The Complex of Doom (IC) Thread 2

[J-H]

Previous IC thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?493631-The-Complex-of-Doom-%28IC%29)


1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)?

D&D 3.5 edition

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be? What is the setting for the game?

Standard 3.5, setting is listed above. Assume standard Greyhawk/Faerun pantheon, if it's relevant, with some exceptions (no Underdark means no Lolth, etc.).

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?
4 or 5, possibly 6 since PBP often loses a player or two early on.

4. What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)?
Here on the OOTS boards.

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)?
10,000 XP, bottom of 4th level. I may award XP as we go, or I may take a "everyone levels up now" approach. If people stick around and I can keep this going, we could run all the way to near epic.

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with?
6500gp, no more than 4000gp on a particular item.

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes?
No wizard, psion, cleric, artificer, druid, or archivist. I prefer spontaneous casters (or whole-list casters) over prepared, to reduce bookkeeping and help me keep track of what everyone can generally do. Spirit Shaman, Shugenja, Favored Soul, Healer, Warmage, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Ardent, Wilder, Sorcerer, etc., are fair game.
No Tome of Magic classes, no Incarnum, no Anima Mage, no factotum.
No undead PCs.
No homebrew.
No polymorph/shapechange/etc.
No Leadership. Thrallherds have a negative psychic resonance with crystals in the complex that cause their heads to explode with no hope of resurrection.

Minionmancy is extra work. Extra work is not good. If you're going to play a minion-mancer character, keep it to one or two powerful ones instead of a horde of 1HD skeletons.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species?

PHB races, and most LA+0/LA+1 races. Drow, kobolds, goblinoids, and dragon-related species are not available. The draconic races were all smart enough to leave the continent millenia ago.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?

4d6b3, rolled 7 times, pick the best 6. If you don't like the roll results, 32-point buy.
Max hit points.

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?
No chaotic stupid. Alignment-related spells may be used at some point, and may affect diplomatic options. Calling yourself Lawful Good and acting Neutral Evil may result in Bad Luck.

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it?
No multi-classing penalties. Some PRCs (such as Primeval from Frostburn) can have more reasonable entry requirements if needed.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?
We will use group initiative; party goes, opponents go, repeat. I'll look at init score averages on both sides when determining who goes first, so don't dump initiative totally. Remember, you're flat-footed until you've taken your first turn in combat!

I will make passive rolls, and will probably take 10 for a lot of them unless there's reason to actively search. I plan to roll knowledge, spellcraft, and martial lore skills for identifying enemies to speed things up. It's not worth a 24-hour wait for everyone to roll K:Arcana to find out that a golem is a golem.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.

Improved Initiative gives a +10 since we're doing group init
All classes get +4 skill points per level. I'll try to challenge almost every skill at some point.
Martial Study is a Fighter bonus feat
Unarmed swordsage replaces monk
Dual-stat casters (Favored Soul, Paladin, Spirit Shaman) get the appropriate stat-consolidation feat for free.
Feats at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc.
Everyone has Weapon Finesse for free.
Combat Expertise & Mobility are no longer prerequisites for anything. Dodge applies a flat +1 AC that's always on unless you're flat-footed. Other feat taxes may be removed on request.

No crafting. If you have specific items you will want, put a wish-list on your sheet where I can see it. Loot will be semi-random and will be mostly geared towards adventurers. Leftovers from the bodies of other fools who tried this.

I won't be tracking food and water very tightly, but if the entire group walks into the dungeon with no food and no water, I'll start paying attention to it.

Rolling a 30 on your Diplomacy check isn't going to make a bunch of paranoid hobgoblins decide that you should have a guided tour of their camp. I haven't decided exactly how to run the Diplomacy skill yet.

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)?
A three paragraph length background, plus three types of people (species, cultures, beliefs, or occupations) your character likes, and three he or she strongly dislikes.

Example: Likes orcs, farmers, and nature-oriented faiths; dislikes catfolk, merchants, and excessively stringent legal systems.

Please put this on your character sheet.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above?
Largely hack & slash, exploration with some environmental hazards and probably traps, and some diplomacy/rp.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters?
See allowed class/race list above
3.5 content is generally allowed, plus non-updated 3.0 (BOED/BOVD).
No templates or weird silliness.
No Dragon magazine.
Hexblade fix is allowed.



https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cefq4xvg8bs/hqdefault.jpg

Setting Information

Underneath the continent of Hybora lies a great complex full of arcane and eldritch machinery. A number of great adamantine and mithril spikes, covered in runes, project upwards from it, through the skin of the world, and high into the sky, almost as high as the tallest mountains.

The origin of the great device is lost, along with much of the older histories. What is known is that it is constantly drawing power from the earth itself, and that when it reaches full charge, the spikes light with a terrible glow; indescribable colors coruscate up and down them for 5 minutes, and then death comes; random destruction covers anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of the continent, and the ocean around it besides. Sometimes death comes in fire from the sky; sometimes in the form of reversed gravity. Plagues, darkness, armies of strange twisted creatures, instant conversion to undeath, and other forms of doom have been observed. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the method, only that it always comes, and never in the same way twice in a row.

Circles of runes randomly appear in the air around the continent, forming doorways to the Complex; always one at a time, never more than two, and not in the same place for more than a week. It is those circles that have preserved life. Through them, daring adventurers have entered and explored. Tales come back of strange environments, dusty rooms, and lines of strange pulsing crystals that can be smashed to release some of the power stored in the machine. If enough people succeed, the machine can be kept at low charge. Over the last few centuries, it has only reached full charge twice.

Hyboria's soil, despite all this, is fertile, and rich in metals and minerals; it's a good place to live, as long as enough adventurers do their part to preserve the peace. As a result of the constant low-level drain on risk-takers and ambitious fighters, it's also a peaceful place. The hotheads already have something better to do than attack the species next door.

It is said that more species once lived on Hyboria; that some have chosen to migrate entirely within the complex, reasoning that destruction occurs only outside, and never inside.


The last activation was 161 years ago. It covered 13% of the continent with great clouds that descended in the middle of the night. The clouds possessed the following effects:
-Consistent dispelling field as CL10 against all magic within the clouds
-Cloudkill (Kills 3 HD or less; 4-6 HD save or die, 6+ HD take Con damage)
-Blight (kills plants/plant creatures)
-Fog cloud (obscured vision)
-Still air (no wind)

The clouds remained for 8 hours and then combusted, dealing 4 fire damage to everything within and starting numerous fires (most of which were put out shortly due to lack of fuel).



Luckily there are many brave, heroic, profit-seeking, and/or "this or jail" adventurers willing to jump in any portals that pop up nearby in hopes of smashing crystals, delaying destruction, and acquiring magical items, power, respect, etc. Enough people have been doing it that the chance of a regular activation is quite rare.

The way things are going now, there's only a 1 in 2 or 3 chance of it going off during a human lifespan, and a 10-20% chance of dying if that happens... total risk is thus 3% to 10% of sudden(?) death, in exchange for the most fertile soil, productive mines, and lowest risk of death-by-warfare on the planet. It's a pretty good deal for races with shorter lifespans.

Hybora is the largest continent on the planet, representing over 60% of the temperate/tropical landmass available for life. Dwarves and some other races live underground, but there is no Underdark or equivalent - aside from the Complex, of course.

[J-H]

Generally known information about the Complex
Although old records have mostly been lost to random destruction, plus the usual ravages of time, enough groups make it in and out that many basic functions are known.


http://testtube.theshrinkingmanproject.com/files/2011/03/iTeleport.jpg

Portals & Teleportation
Long-range teleportation spells do not function reliably inside or to/from the Complex. The probability of splinching is high in any case, but seems especially high deeper in the complex, and in the less-natural caverns.

Entry portals to the complex appear randomly, and do not stay active for long periods of time. Exit portals link to the same rune circles as entry portals, but seem to be 5-15% as frequent.

An active entry portal is blue, an active exit portal is red. Inactive portals do not glow, although the runes are still visible.

Yellow stepping pads are spread infrequently throughout the complex in two-way pairs. They are 10x10 and can accommodate 1 teleport every 30 seconds. For them to activate, something must be resting on the pad, and nothing must be crossing the boundary of the teleport pad at either end (making it possible to hold or block a pad relatively easily).

Equipment Upgrades
A few groups have reported finding what are dubbed "Runeforges." Resembling an altar or large box with a tray on top, they are surrounded by faintly-glowing runes. Magical items and/or gold can be transmuted to create newer or more powerful magical items. There is some energy loss in the process - magical items render out at 50% of their Standard Arcane Construction Valuation. Almost any type of magical item can be created, given sufficient inputs. It is believed that there is a psionic component to the runeforges, as even barbarians have been able to create sophisticated items with little difficulty. However, special materials such as adamantine or mithril, must be provided by the user.

There is some speculation that the 'energy loss' in the Runeforge process may be deliberate.

Runeforges are a powerful tool for anyone who can gain access to or control one.

Ecology
Sages have attempted to map the functions of life on the surface, and talk about things like "deenay" and "heritable traits." All adventurers, however, know that magic does many things, and that what neatly fills a scroll in a study often differs from the physical reality.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/PanellusStipticusAug12_2009.jpg

Light
Some areas are lit by vaguely luminescent fungus. Some areas are lit by magical torches or light-balls. A few areas have walls that simply glow, or reflect the tiniest amount of light like a mirror. Some areas are unlit.

Water
Throughout the complex, water flows in and out from underground rivers and streams. Slow drips of water can also be found from aquifers and other sources, as would be found in a natural terrestrial caverns. No poisonous waters have yet been found. It is not known whether some natural mechanism keeps the water safe to drink, or whether a magical effect is in place.
Many of the water sources are small, and obviously unsafe for any but the tiniest of creatures to swim through.


http://www-tc.pbs.org/food/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2014/04/edible-fungi600.jpg
Food
Several varieties of edible mushroom growing from organic matter as well as from certain veins of mineral and pulverized rocks. At least two mildly toxic varieties have been identified. The mushroom species are well-known enough that a Survival or K: Dungeoneering check against DC 15 is sufficient to gather food safely (Take 10 is available unless rushed).

Some groups have reported seeing groups with chickens as a source of eggs.

There are several small mammal and lizard species, filling the basic ecological functions of rabbits and squirrels.

Some areas of standing or barely-flowing water have species of fish and eels in them. Not all are benign.

There are also a number of large caverns with large artificial lights at the top. These lights seem to function with a modulated, permanent Daylight effect, and are sufficient to grow crops or even trees.

Passive Checks

To speed things up, I will make normal passive rolls, and will let players know the results if there's anything to know. I'll Take 10 on quite a few of these to speed things up.

Listen/Spot/Sense Motive
Passive Search (taking 10)
Spellcraft & Martial Lore to identify enemy spells and maneuvers.
Saves
SR & miss chances that players aren't aware of (this is better than the delay caused by saying "please also roll a X check.")
Knowledge skills: Unless players prefer otherwise, I'll publicly post results of knowledge checks, on the assumption that if Bob the Mage spots a Rust Monster, he's going to say "That's a Rust Monster!" instead of keeping quiet and letting the Fighter think it's a Giant Beetle.

[J-H]

The group rests overnight. You feel refreshed in the morning, although there are still a few sore muscles from the long battle with the velociraptors.

The Runeforge is still nearby, and Gyrris had spotted a spear sticking out of the marshy area to the west. The stream running through the raptor nest cuts through the high berms of rock and bone, feeding that marsh.

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Gyrris

Gyrris wasn't sure how to go about finding his friends, if they were even still alive. He decided to stick with this group for now for safety and information. "What was your plan after defeating the raptors?"


Gyrris gathers his gear. Surely they had a plan, only crazy men would attack such a large raptor nest for no reason.




http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?529764-The-Complex-of-Doom-(OOC-2)-(3-5)

[razorback]

Shim, listening to Gyrris as he watches out over their surroundings, says "Don't know, ran into this group about the same time as you. My friends are all gone or... gone. Nout sure if I want to continue down this path or make for the surface. I guess it depends on what all you want to do. Can't imagine I'd make it very far by myself and I'd think that we all have a better chance of surviving together."

[Cavir]

Kricen (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1532381)

"I have no interest in returning to the surface anytime soon. There is too much to discover and learn here in the Complex. I've only joined this group a few days ago. Before that they found this journal. The Runeforge had us coming here." In no rush, he shows the newcomers the journal and gives them time to absorb its wisdom.

"We've had incredible battles the past few days. The battle here worthy of a bard's tale. The war against the raptors won. A day or two of respite here would be well earned. I'd like the time to study the Runeforge, this area, and to try to retrace your steps through the wall to the machinations that run this place. Waiting for those buried raptors to awaken would be beneficial to us too."

"For now, let's see about that spear sticking out of the marsh? I have rope. Someone more skilled try lassoing the spear and pull it and whatever is attacked out? The zombie can help pull." Kricen pulls a rope with grappling hook out of his handy haversack and heads to the edge of the swamp, demon turned-zombie following along. Kricen hands the grappling hook end of the rope to the zombie to hold while he starts to make a loop on the other end, until someone else steps in to help.

Journal (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21599069&postcount=879)
Map (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23009034&postcount=292)
J-H, maybe you could update the journal post with the new map?

[razorback]

Shim ponders for a few moments on Kricen's words. "Like I said" as he scratches at his stubble before running his hand through his hair "we stand a better chance together. But, truth be told, I'd hate to leave empty handed. Not just coins but a great ballad to tell that will be sung for the ages. Alright, what's next? I have very little memory of this place?"

[J-H]

Kricen approaches the marshy area alone except for his zombie. It looks like there are actually a number of weapons lying on and around the algae, lily pads, and stunted trees in the brackish water. He'll have to wade into the water to get them, though.

[Cavir]

Kricen calls out to the rest of the party. "Hey. Looks like an armory from their victims. Come give me a hand. No idea what lives in the water."

He orders Babs to grab the nearer weapons and bring them out, making a pile at Kricen's feet while Kricen keeps a lookout for water movement not caused by Babs.

Keener eyes would help.
[roll0]

[razorback]

Shim looks skeptical but nods. "You know, these boots are probably ruined, anyway." he says as he lifts one foot before putting it down and then lifting the other before going with Kricen to look around.



I guess slightly keener is better than less...
Spot
[roll0]

[J-H]

The zombie babau approaches the first weapon and tugs on it. As it does, a large area of the swamp explodes with movement. Weapons rise out of the water, held by large tentacles! An axe slices across the top of the water towards the babau, but misses.

