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Bharash
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“If we’re determined to open with a fight, I don’t suppose we have a choice… I just hope you’re right that the skull is in there.” Bharash states, adding a shield to the assorted selection of spells going off in all directions by producing a delicate wand from a pouch and a pair of glasses from another, putting the latter on his nose and studiously examining the tiny glyphs on the wand before pronouncing “‘Aegis’*“ a couple of times, then removing the glasses, brandishing the wand and doing it again with feeling.
The shimmering curve of the spell lights up and into place and he grins as he tucks the wand away again, locks down his visor, draws his swords and waits for the spell to go off…
…and carry them right into an astonishingly well-prepared and seemingly alert ambush. Who would have thought?
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* Apparently, this is Elvish for ‘shield’ because someone in the Forgotten Realms writing team has no imagination.
01:50, Today: Bharash rolled 27 using 1d20+11. Initiative.
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Vogh
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When they were finished casting their spells and Deacon had everyone touch as he cast his dimensional doorway, Vogh pulled her blades in much the same matter as Bharash, ready for battle if there was one to be had.
As she stepped through the doorway she felt a stab in the bottom of her feet, that was when she noticed all the small caltrops all over the floor. It was unpleasant but nothing she couldn’t work through, or so she thought as the two pillars on the side of the room raced with blue light before she realized it was not light but electricity racing up and exiting the columns right at them all. There was nowhere to move so she let tried to at least duck and grit her teeth.
“There are a bunch of ratmen ahead!” Vogh called out. Then cast a quick spell while touching Bharash and Talin. They disappeared and reappeared on the opposite side of the room.
08:27, Today: Vogh rolled 27 using 1d20+7. initiative.
Cast Dimension Door taking Bharash and Talin with her.
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Talin
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Talin stepped through and felt all that the others felt below their feet and then on their skin as the lightning hit them. An audible “Ouch” escaped Talin’s mouth before he too was reacting to what was before them.
Then Vogh touched him and poof he was on the other side of the room right next to two ratmen. His blade was ready and swiped at the body of the ratman before him.
08:27, Today: Talin rolled 12 using 1d20+7. initiative.
19:44, Today: Talin rolled 42,27 using d20+25,4d6+16
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia’s delicate feet felt the stabbing pronouncedly through her soft leather boot. She wouldn’t be moving all that far though as she held her crossbow at the ready. She would shoot at anything that moved and wasn’t her friends.
Julia then felt the lightning hit her and the pain wracked her body fully. Gritting her teeth through the pain she channeled her Lothian god-given power to heal everyone.
08:27, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 12 using 1d20+3. initiative.
08:55, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 36 using 9d6. heal.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Once the spell was complete and they were in the room, Deacon looked for targets. He ignored the pain in his foot as an inconvenience while holding Yaeshla out towards the enemy ready to lose any number of her spells. Deacon could already hear the music from Vogh’s song in his head and knew the battle had been joined even before the lightning hit.
Deacon too felt the lightning hit his body to the bone. The pain had him bent over, thankfully Yaeshla was there so he could steady himself and as she tingled in his hand he knew one thing he should do. With a thought to Yaeshla, he asked her to summon a wall of force designed to block off the pillar to his left. He would do so again in the next round to the other side hopefully before the pillar spit out its lightning again.
08:28, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 21 using 1d20+7. initiative.
Use Yaeshla to cast Wall of force around the pillar to their left, shielding them from any of the devastating lightning.
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Narrator GM
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OOC: the towers each attack with chain lightning. Whoever is on the left most is primary and takes 30 damage, half on DC 19 reflex save. Then same damage for everyone in line at DC 17.
Then the same thing happens from the right. 37 damage. Half on 19 for closest person then half for everyone else on DC 17.
The ratmen all have 3/4 cover at the moment since they are sitting down.
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Belie
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Before going down Belie like Bharash produced a wand and it took him 3 times to get it to work, but he had a shimmering field spring up around him as well.
13:16, Today: Belie rolled 26 using 1d20+10 ((16)). Initiative
13:18, Today: Belie rolled 21,20 using 1d20+13,1d20+13 ((8,7)). Reflex saves
When the lightning erupted from the tower he ducked, twisted and threw his body to the side in order to avoid all the lightning arcing between the group.
He came back up, drew a dagger and threw it at one of the ratmen, taking the thing in the eye and killing it instantly.
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Bharash
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His foot still aching despite his heavy boots, Bharash submits to the transition of Vogh’s spell and arrives next to the group of seated Ratfolk, eyeing the one closest to him and quite unceremoniously lashing out to smack it upside the head with the pommel of his lead sword with the intention of rendering it flat-out unconscious.
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18:35, Today: Bharash rolled 12,1,7 using 1d20,1d8,2d6. Thwap.
That’s (after assorted spells are factored in) 35 to hit, for 19 nonlethal damage and a further 7 normal damage if it’s evil.
DM Update: It’s unconscious
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Narrator GM
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Chaos of battle errupted as soon as the group appeared into the room’s midst. Lightning blasted everyone in the group. Belie threw a dagger, immediately killing one ratman behind the barriers. Deacon’s quick thinking sealed off one of the towers, preventing it from attacking them. Julia healed everyone, then Vogh, Talin and Bharash blinked to the far side of the room. Talin’s sword Solar Song roared through the air, cutting down two of the ratmen before they could even stand. Bharash’s hilt knocked on unconscious.
Again the room glowed blue as lightning raced along the length of the columns. The one inside Deacon’s wall errupted first, the energy going into the wall of force and the wall behind the column which shook the room with the violence of its assault. A strange jingle came up from the ground as the hundreds of caltrops shifted on the ground and tinked into one another melodiously. Lightning struck out from the tower at the trio further into the room.
