The Case of Ungra Balan [IC]

[Beheld]

The town of Ungra Balan is a small town on the shores of Lake Quag, you have all found yourself here for one reason or another. The town itself is a loose collection of haphazard streets with buildings of various sizes and levels of construction, ranging from the large stone constructed Cathedral of Istus, to the simple shacks of some of the poorer residents. Outside that, the local area is filled with farmsteads of various sizes ranging from 1-30 miles outside town.

You five, for what ever sake of coincidence or curiosity are all in the town, at the outskirts to the north when a man runs screaming into town. "HELP ME! Monsters attacked my farm! Everyone is dead! They are everywhere! They keep biting me! Please make them stop! The Monsters killed everyone. Save me!" the man screams in obvious derangement, perhaps from the trauma of the attack. As he finally notices the people around him, he collapses to the ground, curled up and shacking, clutching himself.

[J-H]

Shin
A tall, scaly man with the face of a dragon, Shin probably isn't the most comforting of sights to the terrified man. Still, he kneels in front of him and puts his hand on his shoulder, while speaking gently and confidently. "I can help. What kind of monsters attacked you? Where is your farm? How many monsters were there? Is there anyone I should look for and try to save when I go?"

[Chimaera]

"Maybe everyone you find alive?", the cloaked woman suggest to the scaled man.

She look at the man in the ground, curled like a baby.
Helping people for free isnt something she is used to, but inside her she could sympathize with his loss... Specially after she saw friends and family being bitten away herself.

"I hardly think you havea way to pay me, but I'll help you out of charity"

[Beheld]

The man continues to lie screaming on the ground, "Bugs! Giant Bugs! I only saw one! There are so many of them, and the keep biting!" Some of the people nearby, terrified though they are, tell you that this is Sam the Farmer, and he lives about 3 miles along a small dirt road that leads out north towards some of the farms. The man himself is mostly reduced to incessant bawling.

[JNAProductions]

Well, Scarlet says. We ought to go help, shouldn't we?

Also, my friends, Scarlet says to the nearly strangers, If I could have a moment of your time-a spot of magic will make you immune to my breath attacks, which could come in handy in fighting these bugs.

Cast Endure Elements on everyone else.

[Chimaera]

"Thanks", Kamus say and give Scarlet a small bow, "I'm Kamus Krawford, a travelling scholar and practitioner of the arcane. Nice to meet you".

[Gabrosin]

Hero Sindragon makes his way down Ungra Balan's central thoroughfare. He shields his bleary eyes against the afternoon sun, wondering why he's awake so early today. That second bottle of wine... may have been a mistake, he thinks to himself as his stomach curdles. He pauses by an inviting-looking bush, hovering over it a moment with the bile in the back of his throat, counting slowly to ten. False alarm. He shakes his head to clear it as he hears shouting to his left.

A small crowd has gathered around an unfortunate-looking man. After a few long moments, Hero is able to discern his shouts about giant bug monsters eating his friends and family. He ambles over gingerly, only to see that the man has become incoherent. A motley array of confident-looking folks are standing around discussing how best to help him. Hero spots a dwarf, some sort of dragonman, a woman with words floating about her head, and a... well, he wasn't entirely sure what the tall... uhhh... woman might be. So, as is his custom, he says the first thing that pops into his head.

"No one told me the circus had come to town! What nights are you performing? I shall have to come to one of the shows." Hero offers his most sincere smile and looks around for brightly colored wagons.

[Chimaera]

"Circus, huh?, Kamus eyes the (probably) drunk newcomer, "I guess I sure could make a trick or two another day, but it would cost you some gold as my arts dont belong in the circus".

She then proceed to.ignore him and look for the others, " Who else is willing to help?"

[Sgt. Suitable]

Finley heard the mans ordeal and crossed the street towards Kamus raising his hand. "I'll help, if I can!"
He looks like a young traveling dwarf. He's wearing a thick grey cloak and has a bushy head of hear and a beard, both blond. As he comes closer he looses the straps of a fine looking club and looks eager to join.

He whistles. It's a single note- shrill sounding whistle. From a rooftop a hawk spreads his wings and lands on his broad shoulder moments later.

[Gabrosin]

Hero watches the hawk respond immediately to the dwarf's whistle, coming in tamely to rest on his shoulder. "Hey, that's a neat act! Haven't had a proper beast tamer around here since ol' Peckpaw came down ill, and then had that tree fall on him. Nasty business, that." Hero pauses for a moment, as respectfully as he can muster, before turning to the very tall woman. "And you say you're a firebreather? The kids'll be delighted."