Surprise Round

Greataxe attack [roll0] for [roll1] damage, slashing, magic


Based on the number of weapons held and his knowledge of aberrations, Kricen thinks he may be looking at a “Darktentacles,” an uncreatively named creature known to eat carrion and unwary creatures. The cunning thing has some magical abilities, and can attack multiple targets at a time with its many limbs.


Nobody made their spot checks...

https://image.ibb.co/mxwVmJ/DT_rd_0.jpg (https://ibb.co/cgOAmJ)



=>Party wins initiative, Party goes next!

[Cavir]

"Lookout!" Kricen dashes back away from the water while the zombie follows suit.

"That's a... Darktentacles. It can hit with all those weapons it has, but more importantly has magic abilities too. Keep back. Kill it quick."

Kricen summons protective magic around him.

Move 30' to just west of Torlak. Babs moves 30' towards me, attracting an AoO. I don't know how much the water slows it down.

Cast False Life [roll0] temp hp for 6 hours.

No Auto/Pum :smallfrown:

[razorback]

Seeing the water erupt with slimy, slithering tentacles and slashing weapons, Shim leaps back as Kricen calls out. Quickly pulling out the bow he borrowed, he edges backwards as he fires at the creature. "What kind of magic does this creature posses?"



Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 56

Move Action
Pull bow


Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20/x3
[roll2]
[roll3]

Effects ~
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[Cavir]

"The exact magics I don't know, but they aid in the beast trapping its prey so that it can use all those weapons to carve up dinner for itself. Like the raptors, better to kill it from a distance."

[alanek2002]

Torlak shrugs. "....Why fight it?" He asks. "Just pull back; If it follows you out of the water, I can help... but as it is, I can't get close enough to freeze it, and since it is in water, I doubt fire will do much."

[Cavir]

Gyrris

"Easy enough to handle it from back here." The dwarf steps back onto higher ground and quickly fires three arrows.

5' step back. Rapid Shot.

(Rolls pasted from OOC)
Shot1: (1d20+9)[24] crit: (1d20+9)[25]
Damage: (1d8+2)[9] + (1d6)[6] Acid
crit: (2d8+4)[15] + (1d6)[5] Acid

Shot1: (1d20+4)[13] crit: (1d20+4)[13]
Damage: (1d8+2)[4] + (1d6)[5] Acid
crit: (2d8+4)[16] + (1d6)[2] Acid

Shot1: (1d20+9)[10] crit: (1d20+9)[26]
Damage: (1d8+2)[7] + (1d6)[2] Acid
crit: (2d8+4)[10] + (1d6)[6] Acid

[J-H]

Round 1, Part 1

Gyrris fires a flurry of arrows; one connects (hit for 15). Shim fires an arrow, but it misses.

Kricen moves back, casting a spell, while the zombie babau slogs through the water after him. A greataxe swings at the babau as it moves, but only cuts water.

AOO
Attack [roll0] miss
Damage [roll1] slashing, magic




Kricen +9 temp hp

[J-H]

Round 1, Part 2

The creature swims through the water, moving closer more rapidly than you’d think – right up to Shim. Kricen feels its foreign will pressing against his mind as he moves back… he tries to fight it, but freezes in place as something squeezes his nerves. The necromancer stops moving.


Hold monster, Will DC 16.
Kricen Will [roll0] fail
Hold monster is as Hold Person, but with a wider list of applicable species.
"The subject becomes paralyzed and freezes in place. It is aware and breathes normally but cannot take any actions, even speech. Each round on its turn, the subject may attempt a new saving throw to end the effect. (This is a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.) "



https://image.ibb.co/gVGW58/DT_rd_1.jpg (https://ibb.co/iJJ0yT)
Kricen +9 temp hp, Held until Round 10, Part 2

=> Party

[Cavir]

Gyrris

"Umm Shim, get out of there!" The dwarf fires three more arrows at the creature.

Rapid Shot
Shot1: [roll0] crit: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] + [roll3] Acid
crit: [roll4]+ [roll5] Acid

Shot2: [roll6] crit: [roll7]
Damage: [roll8] + [roll9] Acid
crit: [roll10]+ [roll11] Acid

Shot3: [roll12] crit: [roll13]
Damage: [roll14] + [roll15] Acid
crit: [roll16]+ [roll17] Acid


Side Note: Gyrris being replaced, in place, by Kish's dwarf Matai.

[Cavir]

Kricen moves back from the water's edge as the zombie slowly follows and arrows fly. As he is about to cast a spell he inexplicably freezes in place. After several frustrating seconds he begins moving again.

"Cursed thing, that must have been some kind of hold spell."

Will save made in OOC. (1d20+9)[16]
Spellcraft to ID affect: [roll0]
Babs moves to BF152

[razorback]

Shim curses as he is shocked by the speed of the creature. Dropping the bow, he shuffles back while retrieving his polearm.



Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 56

Free Action
Drop Bow

5 foot step to BC-151

Move Action
Pull Guisarme


Standard action
Attack Darktentacles using Vanguard Strike
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20/x3
[roll2]
[roll3]

Effects ~
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike O
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[alanek2002]

Torlak shrugs as he moves forwards, bathing the creature in slowing breath.

Dc 18 fort save, on success, slowed for one round. on failure, slowed for two.

[Kish]

Matai hurries forward, activating a wand, then grabbing his axe as he grows to ogre-sized.

Moving 20 feet toward the zombie babau and enlarging myself.

[J-H]

Round 2, Part 1

Matai hurries forward, enlarging himself. Torlak also advances, breathing a cone of magical energy.

Slow for 1 round, Fort DC 18 or slowed for 2 rounds
DT Fort [roll0] save


Shim steps back, pulling out his guisarme and slashing with it, but he misses his strike.

Kricen’s minion moves to shield him as he breaks free of the Hold spell.



DT slowed until Round 3, Part 1 begins

Kricen +9 temp hp

[J-H]

Round 2, Part 2

The mass of writhing tentacles moves slightly away from Shim, while assailing his mind. He ignores the mental assault.


5’ squelch away, Hold Monster…
Hold monster, Will DC 16.
Shim Will [roll0] save



https://image.ibb.co/mC2joo/DT_rd_2.jpg (https://ibb.co/jkQR18)

DT slowed until Round 3, Part 1 begins

Kricen +9 temp hp

=> Party

[Cavir]

"Don't let it get away. We don't want it to surprise us at the wrong time later on." Kricen casts a spell and a black ray projects out at the darktentacle. The zombie holds its position with orders to defend against the swamp creature if it comes back onto land.

Ray of Exhaustion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rayOfExhaustion.htm). Ranged touch attack.
"The subject is immediately exhausted for the spell’s duration. A successful Fortitude save means the creature is only fatigued."
Fort DC 18.

Attack: [roll0]

[razorback]

Shim hesitates for a moment at Kricen's comment just as the assault begins on his mind.
Shrugging off the assault, he looks at the creature and says "Well, bad news for you, buddy." as he stands his ground and begins to inspire his allies with his words.



Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 56

Swift Action
Cast Inspirational Boost

Concentration check in case he is in range
[roll0]

Standard Action
Begin Inspire Courage




Effects ~
Inspire Courage = gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects; and a +2
morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls.
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike O
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[alanek2002]

Torlak, more conventionally, spews flames over the beast.

[roll0] Fire damage! DC 18 reflex for half.

[Kish]

Matai steps forward and raises his axe.

5-foot step west and ready an attack. If the Darktentacles comes into Matai's currently-10-foot threatened area, he'll use Mountain Hammer on it. He's in Island of Blades stance.

Mountain Hammer ignores any DR or hardness: [roll0] Critical threat check: [roll1] Damage: [roll2] Bonus maneuver damage: [roll3] Critical damage: [roll4]

Final maneuver, Cruader's Strike, is automatically granted at the end of his turn.

[J-H]

Round 3, Part 1

Matai steps west, ready to defend. Torlak breathes a line of flames at the many-tentacled beast, while Kricen fires a black ray at it.

13 fire damage, Ref DC 18 half
DT Reflex [roll0]

Ray of Exhaustion, exhausted or Fort DC 18 fatigued.
DT Fort [roll1] save, 7 damage


Shim offers encouraging words, magic granting sureness and clarity to the group’s strikes.



DT 7 damage, fatigued

Kricen +9 temp hp
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage

[J-H]

Round 3, Part 2

With two foes in reach of its long tentacles, a flurry of weapon blows lash out at Matai and Shim! The creature doesn't seem to care about weapon styles, so many of its blows clang off of Matai's armor.

15’ reach!
Full attack… max 3 weapons against a medium foe, max 6 against a Large foe.

Vs Shim AC17
Flaming handaxe [roll0] for [roll1] and [roll2] fire hit for 8
Rapier [roll3] for [roll4] crit not confirmed, hit for 7
Guisarme [roll5] for [roll6] miss

Vs Matai AC 24 (26, -2 from Enlarge Person)
Shortsword [roll7] for [roll8] hit for 5
Longspear [roll9] for [roll10] miss
Warhammer (glowing with a holy light) [roll11] for [roll12]miss
Greataxe [roll13] for [roll14] miss
Greataxe [roll15] for [roll16] miss
Longspear [roll17] for [roll18]miss



https://image.ibb.co/b3FiGK/DT_rd_3.jpg (https://ibb.co/drGCAe)
DT 7 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge)

Shim 15 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage
=> Party

[Kish]

Matai pushes his shield in front of Shim.

Shield Block as an immediate action: Shim has +8 to AC for the handaxe attack.

[Kish]

After blocking one of the blows against Shim, Matai steps forward, swinging at the Deathtentacles.

Five-foot step to the edge of the water and use Mountain Hammer, ignoring any DR or hardness: [roll0] Critical threat check: [roll1] Damage: [roll2] Bonus maneuver damage: [roll3] Critical damage: [roll4]

[Cavir]

Kricen grimaced. The thing had the potential to get away. "Look at those weapons. Better for us than rusting in the swamp. It wants food? I'll give it food that will be its death." The necromancer steps forward and begins casting a spell. The zombie lumbers towards the water to attract attacks away from the living allies.

Babs to BB154
5' step to where Babs was.
Start casting Summon Swarm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonSwarm.htm)

[razorback]

Shim give a nod of thanks at Matai as he steps forward and lashes out with his Guisarme.


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 56

Free Action
Continue Inspiration

5 foot step to BB-151

Standard Action
Attack with Guisarme using Vanguard's Strike

As part of this maneuver, you make a melee attack against an opponent you threaten. If this attack hits, all your allies gain a +4 bonus on ranged and melee attacks against that target until the start of your next turn.

[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20x/3
[roll2]
[roll3]


Effects ~
Inspire Courage = gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects; and a +2
morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls.
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare While you are in this stance, any opponent that you threaten takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls against your allies. This penalty does not apply to attacks made against you. Enemies you threaten become aware of the consequences of the stance.
Vanguard Strike X
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[J-H]

Round 4, Part 1

Matai blocks one of the incoming attacks for Shim (8 damage removed!), the handaxe clanging as the flexible tentacle rebounds from the blocked blow. Matai then steps forward with a powerful overhand blow, hitting the Darktentacles (hit for 17).

Shim steps forward with a swing that barely misses. Torlak takes a 5’ step northwest.

Kricen steps forward, beginning to cast a spell, as the zombie babau approaches, coming up on Matai’s right side. The babau takes a glancing blow from a guisarme.

Provokes an AOO due to 15’ reach.
Guisarme [roll0] for [roll1] (slashing)hit for 3


DT 24 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge)
Shim 7 damage
ZB 3 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage

Round 4, Part 2

The water splashes and bubbles as the tentacles flail about, striking at every target in range! Shim is struck twice, while Matai's armor is able to weather most of the blows.


15’ reach!
Full attack… max 3 weapons against a medium foe, max 6 against a Large foe.

Vs Shim AC17
Flaming handaxe [roll2] for [roll3] and [roll4] fire miss
Rapier [roll5] for [roll6] miss
Rapier [roll7] for [roll8] (iterative left off last time) hit for 9, crit not confirmed
Longsword [roll9] for [roll10] hit for 6

Vs Matai AC 24 (26, -2 from Enlarge Person)
Shortsword [roll11] for [roll12] miss
Longspear [roll13] for [roll14] hit for 9
Warhammer (glowing with a holy light) [roll15] for [roll16] miss
Greataxe [roll17] for [roll18] miss
Trident [roll19] for [roll20] miss
Shortsword [roll21] for [roll22] miss

Vs Zombie Babau AC 20, dr 5/slash
Guisarme [roll23] for [roll24] hit for 9
Longspear [roll25] for [roll26] (piercing) hit for 1 damage after DR
Greataxe [roll27] for [roll28] miss



https://image.ibb.co/hAZnVp/DT_rd_4.jpg (https://ibb.co/bGcVi9)

DT 24 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge)

Shim 22 damage
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage
=> Party

[Cavir]

Kricen's spell completes and a swarm of bats form above the darktentacles. The swarm senses blood and swarms the monster. The zombie steps forward into the water and attacks back.

Summon Swarm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonSwarm.htm) of bats (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/swarm.htm#batSwarm) at AX153/AY152.
Swarm damage: [roll0]

Wounding (Ex)
Any living creature damaged by a bat swarm continues to bleed, losing 1 hit point per round thereafter. Multiple wounds do not result in cumulative bleeding loss.

ZB 5' move to BA153 and attack.
Slam: [roll1] crit: [roll2]
Damage: [roll3] crit: [roll4]

Kricen concentrates on the spell.

[alanek2002]

Torlak grumbles, odd magic spilling from his mouth towards the beast. "Coulda just walked away..."

Curse my fifteen foot cones- I had to step closer.
Cone of slow, DC 18 Fort. 1 round of slow on success, 2 on failure.

[razorback]

Shim continues to cajole his allies on as he lashes out at the creature again, focusing his blow from his deep rooted stance.


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 40

Free Action
Continue Inspiration

Standard Action
Attack with Guisarme using Mountain Hammer
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1] + [roll2] Mountain Hammer

Crit 20x/3
[roll3]
[roll4]

Effects ~
Inspire Courage = gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects; and a +2
morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls.
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
While you are in this stance, any opponent that you threaten takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls against your allies. This penalty does not apply to attacks made against you. Enemies you threaten become aware of the consequences of the stance.

Vanguard Strike X
Mountain Hammer X
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[Kish]

Matai wades into the water and swings at the monster again, holding his shield ready.

Moving adjacent to the creature, fighting defensively and using Tactical Strike: [roll0] Critical threat check: [roll1] Damage: [roll2] Maneuver damage: [roll3] Critical damage: [roll4]
If he hits then Shim, and anyone else who is adjacent to the deathtentacles, can take a free five-foot step. In addition, everyone adjacent to the Deathtentacles now counts as flanking it.

