The Red Hand of Doom (3.5)

[Alhallor]

Calyd gave Arendi a thankful nod and gave his newfound power of flight a try. While he was raising up one of his enemy's fell down, it was kinda poetic.

With one hobgoblin surviving Calyd's target was clear. He stretched his right hand behind him. Hear the sizzle, feel the burning. Gonna get your insides churning! Above his hand manifested a neon-green arrow which he threw with a decisive motion towards the enemy.

Spoiler: OOC

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Gonna rise up 20 feet.

Ranged touch attack against Hobgoblin 1. With 640 feet I'm pretty sure Melf's Acid Arrow can reach the target.

Ranged touch attack: (1d20+7)[9]
Damage: (2d4+5)[9] acid damage, with an additional (2d6)[7] Because I burn one use of my Caustic Belt. Point Blank Shot doesn't trigger the additional +1 to hit and damage are from Interfaith Blessing.

[Aracor]

Vokon will stalk through the woods, still slowed down as he rips his way through the thick foliage, getting near the edge of the clearing.

Spoiler: OOC

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Double move to AA/0 with two move actions.

Then he'll activate Leading the Charge, so that in case anyone gets a charge off, they'll get +6 damage.

[Dexam]

Annulat in hand Keda moves through the swampy foliage, using the surrounding plant life as cover as he approaches.

Spoiler: OOC

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Double moving at slightly less than full speed, ending up at W-1.

Hide with -5 penalty: (1d20+6)[8]

[Saintheart]

The Blockade,
Lhespenbog, Cannath Vale
Midafternoon, 19 Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Pool: 1 of 6

Calyd's spell went sizzling through the air, but hissed past the hobgoblin's shoulder, disappearing into the mangrove well beyond the clearing. On the other hand, Keda and Vokon's movements didn't seem to have been noticed by anyone since the hobgoblin was still more worried about the winged horror on the roof of the watchtower with it at that moment.

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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As said, Calyd misses, but Vokon and Keda get to their positions without incident.

Initiative Order again:

Arendi, Mikolt, and Alastor
Monsters
Calyd, Vokon, Keda

Which means danielx, Meta, and a.a.king now have 48 hours to put in their next actions, and we're in the next round.

What do you do?

[Metastachydium]

Very well. said wing horror remarked coldly, only a twitch of her nose betraying her annoyance over the speed of her foe. But then, she could be fast as well, just as fast if not faster. Fixing her gaze on the hobgoblin, Mikolt whirled her weapon around. She gave the warrior a choice; and the warrior chose death.

Spoiler: OOC

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Full attack on hobgoblin with +2 from Interfaith Blessing: (1d20+10)[19] for (1d10+4)[9]; and
(1d20+5)[19] for (1d10+4)[10]; plus
a 5' step to P15.

[danielxcutter]

Hmm. That reminds me.

Arendi checked in his haversack and pulled out a scroll, then moved closer in.

Spoiler: OOC

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Taking out my Summon Monster III scroll, then moving to (AA, -1).

[A.A.King]

"Go Go Go" Alastor shouts at the wolf while pointing at the next rune. The first one may have been a dud but maybe the next one? If he was honest to himself he'd might admit this part of the plan failed but he could do nothing but keep trying and keep moving.

Aeric meanwhile moved a bit closer to Vokon, he was still waitimg for the right time to play his song but did not want to be left behind before his turn came to aid the circus.

Spoiler: OOC

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Aeric moves to Z3, the wolf charges the rune at T11 if possible and Alastor and the resr of his pets move to AB7&8

[Saintheart]

The Blockade,
Lhespenbog, Cannath Vale
Midafternoon, 19 Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Pool: 1 of 6

Mikolt's glaive smashed through the hobgoblin's neck, and then took off its swordarm for good measure. The gleam of magic in its eyes sputtered and died, and the body collapsed to the wooden roof with a thud.

At least for the next few moments, nothing came scrambling at her from the bottom floor. There were goblinoid shouts from beneath, and the sounds of beds overturning and weapons being drawn and snatched off tables. To her left and right, she could see the immense forms of the ogres getting to their feet, clutching at immense morningstars that lay next to them. They were in spiked half-plate by the look of it, and whatever sleepiness they had, it was wearing off fast. They were looking around owlishly and it would only be moments before they perhaps could see her.

The wolf went running towards the rune Keda had seen ... and once more, nothing happened. The wolf reached the corner of the palisade without anything else happening. And the rest of the circus got themselves into the positions they wanted without interdiction or interruption.

