. It seems the room extends a great distance vertically both up and down. There appear to be two decorated doors to the next room, one much higher and one much lower each of them. It appears the challenge is to climb up or down to one of the doors allowing you to proceed, as the veins of magma give clear climbing paths, however, the required paths are still quite treacherous and the fall would be quite painful. It seems lava drips down, free falling down in the center portion of the room, discouraging those who can fly from simply bypassing the challenging. It seems the doors both have instructions carved in to them that would teach techniques, however, it would require both sets of instructions to learn a technique. With your knowledge of martial lore, you know it would take careful study of both doors to learn the relevant technique.

It seems this leads to a path downward/upward eventually meeting and emerging into an square room. In each of the eight corners of the room appear to be ghastly specters of warriors long fallen. Each wields a physical weapon: longspear, greatsword, twin daggers, whip, axe, scythe, flail, and shield. There is a decorated door on the other side.There is nothing to find here. What a waste of time.

Go to Secret spoiler.


The room behind the Right Door opens into a long hallway. The floor is separated into tiles large enough for a large sized creature to comfortably step its foot onto a single tile. Each one has a marker, and the markers appear to be in some sort of pattern. There are apparent traps (slits for arrows/darts, larger openings for blades and the like) in the wall and ceiling. There is a decorated door at the far side of the hall. You easily deduce the pattern on how to proceed using your prodigious minds. You also manage to determine attempting to bypass the tiles will activate a separate set of traps, though it's unclear what those may be.

This door opens to a round room with another decorated door on the other side. In this room there appears to be a very small creature (small with slight build), based on its position it seems to be sleeping: it looks to be a rat person, it reminds you a kobold, but mammalian rather than reptilian. There are numerous tunnels coming from the walls and ceiling and floor. The openings are large enough to make movement around the chamber challenging (rough terrain). Checking into the tunnels, you find numerous more ratfolk hiding in wait, many of them are well equipped, and it seems they have created a way to shut off the magma flow into this chamber, allowing them to attack under the cover of darkness. The ratfolk are beastfolk, like the long dead turtle-person discovered in the capital.

This opens up to an enormous rectangular room with eight supporting four on each of the long sides, there is a significant drop down after the threshold, and there appears to be a Gargantuan construct sitting in this room covered in strange glyphs. It appears this construct is quadrupedal, but is currently rolled up tightly making it difficult to assess if it possesses weaponry or similar. There is another decorated door just behind it. It appears the construct is imitating a dragon. It has the wings, claws, teeth and tail suited to the part. It appears once it is defeated it is designed to twist and contort causing the glyphs to form into some kind of readable instruction.

Go to Secret spoiler.

The first room of this trial is a fairly large square room, you see two statues of ancient warriors, one elven and one orcish. The statues face each other from opposite walls. There is a decorated door at the other end. The statues are apparently some form of Gargoyle, hiding in their perfect stillness. Each one seems to be coated in a thin layer of dust, dirt and rock. Peering underneath, each of them have glyphs on them that appear to be part of some kind of instruction, although incomplete.

This door opens into a very small room with a single unarmed construct within, again, covered in strange glyphs. It appears only a single medium creature could fit in the room with the construct, or a large creature could squeeze into the space, uncomfortably. There is a decorated door just behind the construct. You note that there are cleverly disguised passages above and below the Construct, looking into them, it appears that once a construct is defeated, it can be dropped down the chute below and another one deposited from the chute above to take its place. Seven of them would need to be defeated to progress.

This door leads to a very long hallway with a decorated door at the end. This hallway is empty. Its purpose is unclear. You note that the walls and magma are cleverly coated by some kind of ooze creature. This creature causes a vacuum within its confines and irradiates the area within itself with random other effects. It appears the point of this challenge is simply to get to the other door without dying.

Go to Secret spoiler.

You come to another room. This one has two more Reth Dekala inside, and appears to be a mirror of the first room. Fewer bones coat the floor, but the Reth Dekala here appear to be the same armors in the front room, except that they show substantially less battle damage, having no apparent vulnerability like their twin armors in the beginning. The smaller armor still hangs from the ceiling while the larger sits on the floor. Beyond them is a path further in. The three exits from the three paths each have symbols and glyphs on them. It seems each of these is designed such that the more of the glyphs you can decipher and collect, the more powerful secrets you may uncover. These three would be useless without all of the glyphs from within their respective paths.

The path winds down into the belly of the temple, however, even with both of your incredible movement speeds, it's a long journey in. The paths of magma give you a feeling almost like lifeblood running through the veins and capillaries of a creature. Almost.

You come to an enormous cavern. Lava drips down from the ceiling and runs down the walls, mineral rich platforms jut from the cavern walls, in the center of the cavern is a massive pile of gold, weapons, artworks, and untold riches. Upon it sleeps a massive dragon. Its scales, like the temple itself, course with streaks of molten power. An ancient Pyroclastic Dragon's lair, it's not clear what this dragon is doing so far from its home plane. However, you notice a distinct lack of bones or marks of battle within the creature's lair. There still yet appears to be a decorated door beyond this creature's lair. It seems this dragon lacks the markings of battles fought. The two most likely scenarios are that either nobody has ever made it this far, or that this dragon doesn't intend to fight those who make their way to its lair.

Behind this door is an absolutely massive hemispherical room with carvings all along the walls and ceiling. The carvings appear to depict the acts of a deity, one apparently long lost to history, it shows an army of beastfolk created by the deity, marching upon the other races, depictions of bloody, brutal war. Eventually it shows other deities casting this forgotten god down, and wiping out the deity's creation.

In this room is an enormous, strange, and almost mechanical device, composed of numerous metallic rings of various compositions, it has truly ancient magic engraved over each and every part of it. It seems to have a core which draws and allows it to harness planar energies to do its work, eventually coming to a release where whatever it produces is deposited. The only thing either of you know of akin to this would be the legendary Forge of War, origin of the Warforged. However, this isn't designed to create Warforged, but some other type of living construct.

However, sitting just below it, is an enormous beast, a writhing mass of blubber and tentacles, with a gaping maw full of thousands of teeth made of brilliant light. You immediately recognize the telltale signs of a Far Realm creature before you. It appears it has long been feeding on the creations of this Forge and has grown to ridiculous proportions. Taking up a space of roughly 50x50x50ft with tentacles capable of reaching anywhere within the massive room. It seems there is a way to draw a pedestal out of the center of the room and use it to open up a chamber below. However, even incorporeal, some force stops Kasha from descending further. It seems in order to proceed, the far realm creature would need to be destroyed in order to access the center of the room.

[General Patton]

Sahael would want to focus his investigation on Mental Discipline, as we are all reliant on high Int and would seemingly gain the most from that path if we had to pick and choose.

Is that 10 rooms total or 10 rooms each?

[Aegis013]

10 Rooms total. Without Kasha's incorporeality, getting past the first set of doors would be an issue, as your Nightmare Form can't slip by them.

[General Patton]

Ah, I thought maybe we could do a leapfrogging sort of thing. Investigate one room while she investigates the next, then DSwap while she passes through the next one to the one after that, so that we tackle consecutive pairs of rooms at the same time.

[Aegis013]

If you move quickly through the rooms (by choosing not to Investigate Closely) you can get through the majority of them, either way you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

[General Patton]

After returning to the normal timestream outside of the temple, and relaying all he has seen, Sahael has one last experiment to try.

"Before we restart this day, I need to see how this would turn out. Renia, stay safe and be prepared to go back if things get out of hand. Trasil, be ready to defend her if attackers exit the structure. Kasha, you have the most surefire method of destroying a target by draining their vitality. Let's see just how brave and sturdy these guardians are."

Unless there are objections, he returns to the temple entrance, casually walking towards the doors until he is halfway between the two guardians. Freezing up in midstep, he seamlessly transitions from a natural stride to unnerving stillness, as if a statue. With a series of quick twitches punctuated by these moments of statuesque motionlessness, he contorts his body into a bizarre predatory stance with his joints all at odd angles and his head horribly askew. His pharyngeal jaw slowly extends out of the psychotic slasher smile plastered on his face, and the silence is broken by a drawn out breathy sounding "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Double Demoralize paralysis spam.
Intimidate [roll0]
Intimidate [roll1]

[Aegis013]

The Reth Dekala stands there, unsure if your action is aggressive.