Last maneuver granted. Maneuvers will reset at the end of my next turn.

[J-H]

Round 5, Part 1

Matai steps into the water, his boots squishing in the mud. With all the action, the water is turbulent and impossible to see through; he tries to chop off a tentacle, but misses.

Shim has better luck, slashing the at the creature and drawing a hooting howl of pain from it (hit for 21). He’s joined by the zombie, which also strikes a blow (hit for 11).

Torlak steps up and breathes a cone of hindering magic at the creature, causing its motions to slow down substantially. The Darktentacles is also assailed by a small swarm of bats biting at it (3 damage).

5’ step to get into range.
Slow for 2 rounds, Fort DC 18 reduces to 1 round.
DT Fort [roll0]


Round 5, Part 2

The tentacles wave distractingly in the air as magic pulses around the creature. Successfully staving off any attempt to interrupt it, a ten foot high Wall of Force appears in front of the group, stretching from the ledge along the cavern wall all the way across the pond.


Cast defensively.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfForce.htm



https://image.ibb.co/fS7PFp/DT_rd_5.jpg (https://ibb.co/dWOyap)

DT 59 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge), slowed until Round 7, Part 1

Shim 22 damage
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage

[Cavir]

Kricen was impressed with the new surprise from the battered beast. "Impressive, but that just means it dies a slower death. The wall should only last a minute or two." The necromancer keeps his concentration on the swam of bats, who continue to nip away at the beast whose flailing tentacles aren't enough to affect the swarm. The zombie bashes at the wall with no effect.

Swarm damage [roll0] + 1 Wounding.
Concentrate on spell.

[razorback]

Shim, stymied by the wall of force but encouraged by Kricen's words, attacks the wall, to no avail, as he continues his battle cry.

Yeah, I know he can't hurt it but Shim might not.

[Kish]

"Gah," opines Matai. He raises his shield and watches the Darktentacles for more surprises.

Total defense. New maneuvers for next turn, if it matters:
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[alanek2002]

Torlak rolls his shoulders, eliciting several satisfying pops, but remains silent otherwise.Total defense action, if I recall the name right.

[J-H]

Round 6, Part 1

The bats to continue to assail the darktentacles (4 damage).

Fort [roll0] save

Nobody else is able to do anything to the wall.


DT 59 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge), slowed until Round 7, Part 1

Shim 22 damage
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage

[J-H]

Round 6, Part 2
The creature shifts slightly in the water, attempting to cast a spell. Matai ignores it.


5’ step northwest.

Concentration DC 12
Conc [roll0] success

Charm Monster, Matai, Will DC 14
Matai Will [roll1] save





No new map, no moves since last round except a 5' step from the monster.

DT 63 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge), slowed until Round 7, Part 1

Shim 22 damage
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage
=> Party

[Cavir]

Kricen lowers his voice some, just enough for the party to hear. "The bats last as long as I keep them around. Unless that thing can heal itself it will eventually bleed out from all those bites. The wall is only 10' tall, someone could shoot from atop Matai's shoulders."

Kricen keeps his main focus on the spell. The zombie continues to uselessly assault the wall.

Swarm damage [roll0] + 1 Wounding. Continuing damage and Fort DC 11 or nauseated for 1 round.

[Kish]

"Good idea. I think it just tried to do something to me, so just waiting for the wall to lapse isn't safe." Matai pulls out another wand and uses it on Shim.

Lesser Vigor on Shim; he gains fast healing 1 for 11 rounds.

New maneuver: [roll0]

[razorback]

Shim nods to Matai as he feels the healing energy flow through him. Moving, he goes back to grab his bow before running back to Matai.


Might be 3 actions in there. Move, pickup bow, move back.

[alanek2002]

Torlak shrugs, remaining ready.

Seeing as it can't reach over the walls to hit us, apparently, Switching to a readied action for a slow breath when the wall comes down.

[J-H]

Round 7, Part 1

The swam continues to follow the Darktentacles (hit for 3).

Distraction check for next round [roll0] vs DC 11

Matai starts healing Shim, who picks up his bow.

Torlak stands ready.

Round 7, Part 2
The swarm swims west at high speed, ducking into a deeper part of the water.

Double move 35' west', 5' north, 5' down. Underwater for the moment.



No new map, no point.

DT 66 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge)

Shim 21 damage, 10 ticks of Lesser Vigor remain
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage

=> Party

[razorback]

Shim, still cajoling his allies, moves to Matai and motions him to hoist him up.

[Kish]

Matai boosts Shim up, hopefully over the wall.

[alanek2002]

"Right then, it's run away; Lets quickly chase it into deeper water!" Torlak remarks in a deadpan tone, as he trudges away from the bank onto drier land.

[Cavir]

Kricen orders the zombie to come to him while he continues to concentrate on the swarm spell.

Bleeding for the DT. Open wounds in that muck, ewwww. Control of the bats is up to J-H.
Babs to BE152.

[J-H]

Round 8

The bats swirl above the water, apparently seeing something just below.
Shim heals 1 hp.


No new map, no point.

DT 66 damage, fatigued (-2 str/dex, can’t charge)

Shim 20 damage, 9 ticks of Lesser Vigor remain
Matai 9 damage
Kricen +9 temp hp
ZB 13 damage
All PCs: Inspire Courage, +2 saves vs charm/fear, +2 morale to AB & damage


=> Party
Plan?

[Cavir]

"Dammit. That thing has magics we can use at the forge." Kricen takes a seat on the ground still keeping his spell active. "I can keep the bats as long as I want plus the thing is bleeding away. Go check out the runeforge if you want. Fewer of us here may entice it to come back. A few minutes patience could net us a lot."

Keep Swarm spell active. Babs watch to protect me.
DT: Continuing damage 1.

Plan: Wait it out to see if the DT bleeds out first or tries a last ditch effort to stop me and my spell.

[Kish]

Matai frowns in the general direction of the Darktentacles, unable to do anything else.

[alanek2002]

Torlak shrugs, and waits on the bank.

[razorback]

Shim, now from a higher vantage point, see over the wall as he fires at the creature, grin on his face as he continues to praise on his allies, voice getting horse from the exertion.


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 40


Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20/x3
[roll2]
[roll3]


Effects ~
Inspire Courage = gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects; and a +2
morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls.
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike X
Mountain Hammer X
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.

[J-H]

Shim’s arrow misses. The bats continue to flutter over the frothing water.

[Cavir]

"Might as well sit back and relax at least until the wall goes away. It it wants to die a slow death that it's choice." Kricen keeps the bat spell going.

[J-H]

After a few rounds of motion, the bleeding seems to stop. Apparently the Darktentacles found a way to staunch its wounds.

Cavir momentarily feels like he should leave the creature alone, but shakes it off immediately, recognizing the foreign influence.


Cavir Will [roll0] save

[Kish]

"That thing's got a lot of magic, doesn't it?" Matai comments, referring to the bleeding cessation, unaware of the attempt to mind control Kricen.

[Cavir]

Kricen shakes his hear a slight bit but keeps his spell going. "Yes it does. I think it just tried charming me. Charm, Hold, and Wall. Question is how long before it runs out. If it could do more walls it probably would have cut one of us off. Waiting out the wall at this point."

[Kish]

"Charm, eh?" Matai pulls out another wand.

Protection from Evil on Matai, for the next minute.

[razorback]

As the others talk, Shim keeps firing.


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 40

Not sure how many 'a few rounds' are. Taking some pot shots in the mean time.

Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20/x3
[roll2]
[roll3]

Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll4]

Damage
[roll5]

Crit 20/x3
[roll6]
[roll7]

Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll8]

Damage
[roll9]

Crit 20/x3
[roll10]
[roll11]

Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll12]

Damage
[roll13]

Crit 20/x3
[roll14]
[roll15]

Effects ~
Inspire Courage = gain a +2 morale bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects; and a +2
morale bonus to attack and weapon damage rolls.
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike X
Mountain Hammer X
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O

[alanek2002]

Torlak continues to wait.

[J-H]

The activity in the water stops, and the swarm eventually decides to head towards the group, so Kricen dismisses it. A minute or two later, the wall of force disappears. The bog is quiet, for now, but you know the creature must be lurking somewhere under the water.

[Kish]

"I can detect the creature's magic weapons from sixty feet away, but swimming after it is not appealing to me," Matai says as he shrinks to his normal size.

[Cavir]

Kricen was annoyed. "Agreed. Fine, come away from the water for now. Babs, into the water and stomp."

Just 5' into the water.

[J-H]

Nothing seems to happen.

[razorback]

Shim hops down as he stops his oration.

He moves to stow his boy as he goes back and picks up his Guisarme. "Should we leave this place? I have no interest in a prolonged fight with an ambush creature such as this and I figured, if it was smart, it would leave and lick its wounds to survive another day."

[Cavir]

"It surviving another day is my concern. Apparently there is a limit to its magics and it seems it has expended most of its power whereas we have barely touched ours. Another day means it will have all that magic back when we may be less ready."

"In the meantime, lets see about that runeforge. We also have to make plans for where we go from here. We've just conquered this area. The nest is ours. I say we stay for another day or two, maybe scouting some. That will give me time to collect another pet. You've all seen how useful they are. We'd be dead otherwise. The Complex should animate the ones I buried sometime tomorrow."

Kricen and the zombie head off to the runeforge, keeping an eye out for anything useful or dangerous along the way.

[Kish]

Matai heads along with Kricen. As the wand charge he used on Shim runs its course, he uses another one.

[J-H]

Deciding to leave the Darktentacles and its many weapons alone for now, the group proceeds unhindered the the Runeforge. The flat-topped black cube sits, with glowing runes on all sides. As is well-known by all, items of value can be placed on top and drawn into the forge for energy. Placing a hand or other appendage on the glowing blue circle on one side allows one to think of a magical item; if the forge has sufficient energy, it will be produced.


Forge accepts gold or magical items. Magical items are credited at 1/2 book value (ie, sale value). The forge can make anything unless the DM decides it's OP (no candles of invocation, eggshell grenades, or "Ring of Three Wishes with cost reducers because it's locked to only being used by left-handed dwarven males with read hair").

Item production takes place at a rate of 4,000gp of value per hour.

[Cavir]

Kricen studies the runeforge. If one could read his mind they would learn the jealous desire he had for such power, or at least the power to control it instead of merely being a potential customer of its service.

Eventually he moves onto studying the wall, asking Shim for the precise spot that he came through it. The knowledge that the Complex had a control structure infuriated and inspired him. "Who made this place? Who controls it? Is it the gods? Why? What is their plan?" He had unspoken questions too. How do I gain access? How do I control it, become its master? He knew the only thing he could do at this point was to grow his own power, become the most powerful force in the Complex, then he could see about usurping the Complex's puppet masters. In the meantime he had to play the game by their rules.

"No word of any more power crystals in this region to break right?"

Taking lots of time using Decipher Script (+7) and Spellcraft (+15) to study the runeforge, and the same with anything they find with the wall.

[J-H]

The runes around the runeforge are a solved problem – they explain how to use it in a formal variant of the Infernal tongue that is unusually easy to decipher. You learn nothing else from studying it.

When paired with Detect Magic (use 1 spell slot for the day), Kricen detects a lingering moderate aura of Transmutation. Some sort of effect had altered the wall, but is no longer turned on.

This is the second time (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21338648&postcount=564) the group has run into indications of travel through a solid wall, and they’ve seen at least one maintenance-overseer-something disappear in plain sight (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21157102&postcount=395). There are a limited number of magical effects that could account for both.

[Cavir]

Looking at the Infernal runes Kricen ponders. Like making an infernal pact when using it. They make out on the deal too.

Kricen spends the rest of his Detect Magic spell wandering the nest in case anything else interesting was still around. He took notice to see if the broken crystals that had been powering the raptors showed a lingering magic.

"Head back east along the ledge to scout out the area from high? We can come back here for the night. Hopefully then we'll have something for the forge and maybe the creature will want another try at us. Show me on the map where you've been."

[razorback]

As the map is being pulled out, Shim spies the eastern wall. "Seems like a good idea but I'm not sure about here. The place is lousy with critters. Maybe we could find somewhere a bit more defensible?" he says, not wanting to meet the fate of the rest of the group he travelled down here with.

[Cavir]

"Only one critter left around here for now. An idea pops into his head. "Since I have this Detect Magic spell going, back to the water. There is a chance the bleeding actually killed it. Come on."

Hurrying as much as he can while maintaining the spell Kricen has the zombie follow along then stand in front of him as a shield. At the water's edge he scans for magic outward.

[J-H]

Standing at the water’s edge, Kricen is able to sense what must be the weapons held by the DarkTentacles. It seems to be centered around the AQ150:AR:151 area, although with the enormous reach of the tentacles, his guess might be a little off.

[Cavir]

"The magic is still out there, between those trees." Kricen gets his rope with grappling hook out. "Didn't think of this before. Help me holding the rope?"

In the meantime Kricen ties one end to the zombie's wrist. He sends the zombie into the water towards where the magic is being sensed with orders to defend if attacked but to work its back here while defending, come back if I tug on the rope, or otherwise drag the creature back to us.

"Using Detect Magic I should know if the creature becomes active. The rest of you watch for signs of water movement out there. If it is dead the zombie can do the retrievals for us.'

Keeping the spell active. On signs of movement from the DT recall the zombie. Won't be surprised if the water is deeper there- Babs doesn't need to breath and has darkvision. If the DT is dead and brought back, plan is to have Babs go back out and using darkvision underwater to collect all weapons.

[J-H]

Kricen sends the zombie babau out toward the Darktentacle’s area. When it gets about halfway there, the sources of magic begin moving – it must be alive! Kricen tugs on the rope, and the babau turns around, but only gets partway back before the creature catches up with it and attacks!


Gets to AV150. Turns around to go back, moving half speed single action back to AY150.
Charge attack by DT.

Handaxe Charge Attack! [roll0] rolled 11 to hit!
Damage [roll1] plus [roll2] fire rolled 1 and 1 to not hit hard! 5 damage



https://image.ibb.co/hyiAP9/DT_2_rd_0.jpg (https://ibb.co/kvBKHU)

Careful study & conversation has taken place. Enough time has passed for the stated healing to take place, and buffs to wear off.