10:42, Today: Narrator GM rolled 45 using 15d6.
Vogh is closest to the pillar so she’s the primary, DC 19. It archs to Talin and Bharash, DC 17. 45 damage on failed. 22 on success.
The vast, open chamber seemed newly built. The dark stones of the walls, floor, and ceiling were laid in strange patterns that caught the eye in a distracting, even disturbing manner one couldn’t quite name. A huge banner hangs on the western wall. The group knew it was a traditional Palastani war banner. To hang it displays the intention of going to war, or the statement that one is at war.
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Belie
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Belie turns and runs toward the stairwell, but rather than up the stairs the nimble man jumps toward the wall, takes two steps vertically along the stone walls and inverts himself to “land” on the ceiling. It was then he enacted the magic of his boots, sticking him to the ceiling like a spider.
10:51, Today: Belie rolled 36 using 1d20+20 ((16)).
DC 25 Acrobatics Check
Had to share this image! hahaha
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Vogh
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Vogh had seen the blast coming her way and managed to get behind the wall just barely to help deflect some of the lightning. It still hit her like a bull charge.
Shaking off the effect Vogh focused while keeping her music going and looked around the room. Bharash had just felled the remaining 3 ratmen here and that left the other two ratmen on the other side. She took a few steps over to them and slashed Serenity at one of them spilling his guts onto the floor.
17:34, Today: Vogh rolled 37,21 using d20+23,d8+20.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon smiled, pleased at the work Yaeshla had with the wall of force. It may have saved their lives. So he reached out with his voice and pleaded with her to do the same to the other pillar.
Cast wall of force in the same fashion as the other, blocking it from hitting them.
Deacon looked up and saw Belie on the ceiling and said, “Be careful, there must be an off switch to these things!”
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Bharash
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After the first pair of lightning hits, Bharash has apparently picked up enough of a static charge to make the ratmen around him turn into veritable puffballs, as well as deflect the worst of the second pair of strikes into a sparkling corona of energy that crackles and dances along his metal armour as he steps into the space opened by the fallen ratman and slowly grins at the three smaller figures around him.
Both his swords out, he moves with eye-watering speed to slap the flats of his blades across three sets of rising stomachs, then whirls them back around to punch three sets of opening muzzles, each rat-man struck multiple times in the space of a heartbeat or so, with the clear intention of sending them whirling down to the ground, black-out unconscious… It probably goes without saying that if, in his professional opinion one of them is going down, he stops whaling on rather than risk flat-out beating them to death where they stand.
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To Hit, Crit Damage(NL), Crit
31 21
34 19
41, 40 25, 75
30 21
33 27
33, 22 26, 78
25 24
Bharash will however pull his strength from those criticals if the ratfolk look to be flat-out killed by them – he’s looking for knockouts, not shattered skulls.
16:31, Today: Bharash rolled 25 using 1d20+7. Reflex save.
16:37, Today: Bharash rolled 96 using 7d20 with rolls of 8,11,18,12,15,20,12. Seven attacks.
16:42, Today: Bharash rolled 26 using 2d20 with rolls of 17,9. Two critical threats.
16:37, Today: Bharash rolled 34 using 7d8 with rolls of 3,1,7,3,6,8,6. Seven damages.
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Narrator GM
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Placeholder with a minor reminder for myself
[Private to GM: remember to have the item start moving away from deacon
Include a sword of the great harrowing from Dragon magic book. It actually hurts bharash, Vogh and Talin. They try to sell it, but this pisses off House Dragon. Perhaps Lord D. requires they quest to find the sword and bring it back to him for destruction.
Person in prisons to talk about them
Black orcs]
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Narrator GM
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The last ratmen on the right flank go down in a dizzying flurry of blows from Bharash. None of the creatures could even get their explosive weapons in place to parry the impossibly fast blows coming from the dragonborns dancing hands.
Only a few still stand on the far side, to a one they step back and open fire. All the room echoes with the blasts, a small bit of smoke hovering in place in the absence of wind. One projectile whizzes by too close for comfort but the shots were terribly aimed due to the fear clearly painted on the rodent’s faces.
Vogh could sense more of the creatures coming around the corner and indeed four more rushed around the nindy degree bend. Chittering in a language none of them understood the front two immediately dropped to a knee while the duo behind remained standing and all four fired boom sticks. Again none of the stormtroopers attacks even came close to hitting the three. However, Vogh knew they weren’t out of the woods yet, because there seemed to be many more around the bend they couldn’t yet see. All could hear shouting and the sound of warriors mobilizing.
Everyone noticed two of the holes in the ceiling started to glow with something moving inside them. From these holes skulls dropped down out of them, flying and wreathed in green fire with hideus red flames for eyes. The disgusting beasts cackled and clacked their teeth together in an inhuman manner. Almost simultaneously each of them exploded in a sphere of flame. (Ref DC 15. V/T/B 8hp. Deacon & Belie 14hp.) Unfortunately, the flying beasties were not destroyed through their self immolation, but remained flying directly against the ceiling almost 15 feet in the air.
Seriously… Wow… I think that’s the first reflex save Belie’s missed the entire campaign 😀 Belie rolled 14 using 1d20+13 ((1)).Ref. Save.