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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Initiative Order:

Arendi, Mikolt, and Alastor
Monsters
Calyd, Vokon, Keda

Monsters have taken their turn, so it's over to Alhallor, Aracor, and Dexam for their next actions - in the next 48 hours, then we'll turn to the others.

[Dexam]

Hearing the sounds of shouting from within the structure, Keda bolts towards the wall and, reaching the stump of the felled tree, he launches from it and leaps to the top of the palisade wall. Pulling himself up, Keda braces himself on the corner of the structure and scans within the walls. Spying the awakening ogre, he flings an annulat towards its head.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move 20' to S2, then vertical leap to R3.
Rolls include bonus from Interfaith Blessing:
Jump check: (1d20+20)[32]
Climb check to pull up the rest of the height of the wall, if required: (1d20+8)[18]
Balance check, if required: (1d20+12)[15]

Using a Neraph Camouflage on the annulat attack.
Attack: (1d20+12)[22] vs flat-footed AC.
Damage: (1d6+3)[5] plus Improved Skirmish: (4d6)[18]

AC: 23

[Alhallor]

Calyd try'd to float into a slightly better position, sadly there wasn't anything to shoot at immediately, so it was his turn to try out the weird runes. Calyd formed his hands like and orb and aligned it with one of the logs.

With my grace, set it ablaze. Summonig a spongy flaming ball on the field.

Spoiler: OOC

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Float towards AC 2, cast Flaming Sphere at the rune at U5 I think? and deal (2d6)[6] Fire damage. I think the hardness of wood is 5.

[Aracor]

Vokon will continue struggling through the jungle and get to the edge. Hopefully he'll be able to burst out soon.

We should have stayed closer to the road.

Spoiler: OOC

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Double move to Z4, next to Aeric.

[Saintheart]

The Blockade,
Lhespenbog, Cannath Vale
Midafternoon, 19 Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Pool: 1 of 6

As Vokon crashed through the treeline, grumbling about their choice not to use the road, Keda sprang into the clearing, sprinting into a massive, running jump, long, neraph arms stretching hard--
--he almost made it, instead hitting the ten foot palisade wall hard, getting his iron-grip fingers to the top of the wall. With a mighty surge of strength, the neraph pulled himself up to the top of the palisade wall.

The great ogre at that end turned at the noise he made. Keda had perhaps underestimated its sheer size. It wheeled a massive morningstar around its head as it snarled in anger and lurched toward him. The neraph bent his body backward and the spiked morningstar's passage whooshed past him where he stood, precariously, on top of the palisade. A distant part of the neraph calculated that he'd seen the monster's muscles bunching on its arms and that it would've blasted him clean off the wall if it had connected.

Calyd wheeled his hands, and a flaming sphere burst into existence, barrelling toward the rune on the log. The spell lit dead on the writing ... but though the wood around the marking charred to black in a second, the writing itself seemed to glow and gleam as though it were absorbing the fierce heat scorching it. Smoke rose, but there was no sign that the rune was damaged.

Mikolt's head spun.

The reason it spun, of course, was because it had been hit by a cake-sized rock, that had blasted the breath from her. It had hit, she mused, somewhere in the shock, right clean on her left shoulder, and there was a distinct possibility a couple of bones had greenstick fractures or outright breaks given the pain screaming from that part of her body even through the armour she wore. The stone had come arcing in from the east end of the blockade, she realised, and looking in that direction she could actually see the ogre there and that it had presumably sighted her by her wings, perhaps, but then the pain was all-encompassing and her mind started to calculate ways she might not die...

And there were still shouts of alarm and what sounded a lot like commands being given, from below in the tower...

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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- Keda didn't get a shot off because he fell short of the palisade's ten foot top. Move action to running jump to 8 feet, move action to pull yourself up to the top of the wall. Luckily, that swing from the ogre missed -- it has a 10 foot reach and Keda is within range.
- However, the skullcrusher ogre at the other end ... pulled a natural 20 on its rock throw. And then confirmed the critical. That's 26 hitpoints of damage on Mikolt, or 25 damage after DR/1 is factored in.
- Calyd didn't miss, but runes are magic items, and get saving throws to spells. Reflex save came up.

Initiative Order
Arendi, Mikolt, and Alastor
Monsters
Calyd, Vokon, Keda

Over to danielx, Meta, and a.a.king, 48 hours deadline as usual...

[danielxcutter]

Arendi took another step towards the palisade and started reciting the sacred words. The scroll might have been written by a hobgoblin cleric of Tiamat rather than a greywarden, but there were only so many ways to peel an assassin vine after all.