The Reth Dekala stands there, unmoving. Since it's fueled by strange eldritch energy it simply remains still rather than showing easily readable signs. However, watching the shifts in the eldritch energy closely, you can tell it was affected.

[General Patton]

Pleased with his success, Sahael attacks their arrogant view that martial arts are superior to other paths of development. "Strength of arms fails in the absence of courage to wield it."

Maintaining the paralysis, with assumed guaranteed success, until their experiment is complete, he invites Kasha to have at it.

"Let's see how they fare against execution by weapon, and by draining."

[Aegis013]

Reth Dekala [roll0] or [roll1]
Trasil [roll2]
Kasha [roll3]
Renia [roll4]
Sahael [roll5]

Reth Dekala 2 [roll6] or [roll7]

Kasha has the opportunity to act. The Reth Dekala is apparently cowering in fear.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha attempts to Coup De Grace the apparently paralyzed Reth Dekala



My understanding is it autohits?

Damage: [roll0] + [roll1] Des + [roll2] Des + [roll3] vs evil outsiders

[Aegis013]

As you attempt to strike a fatal blow into the cracks in the Reth Dekala's armor, a new light bursts into the room. The smaller Reth Dekala on the ceiling comes to life a pale blue flame erupting violently from within it. It takes the opportunity and swings out its hand, a chain of pale blue flame with a small orb at the end snakes out, seeming to try to find its way around Kasha's neck. The chain of flame runs to a sickle made of the same stuff in its other hand, it appears to be wielding a metaphysical kusarigama, a difficult weapon to wield originally from a foreign land. It attempts to pull Kasha away from its partner and towards it.

The enemy responds with its readied action during the opportunity provided by the coup de grace.
[roll0] vs. Touch AC
[roll1] to grapple vs. Kasha's [roll2] to avoid.
The enemy attempts to heft its prey into melee. On the ceiling.
Enemy dexterity check check [roll3] vs. better of Kasha's dex or str [roll4]


Unless Kasha can respond with something (reroll abilities, boosts, etc), she is hefted into the air, hanging just below the enemy on the ceiling above. The fiery chain wrapped tight around her neck. It would be suffocating a mere mortal. Fortunately, that descriptor doesn't apply to her.

Kasha's salt mummy cries out "Master!" as it grips its shield and flail in a combat position, waiting for mental commands (the creature acts with you, but isn't in melee with the Reth Dekala on the floor as it is standing back with the onlookers in the group).

You don't know a formal name for this maneuver, but you recognize it for what it is. A maneuver designed to control the battlefield by allowing you to use a long flexible weapon such as a chain, whip, harpoon, or similar in order to forcibly pull an enemy to yourself. It's not from a school known in this land. In order to successfully complete the task the enemy must be within reach of your weapon. You must successfully attach the weapon to the enemy (Touch attack to initiate a grapple, opposed grapple to grapple, however it seems this grapple can be initiated/maintained using finesse/dex rather than brawn/str) and then pull them in (opposed str/dex vs. str/dex to draw the enemy to you). After which you can maintain your grapple if you desire. Or attempt to pin as normal. This move isn't from a school known to these lands.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Sahael, might be a good time for the Potentia, if you can activate it."

If Sahael is able to activate it, then Kasha will use the shared power ability to share a Freedom of Movement with everyone. If not Kasha will use a swift action to activate her anklet of Translocation (I think that's legal?) and translocate 10 feet back toward the ground.

If that isn't legal then she will use the swift action to activate the 'Freedom of Movement' feature of Heart of Water.

[Aegis013]

Unless Kasha wishes to take further actions or commands her Salt Mummy into action...

The Green one on the floor acts next, its flames surging out from its body, apparently overcoming its paralysis. "Your words betray your lack of sense. This place will be your grave." it taunts as the flames form into a polearm. This creature's weapon is much longer than a normal glaive or halberd, being roughly twenty feet in length.

It slides forward, 5ft stepping. The majority of the group is outside of the weapon's reach being at the entrance of the small cavern, with Kasha having teleported towards them, she is now also within range of his weapon. However, the green Reth Dekala seems focused on Sahael.

The halberd adjusts its size and the fires it is made from glow brighter and brighter as the weapon compacts, rather than the pale blue of its partner, this one seems to give off a radiant emerald green. It makes a single strike towards Sahael and you can feel the power of its fighting spirit from the attack.

[roll0] to hit vs. regular AC
If it hits it deals damage equal to double: [roll1]

You recognize this attack as Greater Insightful Strike, an attack that uses the wielders concentration to inflict damage, rather than their outright strength.

You also recognize it shaking off the effect as a maneuver much like Iron Heart Surge, however this one occurs much faster (sacrificing the user's swift action) and doesn't eradicate the source of the condition, rather giving it temporary immunity to the condition.

At this point, the entire group has free reign to act before the enemies go once again.

[General Patton]

Before the enemy could take action, Sahael responded to the assault on Kasha by activating his Potentia Surge and uses that to activate Shadow Avatar for free, which he then expends to provide everyone with a full round action. He 5-ft steps towards the green Reth Dekala and Coup De Graces it himself.

MAXIMIZED Bite damage 112

[Aegis013]

Enemy Fort save [roll0] nat 20 required to pass.

Sahael activates his power and moves forward, biting into the most vulnerable part of the Reth Dekala's armor and crunching through it as if it were mere straw rather than metal. His bite finds its way into the emerald green flame and tears apart the essence, the armor collapses lifelessly in a pile before him as its strange emerald green ectoplasmic lifeblood drips from his maw.

The blue Reth Dekala makes a rasping noise, as if it were trying to speak but is unable. Between your telepathic abilities and acute awareness of subtle changes in body language (Sense motive) you can tell that it is now determined to flee, but it doesn't seem to be due to the possibility of facing you and the likelihood of death that would result, the rasping noise it made seems it wishes to communicate but is unable in its current state. Its weapon retracts and everybody in contact with the ground feels a tremor pass through the ground beneath you.

[General Patton]

"Renia, get as far away as possible."

"If you can't speak, then open your mind to my companion."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha tries to detect thoughts on the remaining Reth Dekala



Detect Thoughts DC22


Edit: And she would be prepared to burn some inspiration points to get another standard action if she needs to, but let's start with this.

[Aegis013]

Will [roll0]

It seems the blue Reth Dekala doesn't trust you enough to open its mind. After all, you just killed its companion for what, as far as it could discern, was literally no reason at all.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Looks like that'd a no go. Shall we depart?

[General Patton]

"Yes, let us depart, preferably in the retro-temporal direction. Don't want to push our luck with this timeline any more than we already have."

[Aegis013]

Renia activates her power, and once again, time seemingly begins to slow until it reaches a complete stop. You begin to move painstakingly backwards through the day, it seems that despite the time traveled being so much shorter, the intensity of the discomfort makes up for it. Eventually reaching the time when Renia chose to attune to her relic and time snaps uncomfortably into its natural, forward oriented direction.

Renia attunes to her relic once again, resetting her temporal anchor. After morning preparations, you go see the Elf and his company outside of the rune covered door. They seem none the wiser. You then visit the gift left for Kasha, who re-re-animates her Salt Mummy.

You once again seek out the Living Armor, who happily paints you a surprisingly vivid word picture of the marvels of the Temple doors and their location. You teleport to the described place.

You instantly materialize, buffeted by hot Eastern winds and sands, powerful enough to severely limit normal visibility. The early morning sun already glows dimly through the storm on the Eastern horizon like a blazing eye curiously watching you. Just within the limits of visibility from the sandstorm is a steep mountain face jutting upwards from the sands, an enormous, lone mountain.

You push towards the mountain and the cover it provides and you find that etched into the side of the mountain is a passage way that leads deep into the mountain's side. Based on the descriptions, you expect this must lead to the Temple. You quickly move forward and it grows dark within the passage, however that is no obstacle to your group. The rough walls give way to hewn stone, clearly created unnaturally.