To make matters even worse, the column at the center of the room began to unwind itself. The twisted apendeges and serpants which appeared to be merely carvings were indeed tentacles of black stone which began writhing as the creature slid across the stone in a brain piercing (not literally) screech! Dozens of the flailing vines flapped about as it moved. From inside the creature construct a green energy emenated then washed out across the two bards and Bharash in a sphere that disipated as it flew. (DC 17 Will save or be Slowed)
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Talin
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So many things happened at once that Talin had to actually choose what to do. The ratmen were terrible shots with those weapons they were wielding. The more important threat was the vine wiggling and writhing thing that was moving towards them. Talin had felt a tug on his body to slow down but he shook it off and readied to move.
He chose to step 5ft towards the construct-looking thing and as he did he tried to find a weakness in its defenses.
07:37, Today: Talin rolled 31 using 1d20+21. knowledge check.
Raising SolarSong, Talin brought the greatsword in a cross-cut meant to cut hard into the thing. Talin did this two more times cutting into the thing with fervor.
07:40, Today: Talin rolled
26,24,
27,24,
39,24 using d20+25,2d6+16,d20+25,2d6+16,d20+20,2d6+16.
if it is evil I get 2d6 more per strike.
07:43, Today: Talin rolled 27,27 using d20+25,2d6+16. crit check.
07:42, Today: Talin rolled 17 using 1d20. crit fail.
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Julia Graymantle
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Her companions were too spread out to aid them in healing so Julia, thought it best to eliminate enemies. Deacon had taken out the pillars, at least for now it seemed so she decided to hit the skull things that had come out of the ceiling with a spell. She could aim her rays at both of the skulls hoping to take them both out.
Two rays went to the one nearest Deacon while the other streaked across the room to the other skull.
Cast admonishing ray 28 damage to the first and 19 to the far one.
07:50, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 26,8,30,20,32,19 using d20+15,4d6,d20+15,4d6,d20+15,4d6. rays.
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Bharash
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Bharash – for all his virtues – is a long way from being able to create and sustain the sort of mental bastion that a practised spellcaster can assemble in their thoughts… But in this unfolding situation, it turns out that either a near-complete focus on sorting through targets and putting them down in an appropriate fashion or the lingering static field still arcing off his armour is protection enough from the spell washing out of the pillar…
…but it’s not enough to keep him from acknowledging the threat at his back and he pivots smoothly away from the last falling ratman in order to swing his blades at the first curling set of tendrils, feeling (it seems) no qualms at all about reversing them in order to strike with the flat backs, so as to preserve the cutting edges, each of half a dozen hammer-blows slammed into the thrashing stone serpents in less time than it takes to count them.
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To Hit Damage Holy
35 23 7
32 26
43 22 7
25 21 5
37 24
30 21 5
24 21
01:32, Today: Bharash rolled 24 using 8d6 with rolls of 5,2,4,3,1,4,2,3. Seven Holy damages.
01:32, Today: Bharash rolled 32 using 7d8 with rolls of 5,8,4,3,6,3,3. Seven damages.
01:32, Today: Bharash rolled 67 using 7d20 with rolls of 8,5,16,3,15,13,7. Seven attacks.
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Vogh
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Vogh felt the rumble in the chamber as the two pillars released another shot of electricity. Thankful that Deacon had so blocked them from releasing their energy on them once again.
One ratman remained here before she could get to the other ratmen near the corridor in front of her. She slashed Serenity once more across the creature’s neck slicing its head clean from its body.
08:18, Today: Vogh rolled 36,23 using d20+23,d8+20.
She then had a path to the other 4 ratmen and so made her way over, dodging any shots they could manage from their weapons.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon was quite pleased with Yaeshla as the pillar was sealed off from harming his friends. “Well done Yaeshla.” Deacon of course couldn’t hear if she responded back. After this was complete he would research how he could hear everything that the ancient staff was saying.
With the new threat of the skulls dropping from the holes on the ceiling, Deacon thought to seal them up as well but didn’t know if Yaeshla’s wall of force could cover the whole area. He didn’t know if his wall of stone would be able to either.
So without knowing where all the holes are in the ceiling Deacon is at a crossroads on what to do. Can you mark on the map where all the holes are, with a box?
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Narrator GM
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The towers fire again top of round.
In Vogh’s rush across and severing one head, the close proximity of its companion allowed the brute to shoot her square. (10 damage) The blast’s impact felt like a dragon punched her in the chest. Fortunately her magical armor stopped the blow from penetrating her body, but the bruising was going to be considerable.
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Belie
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Belie moved forward and stabbed at one of the flapping tentacles with his magical rapier. But even with his weapon’s considerable enhancements, the stone construction was too strong for his puny weapon to chip away any stone.
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Narrator GM
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Talin and Bharash smashed into the flapping stone tentacles and the body of the structure. Only the extreme magic of each blade kept the metal from shattering against the powerful construct. They each chipped off pieces, but knew the strength of the blows they were landing were not comensurate with the strenth of their blows.
More tentacles lashed out at the group of men attacking the magical beast than they could count. Their quick whits and powerful armor protected them from many, but each lash was impossibly, inhumanly powerful.
First number is attack, second damage. Does a 39 get Bharash? Does a 32 get Talin?
39,17,28,12,28,16,34,17 (Bharash)
26,17,38,16,26,13,32,13 (Talin)
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Narrator GM
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Julie and Deacon immediately had problems as a demon popped into existence directly in front of each of them. Deacon knew a summoning when he saw one. The beast in front of Julie stabbed out with a spear, scoring a hit on the woman. However, Deacon fared far better.