DT ?? damage

Matai 9 damage – unless I missed a wand being used?
ZB 18 damage



=> Party

[razorback]

"There's the bugger. We need to figure a way of drawing it out." He draws on the bow, as he calls out to the creature.
"AYE, CREATURE! END THIS ATTACK AND PARLEY! ALL CAN LIVE AND BENEFIT OR SOME CAN DIE BUT IT WILL SURELY INCLUDE YOU IN THE BUTCHERS BILL! PERHAPS, INSTEAD OF JUST LIVING, WE CAN COME TO AN ARRANGEMENT WHERE WE BENEFIT FOR THE LONG HAUL?!?"



Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 40


Diplomacy on the Darktentacles
[roll0]






Effects ~
Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike O
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O

[Kish]

At Shim's lead, Matai watches for any response from the Darktentacles.

[Cavir]

Kricen has the zombie return to land while he moves away from the shore with rope still in hand and casts a spell upon himself. A spectral hand overlaps his own right hand. He keeps it there for now so the creature won't see it if it sticks more than just its tentacles above the water surface.

Babs move to BB150.
Kricen move to BD150. Cast Spectral Hand.
[roll0] damage to myself (returned if spell ends without the hand being destroyed)

[alanek2002]

Torlak stands, and stretches his joints a bit, waiting for the parley's most likely doom.

[J-H]

The zombie walks back to join Kricen, a tentacle lashing out at it as it moves, but failing to do damage.

AOO
Handaxe attack [roll0] miss
Damage [roll1] plus [roll2] fire


Kricen successfully resists some sort of attempt at mental influence (Charm Monster).



DT ?? damage

Matai 9 damage
ZB 13 damage



=> Party

[razorback]

Grumbling under his breath after ending his attempt at parleying with the creature, Shim keeps an eye on the water while addressing his companions. 'What now? Besides these arrows, which are about as effective as udders on a troll, I've got nothing. I don't see us being able to draw this thing out unless it wants too and, in all honesty, I'd find something else to eat other than us."

[Cavir]

"Now we can see it. Save the good arrows. Torlak, close enough for you right?" Kricen's spectral hand races out at the creature as he and the zombie hold their ground.

Assuming the DT did not move and Babs can't attack from its position. If it did move closer then zombie moves 10' back and Kricen moves 5' back.

Ranged Charnel Touch [roll0] crit: [roll1] touch
Damage: [roll2] crit: [roll3]

[Kish]

Matai points a wand at Kricen and steps back, uninclined to try to participate in melee while the creature is submerged.

Protection from Evil on Kricen for one minute.

Maneuvers just in case it matters:

Crusader's Strike
Shield Block
Mountain Hammer
Battle Leader's Charge
Tactical Strike


[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[alanek2002]

Torlak shakes his head at Kricen's remark. "Sorry. Seems to be just out of reach for me." He says, moving closer regardless.

Torlak moves 25 feet south.

[J-H]

Darktentacles (again) Round 2, Part 1

Torlak moves south, while the other two stay close to the runeforge. Matai protects Kricen, while the necromancer inflicts minor damage on the creature.



DT 76 damage

Kricen 1 damage, PFE
Matai 9 damage
ZB 13 damage


Round 2, Part 2

The creature circles to the south with splashing tentacles, and Kricen feels it attack his mind once more.

Hold Monster, Will DC 16
Kricen Will [roll0] includes +2 resistance bonus from protection from evil against evil creatures. saved



https://image.ibb.co/h0Pbm9/DT_2_rd_1.jpg (https://ibb.co/jBZyzU)
DT 76 damage

Kricen 1 damage, PFE
Matai 9 damage
ZB 13 damage

=> Party

[Cavir]

Kricen smiles. "It keeps trying to use its magic on me. It fears me the most. Hehe. Let's give it another reason for fear. Have some Slimy Doom!" The zombie withdraws to the northeast toward the shore. Kricen backs up away from the water and embeds a Scabrous Touch to the spectral hand, which then attacks the creature again.

Babs withdraws to BA148. Kricen moves to BF151.

Charnel Touch + Scabrous Touch (like Contagion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contagion.htm) spell, Slimy Doom: initial Fort DC 17, secondary saves DC 14. 1d4 CON damage each

Touch: [roll0] crit: [roll1] Touch
Damage: [roll2] crit: [roll3]
+ Disease save or [roll4] crit?: [roll5] CON Damage (plus associated HP loss)

[alanek2002]

Torlak grins as he moves southwest. "And now it's in range." He says around a mouthful of flames.

10 feet south and 10 west, [roll0] fire damage, Dc 18 reflex for half.

[Kish]

Matai moves toward the edge of the water.

Move to BF-151 and use the Wand of Protection from Evil on myself.
New granted maneuver: [roll0]

[razorback]

As Kricen and Torlak discuss, Shim shrugs and fires.


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 40



Standard action
Fire at Darktentacles
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Crit 20/x3
[roll2]
[roll3]




Effects ~

Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike O
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O

[J-H]

Round 3, Part 1

Shim fires an arrow, but it splashes in the water and sinks.

Matai moves up, using a wand. Torlak takes a more direct approach, advancing and breathing flames on the creature. Kricen steps back, attempting to hit the creature with enhanced necrotic energies, but he is not able to make contact.


18 fire damage, Ref DC 18 half.
DT Ref [roll0] including a +4 bonus for being largely underwater. save, 9 damage




DT 85 damage

Kricen 1 damage, PFE
Matai 9 damage, PFE
ZB 13 damage

[J-H]

Round 3, Part 2

The Darktentacles heaves itself onto the land, revealing a blobbly, fleshy body that support the forest of waving tentacles. It drops one of its weapons and lashes out with a tentacle, attempting to snare Torlak and use him as a shield.


Charge! Slam attack [roll0] hit! crit not confirmed
Slam damage [roll1]
If hits, grapple [roll2] vs Torlak [roll]1d20+4[roll] auto success
On success, do damage as with unarmed strike/slam [roll3]
Plus bonus constrict for [roll4] reduced by DR 2/magic.
slam 7-2 =5
Grapple success 8-2 =6
Constrict 16-2 =14

Total = 25 damage




https://image.ibb.co/n4r96L/DT-2-rd-3.jpg (https://ibb.co/jE6y0f)
DT 85 damage

Kricen 1 damage, PFE
Matai 9 damage, PFE
ZB 13 damage
Torlak 25 damage


=> Party

[razorback]

Seeing Torlak get insnared by the creature, and realizing his bow poses as much a threat to his friend as his enemy, he drops it as he lifts his voice high, rushing forward as he pulls his weapon.


Swift Action
Cast Inspirational Boost

Standard Action
Begin Inspire Courage

Move Action.
Move to BC-149 while pulling his Guisarme

[Kish]

Matai lunges forward, slashing at the monster with his axe.

Of course, I have all my readied maneuvers granted except for Battle Leader's Charge.

Provoking attack of opportunity, if the Darktentacles can take one while grappling Torlak.

Using Crusader's Strike. Unknown bonus for Inspire Courage not added into roll: [roll0] Critical threat check: [roll1] Damage: [roll2] Critical damage: [roll3] Healing to Torlak if it hits: [roll4]

Last maneuver automatically granted after Matai's action, just too late to be useful.

Matai is still in Island of Blades stance, should anyone else be adjacent to the Darktentacles.

[Cavir]

"You've got him now Torlak, no way he can dodge your breath that close." Kricen orders the zombie back onto land while he steps back a little. He then attacks the creature with his disease spreading spectral hand.

Babs to BB149 assuming it can charge from there along the BB column, otherwise to BC149.
Kricen to BG149

Spectral Hand with Scabrous Touch (like Contagion spell, Slimy Doom: initial Fort DC 17, secondary saves DC 14. 1d4 CON damage each

Charnel Touch [roll0] crit: [roll1] (+3 BAB, +2 DEX, +2 Spectral Hand, +3 Inspire Courage)
Damage: Charnel: [roll2] Crit: [roll3] (+3 Inspire Courage)
+ Disease save or [roll4] crit?: [roll5] CON Damage (plus associated HP loss)

I forgot some bonuses to hit last turn, my bad.

EDIT: Some hot rolling!

[alanek2002]

Torlak spits some blood, but then spits far more fire.

Eh, Spectral hand kills it anyways.

9 damage from the ooc thread if it doesn't.

[J-H]

Finish him!

Torlak breathes fire on the Darktentacles, leaving it barely alive (1 hp). It thrashes and howls, and then Kricen delivers a jolt of necrotic energy to one of its beady, bulging eyes. The creature falls dead, dropping Torlak from its slimy grasp into a small puddle of its blackish blood.

[Cavir]

Kricen heads down the slop to the water's edge. "Impressive finish with the fire." He uses his Healing Belt to help Torlak with his wounds. The zombie is ordered to collect the creature's weapons and put them in a pile on dry land.

Healing Belt [roll0]

[razorback]

"You've got him now Torlak, no way he can dodge your breath that close."

Shim can't help, even in the heat of battle, but smirk at the comment. It is short lived as he is rushing forward and the rest of the party makes quick work of the creature.

"Well, if you call need me to stand around pretty, you just have to let me know next time, ok?" he quips.
"How are you feeling, Matai? Need anymore healing"

[Kish]

"No, I'll be fine." He uses a wand on Torlak.

Use a charge from the Lesser Vigor wand on Torlak, healing him for 11 more.

[J-H]

The group begins to heal Torlak. Assuming that he then cleans himself off and begins to identify magic items, here is what you find.


1 Defending shortsword+1
2 longspear +1
1 greataxe +1
1 flaming handaxe +1
1 holy warhammer +1
1 rapier+2
2 mwk longsword
2 guisarme +1
1 Mwk trident



Kricen 1 damage, PFE
Matai 9 damage, PFE
ZB 13 damage
Torlak 1 damage
=> Party

[razorback]

As Shim looks over the weapons the creature dropped, he sees the Guisarme's, but looking at trusty Betty, sets them back.
"Can't say I might use any, but these might be handy in a pinch. Torlak, perhaps that shortsword be to your liking?"

[alanek2002]

"Thanks Kricen, but it wasn't my kill." Torlak says. "I could feel it trying to crush me again after I spat flames until your hand poked it." he comments, with a thankful nod to him.

Torlak shrugs. "...And no thanks on any of the weapons, I can't use them worth anything."

[Kish]

"No interest in any of the weapons here, either. Let's feed them to the machine."

[Cavir]

Kricen shakes his head, disappointed. "All this and nothing worthwhile for any of us. Torlak, try sensing for any magic left in the water? The thing had its tentacles full, maybe it had a larger collection to choose from? Whoever had these before probably had other stuff with them? The zombie can fetch for you."

"Instead of dividing the spoils to each I have an idea. Getting over the rivers is a problem. Flight would solve that. A flying carpet is beyond our means but we can use the runeforge and these weapons to get us a Broom of Flying. If can carry us one or two of us at a time over obstacles as well as allow scouting from the air. That would still leave us value to get more too, perhaps a wand of Locate Object for the crystals we week to destroy, or Lesser Restoration. Comments, other ideas?"

In the mean time, Kricen uses his dark energies to heal himself and the zombie.

A wannabe Lich flying on a broom :smallcool:

[razorback]

"Sounds good. Maybe not what someone hears in an epic... or, maybe not in a tavern or even besides a campfire, but practical. I think some rest is in order."

[Cavir]

"A rest? It's still early in the day. No better ideas? Broom of Flying it is. We have more than enough for that so think to the forge of your desires."

Kricen has the demon zombie pile up the magic weapons onto the runeforge. After a time several items appear. Kricen takes the broom and his selected items, leaving the rest for the others. He dons the necklace, attaches a crystal to his armor, then puts the black onyx gems in a pouch with the other gems that he has.

A smile crosses Kricen's face as he studies the Broom of Flying. "Going to try this out." He hops onto the broom and activates it. At first he keeps close to the ground, never having flown before. He circles around the nest and gradually gains elevation. He eventually clears tree top level and doubles that before having the broom stop and hover. Gripping the broom far more firmly than needed he gazes outward, getting a lay of the land and looking for locations of note.

He brings his gaze back down towards the nest. Flying down, he tries out gaining speed and buzzes the mostly buried raptors to check on them. He then flies over the waters at treetop height where the darktentacles hid, looking for signs of other goods the creature may have collected.

Returning to the party he orders Babs to get on with him and flies around the nest a bit more. The weight of the zombified demon slows the flight. Returning to the group he and the zombie dismount. "I suggest you each try it out. We'll all need it later. Don't want to end up bug eyed like Khurdurm when he fell into the river. Take your time, we're in no rush today. " He'll show each how to use it.

My first forge while in this game. Not sure if there are more details to using it. Don't remember the height of the bio-dome.

Broom of Flying. 17k gp. Four way split of the rest is 2,717.5gp.

Kricen will also get:
Chronocharm of the Uncaring Archmage (Mic p86, 500gp) Full round spell as Standard. 1/day
Empowered Spellshard: 1500gp (Ray of Enfeeblement) 3/day
Arcanist Gloves (2/day +2 CL for 1st level spell) 500GP
8 black onyx gems (25gp each=200GP) (components for Animate Dead)

[J-H]

(Caidacyn, a Killoren Warlock played by Dexam, joins the group, as though she's always been there)

As Kricen lands the broom, Caidacyn happens to glance down from her perch on the berm towards the Runeforge. She sees a ghostly-looking creature walk through the wall! It appears only in grey-scaled colors, and is vaguely translucent to her invocation-boosted vision, indicating that it must be ethereal.

The creature is four-legged, with an upright torso and two more arms. It looks like a centauroid bug, and has a stinger at the back of its abdomen.


Caidacyn rolls a 20!
Formians are Outsiders, bug-like creatures from the plane of Neutral Order - Mechanus. They are very organized and fastidious, and typically dedicated to spreading their influence.

The different varieties of Formians all have different roles to play, and there is no moving up or between stations for them, although some of the more intelligent and versatile Formians may learn additional skills or magics. They have some manner of hivemind or telepathic communication, although the texts that mention them give conflicting information about how this works.

The one she is looking at is likely a mid-ranked Formian based on its size, and the stinger is no doubt poisonous. Formians are not known for being ethereal naturally.


The creature looks around for a moment, and then begins to walk up the wall vertically, even though it can technically float as an ethereal creature.

[Dexam]

"Hmmph!" Caidacyn grumps, frowning at Kricen. "I was hoping that your mobile affront to the natural cycle of life and death would fall to its doom." The fey lady flicks her slender fingers towards the zombie demon in a gesture of distaste, and her green eyes momentarily darken. "Sadly, no such luck. Mark my words, one day you will come to regret creating such a..." she trails off as unexpected movement in the corner of her vision catches her eye.