You eventually come to a small opening, at the other end are three doors, each with intricate ornate carvings. In front of the doors appears to be a set of twisted, distorted armor. The pungent scent of blood emanates from the room and the bones of challengers long dead lie strewn about haphazardly, many crushed or broken during battles with new challengers.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Bit suspicious if we act like we know everything, right? Kasha walks forward, and assuming the Reth activate the same way she says, "We do seek the secrets. What can you tell us?"

"I think we might as well take whichever path suits each of us best - I was thinking Vigorous Spirit for myself" The thought seems to amuse her for some reason, "What do the rest of you think?"

[Aegis013]

The green Reth Dekala activates once again and begins providing his spiel. Which gives you a slight sense of deja vu.

[whoiam]

"I think I'm going to try the path that suits me worst. The impression I got was that they're intended to be training paths through which you hone a particular aspect of the self; My mind doesn't need honing nearly as badly as my body does."

Renia takes up a spot near the door on the left, to learn the Secrets of the Might of the Body.

[Aegis013]

Renia:
The left door to the secrets of bodily might rumbles as it slowly appears to fold back on itself, overlapping pieces moving into one another like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle as it opens up to allow Renia passage. An eerie orange glow floods into the chamber from within the doorway. Beyond is a long stretch to the first room. The light is produced by veins of magma within the walls, now, not frozen in time, they pulsate with a strange rhythm that you quickly recognize as the beating of a heart.

The green Reth Dekala says "Good luck, challenger. May you find what you are seeking within the temple." to Renia.

Proceeding down the hallway, she comes to the first room of Bodily Might. A Large inactive construct rests inside this rectangular chamber with an enormous hammer resting in front of it. The floor seems to be segmented. You get the impression that approaching the construct may activate it.


Kasha:
Approaches the Vigorous Spirit door, which opens in the same manner, folding back on itself to provide passage. Here too, light is produced by throbbing veins of magma just within the walls.


To her the Reth Dekala says, sounding rather awkward, "I have the strangest feeling that the secrets of the temple will hide themselves from you."

If she presses on, she enters another rectangular room, coming in on the center of one of the long sides, the door lies ahead, while two statues stand vigilant at either side. One with Elvish features, the other with Orcish features.

[Mousedigits]

Gotta disagree with you there, Renia. I'll be going through the one that suits me most, which means I'll be joining you throught the Gauntlet of the Might of the Body.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"What makes you think that? Or should I try a different door?"

[Aegis013]

The green Reth Dekala stands for a moment and says "I don't know. There's no basis to it. Never mind." in response to Kasha's question.

To Trasil he nods and states "Good luck."

[Silver Night]

Kasha


"Helpful. Sahael, which way will you be taking?" She beckons to the salt mummy, and addresses it, "I would give you a name. Do you have a preference or shall I pick one for you?"

[Aegis013]

The Salt Mummy provides takes a knee, placing itself in a submissive salute. "I have no need of a name, I live and die to serve you."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"That's all very well, but I'm not going to call you 'hey you!' and anyway - if you will live and die to serve me, then you certainly deserve a name. I would name you Ajat."

[whoiam]

"If I had to guess, " Renia calls back from her doorway, "I'd say it's worried that you're just too different from those this Temple was designed to service to gain the expected benefit from it. But try anyway! You never know, you might get somewhere."

Over by her own door, Renia pauses to draw her Heavy Mace, and grins at Trasil. "Hey, it's just a theory. This way we can compare what we each get out of it, and see which of us is right. Plus... it ought to feel nice to just hit something for once. I don't get many opportunities to solve my issues by purely physical means..."

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha smiles, which is pretty ghastly as she is not using her disguise just now (of course), "Well, I wasn't from around here to begin with, and by most definitions I'm even more unnatural now. So maybe that's it."

[whoiam]

"Let's just hope this isn't one of those strength-testing games you see in the circus, " Renia mutters to Trasil, as she finally enters her first room. "I was never good at those..."

It seems the logical place to start, so she approaches the construct. Slowly.

[Aegis013]

As Renia approaches, the construct begins to light up, pieces of its body rotating around whatever mechanisms are held within. The glyphs begin to emit a deep blue light as it straightens itself, standing roughly eight feet in height. The eyes of the construct light up in a flash of bright blue and begin turning red as its head turns towards you and it states in a perfect robotic monotone: "Destroy."

The Golem goes last.

Renia and Trasil have the initiative.

This golem is especially resilient, boasting a DR of 50/-. How will you overcome it? Other than that, its ability to use martial maneuvers and the martial glyphs on its outer armor, it doesn't appear to be anything other than a rather weak version of an Iron Golem.

This golem appears to have extremely powerful armor. However, you note that as it moves, gaps briefly open in the armor as it shifts around whatever mechanism is inside. With a piercing weapon and an extremely precise strike (Critical threat), you may be able to deal damage to what's within the armor. If your weapon is caught within its shifting armor, it may be immediately sundered (Critical failure when attempting this attack).

[whoiam]

Not rolling for either of those checks - Renia has mods of +34 and +22 for them, respectively.

"Well, this looks like 'fun'. We're not going to have much luck trying to smash through armor that thick, see if you can stab through one of the gaps."

For her part, Renia is going to get as far away from the golem as her wings allow (or as close to it as she can get in a single move action), draw her heavy crossbow (swapping weapons as part of movement), and then show willing by shooting it for... well, probably no damage at all. But she'll try, anyway!

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha proceeds down the vigorous spirit path, the newly christened Ajat in tow.

[Aegis013]

Kasha and Ajat:
Ajat follows Kasha, raising his shield and weapon. The two statues begin to shift, shaking layers of dust and stone off, revealing themselves as Gargoyles. They appear to possess bestial claws of stone.

Gargoyles [roll0]
Kasha and Ajat [roll1] minus whatever magical bonuses you have included, presumably

Kasha and Ajat have initiative.



Renia and Trasil:
Renia's crossbow bolt flies true, slipping between the gaps in the armor, you hear a clank and a crack and the construct's left arm appears to fall limp.

[General Patton]

With two exotic blades hidden away on his wrists, which are now dangling inches from the ground on his grotesquely long triple-elbowed arms, Sahael advances to the door of Mental Discipline. Steadying himself with a deep breath, he adopts the Step of the Wind to gain sure footing, and enters the puzzle hallway he already saw.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil runs up to the golem, his sword raised, and brings it down, seeking one of its few vulnerable spots.


Using Power Attack.
Two-Handing my sword
Charging

[roll0] Attack
[roll1] Crit Confirm (15-20 crit range)

[roll2] piercing damage
If crit, add [roll3] piercing damage

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha quickly assesses the creatures




Knowledge (Nature or Arcana, depending on if the are actual gargoyles or constructs): [roll0]

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
Trasil's sword comes down in a flash with incredible speed. And bounces harmlessly off of the construct's shifting armor.

The construct appears to have locked its eyes on Renia, who managed to damage it. "Destroy." It states again, and begins marching, around Trasil, providing ample opportunity to make another attack, past the hammer on the floor and it marches most of the way towards Renia before assuming a fighting stance, it shifts assuming a wide stance so that its shoulder faces Renia with its head turned, making its still rather large profile much smaller. Its right arm balls up into a fist and is held out just in front of its body, while its left arm remains limp, apparently broken by the precise crossbow bolt.


Kasha and Ajat:
The two creatures before you seem to be powerful, wingless, Gargoyles that know martial arts. If there's some puzzle to them, it's unclear as of yet.


Sahael:
The door shifts before you opening. The green Reth Dekala says nothing to you as you enter. You see the puzzle hallway before you. It takes you mere moments to deduce the pattern most likely to be the safe passage.

In order to complete this you must roll a few skill checks, for this, I'm going to borrow a skill challenge system I've enjoyed in the past. You roll 5x, 3 successes against the DCs is a passing result, more successes means you did even better.

You'll need to roll one of Tumble, Perform (dance), Jump, Escape Artist, straight dex, or any skill you can make a cogent argument for. DC 20.

Normally Int and Concentration would be required too, but Sahael couldn't actually fail.

[General Patton]

I forgot to pick what I got from Aberration Blood, but it can't affect my choice of checks anyways, so I'll go for Flexible Limbs to get +2 Grapple.

Can Sahael get a bonus from his long arms, since they can make it easier to vault/cartwheel or arm-walk instead of making short hops or push off the walls and ceiling to change his direction or stop?