30,13,13,11
The demon rolled a critical failure against deacon, then rolled a 7 on the chart which says it’s fallen prone, provking AOO (forehead smack) so Deacon please write up the impossibly awesomeness you managed 😀
Lightning exploded inside the walls of force again. Belie swayed on the ceiling and rubble flitted down from the ceiling while all the caltrops danced and jingled again.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Seeing that he and Julia were now in dire straights, Deacon quickly formulated a plan that would get them to a safer spot as he saw the Demon before him trip when it lunged after him. First, he dimensionally slid over beside Julia, the movement, he knew wouldn’t allow either of the demons to attack him, Deacon then reached out and concentrated hard as he cast a spell. The demon next to him was almost too much for him but he prevailed and suddenly both Julia and Deacon we behind Talin and Bharash having teleported to the other side of the room.
Use Dimension hop and then cast teleport
08:16, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 21 using 1d20+18. to cast defensively against DC20.
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Bharash
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There’s a loud, obnoxious shriek of stone on metal as the first counter-stroke from the thing – a stop-thrust blow to his breastplate – is almost deflected by a slight shift of one of his wrists, instead striking across his flank and pushing him a step to the side, but other than that each of the constructs blows are turned away with clash after clash of inhumanly powerful weapons and limbs – each of Bharash’s deflections carrying with it a counter-stroke or setting him up to hammer down on the beast, always using the flat backs of his blades rather than risk dulling their edges early.
Every couple of strokes sees him pivot and whirl to slam a sword into the columnar body of the thing, opening progressively larger cracks with a hissing war-cry.
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To Hit Damage
37 23
46,43 26, 78
42 25
25 26
34 20
36,36 22, 66
20 26
14:13, Today: Bharash rolled 35 using 2d20 with rolls of 16,19. Two critical threats.
14:12, Today: Bharash rolled 42 using 7d8 with rolls of 5,8,7,8,2,4,8. Seven actual damages.
14:12, Today: Bharash rolled 81 using 7d20 with rolls of 10,19,15,3,12,19,3. Dammit, seven attacks.
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Talin
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Talin was hurting but he knew that if he were to fall then Bharash would be alone to deal with the tentacled construct and that wasn’t something he would let happen. So, Talin gripped SolarSong tight in both hands and repeatedly swung the blade into the stone construct. Talin did call out though for some aid. “Julia really could use some of that warm healing right about now!”
Hit AC39 for 28, AC37 for 25, AC27 for 19.
19:53, Today: Talin rolled 39,28,37,25,27,19 using d20+25,2d6+16,d20+25,2d6+16,d20+20,2d6+16.
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia didn’t have time to even think as suddenly Deacon was next to her along with a demon that had just injured her. Then as Deacon touched her and cast a spell she was suddenly on the other side of the room. She heard Talin’s call then and prayed aloud to Lothian and sent out a wave of healing energy to heal all her friends.
19:58, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 40 using 9d6.
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Vogh
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When she got hit with the pellet from the weapon the ratman had shot at her, it hurt like a bitch. She knew that she would need to have her breastplate fixed for that one for sure.
Vogh knew that she didn’t need to keep up her one song that aided the others to hit for the ratmen were not well armored but as she saw Talin and Bharash hit the column attacking them she could tell they weren’t doing as much damage as they should be.
The song in their heads changed then fueling the fires within which would be extended to their weapons.
Everyone your weapons now do 5d6 fire damage on top of whatever damage you do.
Vogh then slashed out at the 3 ratmen next to her.
AC22 for 35, AC15 for 46, AC20 for 30, AC14 for 34
20:12, Today: Vogh rolled 22,23,12 using d20+13,d8+15,5d6.
20:12, Today: Vogh rolled 15,22,24,20,19,11,14,19,15 using d20+13,d8+15,5d6,d20+13,d8+15,5d6,d20+13,d8+15,5d6.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh slashed through, with abandon, three more of the ratmen before they could even attack her. She could sense, and already see, more of the beasts coming around the corner, and a couple were much bigger than the others. Ratbrutes, they had faced these before.
Bharash and Talin slashed and chipped chunks of stone off the flailing construct. The men even managed to sever some of the smaller writhing tentacles, sending stone clattering against the floor. If the magical thing noticed, it didn’t show it. Once again, green energy raced up the length of its structure and a wave washed over them as before. (Will save DC 17 or be Slowed)
Belie managed to stab into the stone, and snapped off a smaller tentacle, which left a chunk of stone missing from the constructs core. He tried to stab again, but a thin rapier against a pile of moving stone wasn’t an ideal match. (I still don’t understand how pathfinder allows “precison damage” against constructs, but oh well. Belie rolled 30,7,23,16,10,21 – miss)
To make matters worse, both demons winked out of existence and appeared two steps away from Deacon and Julia, standing on top of dead – or unconscious – ratmen bodies. (remember, moving through areas where bodies are is difficult terrain.) They each stabbed out at the magic users with giant longspears again. (Demons, rolled 22,15,20,12) REMOVED: They cannot teleport and attack in the same action.
OOC: Does a 20 hit Deacon? If so, mark damage and add to your description please.
Talin and Bhrash were both far too quick in their hastened state to allow the tentacles which struck them to gain purchase and wrap them up. So again, all eight of the things attacks lashed out at the attackers.
Against Bharsh: Construct, rolled
39,12,
38,11,
21,14,
24,20
Against Talin: Construct, rolled
33,19,
30,16,
24,17,
19,18
The creepy flaming skulls dropped out of the ceiling again. Opening their mouths rays of fire shot out at Julia and Deacon. (These are for touch AC. So do these hit? If so, flame damage. Flameskulls, rolled 20,14, (julia) 32,18 (deacon))
Vogh found herself facing off against the big rat beast alone, while her friends fought everything else in the room. Swinging with inhuman strenth the ratbrute’s sword scraped against the side wall, leaving a horrible gash in the stone along with eliciting a teeth clenching scraping sound of stone versus steel. The serrated blade wooshed past her head as she ducked the blow and was thankful for her quick whit, as the chunk of stone the beast’s strenth chopped from the opposite wall would have been half her torso. The ratmen behind their champion stabbed at her with spears, but struggled to get past their own hulking ally.