"A Formian!" Caidacyn exclaims in surprise. "I wonder what it's doing? I don't think they're normally able to go ethereal - someone or something must have cast a spell on it... maybe there's a group of them, with a leader; or maybe a hive?" She shudders slightly at the thought, and watches it climb up the wall. "I'm going to follow it for a bit," she decides. Of course, to those without the ability to see invisible creatures, the fey lady is staring up at an empty wall.

Scanning the area from where it emerged, she fades from view before beginnings to climb up the wall after her invisible target.

Detect Magic on the wall it walked through (Standard Action), as well as detect living 30' (Move Action).

Standard Action to activate Walk Unseen; then Standard Action to activate Spiderwalk and climb after it.

Keeping at least 40' away from it, moving silently: [roll0]

[Cavir]

Kricen chuckles with Caidacyn's sudden lunacy. "See what happens when diehard beliefs meet common sense? Insanity! Who wants to fly next?"

Caidacyn's focus on the wall still gets Kricen's attention though. He takes notice of the spot relative to the runeforge so that he can pick out the spot again in the future. He'll take a closer look at it, then orders Babs to start breaking through the wall there. Kricen steps back from the wall and glances in the direction Caidacyn was last seen heading, handing the broom off to whoever wants it.

[J-H]

The Formian came through the wall directly behind the runeforge, in the same place that Gyrris had (assume that Gyrris shared his adventure with you). The wall does not have any detectable magical properties, but Caidacyn can tell that her spell does not penetrate far beyond the stone.

The Formian makes halting progress up the wall, repeatedly touching something at its neck. Once it gets about a hundred feet up, it stops, turns around, and starts looking down and around.

[Cavir]

It doesn't take long before Kricen gets tired of hearing the useless pounding and orders the zombie to come back to him.

[Dexam]

Caidacyn makes note of the odd behaviour of the Formian, and freezes when it stops moving. Making sure to keep a safe distance, she scans it for the presence of any magical auras.

Using Detect Magic spell-like ability on the Formian, concentrating for 3 rounds - unless it moves towards her or makes a hostile action; in which case retreat back down the wall.

Some preemptive Spellcraft checks (J-H, let me know if you should be rolling these instead of me):
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[J-H]

You detect an aura of Transmutation, and realize that spells relating to the Ethereal plane are typically Transmutation-related. It seems to emanate from the amulet.

The Formian continues assessing the area. If it has noticed you (invisible), it has done a good job hiding its observation.

[Dexam]

Caidacyn watches the Formian for a short while, then climbs quietly back down the wall. Becoming visible, she informs the party of what she observed, while keeping an eye on it as best she can from this distance.

"The Formian climbed up the wall about a hundred feet or so; and it seems like it's looking for something, or perhaps just scouting. It's wearing some kind of magical amulet, which is probably what is making it ethereal." She gazes at the Formian for a moment and shrugs. "It seems harmless now, but if it's an advance scout, things could get rather unpleasant for us if more of them arrive. I'd advise against attacking it, though - they have some kind of hivemind communication, so if we attack it'll definitely alert others in its' hive for reinforcements... maybe we should move on elsewhere soon?"

[J-H]

The Formian starts to climb down. Some of the party members remember that they’ve briefly seen something that could have been a Formian (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21157102&postcount=395) a number of days ago.

If you're going to do anything about the Formian, you'll need to act soon.

[Kish]

"I hate to leave just after seizing control of this place, but we should probably avoid conflict with random not-evil outsiders if we don't have a reason to fight them," Matai says quietly. "Of course, it might not be hostile."

[razorback]

Shim shakes his head back and forth, as if weighing the decision, before slowly nodding in agreement. "The other thing to consider is that, like an ant they look like, it might be part of a larger colony running around here. That is one ants nest I do not want to stir."

[Cavir]

"Avoid conflict with random not-evil outsiders, like a whole herd of raptors? Hehehe. Sounds like one of those things we saw just before fighting the earth elementals. We fought and no colony came. Now we know how they travel and why they aren't normally seen. Interesting. You think it is the amulet doing that? Think about it- we're here to stop the power crystals. Understanding how the Complex works will help solve that. We need that amulet. Ethereal... it can't hurt us but we can only get at it with force effects. Anyone have anything useful for that?"

"Caidacyn, how big is it? Man size? Smaller?"

Would Spectral Hand count for affecting it?

[Dexam]

"It's shorter than me in height; but it's probably about as long as I am tall if measuring head to tail. Speaking of, there's a nasty-looking stinger on its abdomen; I'm guessing that it's venomous. It looks like it's climbing down the wall now."

"I have no means of interacting with the creature while it is ethereal; and unless it has some means of affecting us, I don't know if there is anything we can do about it except observe it. Unless it suddenly returns to the Material Plane, that is."

She keeps watching the Formian, ready to warn the others and turn Invisible if it takes any potentially hostile actions.

[J-H]

The Formian reaches the ground, walks around the Runeforge once, and then walks back through the wall.

[Cavir]

Caidacyn reports the creature gone. Kricen is aggravated. "Dammit. At least we know a little more about them. Need to get magic to handle them in the future."

Kricen pulls out the journal with map. "Dare we go after one of these glowing stones to deal with the renegade goblin? We risk the T-rex area but..." he points to the western edge of the map. "This pool is on the edge of the cavern and their territory. Less likely to come across them, at least in force like the raptors. Let's head west to the far wall then follow it south?"

[Dexam]

Caidacyn watches the creature leave.

"I wonder what it was looking for? Maybe the Formians have something to do with the construction or operation of the Complex? Or maybe they've been drawn here, and now are re-purposing things to their own devices?" she muses.

Caidacyn looks over the journal and the map. "Tyrannosaurs? They're incredibly dangerous at the best of times, without being made faster and stronger by strange magics. If we do go there, I suggest that we don't try to fight unless our lives depend on it. Hmmm, a fey pool? If they haven't been too altered by this place, or are not of the Unseelie Court, it might be possible for me to negotiate safe passage with my distant kinfolk, should we go there..."

She points to the journal. "I don't read goblin - can someone please translate?"

Assuming that someone does, she asks "It says the glowing stones are the size of a hobgoblin torso and stronger than steel - do we have some way of removing it and carrying it, should we successfully find it? Can this Runeforge make something that will help?"

[razorback]

"Well, if I had a choice, I suppose I'd rather be eaten by one of this big lizards.
End the pain quickly, with one bit." Shim says with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood, with mixed results. Seeing it fall a bit flat, he sighs and says "Well, west or otherwise is a toss up. Never had much of a head for strategy, so if you all think one way is better than the other, I'm game. We just need to make sure we do our best to keep alive." As Caidacyn speaks, he nods and replies "Yes, avoiding conflict is best but, as we've seen, not always an option.
Best a little stealth and observation can go a long way. So, west?"

[Kish]

"West, sure. When we come back, we should be prepared for potentially having to fight to use the machine again," Matai sighs. He heads out toward the west unless someone quickly protests.

[Cavir]

Kricen holds up his new necklace. "This spell shard will help against a T-Rex nicely. Two to three shots and it'll be as weak as a fawn. I was hoping for some of the dead raptors as a distraction but they haven't risen yet. Putting them in front would give the time needed. Near the stone should undo the T-Rex enhancements. I do agree, avoiding them would be wise. Babs here has the strength of a demon, should be enough to carry the stone back."

"West it is them. Let's go." Kricen takes one last check on the half buried dead raptors to see if they undead yet and then glances around the nest to make sure nothing was being left behind then moves out with the group.

Everyone spend their gold on items or at least mark the gold on their sheets?

[Dexam]

Caidacyn shrugs. "West is okay with me, but I wouldn't mind looking in on those possible Fey Pools at some point."

The fey lady fades from view. "Don't worry, I haven't abandoned you!" she says with a giggle.

See the Unseen invocation is active.

Walk Unseen invocation is active.

Aspect is Hunter: +2 to Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Listen and +2 Initiative, and she can detect all living creatures within 30' as a move action, which she will do at random intervals as they travel, more frequently in heavily vegetated areas or close to bodies of water.

[J-H]

The team heads west, bearing a bit south as best as you can tell, headed for the far wall. You don’t encounter much of anything living around the raptors, and travel for a day or so before you hear a series of loud and angry-sounding croaks ahead and to your left, along with the sound of something hard hitting stone.

[J-H]

Kricen has three undead raptors trailing at the back of the group.

The noises from ahead continue.

[Dexam]

The still-invisible Caidacyn taps each of the (living) party members on the shoulder.

"I'll go ahead and have a look; I'll yell if I need help, otherwise await for my return," she whispers.

As stealthily as possible, Caidacyn moves cautiously ahead of the rest of the group, occasionally using her connection with the natural world to sense for the presence of living creatures that might remain otherwise unseen.

Hide (just in case): [roll0]
Move silently: [roll1]
Spot: [roll2]
Listen: [roll3]

Detecting living creatures withing 30' every second round as a move action.

[razorback]

Twisting his head around in vain to Caidacyn's voice, Shim says "Alright. Use caution. Try not to embed yourself to far in if you see anything. Too easy to get trapped." as he move to a spot with a better vantage that can provide some cover to keep hidden.

[J-H]

Caidacyn sneaks forward. She suddenly reaches the edge of a clearing and sees three large frog-like figures ahead, smashing something that looks sort of like the gate/teleport pillar the group saw much earlier. They do not appear to be happy with it.

One is green, one is red, and one is blue, and each one is about the size of an ogre. Caidacyn thinks they might be slaads, but is unable to recall what the colors might mean.

Caidacyn is about 300’ in front of the group. The environment is light forest, meaning the tree trunks are around 10-15’ apart on average. The slaads are in a clearing about 75’ in diameter, so they are about 60-80’ from Caidacyn.

They are unaware of her presence.


C
Hide & MS at 17 and invisible
Spot & Listen @ 14-15
Slaad
Blue S/L +9
Green +12
Red +8
Rolls: 11, 12, 18 = 20, 24, 26 = all exceed the threshold!

K: Planes rolled a 2+10 modifier = 12


=> Caidacyn

[Cavir]

Kricen casts a protection spell on himself then arranges the undead around the group. "Torlak, would you give the undead protection from your fire breath please?"

Actually started this before J-H's post but it all works still.
False Life roll1d10+6[/roll] Temp HP, lasts 6 hours or until used.

"you hear a series of loud and angry-sounding croaks ahead and to your left"
Max- front left of the group
Babs - to my left
Victor - front right of the group
Val - rear of the group
Kricen - behind the other characters, ahead of Val.

Undead have orders to defend the party.

[Dexam]

Caidacyn observes the three Slaadi go about their business for a short while, then sneaks back to the rest of the group.

"I'm back," she announces, becoming visible for the benefit of the party. "So... about 300' ahead there's a small clearing with three Slaadi in it - they're Outsiders from one of the Planes, I forget which one. Anyway, they look like a cross between an ogre and a giant toad, and there's one red skin, one green skin, and one blue skin. They seem very intent on trying to damage or destroy what looks like one of those transportation pillars, which is what's causing all the noise we heard. Any ideas on how we proceed? Do we try and avoid them; or do we approach them? If we do approach them, I suggest advising them to quiet down a bit - all that noise could attract something."

[Kish]

"Do you know if these slaadi are likely to be hostile to us?" Matai asks, regretting his own lack of outsider knowledge.

[Cavir]

"Slaads eh? The map put outsiders on the other side of the T-Rex area." Kricen recalls what he can about them while pulling out a wand of invisibility.

Know(Planes) [roll0] with Collector of Stories bonus

[J-H]

Slaads are frog-like outsiders that are very chaotic and unpredictable in nature. Most other creatures can serve as hosts or brooders for their eggs, which is often fatal. Most of them speak a language unique to their species, and often do not understand common.

Kricen also recalls the books warning that slaad are powerful in melee, but many of them also have dangerous arcane-type spell-like-abilities that they can use to attack at range. They are to be handled with care.

[Cavir]

"A slaad is powerful with magic and in melee. Chaotic and most don't speak Common. They would love to use our bodies as nests for their eggs so I doubt they would like to become friends. One is a challenge. Three much more so. I don't know which colors are more powerful. Maybe observation can help. No signs of tentacles right? We may want to use that teleportation pillar so letting them destroy it is not in our interest. If we fight we need to focus on one together to finish it off and reduce their magic. They are chaotic, maybe we can get them to fight each other. Ideas?"

[razorback]

Shim rubs his chin. "Well, if we can seperate them... or, yes, that is even better. he says to Kricen. "These creature dwell in the realms of chaos, eh? Yes, if we can get them to turn upon each other, if nothing we sow a little chaos their direction, weakening each other or even killing each other, leaving us to just mop them up. If Caidacyn can get close enough, perhaps he can take one item off one of these Slaadi and plant it on the other. I have magic that might accomplish it but I'm not invisible and have to be pretty close to make it work. If we know what kinds of magic they each have available to them, perhaps we can use our own magic to replicate a specific one in order to begin some infighting?"


Bardic knowledge to see if Shim knows what spells/spell-likes these have
[roll0]

and/or

Knowledge:The Planes
[roll1]

[Cavir]

"Wish I knew their magics. Invisibility wand here I could use on you. They would probably hear my pets before getting that close. If we can't get them infighting we could get them to come to our ambush. Maybe an illusion of something for them to impregnate that leads them to us. If we get real lucky only one follows the bait."

[J-H]

Shim is pretty sure that the slaad won't be able to cast anything more than third-level spells, or at least not by much. Some of their spells are related to the law-and-chaos axis.

[razorback]

Shim spends a few moments explaining what he knows about Slaadi, rumors, and stories he had heard over the years. "I have some minor illusions that might be able to confuse or draw them off. Some false images and false sounds... I can alter my form slightly but not enough to mimick their forms. We can try to use that along with whatever tricks you guys have to either seperate or draw them off each other. Create a sounds in one place, an image somewhere else... give'em a bit o' chaos themselves." Shim says with a devilish grin.

[Cavir]

"You can't remember which colors are more powerful either huh?"

"We hide behind trees and brush then use a rock to make a sound for them to look this way. They see the image of of an older child that just realized they were seen and runs away. Maybe that will be small enough quarry to just draw one of them. They fall into our ambush while I am invisible above dropping chaos into their ranks with summoned undead. Any better ideas? We need to hurry before they break that portal."

[Dexam]

"What's so important about these portals that we need to attack the slaadi without provocation? Don't we have enough things in this place trying to kill us, without actively making enemies? Sure, if they attack us, then defending ourselves is fine, but shouldn't we try negotiating with them first? If they do speak a common language, maybe we can find out why they're trying to destroy the portal, and convince them to stop."