Spoiler: OOC

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5 ft. step to (Z, 0), then start casting from the Summon Monster III scroll as a full-round action for a Celestial Bison right above the campfire and have it follow Alastor's wolf. Remember that bison have enough HD to get DR 5/magic from the template.

[Metastachydium]

Winded as she was, Mikolt was still Mikolt, and as such a soldier. Instinct was the death of tactical thought, and the instinct of flight, a recipe for a rout. She knew that to be death. A well-fought battle claims few victims in the ranks as long as they stand organized; once the line breaks and men begin to run, well, that is when the reaping truly begins. And then, even beyond that, there was the oath she swore. An oath to stand and fight with these people, even as she could escape with ease where they couldn't. She had to soldier on, therefore, and hold this tower for as long as she can… No: for as long as she's not called back.

Still, she was of no use once dead. Gritting her teeth, she dropped to a knee and spread her wings wide and flat, an arm reaching down to her belt briefly, before returning to where it truly belonged: the haft of the glaive. She could still fight, if uncomfortably. This would have to do. But the hulking brute down there, it still needed dealing with. Calyd! The ogre! Forget the logs! she called out to the mage at the top of her voice. She'd have to trust him now. The rest was to be seen.

Spoiler: OOC

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Alright, Mikolt goes down to a knee and ducks kind of behind the parapet; she temporarily loses the Blessing's +2 to attack and her AC goes down to 19 against melee attacks, but now she has cover of the low obstacle sort which brings her AC up to 27 against ranged attacks. She also tries to use the same cover for Hiding form the ogres: (1d20+15)[35].

She then uses a charge of her healing belt to restore (2d8)[8] hp. She still threatens everything within 20' of her. Enemies treat this same area as difficult terrain and DCs to Tumble rise by 6. It is impossible to cast defensively within this area. Mikolt has 8 AoOs remaining for the round.

[Saintheart]

Spoiler: OOC

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...and I just realised I screwed up.

The monsters shouldn't have gotten a turn after Dexam, Aracor, and Alhallor, they should've waited until danielx, a.a. and Meta had their turns first. Eeeesssh.

Quick fix: rather than shift the initiative order around, though, I'll just skip the monsters this turn. So that means a.a.king, Alhallor, Aracor, and Dexam all have 48 hours to post up, and we'll get to the next turn.

Sorry, guys - I have to go back through my notes and see what I messed up.

Initiative Order is still:


Arendi, Mikolt, and Alastor
Monsters (but they can be considered to have had their turns this round).
Calyd, Vokon, Keda

[A.A.King]

"Why aren't they activating?" Alastor thought to himself as the wolf once again scratched impotently at the drawing. Then, Mikolt started shouting, if there cover hadn't been blown yet it would certainly be blown now. So he simply joined in and yelled too, at the top of his voice:

"CHAAARGE!"

while using one of his illusions to once more create the image of an army of former circusfreaks ready to storm the castle. Once these goblins opened the gates, they would not know what was about to hit them.

Aeric, heard the ringmaster's cry and knew what to do. If full out attack was starting, there needed to be some supporting music!

Spoiler: OOC

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Alastor uses a Silent image spell to fill the road with an image of an invading army of carnyfolk ready to storm the barricades. About 70 cube feet worth of army. So Z11 to Z16 and about 11 rows behind that. Don't want them too close to the gate or the goblins who see them might worry why they aren't attacking yet. Just close enough that the goblins will be too scared to move (if they believe the phantom army).

Aeric starts playing Inspire Courage on his drums (+2 to ATK, +3 to damage for all allies who can hear him play).

[Alhallor]

The situation did grow dire indeed, especially with Mikolt hit, on the other hand, one of the massive ogres had stood up and was plain in Calyd's view.

He held one hand focused at the sphere and shove it forward. Like it was instructed too the sphere rolled straight towards the palisade, a little flick of his cupped hand, let the sphere jump up, over the palisade, right at the ogre.

While this was going on, Calyd leaned back with his other hand, and grasped at the air, like he was holding an invisible spear, sizzling and churning was heard when he repeated his first spell and threw it towards the ogre, a much better and probably much easier to hit target than the small elusive target from before.

Hear the sizzle, feel the burning. Gonna get your insides churning!