Lighting exploded again inside Deacon’s walls. No one knew how much more of a beating his magical creations could withstand.
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Talin
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20:07, Today: Talin rolled 28 using 1d20+12. will save
Talin didn’t know if he was accomplishing anything with this construct. It was frustrating as hell and the thing seemed to have no problem getting through his and Bharash’s defenses to inflict pain on open fresh wounds on them. Talin heard the music change in his head and hoped that the added damage would change things a bit in their favor.
SolarSong battered the construct’s tentacles, each blow was like a symphony as SolarSong rang out. Chips of stone flew and he hoped it was enough to cut more than one of the tentacles off of the construct.
AC26 for 33, AC32 for 38, AC 23 for 44
20:21, Today: Talin rolled 26,20,13,32,23,15,23,22,22 using d20+23,2d6+12,5d6,d20+23,2d6+12,5d6,d20+18,2d6+12,5d6.
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia hated those damn skulls, she wished they would just go back to where they were from in the ceiling. She needed to aid her friends but healing them so early wasn’t a good use of her spells. So she would make it easier for them to hit while hampering her enemies. “Lothian help us against these enemies that are trying to kill your flock!”
Cast Prayer +1 luck to attack, damage and saves and -1 of the same for the enemies.
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Vogh
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Vogh worked frantically against the large ratman brute that came at her through the little ratmen. Serenity and Calmour were whirling and defending against attacks from the left, right, and straight all while trying to gain an advantage of her own. She chose to take out the two little ones first so she could concentrate on the brute. Serenity went to the left killing the ratman and then Calmour poked out at the right ratman killing that one as well. That left the brute next as she attacked once more with each against the brute.
AC20 for 34, AC24 for 33, AC17 for 36, AC28 for 44
20:52, Today: Vogh rolled 20,20,14,24,19,14,17,20,16,28,22,22 using d20+15,d8+18,5d6,d20+15,d8+18,5d6,d20+15,d8+18,5d6,d20+15,d8+18,5d6.
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Deacon Havenhold
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When the demon appeared next to him, Deacon needed to even the odds quick. Reaching into his component pouch with one hand he began casting a powerful spell to summon some aid to their side. His only command was “Kill the demons!”
Cast Summon Monster 6 to summon 4 Bralani. 20:06, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 4 using 1d3+1.
Each Bralani came to Deacon’s call of aid and when they appeared and saw the demons before them, the celestials didn’t even need the command to kill. It was in their nature to destroy demons and devils.
The one near Deacon slashed with its scimitar once and then twice. Both hits slicing fine cuts into the demon’s flesh.
AC 22, AC21 for a total 40 damage after DR and fire resistance
21:08, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 22,21 using d20+16,d20+11. 1 by Deacon.
The other slashed as well but his attacks weren’t defended by the demon as it had the other bralani to fight off.
AC35 CRIT for 41, AC30 crit missed for 37
21:15, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 35,30 using d20+16,d20+11. 1 on deacon.
21:16, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 21,13,16,16 using d20+16,1d6+10,d20+11,1d6+10. crit checks.
21:23, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 16,15,11,13,15,14,20,17 using d6+10,d6+10,d6+10,d6+10,5d6,5d6,5d6,5d6.
The two near Julia used the same tactics on their demon.
AC27, AC20, AC23, AC19 for a total 39 damage after DR and fire resistance
21:08, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 27,26,20,29 using d20+14,d20+11. 1 by Julia.
21:16, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 23,32,19,32 using d20+16,d20+11. 1 on julia.
21:28, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 12,13,16,16,12,19,21,10 using d6+10,d6+10,d6+10,d6+10,5d6,5d6,5d6,5d6.
I forgot to add flanking to all attacks so if something missed by 2 it actually hit.
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Re: 312760 Bharash
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The flow of magical healing from behind him washes over Bharash mere moments before he’s slapped left, and then right by a pair of tentacle-strikes that slip past his slightly battered guard more or less in the same moment the effortless speed of the haste spell fades, costing him the parry… Not that that keeps him from moving with downright uncanny speed and power to hammer at the thing, his efforts buoyed up by the prayer added to their magical enhancements a moment later.
Targeting the same spot again and again, incandescent flame now erupting from his swords he lashes at the core of the construct, both blades whirling to build up speed before delivering their hammer-heavy blows as he tries to crack the damn’ thing off at the base.
—
To Hit Damage Fire Damage
29 21 19
33 27 24
28 27 19
39 27 21
21 25 18
33 26 18
00:09, Today: Bharash rolled 19,24,19,21,18,18 using 5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6.
00:08, Today: Bharash rolled 38 using 6d8 with rolls of 2,8,8,8,6,6. Six damages.
00:07, Today: Bharash rolled 51 using 6d20 with rolls of 2,6,6,17,4,16. Six attacks.
00:01, Today: Bharash rolled 9 using 1d20+3. Will save.
‘Precision damage’ works on constructs because they still have weaker spots – if you crack the elbow, not the torso an arm might fall off, for example. It’s hinky, but kind of works.
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Narrator GM
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Talin and Bharash were carving chunks of stone off the construct for certain, there was simply so much to the dang thing that it kept on ticking. Talin and Bharash severed smaller tentacles which were flapping at them, dropping stone to the floor. Their magical fire seemed to race across part of the stone but disipated faster than they were used to. Perhaps it was because no hair or clothing adorned the creation to burn.