Can he roll Autohypnosis to get a bonus? Seeing as this is a fixed route he has to follow, he could take a couple minutes to mentally rehearse all the motions and prepare his muscle memory to get a more reliable performance.

Autohypnosis [roll0]

Tumble [roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Mousedigits]

Trasil's eyes widen in surprise when his sword clangs off his opponent's armor. He quickly regains his composure as the golem begins its march towards Renia, and makes a quick attack as it passes. He then rushes to protect Renia, charging the automaton from behind.


AoO:
Using Power Attack.
Two-Handing my sword

[roll0] Attack
[roll1] Crit Confirm (15-20 crit range)

[roll2] piercing damage
If crit, add [roll3] piercing damage

On my turn:
Charge the enemy
Using Power Attack.
Two-Handing my sword

[roll4] Attack
[roll5] Crit Confirm (15-20 crit range)

[roll6] piercing damage
If crit, add [roll7] piercing damage

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha motions to Ajat to join her in closing with the nearest Gargoyle, using her higher speed to move into a flanking position.

Realized that I didn't actually put in motion my plans for equipment changes for Kasha. So, before combat is official: She already has a +1 Scimitar. Going to add a +1 Composite Bow (+6)
and I guess armor since she doesn't have the monk's belt or mage armor so +1 Chain shirt it is! Or +1 Mithral breastplate if available.

Anyway!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

[Aegis013]

Trasil and Renia:
As the automaton passes Trasil, he manages a quick precise strike through the shifting armors of the enemy, plunging his sword down into its shoulder, he catches something and quickly rips the weapon back, an awful grinding noise comes from the construct and its other arm falls limp.

It gets into position, rather than managing to ball its fist, it attempts to flail its arms, which have the rigidity of wet noodles about menacingly. Surprisingly, they move around like whips, despite seeming rather silly at first glance, getting slapped by one might actually hurt. While it does this show of ability, Trasil rushes in behind it, slipping his weapon again between the shifting pieces and striking straight to its core.

The construct states in its perfect monotone voice "I am defeated." and slumps onto the ground as Trasil hurriedly pulls his weapon out. The outer layer of glyph etched armor begin shifting as the construct's shape begins to change, becoming an orb. In this state, it seems the glyphs match up with those on the doors of the room, it seems they complete some kind of martial script, showing actions that can be used to develop new techniques.

The large hammer rests peacefully in its original location, undisturbed.

You both gain the options to decipher one of the following options from the martial script presented. These options are usable once per encounter, or can be refreshed with a full round action (Swordsage recovery method).

"Find The Gap"
(Strike)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: See Text
Target: One Creature

Your deftness knows no bounds, you strike such that even enemies without discernible anatomy find your blows disruptive.

As part of this maneuver, you make a single attack against a foe. Resolve this attack as a touch attack. If you threaten a critical with this attack, you gain a +4 bonus to the confirmation roll. Use your weapon's (or spell's, in the case of rays or similar) range to determine the range of this maneuver.

Enemies who are immune to critical hits are treated as if they were not immune against this attack.


"Overwhelming Might"
[School Name] Boost 4
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 Round

You tense and flex your muscles and draw out your inner might, overcoming your foe's defenses through the sheer brute force of your attacks or somatic components.

During the round that you have activated this maneuver, treat all enemies as if their DR and elemental resistance against your attacks were 0. This doesn't overcome immunity.


"Inexhaustible Stamina"
[School Name] (Stance)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

Spears break against your flesh, rather than piercing it, arrows bounce harmlessly off of you. Fire doesn't scorch your body, or acid eat through your skin. Your toughness knows no limits.

While in this stance, increase your DR by 5. If you have a type of DR that is can be bypassed (eg DR/adamantine or DR/magic) your DR is now considered DR/-. Increase your resistance to Fire, Cold, Electricity, and Acid by 5.

Example: Sample Hero has DR 10/magic from class features and wears a Ring of Fire Resistance which gives her 20 Resistance to fire. While in "Inexhaustible Stamina" stance, she is treated as having DR 15/-, 25 Resistance to Fire, and 5 Resistance to Cold, Electricity and Acid.



Kasha and Ajat:
Mithral, Adamantine, or other rare material equipment wasn't available from the arsenal.

The two of you move in perfect harmony to flank the orcish Gargoyle. Kasha strikes true with her weapon, with a sweeping strike, she lands the weapon directly in the Gargoyle's stone-like neck.

40 confirmation in out of character confirms, extra damage:

[roll0]

Feel free to roll Ajat's attacks too, since you have perfect mental control of him while he's near you (and I don't want to! :smallbiggrin:)

The Orcish Gargoyleshifts its positioning, entering a strange stance you've never seen before. It raises its claws as if it's preparing to strike. It seems it is winding up its attack.'s head is struck from both sides, with a scimitar lodged into its neck and the heavy head of Ajat's flail smashing into it from the opposite side, you manage to separate the head from the creature's body, which falls lifeless on the ground. Its corpse lights up with glyphs like those on the doors, but there's no time look them over closely as the Elven Gargoyle approaches.

The Elven Gargoyle launches forward most of the distance across the room and clearly inhales a deep breath before emitting a loud, and piercing screech.

You also feel the Elven Gargoyle's glare against you like a physical hindrance. The remaining Gargoyle shifts its stance into one you are unfamiliar with.

DC 13 Will Save vs. Shaken due to the scream.

[S]The glare is Iron Guard's Glare. If you attack any enemy other than the Elven Gargoyle, you will receive a -4 penalty for doing so.

It seems the screech also served as morale enhancing battlecry as the Orcish Gargoyles muscles visibly expand, as if it had powered up somehow.

Orc Gargoyle has taken 37 +17 damage and has -4 HP left.


Sahael:
You carefully study the pattern, intently visualize the necessary motions, accounting for your long limbs and ways you can use the confined space to improve your ability to meticulously land on the necessary tiles. (+1 circumstance bonus for Autohypnosis and +1 circumstance bonus for limbs)

Sahael gets off to a decent start but the traps start to trigger behind him! Darts, blades, smashing blocks, and all manner of other traps activate in succession, slowly gaining on him as he nimbly and intelligently pushes forward, never losing his cool, he keeps himself ahead of the dizzying array of activating death traps, finding himself unharmed on the other side.

Looking back upon the hall, he sees the marks the traps left leave various patterns, which in conjunction with the glyphs on the doors, provide a sort of martial script which can be used to develop new techniques.

You both gain the options to decipher one of the following options from the martial script presented. These options are usable once per encounter, or can be refreshed with a full round action (Swordsage recovery method).

"Brains And Brawn"
[School Name] (Strike)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: See Text
Target: One creature

You deftly analyze any enemy and develop a plan to most efficiently apply violence against them, you then execute this plan with meticulous precision.

As part of this maneuver you make a single attack, you can use your intelligence modifier instead of your normal attribute modifier as part of your attack bonus for this strike. This attack deals extra damage equal to your intelligence modifier.


"Brains Over Brawn"
[School Name] (Counter)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Immediate Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

Carefully analyzing an enemy's attack, you determine the best way to counteract it.

When a creature attempts to strike you with an attack, be it melee, ranged, or magical, you can use this maneuver and roll an attack roll using your Intelligence modifier instead of your normal attribute modifier. If your roll exceeds the enemy's roll you deflect the attack away from you, negating it.


"Anticipated Avoidance"
[School Name] (Stance)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

Constantly observing your enemies, you meticulously calculate the timing of their strikes and dodge using a minimum of movement.

While you are in this stance, you may make a 5ft step as an Immediate Action. Once you do, you are no longer considered to be in this stance and must re-initiate this stance in order to gain its benefits again.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Ajat attacks the Gargoyle as well, with a mighty swing of its flail!



Attack: [roll0] (Including flanking bonus. And assuming this attack was before the gargoyles acted.)
Damage: [roll1]

[Mousedigits]

Trasil will select the Overwhelming Might maneuver.


Trasil sheathes his sword, releasing a sigh. "First challenge: down. We can only hope the others are similarly simple.

[Silver Night]

Kasha & Ajat


Will Saves:
Ajat: [roll0]
Kasha: [roll1]



Kasha and Ajat perform the same maneuver on the Elven gargoyle! Or at least attempt to.