Spoiler: OOC

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The fire sphere actually is just occupying a 5-foot-square, seeing it so big made me worried for a moment. It's supposed to be roughly on U5. it should have enough movement to get towards skullcrusher ogre 1 with a move action, because it's mentioned that it can jump up 30 feet, it would exactly reach the ogre. I'm also okay with it not totally making it and just chill on the palisade if it's not able to hit the ogre for now. Fire damage (2d6+7)[11] Including bardic music.

As a standard action cast another Melf's, this time at skullcrusher ogre 1.
Attack: (1d20+8)[23]
Damage: (2d4+7)[12] and another (2d6)[8] Activating my Caustic Veil.

[Aracor]

Vokon will roll with the new development of "reinforcements", and join them.

Spoiler: OOC

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Step out of the trees and double move to Y10. That way he should be in a position to "lead" the charge.

[Dexam]

Keda's eyes widen in shock as the ogre's massive narrowly misses and slams into the wooden structure. Retaining his balance as the wall shudders beneath him, he quickly flings an annulat at the ogre. Without waiting to see if it hits or not, he leaps from the wall and proceeds to move to the northern face of the building.

Spoiler: OOC

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Annulat attack on Ogre 1 - includes bonuses for Point Blank Shot, Interfaith Blessing, and Inspiration.
Attack: (1d20+14)[23]
Damage: (1d6+6)[9]

Jump check to leap down to Q2: (1d20+14)[28] then move to M3
Tumble check to avoid Attack of Opportunity, if required: (1d20+12)[20]

AC: 23

[Saintheart]

The Blockade,
Lhespenbog, Cannath Vale
Midafternoon, 19 Mirtul
1372 DR, Year of Wild Magic

Complication Pool: 1 of 6

Calyd's sphere leapt over the barricade, scorching the great ogre as it stood there, followed a second later by a sizzling spear of acid that drew an agonised snarl as it hit.

That gave Keda the opening he needed. The neraph pulled one of his annulats and hurled it - and it caught the ogre's neck clean, shearing the beast's head clean off. Unmentionable black fluids spurted as the ogre staggered and crashed to the ground inside the palisade. The neraph leapt from the palisade, stealing around the northern side of the structure, hunting for another target.

However, there was a great eruption of noise as Vokon crashed into the clearing. And the noise did not come from Vokon. It came as a million plants suddenly grew as though a thousand springs had all come at once, in a field of green centred on the big goliath. The rune on the log gleamed gold one final time and faded, and a rune on the corner of the palisade also glowed and disappeared, and Vokon's limbs numbed as though he'd been exposed for hours on a bare mountainside. The plants grew fast, unbelievably fast, and wrapped themselves around everyone they touched. Which included Vokon, Alastor, Aeric, Cyzar, Piko, and the summoned wolf, grabbing them all with a hundred verdant hands. They whipped around Alastor's throat, and while he was able to keep breathing, the sudden interruption sent his illusionary army flickering ... and disappearing.

Spoiler: Tactical Map

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Spoiler: Tactical Notes

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Right, a few bits and pieces here...

(1) Meta, the closest parapet-thingie to get cover behind is that position I moved Mikolt to. If there's some other location she should've gone, let me know.

(2) Dexam, if Keda wouldn't have jumped off the palisade at seeing Big Ugly fall, then let me know and we can correct.

(3) Aracor ... Vokon triggered the runes because he has one thing not shared in common with everyone else who went into that clearing: the word 'Good' in his alignment. Failed Reflex save for Entangle, which means his DEX drops by 4. But, um, the other rune was a Shivering Touch, which hit for 8 DEX damage. And, um, I think that sets off his Wild flaw as well. But I think you might be very happy to know that, yes, Iron Heart Surge does apply to the panicked condition in that case.

If it's any comfort, those two runes are now expired.

(4) A.A.King ... yeah, Alastor fails his Reflex save (as do the animals and Aeric) and are all entangled, but worse still he also fails his Concentration check, meaning the Silent Image spell sputters and dies.

(5) danielx, you'd already specified where Arendi is putting the Celestial Bison, so on your turn next round it'll show up at U5 and have to take a Reflex saving throw like everyone else.

(6) Alhallor, ... yeah, nothing to add.

That leaves us with the following initiative order:

Initiative Order
Arendi, Mikolt, and Alastor
Monsters
Calyd, Vokon, Keda

So that leaves us with danielx, Meta, and A.A.King to let me know their actions, and then we'll see what the monsters do. 48 hours deadline as usual.

EDIT: In fact, we're close to the 50 page moment of thread doom, so I created a new thread over here. I replicated this post over there, I'd suggest just replying there - I'll update the links in due course.