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Belie
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Belie felt innefective against the giant thing his friends kept wailing against with their far superior weapons, but the flying fire skulls kept blasting Julia and Deacon. Since he was already hanging upside down, he disengaged from the tentacle tower and dashed across the ceiling to stab and slash at the flying skull which was hugging close to the roof where it could dash back into its holes.
His rapier unhinged the undead jaw and shattered bone, then a disurbing scream came from the things flapping jaw as the fire raced across its surface. Clearly its own flames did not completely protect it from Vogh’s dragonfire!
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Bharash
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Swearing to himself, Bharash reaches deeper into his inner wellspring of determination and aggression, unleashing a string of immensely powerful blows, slapping aside the tentacles with one sword and then striking at the heart of the column, only to repeat the series of motions a few seconds later to land another hammer-stroke with the back of his off-hand sword, each one driven home at the apex of a whole-body pivot-and-spin to put the entirety of his weight behind it… The entirety of his weight, and the thorough vehemence of a cry of “Will you just go down already!”
—
To Hit Damage Fire Damage
37 26 19
45, 47 27, 81 12, 36
26 27 18
29 21 13
24 25 21
34, 35 27, 81 20, 60
20:12, Today: Bharash rolled 38 using 2d20 with rolls of 20,18. Critical threat(s).
20:11, Today: Bharash rolled 19,12,18,13,21,20 using 5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6.
20:11, Today: Bharash rolled 39 using 6d8 with rolls of 7,8,8,2,6,8. Six damages.
20:11, Today: Bharash rolled 63 using 6d20 with rolls of 10,18,4,7,7,17. Six attacks.
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Narrator GM
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Bharash’s absolutely insane series of attacks were like a dwarven hammer against an anvil. His blades severed one huge tentacle, then another, then in a reverse of impossibly, inhuman strenth both swords reverse and both slammed into the tower from opposite directions. The dragonborn’s muscles flexed with everything he had, baring down on the thing and cracks began to form along its length. He withdrew and smashed again in the same spots with unthinkable precision. The tower exploded, the magic holding it together and animating it detonated. Shards of stone flew away from the destroyed core like a fireball exploding.
Narrator GM rolled 25 using 10d6 damage. Reflex save dc 18 for half. Fort save DC 18 not to be knocked prone. Julia, Deacon and the Bralani need Ref Save DC 16 and Fort Save DC 16 or take 12 damage each (half on save) due to their distance and Bharash and Talin taking the brunt.
NPC Demons, rolled 51 using 4d20 ((20,3,14,14)).
The demon closest to Julia dodged the shrapnel, but the force of the concussion slammed him against the wall, knocking him to the floor. The other kept his feet and ducked beneath the table to avoid being cut.
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Vogh
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After cutting down the two ratmen and the brute, Vogh could sense that there were a bunch more coming from down the hall. Her best bet would be to hold the corner so as not to be open from attacks down the hall.
Vogh decided to cast a spell to mess with anything coming down the hall.
Cast Grease on the floor 5ft from me.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon tried to shield himself from the hail of stone as the vine construct erupted sending pieces of sharp stone fragments through the air. He managed to be blocked by most of it by Bharash’s large imposing figure.
He marveled at how efficient the bralani were with dealing with their counterpart. The two bralani on his side sliced chunks of the demons flesh from its body and died under their assault.
As he looked to Julia’s side the demon had tripped and the bralani there took full advantage and killed that one as well.
Total damage on demon at Deacon’s side this time was 75. On Julia’s side it was 71.
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Narrator GM
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The flameskull Belie attacked disappeared up into the small ceiling holes, cursing in the rogue in the abyssal tongue. Its companion flew along the ceiling, hugging the stone roof, and detonated a fireball again. Flames washed over the four friends, the Bralani and the ratmen. Charred hair stench stole everyone’s breath for a moment. (NPC Flameskull, rolled 15 fireball. Ref 15)
Bharash and Talin were both surprised as a pit opened up spontaneously beneath them. No trap doors opened, the floor didn’t fall away, the pit just appeared and was full of spikes along the walls and at the bottom of the 50 foot drop. (Ref DC 16 or take 19 damage from spikes and fall. Save and you avoid the pit altogether, no dmg.)
In the hallway swarms of rats clattered into Vogh’s grease trap and flailied, sliding all over one another and into the wall. It would take several moments (that round) for the pile of rats to get through the slick spot on the floor and reach the woman. But she sensed even more of the ratmen coming toward her. She also felt the mind of the albino rat lord they had spoke with prior, though she could not see him around the corner. Then, her mind picked up a sickening consciousness she had never felt before. Animalistic, but intelligent enough for her to sense. Her three friends had met these before, but she never had.
Across the way the door they had originally entered swung open and rats poured down the stairs, led by two huge dire-rats salivating as they looked at the group. Behind them stood a ratman with a tall staff who was gesturing and articulating. The front row of ratmen all carried dragon rifles. The room shook with the explosions of the weapons. Shards of stone shattered off the wall behind Deacon and Julia, none of the projectiles connecting with the duo, or their bralani allies. Immediately the rats handed their rifles to the group behind who seemed to have already loaded replacements. The gesturing shamman had clearly been casting a spell as wind swept across the room accompanied by an almost happy tinkling of the caltrops being pushed to one side of the room, opening the way for the hulking rats to charge. (Next round, unless they are dead)
[Private to GM: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/spiked-pit]
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Bharash
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Growing more fervent with each blow, Bharash takes to unleashing a string of furious curse-words with each landed blow, every one following on more loudly and sulphurously than the one before it until the column finally shatters… And of course, explodes.