Kasha:
Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Ajat:
Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]

[General Patton]

After taking in the knowledge of Anticipated Avoidance, Sahael draws his +1 Animated Githcraft Heavy Mithril shield, which is designed so miraculously well as to provide zero impediment to the user, even when wielded by hand. He goes through the door to the next challenge.

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
You stand victorious over the fallen construct, the hammer rests in its original location and the door to the next room awaits.

The door opens into a large cylindrical room extending a great distance up and down. Lava drips down in the middle and it seems the apparent choice is to climb either up or down.

Kasha and Ajat:
The two of you move in perfect synchronization, attempting to go for the Elven Gargoyle's head. It sees the attack coming and lifts its arms to block the onslaught taking significant wounds, but preventing its death.

The creature takes 26 damage and has 24 HP remaining.

The Elven Gargoyle turns its attention against Kasha, who dealt it the more stinging wound. Its mouth opens slightly and a hiss of steam comes as it exhales, shifting one claw from its blocking position and thrusting it down towards Kasha, attempting to eviscerate her!

[roll0] to hit
The attack deals [roll1] damage on a hit


Sahael:
You enter into a very dark room. It seems the pulsating magma which provided light in the previous rooms doesn't flow to this chamber.

You see a strange fuzzy creature skitter away into a hole in the ground, it seems there are numerous holes in the floor, ceiling, and walls. A decorated door stands at the other end of the room, but due to all the holes the terrain will prove rather difficult.

[General Patton]

Sahael's Halo casts torchlight around him, as his Antennae Graft picks up vibrations 60 ft into the ground. His Step of the Wind Stance allows him to ignore the difficult terrain as he confidently enters the dark chamber. His tough fingers surreptitiously press against the ground as his free hand dangles there, confirming whether he will be able to burrow.

Spot [roll0]
Listen [roll1]

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha, narrowly missed by the vicious attack, strikes back along with her minion.


Kasha:
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]

Ajat:
Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Attack: [roll8]
Damage: [roll9]

[whoiam]

With no obvious use for the hammer (but an open door available), Renia wanders over and sticks her head through. Her wings twitch slightly as she glances up and down the cylinder.

"You don't have a mundane means of flight, do you, Trasil?"

[General Patton]

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) [roll0] What kind of viscosity does the magma have? Could he plausibly burrow a ceiling light without being completely immersed?

Sahael decides that first impressions are everything, so he Quick Draws an Oil Flask and crushes it with his stone-cleaving hands. And then he Quick Draws his Flint & Steel and strikes a flame under himself, like an absolute madman.

"Come at me!"

[Mousedigits]

Trasil looks the cylindrical chamber up and down. Nope. But I'm a decent climber. Alternatively, you could dangle me from a rope as you fly up. Trasil smiles, though it's hard to tell if he's being sarcastic.

[whoiam]

"You're a little heavy for me, " Renia points out, "I don't exactly have a lifetime of weight training under my belt, here. But dangling a rope down from the top I could probably have done... Sadly, I don't think either of us are carrying one. I could help you climb, or I could go on ahead and scout... what do you think, oh Martial One?"

[Mousedigits]

I'm not opposed to climbing, and while I doubt I'll have any trouble, it's hard to deny help, what with all the lava.

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
In order to make the climb either up or down, a DC 20 climb (or substitute any skill you can make a cogent argument for) must be rolled three out of five times. (+2 aid another bonus if Renia assists Trasil using her natural flight).

However, without hugging the wall closely (pressed against it for climbing) you will very likely have lava drip on you. The flapping of wings would put them at risk of the lava.


Kasha and Ajat:
After avoiding the Gargoyle's attack without any wasted movement, the two of you begin to slash and bash it and it quickly gives way to your onslaught, collapsing in a battered heap at your feet. Glyphs light up on its body, and in conjunction with the glyphs on the Orcish Gargoyle and the doors form a kind of martial script, allowing you to develop a technique.

"Shatter Morale"
[school name] (Strike)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: See text
Duration: 1 round

Concentrating your indomitable spirit, you focus your blow to disrupt your opponents, weakening their morale.

As part of this maneuver make a single attack against an enemy that deals an extra 2d6 damage. This maneuver's range is the same as the weapon used (be it a sword, bow, or a ray). If your attack hits, make a Caster Level or Initiator Level (whichever is higher) check against a DC of 10+the target's HD (so for an enemy with 12 HD, against a DC 22), if your check succeeds, the target suffers a -2 untyped penalty to all saving throws made until the beginning of your next turn.


"Inspiration"
[school name] (Boost)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: 60ft burst
Duration: Instantaneous

With a flourish or a few simple words, you inspire your allies to act, shrugging off enemy effects and regaining their vigor.

When you use this maneuver, you and any allies within its effect may immediately attempt a saving throw against every ongoing spell, spell-like or supernatural ability (such as dominate person) currently affecting them against the original spell DC. If they succeed on saving throw, the effect ends immediately. Inspiration never restores hit points or ability score damage, but it does eliminate any conditions such as shaken, fatigued, or nauseated that were caused by a spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability. Allies must be able to either see or hear you in order to benefit from Inspiration.


"Resolution"
[school name] (Stance)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Target: You
Duration: Stance

Your unstoppable resolve causes even your worst of attempts to have a chance of success.

While in this stance, anytime you roll a natural 1 on a d20 roll that would normally be considered an automatic failure (attacks, saves, etc), it is no longer considered an automatic failure. While in this stance, you may also re-roll a single die or die group (in the case of damage), as an immediate action. After you use this option, the stance automatically ends, you can initiate it again on your turn as normal.


"Live to Serve"
[school name] (Teleportation)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Standard Action
Range: 30ft
Duration: 1 round

You move so quickly, you escape detection of your enemies while leaving an afterimage to confuse them.

As part of this maneuver you teleport up to 30ft, you must have line of sight and line of effect to the destination. If you have sufficient cover in your new position you can attempt a Hide check as a free action. You also leave an afterimage which functions as Silent Image of yourself in the place where you initiated the maneuver. The Image doesn't move or react to attacks and expires after one round. (Will save DC 10 + 1/2 initiator level + Dex modifier to disbelieve)


"Die to Serve"
[school name] (Teleportation) (Counter)
Level: 3
Initiation Action: 1 Immediate Action
Range: 50ft
Target: Kasha
Duration: Instantaneous

Your devotion allows you to sacrifice yourself for your master, protecting her from attacks at the cost of yourself.

If Kasha is targeted by an attack which would hit, your devotion allows you to move at unbelievable speeds to intercept a single attack, shielding her with your own body. The attack automatically hits you instead, and is considered a critical hit against you. You can only teleport to spaces adjacent to Kasha using this maneuver.




Sahael:
Kn: Dungeoneering: The magma is far enough away from this room you could attempt to burrow up to the ceiling, however, there are tunnels there too. If you get too close to the ceiling while burrowing, it likely would collapse, depositing you back into the tunnel pocked room.

Light floods the room as you immolate yourself like a deranged lunatic. You make your declaration of battle to the dark room is met by various darts and arrows hissing forth from several of the tiny tunnels.

[roll0] to hit for [roll1] damage
[roll2] to hit for [roll3] damage
[roll4] to hit for [roll5] damage
[roll6] to hit for [roll7] damage
[roll8] to hit for [roll9] damage

If you are hit and damaged by any of the projectiles, you discover they are laced with a powerful poison.
Fort DC 21 vs.
[roll10] dexterity damage (projectile 1)
[roll11] dexterity damage (p2)
[roll12] dexterity damage (p3)
[roll13] dexterity damage (p4)
[roll14] dexterity damage (p5)

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha picks Resolution, Ajat picks Inspiration. Kasha looks for the way forward (and proceeds to the next room, as appropriate). She starts using her new stance right away.

[whoiam]

As Trasil picks his wall, Renia wraps her arms around his chest from behind.

"I'll try not to splash you, " she suggests, knowing that she'd have found it difficult to fly up there without getting close to the lava even if she was on her own; with Trasil between her and the wall, she probably wasn't going to be able to avoid singed feathers.

Still, no matter. She'd regenerate them quickly enough.