Hero glances down at the man again, as if he had forgotten something. "What was all that about bugs?"

[Chimaera]

"This man's farm was attacked by some kind of biting bugs, but...", she point to him, "In his actual state that's all we got. Anyway, we are going there to see if we can save someone and save whatever we can of the farm".

Kamus then ask directions for the townsfolk around and motion for the others to follow her.

[J-H]

Shin

Shin goes with the group, graciously accepting the offered elemental resistance.

[Beheld]

You head off on your trek overland, and you arrive at the farmstead. From the outside, nothing looks especially amiss, except the complete absence of any people. There appear to be a few buildings clustered together at the end of the trail.

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

If you go to the roll 20, you should have a character on a map, you can take your actions there, as of this moment, none of you hears or sees anything aside from the buildings, but you should probably roll init anyway, because I strongly suspect that it might become relevant at some point soon.

[Chimaera]

Kamus walk quietly till she reached the farm.

" We better be careful", she says looking around.

She cast before leaving, so she still have 2 hours of it

[roll0]

[J-H]

Shin

The dragonborn finds a tree and hangs his pack from a branch as they approach, moving more easily once the weight is removed.


Weight/GP fixed.
Overweight with backpack, otherwise not overweight.
Init [roll0]

[JNAProductions]

[roll0]

Does anyone else not like the silence? Scarlet asks as she moves forward.

[Gabrosin]

Hero sees the group departing for the farm and decides to tag along. With so many strange and unique characters suddenly joining together, there was sure to be a great song or two to be written. Also, saving people sounds right up his alley. Step on some bugs, rescue some innocents, free drinks for life! How hard could it be?

[roll0]

The lack of activity at the farm was unusual, to be sure. He follows along behind the tall woman who had been so nice as to cast that spell on him, though if he were being honest (unlikely), he'd tell you he wasn't really feeling any different. Maybe a bit warmer than usual. Still, she seemed friendly. "Silence? No, I can't stand it either. Some music could be just the thing to lighten up this trip! Everyone in this group seems so grim and focused. You're all lucky I'm here... I've got some small talent as a troubadour." Hero takes hold of the horn hanging from a cord around his neck, an ancient instrument carved from the horn of a red dragon, a family heirloom that had been passed down the generations of his family, from his great-grandfather to his grandfather to his father... from whom Hero had stolen it. He lifts the instrument to his lips, preparing to sound the opening notes to a rousing hymn.

[Beheld]

As you approach the buildings, Scarlet in the lead is surprised to find... a horrific monster. A giant buglike creature with multiple stinglike tails waits at the corner, prepared to ambush you. It makes it's prepared attack against Scarlet, striking him and dealing damage. Additionally Scarlet can feel the creature attempt to inject him with something. Everyone else who sees the creature can appreciate somewhat why the farmer was so insensate, the monster looks especially horrific, they can almost feel the sense that something creeps over them. The creature, acting faster than anyone can react, follows this action by flying over to Hero and striking him with a more coordinated assault, biting him and stabbing him with five of his 6 tails, one glancing off armor.

I'm going to use your previous knowledge roll, pretty much only because I rolled much lower when I rolled, but for the future, please don't roll knowledge checks until you see the monster (also I think Knowledge Devotion requires an action and a new roll or something? I'm not really sure).

IC: You recall seeing a picture of this monstrous bug creatures before in a book describing an odd subtype of demons. They are known for having true seeing and being just really horrific to look at, so monstrous that their very appearance causes suffering. You remember that unlike other demons, they are not immune to electricity, instead being minorly resistant to all energy types (ER 10).

In particular you recall that this monster was described as being so sickening to look at that it made spellcasting distracting, implanting eggs into those it attacks, which hatch into grubs that eat their way out of people, temporarily crippling them in the process and producing more creatures very quickly, being able to fly very quickly and strike with all it's tails after closing with people far away, fast healing 5, DR 5/cold iron or lawful 5, being able to attack with 6 stinging tails and a bite at +10 for tails and +5 for bite, having an AC of 17, 14 touch and flat footed, and for following a pattern in combat of implanting as many eggs as possible into each creature it is fighting then retreating to await it's young hatching before reengaging and implanting more eggs into any who survive the birthing.

Regarding the implanting, can be cured with remove disease, or a heal check DC 15 which does 1d4 damage and a full round action for each egg. Otherwise the grubs do more damage when they come out, and nauseate again. (Will be in an hour if not cured by then).

Everyone who sees the monster must make a DC 14 Will save or feel like ants are crawling all over them. Which gives a -1 penalty to all skill checks, and forces a DC 10 concentration check to cast any spell or manifest any psionic power. If you succeed on the save nothing happens. This is a mind affecting fear effect.