The Dragonborn more or less catches the brunt of the blast, but in the last moments he partially turns and lifts his shoulder in order to take something of the shrapnel across his pauldron, couter and vambrace, a shift in angle that makes him able to weather the blast-force with no more than the most modest backwards sway…
…and which means that, when the pit opens under him he’s able to snap his legs out to catch two edges of the pit before he can fall, dextrously performing a splits manoeuvre with a startled shout of “Bahomet’s Balls!”, his feet each catching on one corner wall and giving him purchase to lean over backwards and smoothly roll away from the sudden drop with a grumbling snarl of “What kind of half-assed amateur hour is this? You could have equipped half a dungeon with this junk, not front-load it all into one r—!”
Whatever the final word he’s about to say is is completely and utterly washed out by the enormous roar in a confined space of no less than six dragon guns going off in a stone chamber, utterly deafening anyone within earshot and throwing out enormous clouds of heavy smoke… Into which Bharash lunges with a growl of “- — ——- —- —– — — —!”, tapping his battle meditation as he does so, through which his paternal bloodline expresses itself as his stride and limbs lengthen and he gains in both size and power alarmingly as he lopes across the room to loom out of the gunsmoke with a resounding roar and an almost casual backhand aimed at the left-hand dire rat.
—
Bharash saves (lots) and avoids falling. He then steps around the trap and single-moves to the gun-line, where he appears out of the smoke and backhands dire rat, because I forgot he had a breath weapon. Attacking the animals, his attacks are lethal (so add four to hit to each). The critical hit will be for the other dire rat if it moves to attack him. ^_^
The first rat is hit for 24 damage with a 33, the second takes a critical of 44 (43 to confirm) for 84 damage. Oh! Plus 5D6 fire on each attack, uhm 15 & 17 respectively.
22:14, Today: Bharash rolled 37 using 1d20+19. Intimidate.
19:57, Today: Bharash rolled 15,17 using 5d6,5d6. Fire and fire on the AoO.
19:52, Today: Bharash rolled 43 using 1d20+24. Critical threat.
19:52, Today: Bharash rolled 44,28 using 1d20+24,1d8+20. AoO if one shoots or moves much.
19:52, Today: Bharash rolled 33,24 using 1d20+24,1d8+20. Backhanding a rat (with a pommel).
19:37, Today: Bharash rolled 24 using 1d20+11. Reflex save.
19:36, Today: Bharash rolled 30 using 1d20+16. Fortitude save.
19:35, Today: Bharash rolled 18 using 1d20+11. Reflex save.
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Julia Graymantle
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As the vine construct exploded Julia turned to not have the shrapnel hit her face which made her off-balance and she slipped on the gore and fell prone.
With no enemy near her besides the flaming skull above her Julia stood and unleashed another blast of healing energy to heal everyone near her. She then watched through the smokey room as Bharash began to grow in size and then roared as he rushed across the room.
heal everyone of 30 HP
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Talin
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Talin avoided the worse part of the exploding construct by turning to the side the unexpected benefit of this came a moment later when a pit opened below him. Having turned, Talin was near the edge and just made a simple desperate leap to avoid the pit. With the momentum Talin moved over next to Vogh and the oncoming swarm of rats. As he got there he swung SolarSong at the swarm. The flaming blade cutting through the rats like butter.
08:57, Today: Talin rolled 31,22,20 using d20+20,2d6+11,5d6
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Vogh
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Vogh heard the eruption behind her but she was too far away to be affected by it except it almost making her deaf. Shaking her head even as Talin came up next to her to destroy the one rat swarm, Vogh slashed into the remaining swarm with her blade ablaze cutting into their midst and burning rat hair and flesh.
AC39 for 31 damage.
10:47, Today: Vogh rolled 39,16,15 using d20+19,d8+15,5d6. Attack swarm. It is a crit but I think the damage was enough to kill it anyways.
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Deacon Havenhold
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The bralani were hovering over the floor and the blast didnt really have much effect on them with their natural resistance.
With the demons dead the looked for other targets. They saw the flaming skull and 1 from each side flew up and attacked it. The other two put away their blades and pulled out bows to take shots through the smoke at the coming hoard to the bottom of the hall.
Hit rat shaman AC 27 for 31, AC 23 for 36, AC22 for 31, AC26 for 25.
10:56, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 27,13,18,23,16,22 using D20+16,d6+10,5d6,d20+11,d6+10,5d6. Shoot rat shaman.
10:55, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 22,14,17,26,12,13 using D20+16,d6+10,5d6,d20+11,d6+10,5d6. Shoot rat shaman.
Hit flame skull AC28 for 28, AC15 FOR 31, AC28 for 34, AC30 for 31.
10:55, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 28,15,13,13,11,20 using D20+16,d6+10,5d6,d20+11,d6+10,5d6. Attack flame skull.
10:55, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 28,12,22,30,14,17 using D20+16,d6+10,5d6,d20+11,d6+10,5d6. Attack flame skull.
10:47, Today: Vogh rolled 39,16,15 using d20+19,d8+15,5d6.
Deacon had been getting ready to ask Yaeshla to cast fireball on the ratmen that had just shown, but Bharash had other plans for them as he streaked across the now clear floor and grew to large proportions. Deacon had never seen Bharash do this in all the time they had adventures together and found it quite scary.