More to distract herself than anything, Renia begins quietly singing as they climb. The sound wouldn't carry terribly far, but with her head just behind his, Trasil could doubtless hear everything...

Renia's using Inspire Competence and helping support Trasil's weight, so he can make the climb checks at +12 instead of +8. Hopefully that's enough to get the 3 in 5 we need...

[Mousedigits]

Trasil would have picked up the hammer.


Yeah, I would prefer that the plashing of lava be kept to a minimum. Trasil comments with a grin. And thus, he begins to climb.

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


After they successfully make it to the top, Trasil turns to Renia. That was a lovely song. Where did you learn it?

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
Before proceeding, Trasil grabs the hammer. Oddly, it seems light enough to be wielded in either one or two hands, despite its large size. He puts it into his extradimensional bag before continuing on.

This hammer is a versatile weapon that may have special properties beyond the obvious. It deals 2d6 damage, deals bludgeoning damage, has a x3 critical multiplier, and is considered a masterwork simple one handed weapon.


You venture out into the room and begin to climb. Lava drops land on Renia's wings, despite her resilience against the heat of the stuff, its power appears to be more than just fire. It burns with a strange radiance which still damages her. It may be time to re-evaluate your approach before proceeding.

The lava deals a portion fire and a portion divine damage (much like the spell Flame Strike). The droplets hitting your wings inflict 25 divine damage (you resist all the fire damage) each, and by hugging the wall as closely as you can, you will have 2d6 droplets connect with your wings; anywhere from 50 to 300 HP damage if you progress the entire way.

After the first one lands on her wings, she could turn back to prevent any further contact.


Kasha and Ajat:
You proceed through the next door, revealing a very small room. Within its confines appears to be a single humanoid construct just under 5 feet in height with long multi-jointed limbs. The construct's body is covered in more of the strange glyphs. There is only room for one medium sized creature to stand in the room with the construct who guards the decorated door just behind it.


Sahael:
You can hear the short, rapid breathe of 8 creatures coming from within the surrounding tunnels, however, due to the acoustics of the tunnels, you're unable to pinpoint the creatures by their sounds.

[Aegis013]

[roll0] lava droplets, 25 damage each.
125 damage total.

As Trasil and Renia progress, droplets of divine lava land on Renia's wings, causing her substantial pain.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha gestures for Ajat to go forward into the room.

[Aegis013]

Kasha and Ajat:
Ajat steps into the room, face to face with the construct. It lights up with glyphs and its eyes shine a pale yellow. The construct appears to start winding up a punch, but its taking quite a while.

You can see by observing the construct that its outer plating is enormously thick, giving it a substantially increased DR of 50.
It looks like due to the nature of its body there are some points where it could be attacked through the gaps of its armor, but to do so would require a critical hit with a piercing weapon of medium size or smaller.
Considering the set up, it's unlikely outright defeating the thing is required.

[General Patton]

Sahael is struck by projectiles 1, 2, and 5.

Fort
[roll0]
[roll1]

He takes 16 damage and 1 Dex damage.

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
You reach the door at the top, however, the glyphs here seem insufficient on their own to provide enough information for a full martial script. You notice the room is getting warmer as well.

You notice that the door on the bottom is now entirely submerged in the divine lava. It seems something opened on the bottom and released lava into the room. It's still rising, but not very quickly.

Kasha and Ajat:
The construct suddenly lowers its arm, no longer preparing to attack. The floor underneath it opens up, dropping the construct into a chamber below before snapping shut. The similar trap door structure above doesn't open. Looking at the door just behind the construct, it seems that without the glyphs from construct, there isn't enough information for a full martial script.

Sahael:
You notice a sudden change in the vibrations and breathing patterns in the room. It seems the enemies are now all tunneling away, very suddenly, and all at once.

They're not retreating from you, it seems they've decided something else is a higher priority.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha passes forward her scimitar, "This might be more effective - go for the gaps in its armor."

Don't know how many attacks Ajat will get with also swapping weapons - hopefully it is mainly Kasha taking the action there so getting it handed to him is almost the same as drawing it.

Ajat attacks!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Meanwhile, Kasha burns some inspiration points (3) so she can take a 5 foot step to hopefully get a better shot at the creature and will fire at it with her bow with a full attack if possible.

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]

Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Already includes the -4 for shooting into melee - though probably the construct also gets cover from being behind Ajat.

[whoiam]

"Sneaking into Taverns, mostly. Churches tend to teach Hymns rather than regular songs. Songs are catchier, I think."

As they converse, Renia gives the martial scripts a quick glance... but since she can't get anything useful out of them, she glances down. At the rising lava.

"We should get through the door quickly," she notes. "Even if I could protect you from the heat, there's enough divine magic in that lava to burn a Pit Fiend. I think we're better off in the next chamber, don't you?"

Shame about the script, though. If she was a gambling woman, she'd guess that the script was half on the bottom door, half on the top - and to get the entire script, they'd have had to check the bottom first before climbing. Hindsight, huh? Almost a pity she wasn't setting 'restore points' as they went.

[General Patton]

Sahael pursues his enemies with his 20 ft burrow speed, suspecting that they are converging on someone who used magic.

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
You attempt to open the door, but it seems to be stuck and doesn't open the way previous doors have; folding into itself and revealing the way forward.


Kasha and Ajat:
Ajat drops his weapon, grabbing the scimitar and with a smooth motion, swipes it against the constructs armor, harmlessly. One of Kasha's arrows strikes true, going under Ajat's arm and into crevices in the constructs armor, you hear a clank and a crack noise just as the trap door under the construct opens and swallows it, leaving you standing there, facing the door behind it.


Sahael:
You begin to pursue the ratfolk by quickly burrowing after them, but it's not long before you encounter the pulsating magma veins. It doesn't appear with your size you could burrow through them without having lava spill onto you. Do you proceed?

[General Patton]

"Watch out, horde of ratfolk abandoning me to go after someone else! Turn back time!"

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Onward, Ajat. Let's see what else is in store." She straightens the weapon situation back out before proceeding.

Would probably try to make sure the trap door wasn't trying to drop them anywhere. Then onward!

[Mousedigits]

Crap. Renia, I think your song violated the anti-magic rules. Those ratfolk are probably headed towards us. You can turn back time if you think that's the best option. Meanwhile, I'm going to follow one of my prime philosophies: When in doubt, brute force.

With that, Trasil tries to hack the door down.


I hope I don't have to roll to hit, but if so, just tell me.
[roll0] damage
[roll1] damage
[roll2] damage

[General Patton]

Sahael decides to abandon the rules in order to best observe and intervene in the currently unfolding situation. He shifts back into his Transformed Body, shedding the uncomfortable disguise of his weak mundane form. On the next round, he activates Fear Made Flesh and Nightmare Form. After that, he pursues the ratfolk with far greater speed and flexibility than they could ever achieve.

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
Trasil slashes into the door multiple times leaving deep gashes, but it seems the door is surprisingly sturdy. It holds up to your blows quite well, though the glyphs on its surface have been severely damaged. The heat in the room continues to increase as the lava below continues to rise.


Kasha and Ajat:
You check the trap door, which seems sturdy enough, and rearrange your weaponry. You approach the door, however, this one doesn't open. You hear Sahael broadcast his thoughts to the group.

Sahael:
You shift into your nightmare form in pursuit of the ratfolk, following them through their rather small tunnels. However, the magma veins swell as you approach and burst forth, gushing glowing molten rock towards your ectoplasmic form as if it sensed you and attempted to attack you.

Reflex DC 40 or be sprayed by the lava in copious quantities, dealing [roll0] fire damage plus [roll1]*25=50 divine damage from divine lava. Unfortunately, abilities to burrow won't protect you as multiple veins are too close in proximity to the ratfolk tunnels.

You could continue, but it's likely there will be more locations where the lava is extremely difficult to avoid.

[General Patton]

Need Nat 20 on Reflex Save [roll0]

Sahael takes 66 damage, dropping him to 53 hp.

An urgent screech of agony comes across telepathically, carrying a dire warning that has been heavily abbreviated by equal parts distraction and haste. "Sentient lava or dragon god!? Temple is weapon! Trust nothing! Reverse time now!"