Additionally, Scarlet must make a fort save DC 15, and Hero must make... 5 saves at DC 15 or be nauseated for one turn, and then sickened for the next hour while... something happens :) Which Scarlet will presumably tell you about in short very soon. Roll all the saves at once, it matters how many you fail.

Init rolls for our missing druid is irrelevant because unfortunately for you guys, the monster rolled as well as all of you did (well even better).

Scarlet takes [roll0] damage
Hero takes [roll1] damage

The creature got a surprise round, 5ft stepped, hit Scarlet, and then moved and full attacked (yes it can do that) and full attacked Hero.

Everyone on the team gets to take their action now. Look at the map for positions, and Shin and Finely can both choose to move one and one half their speed before the creature arrives or not as their choice.

[Gabrosin]

Well that... uhhh... hurts.

Gonna take care of the fight startup and roll my saves in this post and then post again with my actions after, because I'm at risk of being nauseated. Also, if someone could show me how to make an edit to an existing post that has rolls in it, without touching the rolls or invalidating them, I'd appreciate it. I've seen others do it but can't figure out how.


Hero Sindragon (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=642332)
Male Chaotic Good Silverbrow Human (dragonblood) Crusader 1/Bard 2, Level 3, Init 2, HP 24/24, Speed 30
AC 18, Touch 12, Flat-footed 16, Fort 5, Ref 6, Will 2, Base Attack Bonus 2
Longsword +4 (1d8+2, 19-20/x2)
Dagger +4 (1d4+2, 19-20/x2)
Chain shirt, Heavy wooden shield (+4 Armor, +2 Shield, +2 Dex)
Abilities Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 7, Cha 17
Condition None


Roll to identify the creature for Knowledge Devotion. If this has already happened, or if the creature falls under The Planes or Dungeoneering, let me know and we'll ignore this. Otherwise the roll is at +7, or +11 if the creature falls under Arcana.
[roll0]

Rolls for starting maneuvers:
1. Charging Minotaur
2. Crusader's Strike
3. Douse the Flames
4. Stone Bones
5. Vanguard's Strike

First maneuver: [roll1]
Second maneuver (from remaining list: [roll2]

And now, some saves (Nymph's Kiss bonus not applied since this doesn't seem like a spell or spell-like ability):

Will save, DC 14: [roll3]
Fortitude save, DC 15: [roll4]
Fortitude save, DC 15: [roll5]
Fortitude save, DC 15: [roll6]
Fortitude save, DC 15: [roll7]
Fortitude save, DC 15: [roll8]

Regardless of the saves' outcomes, Hero will take 5 of the damage into his Steely Resolve delayed damage pool, but in the event he winds up with just a move action, he probably won't be able to do anything but take that damage at the end of his turn.


Hero is taken completely by surprise by the giant bug's onslaught.

[Gabrosin]

Well hot damn. That's the most love the diceroller has ever shown me.

So Hero's currently got Charging Minotaur (option 1 of the original 5) and Douse the Flames (option 2 of the remaining 4). Boo.


Hero gets struck repeatedly by the bug's vicious attack, the horn falling from his hand as he absorbs blow after blow. He can't escape the distracting sensation of ants crawling all over his body. But his abandoned training takes over, blocking out some of the pain. Before he knows it, his sword is in his hand, and he shouts out his most formidable battle cry:

"HELP!!!"

He slashes down at the creature with his sword, drawing on the stone power within himself to lessen the pain of his wounds.


Hero will draw his longsword as a move action, then make an attack action at +3, giving up his +2 BAB for 4 temporary HP via Stone Power but adding +1 to attack and damage from Furious Counterstrike.

Attack: [roll0]
Crit confirm: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

He'll then take a 5' step back from the creature and, uhhh, hope his new friends help him not die.

At the conclusion of his turn, Hero absorbs the remaining 1 damage in his delayed damage pool, dropping to 16. Rolling for new maneuver:
[roll3]

[JNAProductions]

[roll0]

Scarlet moves nearer to the bug and breathes a cloud of slowing gas, one that her friends are immune to.

DC 19 Fort Save or be SLowed for 2 round. On a success, it's slowed for one round. In addition, it's entangled for [roll1] rounds.

[J-H]

Shin

Shin steps to the side to keep the creature in view as he attack's the creature's feeble mind. "What a hideous creature."


Token moved, didn't see grid references.

Ego Whip [roll0] cha damage + daze, Will save DC15 to avoid daze and halve the cha damage.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/egoWhip.htm

Creatures who reach a CHA of 0 are rendered comatose.