[razorback]

Shim has a slightly stunned look on his face at the question. "Uh... I guess I've always been told that these creatures are hostile to our kinds. Never gave it much though since I've never met one before. I suppose we can try to parlay with them or just leave them be, but I'd prefer not to leave a potentional enemy at our back."

[Kish]

"If we don't have to fight, we shouldn't. Your description makes them sound kind of randomly aggressive, though," Matai comments.

[Cavir]

Kricen had a look of disbelief. "You do understand the part where they want to inject their eggs in you so their young can feast from the inside out, right? Think about that process. At least I only deal with the already dead. Not slow painful torture then death. Are you willing to become a one time nest for them? Trying to talk to them gives them the chance to strike first with their magics."

"I agree, I don't want to leave a potential enemy at our back, especially when we may face a t-rex or two which may attract slaadi attention. So, we abandon this area and the Whitemarsh quest, who we might face anyway later without a key weapon against him, or we maximize our chances against the slaadi through surprise. Which is it?"

[Kish]

"I wouldn't have expected a necromancer who drags rotting corpses along everywhere to be so squeamish about biology. But to be clear--they automatically attack humanoids on sight and try to lay eggs on them? They're not unpredictable or even randomly aggressive, just consistently aggressive?" Matai asks.

[Cavir]

"Squeamish? No. Making a point. They are Chaotic Outsiders that see us as prey, are already pissed off for some reason, and are getting more pissed off not being able to break that portal. You think that will make for a peaceful chat? Be my guest. I'll do what I can to save you but three of them hitting you with magic is not good odds for saving."

[Dexam]

"With all due respect, how do you know that they see us as nothing but prey; and that they are 'pissed off and getting more pissed off'? You haven't even seen them yet. For all we know, that portal is some kind of one-way trap from their Plane, and they're trying to destroy it before more of their kind get pulled into here and can't escape."

"All I'm trying to say is that once we initiate aggression, it closes all other options. We can choose to try and avoid them. We can choose to try and parlay with them if we can't avoid them. We can choose to fight if we need to defend ourselves. But if we attack them, our only options become fight or flee. So I'll ask again: what is so important about that portal pillar thing that we need to risk our lives preventing them from destroying it?"

[Cavir]

"A fight wasn't the only option I mentioned. We can avoid the area which to me seems going back the way we just came, better than becoming trapped between slaadi and dinosaurs. Or you can go talk to them. I do recall in my studies slaadi are highly unpredictable and dangerous. If you want to risk trying to parley then go ahead but we will have lost our advantage and I will be staying out of sight if you do. These are not creatures of the forest. I'm tired of repeating. Make your choice."

I'm glad there is a back and forth in this.

[razorback]

"While I would prefer to avoid conflict as much as possible, if we are to continue forward, we need to deal with them... intelligently. Sure, we can sneak past them, but as Kricen has said, we are setting ourselves as a potential two-pronged combat. I don't see us as being able to parlay with them. Whether that is right or wrong, I don't really want to be turned into a hatchery for some otherworldy creature. I'll slit my own throat before that happens."

[Cavir]

Kricen looks to Caidacyn for her decision.

[Dexam]

"How about this as a compromise: I will visibly approach them ahead of the rest of the group and see if I can communicate with them. If the Slaadi act aggressive or hostile towards me, I'll turn invisible and everyone else can launch their attacks... does this sound agreeable?"

If everyone else agrees to this plan of action, Caidacyn will approach the Slaadi, trying to look as non-threatening as possible, with a readied action to Walk Unseen at any sign of hostility, aggression, or use of magic.

[Cavir]

Kricen looked to Matai and Shim to see if they could talk sense into Caidacyn but the killoren looked to have her mind set.

"Tell me this before you go. If this does prove fatal to you, are you ok with your body continuing to help fight the Complex? I will honor your choice either way, you can see I have done so so far."

He looks around at the layout of the land. "We'll setup there. Pass between those trees if you are hurrying back and have them follow you through. I'll have the undead ready to attack from either side after any slaadi pass that point. I doubt the undead will do the jobs themselves, but they will give us a little time for us to hit them. I have a wand of Shield. I'll try casting it on you just before you leave. It will only last a minute. I suggest we all fully prepare for combat. Spells, wands, potions, anything that can help. Once Caidacyn heads out I'll go invisible too. Shim, you said you could do an illusion? Maybe something for them to target and waste a spell on."

Have undead be ready for an ambush. Max on one side, Val and Victor on the other, Babs would come out and face them head on (plugging the hole). They are concealed from the direction the slaadi would be coming from. Orders are to attack the first slaad that comes through .

Once (if) Caidacyn is about to go I'll try UMD on my Shield wand on her. UMD DC 20. Can't try anymore if I roll a Nat1. Keep trying until Nat1 or success.
Cast Spectral Hand (lasts 6 minutes). Damage comes from my normal hp, not temp hp.
Charnel touch on myself to cure above damage.
Use Eternal Wand of Invisibility on myself (lasts 3 minutes).
Use Broom to go up about
Use Shield wand on myself. Continue using the UMD rolls below. If I need more I'll roll in OOC. Lasts 1 minute.
Be back by Babs. Have ready: Broom, Obscuring Mist scroll, Eternal Wand of Invis

UMD DC 20
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]

[Kish]

Matai nods his head. "I'd still ask whether they're guaranteed to be hostile, or unpredictable, myself, but trying to talk to them is brave. Do you know if they mind control?" he asks Kricen.

When Kricen moves to use his Shield wand, Matai holds out a hand. "It'll work reliably for me; simpler to let me have it for a few seconds." If Kricen hands over the wand, he uses it on Caidacyn and then Kricen, then hands it back. He'll use his Protection from Evil wand on Caidacyn unless Kricen indicated a negative probability of slaadi using mind control.

[Dexam]

"Tell me this before you go. If this does prove fatal to you, are you ok with your body continuing to help fight the Complex? I will honor your choice either way, you can see I have done so so far."

Caidacyn gives Kricen an I-can't-believe-you're-even-asking-me-this look. "Given this place has a tendency to give the bodies of the fallen an unnatural unlife, if anything at all proves fatal to me, burn my remains and scatter the ashes."

She thanks Matai and Kricen for any protective spells that they provide, and waits until they indicate they're ready for her to proceed. Once all is in place, Caidacyn turns invisible and approaches the clearing, returning to visibility just inside the cover of the plant-life. She observes the Slaadi for a few moments, before stepping just into the clearing and waiting to see if they notice her. If they don't react, she gains their attention, trying to look as non-threatening as she can.

"Hello? Can you understand me? Do any of you speak this language?"


Ready an action to step back out of the clearing and activate Walk Unseen if the Slaadi charge/attack, cast any spell/spell-like ability, approach closer than 30', or make any kind of motion, gesture, or sound that might be considered overtly threatening or aggressive.

[Cavir]

Kricen shakes his head. "I don't remember the texts I read specifying what magics they had."

[J-H]

Caidacyn returns, now protected by some magics. The slaad are almost done smashing down the portal-tower, but she notices that there’s far more stone lying around the clearing than there should be. Perhaps it’s been broken before?

She speaks clearly, and they stop and look at her. The red one says something in a deep, gurgling voice; the blue one responds; you can’t tell what they are saying.
The green one holds up a giant paw to the others and looks at Caidacyn. Its voice is hard to understand, but it does seem to speak Common!

“You jungle person. This your jungle? Why this bring us here? Not where we supposed to travel.”

[Dexam]

Caidacyn breathes a sigh of relief when the Slaad speaks, and doesn't show any immediate signs of hostility.

"No, this is not my jungle," she replies, concentrating hard to understand the green Slaad's speech. "I'm a traveller here, like you. I can't say why that brought you here; why are you trying to destroy it? There are many dangerous beasts in this jungle, and the noise you are making might attract them."

[J-H]

"Material Plane. Fey? Tricks and strange...rules. No trust!" It sneers at that word. "Many Slaad lost traveling for one, two, many, many years! We stop. Prove truth, show thoughts!"

It activates some sort of spell like ability and starts stomping closer to Caidacyn.

[Dexam]

Caidacyn takes a reflexive step backwards into the foliage, but remains visible.

"Wait, what? No tricks - I'm telling the truth!"

Recognising its magic as some form of mind-reading, she concentrates her thoughts on the party fighting for their lives against the dark tentacles and mutated raptors; and while she fears the Slaad, the thoughts of a mutant tyrannosaur terrifies her even more.

5' step back, but not going invisible yet. Walk Unseen is still readied, though.

Allow the Detect Thoughts (willingly fail save), but focus thoughts on the dangers of the jungle and the Complex.

[J-H]

The green slaad stomps forward, muscled and unsubtle. It's bulky, but does not have well-defined muscles the way an ogre might. It stares at her from a short range, its broad-set eyes shielded by bony ridges on both sides of its thick skull. The eyes lack the bulbous vulnerability you'd see on a frog's, and are so widely set that it's impossible to meet the gaze of both at the same time.

...

"Creatures here, things belonging to Limbo or beyond." The green slaad muses. "Travel someplace else, come here instead.... maybe find others."

It looks at Caidacyn. "You may go."

[Dexam]

Caidacyn briefly considers asking more questions, but decides not to risk aggravating the green slaad - it doesn't look as though it would take being questioned all too well. "Thank you for your time," she says, before retreating back into the foliage and returning to the rest of the group.

"Well, I managed to speak with one of them - the green one speaks Common, but it's kind of hard to understand; I don't think the others speak it at all. The green one also has some kind of ability to read surface thoughts, if you let it. I wasn't able to learn all that much... they're not openly hostile, but I get the impression that they don't particularly care for the company of non-Slaad. I was able learn that they were travelling, most likely from Limbo, and were trying to go somewhere else but ended up here instead. They said that this has been happening to Slaad travellers for many years, and they think something here is causing it and they want to stop it. I think they also want to find the others of their kind that have been brought here. That's about all. I think we'll be able to move past them, provided we don't do anything aggressive, but them seem intent on destroying that pillar - I don't think we'll be able to stop from doing that without a fight, which personally I'd rather avoid."

[razorback]

As the creature looks, from a distance, hostile Shim prepares to launch into an attack to help save Caidacyn but sees the others showing restraint. Following their lead and being rewarded for it, she returns a few minutes later to report her findings. "Ok, I think I can live with that. Sounds like they know their being here isn't our doing, so hopefully they keep that in mind if or when we meet next." Looking at the others, he says "That ok with the rest of you? Ready to continue on?" While he sounds confident, internally he is still has mixed feelings about leaving potential hostiles behind.

[Kish]

"We don't have any reason to care about the pillar really, do we?" Matai asks. "It doesn't sound like they have any reason to be our enemies. Well done!"

[Cavir]

"Interesting and surprising. The map mentions where there are more outsiders. We could use that to our advantage. We tell them where they will probably find others of their kind though we shouldn't mention we still have the map. Sending them off to their comrades will get them away from us and may make things better for us if we have to head that way. Question is do we send them through t-rex territory as a shortcut? That would help us, even if they don't want to fight the dinosaurs together."

"The pillar? Yes it seems to be a lost cause."

[razorback]

Shim listens to Kricen, taking in what he is saying, as he ponders for a moment. <We're all just pawns on his chessboard> he thinks to himself, not taking it personally. "Well, sounds solid. We do help them, in a way that benefits us the most, while just leaving out a couple of... minor points.
I can live with that."

[Kish]

"Let's not lie to mind-readers, particularly when we don't need to and doing so would rule out getting their direct and knowing help and might result in them coming back for revenge," Matai says. "Tell them that there are aggressive animals between them and where they should expect to find others of their kind, and offer to fight along with them. If they ask, be honest that we want to get through there ourselves. That's if it actually would be a shortcut. If they could get there just as quickly and easily without dealing with the dinosaurs...I think trying to deceive them would be more risk than gain, for my part."

[Cavir]

"You have good points for being honest with them. I agree. If you look at the map here, without cutting through they would have to go all the way around the lake to be safest. Getting their help against the Complex could help them too. Caidacyn, are you willing to talk to them again?"

[Dexam]

Caidacyn makes a concerned face. "To be honest, I'd prefer not to. While they're not hostile, they're not very friendly either. The green one recognised me as kin to the Fey, and were worried that I was trying some kind of trick on them. If we're going to suggest a temporary alliance, it might be best if we be up front about it and present it as a group. I doubt they'll say yes, but it's so hard to guess what they might be thinking."

[Kish]

"I can do the talking, if that'll help. I'm very far from being kin to the fey," Matai offers.

[Cavir]

"Same plan as before then. If there's a problem come running back through that path."

Kricen listens for the sounds of frogs and rock pounding.

[razorback]

Shim nods in agreement as he pulls out the bow, checking the string, before nodding once more that he was ready to go.

[Kish]

Matai walks toward the slaadi, keeping his hands away from his weapons. When he gets close enough to them that they can definitely see and hear him, he calls, "I'm Caidacyn's companion. I have knowledge of where others like you might be, if that's what you're looking for." He pictures the location of the other outsiders in his mind, in case they use Detect Thoughts.

[J-H]

The green slaad snorts and stomps over. "If the writer of the book is not liar, yes. You want us out of way, but tell truth."

[Kish]

"It's not that we want you out of the way. We want to get to the place where the others like you are, as well, but there are gigantic aggressive lizards between us and them." Matai pictures the tyrannosauri. "We were hoping we could fight them together, as allies. If you can read my mind, you know I'm not lying."

[J-H]

"No."

The green slaad stomps off. The structure is now smashed to bits, and he and the other slaadi start examining those bits.

[Kish]

"Regrettable choice."

Matai turns and heads back to the rest of the group.

"They say no. No real explanation given beyond that; I don't think they trust me, even with thought-reading. Even with the knowledge of where to find others, they seem more interested in the pillar."

[Cavir]

"A shame. Still, better than assumed. We'll swing wide right of them then?

[razorback]

Pursuing his lips together, Shim considers taking a move to entreat with the creatures but decides against it. He doesn't try and go in there and try to make it seem as if they don't know how to negotiate.
"Ok, swing wide of them, it is. Anything else we need to do before moving out?" As he speaks he makes sure his polearm is secure before checking the string on the lent bow, letting the others know he was ready.

[J-H]

The group swings around the slaadi and continues moving west towards the wall. You pass one of the giant pillars that support the ceiling. It looks like there’s a hole in the side, but it’s a hundred feet up and not very large. If you wanted to leave the area now, it might be worth investigating.