[whoiam]

Renia had been preparing herself to assist with the door (i.e. trying to get a secure enough hand-hold with her off-hand that she could attack with her mace), but then Sahael's distress call came through.

"Well, looks like we're not the only ones who hit the lava. Remind me, next time, buy rope and climbing gear. And no singing."

And with that, she'd comply with Sahael's request, attempting to reverse time back to the start of the 'day'.

[Aegis013]

You all feel the sickening jolt as time abruptly stops and begins to move backwards, forcing you to experience all of the events of the day so far in reverse, eventually depositing you into the morning earlier that day.

Assuming you proceed back to the Temple of the Sublime Way...

You reach the Reth Dekala guarding the entrances and when you approach close enough, the Green one activates and then provides his spiel, as normal. Though you notice he seems have more pauses and hesitation, as if he can sense something is wrong but isn't sure what or why.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha looks annoyed, to the degree that a mummified corpse can look annoyed. "Let's all try and make it through in one piece, in one try. Do you need rope or anything Renia?"

[Mousedigits]

All right guys, let's try this again. This time, be very particular about using anything that could be considered magic.

[whoiam]

"Yeah, we found a vertical chamber we had to climb. It'll be easier with a rope - I'll be able to help Trasil from above, instead of having to fly behind him and risk the lava again."

[Aegis013]

The group reenters the paths and like experiencing deja vu, proceed through the challenges. The glyphs appear to be the same as you each complete challenges, however, you notice that the pulse in the magma veins seems to be slightly faster than the last time you were undergoing the trials.

Kasha and Ajat:
You stand before the sleek humanoid construct within the small passage to the door.

Renia and Trasil:
You once again reach the vertical room. Divine lava dripping down the center.

Sahael:
You again enter the dark room as the creatures within scurry into their hiding holes and tunnels.

[Silver Night]

Kasha

Kasha and Ajat repeat their previous plan, with Ajat taking up the position inside the room.

Ajat attacks!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Meanwhile, Kasha burns some inspiration points (3), this time to get an extra attack rather than a five foot step, as she knew where to stand this time.

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]

Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Attack: [roll8]
Damage: [roll9]

[whoiam]

Renia hands one half of the rope to Trasil, while carefully tying the other end around her waist. "Congratulations, oh winch; You get to hold my rope while I check the bottom of the shaft. Hopefully I'll be able to fly back up without it, but just in case..."

When the rope's secure, she'll step off the ledge, spread her wings, and angle them so the air passing them would keep her pressed against the wall. Without Trasil between her and the wall she should have space enough to do this without lava exposure...

[General Patton]

This time, after a much smoother and more proficient performance in the trap room, the slightly more mutated Sahael enters the dark room while using his newly acquired Stance. Covered in the exotic tribal war paint, with Antitoxin flowing through his veins, and with 3 lit Sunrods affixed to his person, he casually drops one of the glowing beacons at the door before thrusting his body into the stonework. He charges toward the nearest isolated ratfolk, seeking to slap it in melee with a dust grenade using his freakishly long arms.

Initiative [roll0]
Melee touch attack [roll1] to blind it for [roll2] rounds, no save.

Edit: If any projectiles come at him before he can submerge, he will expend his Anticipated Avoidance to immediately 5-ft step into the floor.

[Aegis013]

Kasha and Ajat:
You swap weaponry and Ajat stands before the construct, which activates and starts winding up another punch. You both attack it smacking your weapons against its incredibly resilient outer armor plating. The construct seems to take no notice of this, as the shifting plates manage to deflect all of the incoming damage.

The construct finally unleashes its punch against Ajat. Swinging its fist forward while its body rotates to increase the force.

[roll0] to hit
On a hit, it deals [roll1] damage

After its attack, the trap door underneath the construct opens up, swallowing the humanoid construct into the floor, it snaps shut as as the trap door on the ceiling opens, depositing a new, slightly beefier looking humanoid construct into the place of the first. This one begins to wind up a punch, as well.


Renia and Trasil:
Trasil holds the rope while Renia gracefully glides down the shaft following the wall without issue or incident. Once she touches down on the bottom, she sees the decorated door here as well. In conjunction with her memory of the top door, she's able to parse the glyphs to learn a new maneuver.

Aerial Grace
(stance) 5
Initiation: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Duration: Stance

[I]You've mastered the art of aerial mobility, utilizing the movements of your body in conjunction with the air around you to outperform your peers.


While in this stance, if you don't have a flight speed, gain 30ft (clumsy) flight speed. If you have a flight speed, increase your maneuverability level by one step and your flight speed increases by 10ft. If you already have perfect maneuverability, your flight speed instead increases by 30ft.

You gain a +4 bonus against trip attempts while flying.


Overcome Your Limits
(boost) 5
Initiation: 1 swift action
Target: Personal
Duration: Immediate

[I]You've learned to overcome the physical limits of your body allowing you to perform incredible feats of skill by pushing your muscles beyond their normal ability.

When you use this maneuver, you gain an untyped bonus of 20+Initiator level to the next Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution based skill check you make this turn. In addition, you may utilize any function of the skill that would normally require a standard action or less as a free action this turn.


Build your own maneuver option - keep in conjunction with things related to the challenge, but it can be pretty loosely connected. Try to keep it in line with a 5th level maneuver.


Sahael:
Ready this time, you plunge into the tunnels before the ratfolk can pelt you with darts, tunneling up to the nearest one you successfully catch it off guard, crushing the dust grenade against the creatures face, blinding it. It chitters noisily, probably bemoaning its lack of sight without using any decipherable language and simultaneously alerting the others of your location.

You feel the tremors as the others burrow to new locations, apparently leaving the safety of the tunnels to join into a group in the room. The one in front of you, however, draws a knife and makes a few haphazard stabs in your general direction, but without its eyes, it didn't realize it needed to approach you to be within melee range. The attack falls harmlessly short.

[whoiam]

With her examination of the glyphs complete, Renia flies back up the shaft again to rejoin Trasil. "Half a set of martial script down the bottom - three 'somethings', I think, half of each. One moment while I check the top of the shaft, if I'm right, the rest of the glyphs will be up there."

Of course, the glyphs *are* up there (as Renia's seen them before, despite her attempts to pretend she hasn't), so once she's spent her time 'deciphering' them, she'll return to Trasil once more.

"Yeah, each set's split half and half between the edges of the shaft. I'll hold the rope for you to check the bottom, then we'll make our way up to the upper door. Unless you'd rather exit out the bottom?"


Renia picks Aerial Grace, although she doesn't switch into that stance until after she checks the top of the shaft. And just in case there's anything watching for her to fool:
[roll0]

[General Patton]

Sahael lashes out with one of his quickrazors.

Attack [roll0] for [roll1] +9
Attack [roll2] for [roll3] +21
Attack [roll4] for [roll5] +12

Iaijutsu Focus [roll6]
Iaijutsu Focus [roll7]
Iaijutsu Focus [roll8]

[General Patton]

Iaijutsu Focus bonus damage
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[Silver Night]

Kasha

"Go for the joints!"

Kasha and Ajat attack again! Ajat withstood the blow with difficulty, but seems to already be moving more smoothly again.



Ajat heals 10 hp due to fast healing (ex).

Ajat attacks!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Meanwhile, Kasha burns another set of inspiration points (3), to get an extra attack.

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]

Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Attack: [roll8]
Damage: [roll9]

Attack: [roll10]
Damage: [roll11]

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
Renia returns up to Trasil and assists him down to the lower door (providing him the same maneuver options) after "checking out" the top door. Then using the ropes, assists him in reaching the top door as well.


Kasha and Ajat:
The attacks are deflected by the constructs incredible defenses. The construct unleashes its punch.

[roll0] to hit for [roll1] damage.

After this construct's attack, the trap door beneath it opens up, swallowing it and snapping shut just as the trap door above opens, depositing another, even beefier looking humanoid construct into its place. The new construct begins to wind up its punch.


Sahael:
You burrow rapidly up to one of the ratfolk, it squeaks loudly in dismay as a flurry of blades swing forth from your elongated arms, carving the creature up. In its final breath, it screams something in an ancient language and then promptly dies.

It screams "Use lava!"