[Chimaera]

Just by looking at this strange insect creature, Kamus felt so much stings under her cloak.

"Bugs! Damn it!", she scream as she begins to scratch her arms and look at the monster, taking a step closer so as to be able to reach it with her magical tricks.

She points her finger to the bug and it begin to glow a sickly green and a jolt of acid fly right into the creature's face.

Moving a little closer and Acid Splatter in the face.
Not sure if Concentration is needed to use Reserve Feats, if they are: [roll0]

RTA [roll1] acid damage [roll2]
In case it's needed, caster level check [roll3]
(she get +1 caster level to acid, due Acid Splatter)

[Beheld]

Scarlet spends the round retching, and chooses not to move. Hero strikes the creature and moves back. Kammus fires his Acid Spitter, but misses. Finely stands dumbstruck, for some reason, and Shin discovers that the creature is resistant to his mind based attacks.

In response, the creature seems to sense Finley's weakness, and flies over to target his as the primary victim, striking with 6 tails, injecting Finley, who promptly begins vomiting.

Shin you can take an attack of opportunity, and you discover that the creature is immune to mind affecting attacks.

Scarlet, you are no longer nauseated, but you are sickened (just penalties, no loss of actions) but pursuant to your knowledge check you recall that the creature has Energy Resistance 10 against all elements, so may not want to use attacks that do 2-4-8 damage against it.

Everyone else, you may now go while the monster wails on the player withdrawing. I can't find the character sheet for the guy I actually wanted to ask in next, I might get another player or might not.

[JNAProductions]

Scarlet moves over, yelling Cold iron-we need cold iron! and proceeds to breathe out a cloud of slowing gasses her allies are immune to.

DC 19 Fort save or slowed for 2 rounds. On a success, slowed for 1.

[J-H]

Shin
Shin takes a quick swipe at the creature as it flies past, but fails to connect as he dives to the side, his wings flapping a few times as he rebalances. He scrambles back well out of melee range, and then focuses on the creature. A slight haze of heat surrounds his head but doesn't seem to touch him as he concentrates on it.


AOO attack [roll0] left off the +1, doesn't matter
damage [roll1]
Crits [roll2] [roll3]
Moved token on map to hide behind our melee characters when they move up.

Manifesting an Empowered Matter Agitation on the creature (3pp). This round it takes 1 point of fire damage, but next round it starts taking empowered dice. Duration is Concentration, up to 3 minutes, which is 30 rounds of combat. Not a lot, but it'll be consistent.

[Chimaera]

Kamus watch the creature attacking the dumbfound dwarf.

"What are you doing? React!", she shout to him and try ti focus on another ray spell, this one made to weaken the bug.

Concentration: [roll0]
RTA [roll1] str penal [roll2]

[Gabrosin]

Having recovered from the initial fury of the assault, Hero races over to the bug and slashes at it, trying to incite his allies to greater effectiveness.


Hero moves to the bug and executes a Vanguard Strike. If his melee attack hits (regardless of damage done), his allies get an untyped +4 bonus to attack rolls against the bug for one round.

Attack: [roll0]
Crit. Confirm: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

Roll for new maneuver:
[roll3]

[Gabrosin]

Sorry, that attack is a 22, at +6. Forgot to note the flanking bonus with Finley.

[Beheld]

Hero moves and strikes the creature but does no damage as his sword fails to pierce the skin, Kamus Enfeebles it. Shin feels his damage being completely resisted by Fire resistance on the target.

In response, the creature strikes Finley again with each of it's six tails, doing one damage each time no matter what it rolls on the damage dice and injecting him with four more eggs.

[Gabrosin]

Hero looks dismayed that the creature continues to assault the dwarf, seemingly impervious to their best efforts to harm it. He rears back and unleashes a powerful strike against it with his sword, then takes a step back from the creature.


Hero executes a Crusader's Strike against the bug, then takes a 5' step southwest.

Attack: [roll0]
Crit. Confirm: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]
Healing (on himself): [roll3]

Hero is granted his final maneuver (Stone Bones); next round he'll lose all granted maneuvers and reroll for two new ones from his whole list.

[JNAProductions]

This fight is hopeless! Scarlet cries out. We need to run! she continues, sprinting at an angle to the monster.

Run 160' in a straight line, at an angle to the monster so I don't pass directly by it and suffer an attack of opportunity.

[J-H]

Shin

"I hate to say this, but he's right. Get out of here, we'll bring back help!"


Shin heads out for town at max speed (3x/4x move at first), staying under the trees to be less visible from the air.