The pillar is smooth hard stone and would be difficult to climb.

(otherwise, I assume you'll continue)

[Cavir]

"Hold on, that's worth checking. Now that we have this, might as well make use of it." Kricen uses the Broom of Flying to check on the hole high above, with Babs tagging along. He uses the opportunity to get a lay of the land from up there.

[J-H]

It’s jungle and trees as far as Kricen can see in every direction, with the exception of the river. To the south, it looks like some of the trees may be walking or moving around?

The hole is only fit for a medium-sized creature, and appears to have been melted through the stone, perhaps by some kind of acid judging by the splatters. It goes in for about fifteen feet to a larger chamber, which has bone fragments and other debris in it, indicating that something used the area as a nest at some point… or perhaps still does. You can’t see more than that without going inside.

[Cavir]

Spiraling up the pillar Kricen watched the trees moving. He presumed something that large would be the t-rex to the south. Was it headed in this direction? Moving fast or peacefully? On this side of the river? Were there more than one? It it/they were still on the other side of the river that could wait for now. The hole was otherwise more immediate. He circled around the pillar again this time looking for anything flying that might coming "home". On the next pass of the hole he slowed and barked a "BOO!" into the hole the circled around in front of the hole to keep an eye on it, ready to dive if there was trouble.

[J-H]

Kricen realizes that he's seeing trees moving from one place to another, not movement shaking the trees.

There is no reaction to his call.

[Cavir]

The moving trees were interesting but Kricen chided himself to focus on the nest for now. Message and Silent Image spells would be useful here but his studies didn't waste time on such tricks. Maybe one of the others knew Message. It would help with scouting, whether it was on foot or in air.

Kricen lands inside the hole. He orders Babs to move to the mouth of the chamber and defend as he pulls out a glowing stone that circles around his head. The dread necromancer then moves up behind the undead demon and peers inside.

Spot and Listen at -5. :smallwink:
Listen: [roll0]
Spot: [roll1]

[J-H]

The larger chamber has the same fragments or debris in it that you saw before. Everything looks pitted and worn. The walls go up and out of sight with no ceiling (you can only see about 20’ up due to not being in the chamber). There’s a cleft on the far side that is only about five feet wide that goes up as well. There appear to be ladder-like steps sticking out of it on all three walls of the cleft.

[Cavir]

Kricen leans his head in to look up the chimney.

[J-H]

The zombie babau moves forward to allow Kricen to peek in and up. The ladder-cleft, and the shaft, go up and up beyond the light of his Continual Flame (which only extends 40’ up) and could be a route out – but no, that’s a dark blue top that’s – getting closer?

Kricen withdraws his head just as something lands on top of Babs with a Splorch! It looks like some kind of huge ooze, but that’s all Kricen can tell. He can only see Babs and the ooze at this point.


K: Dungeoneering, you rolled a 2… so no info.

Float/Dive attack slam [roll0] for [roll1] plus [roll2] acid. Minus 5 for DR/slashing. hit
On hit, Improved Grab grapple [roll3] vs ZB [roll4] grabbed
If successful, constrict [roll5] plus [roll6] acid; Minus 5 for DR/slashing. hit
total 25 damage



The ooze is grappling with Babs, who is just inside the large room. Kricen is adjacent to Babs.

ZB 25 damage, grappling


=> Party

[Dexam]

"They say no. No real explanation given beyond that; I don't think they trust me, even with thought-reading. Even with the knowledge of where to find others, they seem more interested in the pillar."

Caidacyn gives a regretful shrug. "Much the same reaction that they had to me. Thank you for trying Matai, and if nothing else, we've avoided an unnecessary fight."

* * *

At the pillar, Caidacyn watches Kricen climb on the broom. "I'll follow along," she says. Invoking her fey powers, she turns invisible and then begins climbing the smoothed pillar, as easy as spider clambers up the trunk of a tree. Part way up, Caidacyn spies the moving trees. "Do they move because they are tree-kin, or do they move because they have been warped by the strangeness of this place?" she wonders to herself, unsure if she would enjoy investigating more closely.

She continues to climb, watching Kricen and his undead abomination fly into the hole in the pillar.

Activating Walk Unseen (as Invisibility) and Spiderwalk (as Spider Climb).

Given a climb speed of 20' and height of ~100' feet, it'll take Caidacyn at least 3 rounds of solid climbing to reach the hole entrance - not sure a what point she could reach Kricen?

[Cavir]

Kricen is momentarily surprised then immediately pissed. "Babs, escape from it and jump out the hole this way." Kricen moves back to the edge of the hole with the flying broom ready while he casts a spell with his other hand.

Ooze is grappling so no threatened spaces. Kricen moves to the edge of the hole and casts Spectral hand. Don't think I get to attack with it this round but if I'm wrong I'll handle that in another post. It'll be Charnel Touch + Contagion.
Spell self-damage: [roll0] (not using temp hp for this)

Babs tries to escape the grapple and and move back out the way we came, falling from the height if new orders are (edit)not given in time.
Grapple check: [roll1]

[Dexam]

Caidacyn gives a start of surprise as the ooze plops down on the zombie.

"Is there nothing pleasant in this place?" she wonders.

Positioning herself on the side of the entrance, she fires a blast of eldritch energy at the ooze, which causes her to become visible - not that it matters much to the ooze.


Knowledge Dungeoneering: [roll0]

Eldritch Blast: [roll1] touch attack.
Damage: [roll2]

Random targeting, if required: [roll3]

[J-H]

Round 1, Part 1

Kricen casts a spell, moving back next to Caidacyn, who’s on the wall just outside the entrance hold. The zombie babau almost breaks free, but doesn’t quite manage it (Ooze wins on a tie).

Caidacyn blasts the ooze with energy, but Babs is in the way and takes the hit (10).


The rules say roll randomly, and there’s probably a good case for a size modifier (Huge being 4 times as likely to be hit – but even so, a 17 is on the low end and would hit the zombie babau even on a 1 Medium/4 Huge scale)

ZB 35 damage, grappling
Kricen 2 damage


Round 1, Part 2

The ooze burbles and squeezes the zombie babau.

Grapple [roll0] vs ZB [roll1]
If successful, constrict [roll2] plus [roll3] acid; Minus 5 for DR/slashing. 15 damage



ZB 50 damage, grappling
Kricen 2 damage

=> Party

[Cavir]

Kricen

Caidacyn's blast goes by Kricen and hits the zombie. Kricen calls back. "There a passageway up. The zombie is helping us here. Stop shooting it please. Know anything about this kind of ooze?"

Kricen's spectral hand gets a tinge of red and speeds forward to hit the zombie with its negative energies and a disease to hopefully reduce it to a shivering useless pile of ooze.

Charnel Touch + Scabrous Touch (Shakes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#theShakes)) attack.

Charnel Touch [roll0] crit: [roll1] (+3 BAB, +2 DEX, +2 Spectral Hand)
Damage: Charnel: [roll2] Crit: [roll3]

Scabrous Touch: on hit, Fort DC 17 or diseased with no incubation period. Shakes = 1d8 Dex. Further saves are DC 13. Like Contagion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contagion.htm) spell.
[roll4] Dex Damage

[J-H]

The touch of Kricen’s hand causes the ooze to start shivering and shaking violently. It flails about uncontrollably, and the zombie babau is easily able to extricate itself. It appears that the ooze is completely paralyzed, simply vibrating in place.

[Dexam]

"I'm trying to hit the ooze," the now-visible Caidacyn calls back, "But your walking corpse is getting in the way! And no, I don't know anything about this creature."

She blasts again at the ooze.



Eldritch Blast: [roll0] touch attack. EDIT: Really? :smallsigh:
Caster Level vs SR: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]

Random targeting, if required: [roll3]

Move Action: detect all living creatures within 30' (Aspect of the Hunter)

[Cavir]

"One would think an ooze that eats through anything would not be susceptible to disease. Perhaps it relies on dissolving everything first before ingestion? Either way, its loss. The question now is how to get it out of the way? I can have the zombie try dragging it out and let it fall. I'll have to take a few minutes to fix it the zombie's burns first. You'll be happy to hear the zombie will get hurt too but I can fix it up after. Any other ideas to get the ooze out of the way? I'm sure you saw the moving trees down below. I'm curious where this passage leads to but I'm not not ready to abandon this area."

Kricen will have the zombie approach him so he can begin reconstructing the zombie with negative energies.

[Kish]

Uninclined to even attempt climbing the rock wall in his armor, Matai twiddles his thumbs, blissfully unaware of the just-concluded battle above.

[J-H]

Babs approaches with no problems and is slowly healed up.

[razorback]

Finger his bow a bit, Shim looks at Matai as he says "Must be a longer tunnel than it looks. I'm going to walk over here a bit to see if I can get a better vantage of our surroundings. You keep an eye and ear out for them?" as he walks to the nearest rise he can.


Spot check
[roll0]

[Cavir]

Once the negatives energies have finished healing the undead, Kricen has Babs try to drag the ooze out the hole. He'll heal the zombie as needed. If the zombie does have to fall with the ooze to get it out then Babs will be fully healed again just before doing so. The necromancer will of course get out of the way when needed.

"You should go tell the others to get out of the way of something big being dropped. If it survives the fall you should find it hard to miss it down there."

If it is someway safer to kill the ooze before dragging it, Babs can slam it while Kricen touche sit from afar.

[J-H]

The ooze's acid burns the babau when he lays hands on it.
[roll0] acid damage

[Cavir]

The zombie tries to follow orders but there's not way it will work. Kricen quickly realizes it too.

"Caidacyn, on second thought, go ahead and blast. We don't want it to adapt to that disease and be trouble for us again later. Maybe it will be decayed away by the time we ever want to come back."

He orders Babs to start bashing it while he uses his spectral hand to help kill the ooze. Once it is dead he heals up the zombie again then flies them both back down, taking notice of where the moving trees are. This side of the river? Coming towards them?

Want to hand wave this all done or want us to do a bunch of rolls?
Too bad we can't use Coup de Grace on it.

[J-H]

It takes some time, and some stopping to heal the zombie babau, but eventually the two of you smash the ooze into cohesion. Only a little fewer than half of Caidacyn’s eldritch blasts take effect (SR 17).

The moving trees are far off to the south, not on your current intended course.

[Cavir]

"Resistant to magic? Hmmm." He makes a mental note of the trivia.

Kricen takes a look down the tunnel to see if it was possible to use the broom to get over the dead ooze currently. If not, hopefully its 'skin' would at some point fail and its inside spill out down the pillar to give them room to proceed then. He has the zombie get on the broom with him then flies back down to ground level. He keeps his eyes to the south, noticing which way the trees were moving since the group would still be heading west before turning south closer to the wall.

On the ground he informs the others. "Inside the tunnel there is a ladder heading upward. An oversized ooze plopped down and ended the exploration. It's dead now, but so big it blocks the path. If we need to go that route, maybe it will have dissolved away by then."

"There's also trees moving around on the other side of the river. Not headed this way though. Ready to keep heading west for the stone?"

[Dexam]

Caidacyn is more than happy to blast the ooze with her fey energies until it ceases moving entirely.

"Foul, unnatural creatures everywhere here," she mutters.

As Kricen and the zombie depart on the broomstick, Caidacyn notices a slight gap between the body of the ooze and the roof of the tunnel. Turning invisible once again, she spider-climbs up the tunnel, grimacing in disgust as she squeezes past the ooze's body. Peering up the shaft and feeling for the presence of living creatures, she begins to cautiously climb up the ladder...

[J-H]

The shaft goes up, up, up out of sight, a dizzyingly long unlit space that disappears into the darkness.

[razorback]

"Oozes and trees? The things epics are written about." he says dead-pan, with mirth behind his eyes. "A way out, at least if we need it. Hopefully they aren't flying trees, though they may not fit the tunnel. Do you want to explore it or continue on our path?"

[Dexam]

Caidacyn feels momentarily compelled by her curiosity to start climbing up the shaft to see where it leads, but changes her mind when she remembers the other party members below, and worries that they might leave her behind.

Instead, she scans the immediate area of the shaft, the ooze's body, and the tunnel entrance area for the presence of any magical auras. if nothing is found she climbs back down the pillar to rejoin the group; otherwise she further investigates the source of the magic.

[J-H]

Nothing magical is found, so she descends safely.

[Cavir]

"We can stay our course. I'm ready." That's when Kricen realizes they are still missing one member. He looks up and watches Caidacyn making her way down.

[razorback]

Once Caidacyn is down, Shim looks at the others as he makes his way with the others down their path. "Maybe keep a bit of space between each other? Just in case we run into a fire breathing... frog, or something." he says as he tries lighten the mood a bit.


Anyone seen the OOC? Can't find it and wonder if I accidentally deleted my subscription.

[Cavir]

"Spreading out some is fine. Caidacyn, still up for scouting?"

[Dexam]

Caidacyn reports back on what little there was to find in the pillar. "It looks like a very long climb up," she says.

"I'll scout ahead," Caidacyn replies to Kricen, as she turns invisible once more. "But not too far - I suspect that for some creatures in this place, invisibility is no impediment."

Hide: [roll0]
Move Silently: [roll1]
Spot: [roll2]
Listen: [roll3]

Detecting living creatures 30' every few rounds as move action.

[J-H]

Without any further incident, you reach the western wall. Tall and straight, it disappears into the mist near the ceiling. It must be cooler up there, since the air is plenty humid along the ground. Proceeding south, you rest through a night cycle and begin. Suddenly, you hear a buzzing sound as a reddish cloud of flowers zooms out of the forest and descends upon you.

http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1490/15/1490159475232.jpg

Caidacyn and Shim both recognize it as something called a dread blossom swarm – a predatory cloud of flowers that disables and drains blood from anything living. They are deadly and hard to kill, as most weapons barely harm them. Cold and fire work best. This one seems to be pretty big.

Flying rapidly, they close before you can do anything, swooping in and trailing a cloud of pollen.


Swarm damage [roll0]
Fort DC17 or paralyzed for 1 round and [roll1] CON damage
You get CON damage any time you’re paralyzed and in the swarm’s area at the end of the swarm’s turn.

Kricen [roll2] Includes +2 for Mental Bastion
Shim [roll3]
Matai [roll4]
Wow, lucky!



https://i.ibb.co/LYbG6hH/DBS-rd-0.jpg (https://ibb.co/hLhqH1w)

Kricen 11 damage
Shim 14 damage
Matai 14 damage

Note: Dread Blossom swarms have a fly speed of 60’. Out of range of Detect Living, and nobody made the spot check. This was just a surprise round, but swarms don’t need to do anything besides move around.