[General Patton]

As the ratfolk perishes within the tunnels, Sahael sets his sights on the dense group of targets above him. Bursting up into their midst, he buys himself some time to prepare his next assault by crushing their will.

"How does it feel to know that all your preparations and tactics are useless in the face of true prowess?!"

Intimidate w/ Never Outnumbered Skill Trick
[roll0]
10 ft AoE, Cowering for 1 round.

[Silver Night]

Ajat heals 10 hp due to fast healing (ex).

Ajat attacks!
Attack:
Damage: [roll1]

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Meanwhile, Kasha burns another set of inspiration points (3), to get an extra attack.

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: (1d8+7

Attack:
Damage: (1d8+7

Attack:
Damage: (1d8+7

Attack: [roll7]
Damage: [roll8]

[Mousedigits]

Trasil will choose Aerial Grace.


Well, it would seem we're left with two paths to take. Upper or lower, what do you think?

[Aegis013]

Kasha and Ajat:
You manage to get an arrow between the shifting plates of the construct, with a loud clank, the arrow snaps and the construct locks up, unable to deliver its punch. The trap door below it opens up, swallowing it and snapping shut before a new, slightly beefier looking construct once again is deposited into the path from the trap door above. The new construct begins winding up a punch.


Sahael:
You burrow into the midst of your foes catching four of the remaining seven ratfolk within your midst, you see their nostrils flair and their hair stand on edge. Their pupils dilate in terror as they are paralyzed in fear before their foe. You can hear the remaining three burrowing upwards to reach the nearest magma vein.

[whoiam]

Renia doesn't need long to decide they should use the door they're next to (which, given the order they read the glyphs in, is the upper door). They had no idea which door would be better, after all, so might as well pick the convenient one. "We'll take this one. With any luck, heading upwards enough will get us higher than the source of the lava. I don't much fancy finding myself swimming in that stuff, do you?"

And then she speculatively gives the door a shove.

[Silver Night]

Kasha (And Ajat)

Nought to do but take another shot!

Ajat heals 10 hp due to fast healing (ex). I think this brings him to full health.

Ajat attacks!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Meanwhile, Kasha conserves her remaining inspiration.

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]


Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Attack: [roll8]
Damage: [roll9]

[General Patton]

Sahael pulls out a dust grenade and, in an overhand swing, spikes it down at whichever ratfolk has the most other targets next to it. Then he slashes twice, first taking advantage of any blinded foes and only moving to a second target if the first is killed. If only one is blinded, and is killed in one slash, then he will throw another dust grenade instead.

Touch Attack [roll0] blind for [roll1] rounds, and adjacent targets make DC 10 Fort Save or be blinded for 1 round.
Attack [roll2] for [roll3] slashing damage +5 from crit +30 from Iaijutsu
Attack [roll4] for [roll5] slashing damage +32 from Iaijutsu (if other blind target) OR Touch Attack [roll6] blind for [roll7] rounds etc

Iaijutsu Focus [roll8]
Iaijutsu Focus [roll9]

With his Tremorsense, he estimates how long until the other ratfolk are above him.

[General Patton]

Extra crit damage on first hit [roll0]
Iaijutsu damage [roll1]
Iaijutsu damage [roll2]

[Aegis013]

Renia and Trasil:
You progress through the upper door and follow along the path which begins to slope down, eventually joining with a path coming up, presumably from the lower door. It leads you to a new room, this one a large square room. In each of the eight corners appear to be ghastly specters of warriors long fallen, their races indeterminate. Each wields a physical weapon: longspear, greatsword, twin daggers, whip, axe, scythe, flail, and shield. There is a decorated door on the other side.


Kasha and Ajat:
You continue your attacks against the construct but its impressive armor prevents all damage. It unleashes its punch against Ajat.

[roll0] to hit for [roll1] damage

Sahael:
You corner a few ratfolk and smash your dust grenade directly into one's snout, catching three that had met up just near the pulsating magma vein.

[roll2] Ratfolk 1
[roll3] Ratfolk 2

You quickly flick out your blades slicing open the throats of the two poor souls, neither of them quite dead, but both go down, gurgling on their own blood. The remaining screams something in its ancient language. Your sense motive allows you to determine it seems the ratfolk's scream was in defeat and they no longer wish to fight, only wishing to survive. You also note that the pulsating from the magma vein seems more frequent that the first time you progressed through the temple, as if it possessed some sort of anxious energy.

It screams "Run away!"

[General Patton]

Sahael raises his hands in a gesture of non-hostility before attempting first aid on whichever ratfolk is the worst for wear. Battles are waged in the mind just as much as they are on the battlefield. A gesture of mercy after demonstrating superiority can put an end to any last-ditch efforts at resistance just as well as finishing them off could. And besides, murder is not necessary here.

Heal [roll0]

[Silver Night]

Kasha & Ajat

They try again! If there is anything the undead have going for them, it's perseverance.




Ajat heals 10 hp due to fast healing (ex). This leaves him down 16 HP

Ajat attacks!
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]

Attack: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3]

Meanwhile, Kasha conserves her remaining inspiration.

Attack: [roll4]
Damage: [roll5]


Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7]

Attack: [roll8]
Damage: [roll9]

[Aegis013]

Kasha and Ajat:
Your attacks seem futile against the incredible armor the constructs possess.

The construct releases its attack.
[roll0] for [roll1] damage.

Then it's immediately replaced by yet another, even stronger looking construct in the same manner as before.


Sahael:
You stop and attempt first aid as you feel the other ratfolk burrowing away, however it seems the neck wound is quite severe. The two creatures die from their wounds. However, on the slain ratfolk you find some scraps of paper with glyphs upon them. In conjunction with the glyphs on the door to proceed, they create a usable martial script.

Aura of Dread
(Stance)[Fear] 5
Initiation: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Duration: Stance

You are the embodiment of terror. You presence alone is enough to terrify creatures into submission.

While in this stance enemies within 10ft of you must make a Will Save DC equal to 15+cha mod vs. being Shaken. This condition lasts for rounds equal to your Initiator Level. A successful save means the creature is immune to this effect for the next 24 hours. If you already possess a similar Aura of Fear (such as the Aura of Terror spell) then instead increase that aura's potency in one of the following ways:

1. Increase the auras range by 10ft.
2. Increase the save DC by +1
3. Creatures that would be shaken by your aura are now frightened, creatures that would be frightened are now panicked.


Strike Terror Into the Heart
(Strike)[Fear] 5
Initiation: 1 standard action
Range: As weapon
Target: One creature
Duration: See text

[I]With your attack, you manifest fear itself, allowing it to seep into your opponent's heart.

As part of his maneuver make a single attack. If your attack hits, your opponent must make a Fort save DC equal to 15+your Cha mod. The effect is based on whether they save or fail, and their HD compared to your own.



HD
Successful Save
Failed Save


More than 2 higher than yours
They resist the effect
Shaken for the remainder of the encounter or until you are defeated


2 less to 2 higher than yours
They are shaken for the remainder of the encounter or until you are defeated
They are frightened for the remainder of the counter or until you are defeated


3 to 6 HD fewer than yours
They are frightened for the remainder of the counter or until you are defeated
They are panicked for the remainder of the counter or until you are defeated, or they escape


7 or more fewer HD than you
The target cowers, unable to act for the remainder of the encounter or until you are defeated.
The fear overwhelms the target, you may choose which of these effects this has on the target: the enemy is [I]paralyzed for the remainder of the encounter or until you are defeated, or the fear overwhelms the target and they immediately die.



Or build your own 5th level maneuver or stance.

[Mousedigits]

Trasil moves into the room, sword drawn wardingly.

Let me guess: we have to defeat you guys to move on, right?

[whoiam]

"Don't be too quick to provoke them, " Renia warns, heading over to study the decorated door. Instructions would be too much to hope for, but there's not much else to check in here...

"Remember there was a trick to the last opponent. These probably aren't a simple case of hitting them until they stop, either..."

[General Patton]

Sahael learns Strike Terror Into the Heart. He has the decency to remove the first Ratfolk from its impromptu grave and place it next to the others, so as to make resurrection or a proper burial easier.

He gathers up the Sun Rods he had dropped and moves into the next chamber.

Spot [roll0]
Listen [roll1]
Knowledge (Architecture & Engineering) [roll2]