=> Party

[Cavir]

"What the? Spread out so it can only get one of us at a time."

Kricen moves away from the flora swarm as he pulls out a flask. He turns and throws it at the swarm. It erupts in fire. The undead try bashing at the flying flowers.

Move to AG224 while pulling out Alchemist’s Fire. Throw it targeted at AG228. If I miss the scatter should still hurt it some. Since it covers multiple squares, perhaps the splash into its other squares will add to the damage?

The raptors will make a defensive line. I don't think their slams will do any damage. If they would let me know and I'll roll or J-H can roll. Big raptor stays in place. The medium sized ones line up at AG226 and AH226. Babs to AG225.

Flask: [roll0] crit: [roll1] Touch/splash
damage: [roll2] crit: [roll3] Fire Splash damage for +50%?
Scatter [roll4] (1=north, clockwise)
Adj squares take 1 pt fire damage. On hit, tgt takes another 1d6 fire next round.

Kricen has DR3. DR2 from class, DR1 from armor crystal. down to 11 damage?

[razorback]

As the bloodsucking creatures swarm them, Shim calls out "I got nothing on these, I hope you do!"


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 42

5 foot step to AH-228

Standard Action
Cast from scroll

Move Action
Pull out scroll of Sanctuary


Not sure if he can or needs to use concentration, but just in case
[roll0]




Effects ~

Stance = Iron Guard's Glare
Vanguard Strike O
Mountain Hammer O
Douse the Flames O
Leading the Attack O
Tactical Strike O

[Cavir]

The undead pummel on the abomination.

All for probably not much damage.

Talons: [roll0] crit: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2] crit: [roll3]

Foreclaws1: [roll4] crit: [roll5]
Damage: [roll6] crit: [roll7]

Foreclaws2: [roll8] crit: [roll9]
Damage: [roll10] crit: [roll11]

Bite: [roll12] crit: [roll13]
Damage: [roll14] crit: [roll15]



Talons: [roll16] crit: [roll17]
Damage: [roll18] crit: [roll19]

Foreclaws1: [roll20] crit: [roll21]
Damage: [roll22] crit: [roll23]

Foreclaws2: [roll24] crit: [roll25]
Damage: [roll26] crit: [roll27]

Bite: [roll28] crit: [roll29]
Damage: [roll30] crit: [roll31]



Talons: [roll32] crit: [roll33]
Damage: [roll34] crit: [roll35]

Foreclaws1: [roll36] crit: [roll37]
Damage: [roll38] crit: [roll39]

Foreclaws2: [roll40] crit: [roll41]
Damage: [roll42] crit: [roll43]

Bite: [roll44] crit: [roll45]
Damage: [roll46] crit: [roll47]

[Kish]

"Grah," opines Matai, moving southwest away from the creatures and using a wand on himself. "Cold and fire, you say? I'm not a wizard or a swordsage!"

Move to AE233 and use the wand of Lesser Vigor on myself.

[Dexam]

Caidacyn, still invisible, calls out. "I don't think that I have anything that will harm them - there's just too many! Can we flee?"

She backs away from the cloud of flowers and pulls a longspear from a pocket on enchanted backpack, readying it against the swarm should it come within reach.


Move to AH234, ready longspear attack.

[razorback]

With everyone out of the way, Torlak rush under the undead dinosau as he yells "They call me Firebeard for a reason!" and flame erupts in front of him, engulfing the strange flower-creatures.


Move to AG-227
Fire cone 15', DC 18
[roll0]

[J-H]

Round 1, Part 1

The air resonates with the rapid thrum of hundreds of pairs of tiny wing-like petals beating in a constant vibration.

Shim ducks out of the swarm and casts a spell of protection, hoping that they will ignore him. Matai similarly moves away, using a wand and beginning to heal. Caidacyn steps back, hoping to bat a few away if they come near her.

Kricen falls back, flinging a bottle of Alchemist’s Fire. Torlak rushes forward, breathing fire on the swarm.

Alchemist’s fire, 5 damage + 50% = 7, +3 for adjacent squares = 10 damage
13 fire damage, Ref DC 18 half, +50% from AOE fail, 19 damage
DB Ref [roll0]


Kricen’s undead also attack it, smacking a few of the blossoms down. Their bites are most effective, since the blossoms drift away from cuts and puncture wounds.

Max
Talons: Hit, 10 damage – 50% = 5 non-lethal damage
Claws miss
Bite hits for 10 non-lethal damage
Val bite hits for 8 non-lethal damage
Victor
Talons hit for 5 – 50% = 3 non-lethal damage
Bite hits for 5 non-lethal damage
Total = 31 non-lethal damage




DB 31 non-lethal damage, 29 lethal damage

Kricen 10 damage
Shim 14 damage, Sanctuary Will DC 11 (from scroll)
Matai 13 damage, Lesser Vigor

[J-H]

Round 1, Part 2

The swarm strengthens slightly, shrugging off some of the damage inflicted by the dinos (regenerate 5 non-lethal). Recoiling from the flames, they buzz southward, swarming around Matai, and Caidacyn, after she reveals herself. Pollen clouds the air, and sharp thorns scratch against exposed flesh, but both are able to shake off the worst of the pollen. The swarming is a bit much for Caidacyn, and the Killoren finds herself twitching and twisting, trying to slap them away and protect herself, so it's hard for her to focus.


Longspear AOO
[roll0] for [roll1] -50% non-lethal hit! too bad they are immune to crits. 2 damage.

I failed to roll or make people roll for nausea if they started their turn in the swarm this round. I also overlooked the fact that the poisonous pollen has a 15’ radius around the swarm. These oversights have been corrected for future rounds of combat. I’m sure you’re all overjoyed at the increased fidelity to the Monster Manual.

Poison Pollen: Fort DC 17 or paralysis for 1 round; secondary damage is paralysis for 1 minute.
Anyone who fails the Fort save and is within the swarm takes [roll2] CON damage.
Matai [roll3] save
Caidacyn [roll4] save

Also, nausea save DC 15 for Matai & Caidacyn
Matai [roll5] save
Caidacyn [roll6] nauseated, single action only next turn

Swarm damage 11 each



https://i.ibb.co/fk0Gwkk/DBS-rd-1.jpg (https://ibb.co/dPKJYPP)

DB 26 non-lethal damage, 29 lethal damage

Kricen 10 damage
Shim 14 damage, Sanctuary Will DC 11 (from scroll)
Matai 24 damage, Lesser Vigor
Caidacyn 11 damage, nauseated until Round 2, Part 2 ends

=> Party

[Cavir]

Kricen was surprised at how much his undead were able to affect the swarm of flowers. The fire from the earlier potion continued charring away at the animated flora.

The dread necromancer came up with a plan to make the others more effective. He moved to Shim while taking off his potion belt. "Shim, 4 acid flasks and 1 fire flask here. Purple and red flasks. Use them." He drops the belt into Shim's hand. "Shim, Torlak, get out of the way so my undead can charge." He pauses for his allies to get out of the way then addresses his undead. "Max, charge the flowers. Babs, follow behind Max." He orders one of the smaller skeletons to also charge the flowers.

Followup damage from Alchemist’s Fire: [roll0] +50%?

Move: Move to AI227 while taking potion belt off.
Free: Drop belt into Shim's hand
Std: Order Val or Victor to charge after the PCs in front act. If only one skele has the clear way to charge will get the order. If both can charge then AH226 charges.

Max: Charge to AE231/AF232
Talons: [roll1] crit: [roll2] (with charge)
Damage: [roll3] crit: [roll4]

Babs moves to AF230

Val/Victor: Charge to row 232
Talons: [roll5] crit: [roll6] (charging)
Damage: [roll7] crit: [roll8]

Edit from OOC:
Talons: (1d20+9)[25] crit: (1d20+9)[15] (charging)
Damage: (1d8+4)[6] crit: (1d8+4)[8]

Hoping Shim will move to the side to throw a flask and Torlak to breath fire then move out of the way.

[Kish]

Matai, making frustrated noises through his clenched teeth, darts out of the swarm.

Taking a Run action, which should take him to AF245, if that square's clear and accessible. Also switching to Martial Spirit stance, in case it starts mattering.

[razorback]

Shim, nodding, pulls a potion from the belt as he moves away from the flying abominations, throwing when safe


Shim the Charming
AC = 17 ; Current = 17
HP = 56 ; Current = 56

Move Action
Pull alchemist fire as move to AJ-232


Standard action
Thow at Swarm AG-233
[roll0]

Damage
[roll1]

Effects ~
Borrowed equipment:+2 bow, 56 Arrows, 5 Manifester Bane, 3 acid.


Torlak, on the other hand, fires before moving.


Fire line 30', DC 18, at AF-233 and tyring to also hit AE-234
[roll2]
Move to AI-229

[Dexam]

Swatting and batting at the plant-creatures that swarm about her face, Caidacyn moves clear, heading as far away from them as she can.

Move to AL230.

[J-H]

Round 2, Part 1

Matai heals 1hp.

Caidacyn and Matai both dash away from the swarm in different directions, still swatting at trailing dread blossom flowers.

Kricen hands off some potions to Shim, ordering his skeletal minions to attack. They all dash forward, slapping a few of the blossoms out of the sky. Shim throws another alchemist’s fire, but most of the flaming liquid spills onto the ground.

Torlak fires a jet of flame, roasting more of them.

4 damage lingering from alch fire.
Max hits for 17 – 50% = 9 non-lethal
Val hits for 9 -50% = 5 non-lethal
Victor hits for 6 – 50% = 3 non-lethal
New alch fire hits for 1+50% = 2.
12 fire damage +50% = 18; Ref DC 18 half
DB Ref [roll0]





DB 43 non-lethal damage, 53 lethal damage

Kricen 10 damage
Shim 14 damage, Sanctuary Will DC 11 (from scroll)
Matai 24 damage, Lesser Vigor
Caidacyn 11 damage, nauseated until Round 2, Part 2 ends

[J-H]

Round 2, Part 2

The swarm is looking very thin, and many of the blossoms are lying on the ground, but they're starting to buzz back up into the air.

Swarm regenerates 5hp of non-lethal damage and is at effectively -1hp.


Poison Pollen, Fort DC 17 or paralysis for 1 round
Shim Fort [roll0]




DB 43 non-lethal damage, 53 lethal damage

Kricen 10 damage
Shim 14 damage, Sanctuary Will DC 11 (from scroll)
Matai 24 damage, Lesser Vigor
Caidacyn 11 damage, nauseated until Round 2, Part 2 ends

[J-H]

The swarm is out of action for the moment; Kricen has his dinosaur skeletons jump and chop at it, keeping it from regaining cohesion, while Torlak slowly roasts it with his fire breath. By the time you’re done, Shim has recovered and moved away, and there’s a big blasted patch of ashes and a column of smoke rising into the air.

Victory!

[Cavir]

Kricen already begins healing himself with dark energies while his minions and Torlak finish roasting the blood sucking flowers.

"Annoying little things they were. I'm surprised they have not proliferated more. Maybe some other seekers of crystals were not as powerful and succumbed, leaving their gear around. Keep an eye out."

While waiting on the others to get settled and ready to move out again, Kricen casts a spell on himself and use the broom to fly straight up about 50 feet above the tree tops to look around. He'll fly in a somewhat tight circle for a few minutes then go back to the group. If he does see anything coming he'll try to see what it is then return to the ground quickly.

False Life. Lasts 6 hours. [roll0] temp hp

[J-H]

Kricen flies up, but is not able to locate anything of interest.

[Dexam]

"Well done, Torak! This place just continues to be full of nasty surprises," Caidacyn comments, plucking a broken dread blossom flower from her forearm and replacing the unwieldy longspear into a pocket of her pack. "It's possible that some of these may have been pulled in by one of the portals, and it's taken some time for it to reach this size."

Activating her innate sense for things of a magical nature, she begins scanning the area around from where the dread blossoms attacked, hoping to find either their source of entry, or any enchanted remains of prior victims that might prove useful to their cause.

Using Detect Magic to look for auras.

See the Unseen is active.

Search check: [roll0]

Occasionally using Killoren Hunter to detect living creatures within 30' as move action.

[Kish]

"Huh. Aggressive flowers. Caidacyn, you need healing? Anyone else?"

Matai uses a charge of the Lesser Vigor wand on anyone who answers affirmatively, another one on himself when the current one runs out, and then checks everyone's condition again.

[J-H]

Nothing of interest comes up, and healing is completed without any issues.

[Cavir]

"Onward then?" Kricen and his mini army is ready to keep going.

[razorback]

Shim, hacking and coughing as he is finally able to move, put his hands on his knees as he retches.
He spends a few minutes slowly gathering himself, giving a thumbs up at one point, before he feels well enough to talk. Walking back to the group, he mutters "Next time we run and let the dwarf do his thing, ok?" in a rough voice as he takes a drink from his mug before putting it away.
At Kricen's comment, he nods his head as he says "Yeah... don't want to be around of these things spawned anything else." as he pulls his bow and loosely strings an arrow.

[J-H]

The group heads on south, The trees block your view too far ahead. A few hours later, you pass one of the support columns; a giant waterfall spills down the opposite (eastern) side of it, but it’s easy to see the clouds of mist arising as the water crashes to the ground. Based on the map, you think this is the source of one of the rivers that flows to the central lake.

A little further on, the vegetation takes on a slightly odd greenish tint. You hear a strange animal noise, as though some great creature were bellowing, but the noise is distorted and echoey.

A few moments later, you crest a minor rise; the trees stop where you are. A sandy slope leads down to a large pond filled with some sort of glowing green liquid, butting up against the perimeter wall. It’s at least an acre in size, and the color reminds you of what you’ve seen of the lake and rivers here. In fact, a small stream of the green stuff seems to head on east and north towards the waterfall.

A large round hole in the perimeter wall seems to have a rounded and steeply sloped floor going up and out of sight.

The green liquid is moving. You're about 70' away from it.

[razorback]

"That looks inviting. Probably some mutant fish in there that would want to eat me but I could use a good bath. Still have the scent of... what in the infinite abyss is that?" Shim says as he points at the moving green liquid. Squinting, he mumbles "That can't be good.... can't be good at all."



Spot theck to get a better idea of what green liquid is.
[roll0]

[Cavir]

Kricen's comments are flat. "I would suggest staying out of that water. Unless you want to grow tentacles or bulging eyes, and become a victim of the complex. If that's something in there let it come to us. Any signs of the glowing stone we came here for?" His mind is on the pollution of the water, where it is headed, and the nasty suprise for anyone one falling down through the hole in the wall.