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Narrator GM
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[Private to GM: For next round! https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic…/infernal-challenger
Or this one:
Acidic Curse
Evocation Acid
Level: Sor/Wiz1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/two levels)
Target: One creature with eyes
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates, DC 16
Spell Resistance: Yes
You cause a victim’s eyes to burst with acid, inflicting 1d6 points of acid damage and blinding the target for 1d4 rounds. Creatures who suffer no damage from the acid (due to a successful saving throw, an immunity, or a spell granting resistance) are not blind.]
To a one the ratmen panicked upon seeing the now larger dragon warrior charging toward them and single handedly destroyed both of their huge pets in mere seconds. The second of the gigantic rats tried to lunge and attack Bharash, but the raging warrior smashed in its brains instead.
As the group threw down their weapons and started to charge up the stairs their shamman was hit by a barrage of arrows. It tried to let out a scream, but instead fire gouted from his open maw, then his eyes burst and flames licked out of his empty skull as he was burned from the inside out. This caused further panic and the ratmen screamed in fear, scrambling over one another to escape this room of death. Likewise, the Bralani assault shattered the flaming skull into tiny bone fragments which clattered against the floor.
Talin’s swipe of solar song wouldn’t kill but a couple rats in the swarm, however, the fire licking off the blade certainly burned him the lot into smoking husks. Burnt hair and rotten trash stole their breath once again. Explosions sounded from around the bend of the hallway causing a rain of broken stone to fly at Talin and Vogh. They couldn’t yet see the assailants, but it seemed the rats were merely going to lose volley after volley of projectiles to drive the dangerous invaders back.
As the cocophony died down a gravlly voice shouted out from the center of the room.
“YOU! MORTAL! COME DIE ON MY GLAIVE! DOTH’TUTH SUGGELAAR WILL BE YOUR DOOM!”
A fifty foot ring stood dead center in the room made of smoldering ash, embers and glowing red like the inside of a dying fire. This seething devil deftly wielded a vicious, saw-toothed glaive which he was spinning as he paced inside the circle, shouting at bharash. Below its toothy maw writhed a hideous, twitching beard that seemed to move of its own accord. The red skinned brute looked to be almost on fire himself, pointing a nasty claw at Bharash. It was heavily muscled and stood a little taller than the dragon warrior, a fearsome beast of the hells indeed.
[Private to Vogh: Give me a DC 16 Fort Save]
[Private to Deacon Havenhold: Deacon senses the skull is starting to move away from them. “Up” on the map in relation to him. Beyond the wall “behind” him and moving away further “up” the map.]
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Bharash
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‘Scary’ is certainly one word for Bharash as he vanishes into the cloud of smoke, shadows clinging to his growing form and a general air of ‘someone is about to have a bad day’ going with him… The roar he emits into the teeth of the gun-line would deafen most, were they not already reeling from the gunfire… Stepping on the cadaver of one of the rats with a single massive foot, Bharash shouts at the retreating rodents, “–a-‘- –gh-, -o-‘- -et— -u-!” – but forgoes any cheap shots at their retreating backs, instead giving a rather jaunty roll of his shoulders and a resounding ‘chuff’ sound as he moves to step back (the healing rolling out from his allies doing much to ease his electrical burns)…
…which is when the devil appears, leaving the enormous Dragonborn to look at him in a puzzled fashion before shaking his head and pointing at one ear, answering “S–ry, – c–‘t h-a- y–, t– dr—o- -un- w–e -oo –ud!” at something of a semi-deafened shout.
—
Before Bharash does anything, I’ll wait for R20 to update, but I couldn’t resist shooting down that challenge line, having already established how deaf Bharash is after the rounds of gunfire. ^_^
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Talin
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Talin didn’t know what all was left but when the bearded devil showed up Talin grabbed the wand that would give him the effects of a shield spell and used it on himself.
Cast shield on self
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia watched in fear as the devil appeared and quickly prepared a spell to keep it from teleporting. Unfortunately, the loud noises must have messed with her concentration and the spell fizzled against the spell resistance of the devil.
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Narrator GM
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Wall of Force will fall on Round 11 and 12
[Private to GM:
Zilth 18
Ratlord 16
Grealdan 13
Vocaetun 7
Theral 2]
Again the towers exploded with lightning, if the devil noticed he didn’t show it, single mindedly focused on Bharash at the moment. Anyone paying attention could tell the magic of the wall looked impossibly thin, like it would break and shatter on the next blast for certain.
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Bharash
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Offering a cheerful thumb’s up to the devil, Bharash – who looks tired, but happy – heads up the stairs he was stood next to in order to close the door to the lair and throw the bolt, with the obvious intention of keeping all those damn’ ratmen from finding their courage and heading back downstairs again at any point.
This… Probably wasn’t what said devil had in mind.
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Vogh
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Vogh changed her music once more to that of aiding the others to hit their targets better when she saw the devil which she knew was immune to fire damage, having come from the bowls of fire itself. “Deacon can you come over here and use that wand that casts fireballs the little halfling had used on us? There are quite a few ratmen down this corridor here.”
Vogh then cast shield on herself to protect her better.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon heard Vogh’s call in his head and as he moved over to her he pulled out the wand they recovered. With a quick peek around the corner, Deacon couldn’t see a lot because of all the smoke, but he did see a few ratmen in the front and so he activated the wand and let lose a fireball.
08:05, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 12 using 5d6. Fireball DC 14 for half. the red circle marks where the fireball would go off.
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Deacon Havenhold
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As the devil suddenly appeared each Bralani knew they had another evil being to vanquish. They had already taken care of a demon and now it was their turn to test their metal against a devil. The two with their bows ready shot two arrows each with deadly accuracy. The other two flew in a circular route to get within flanking of the devil and attacked as well. Each communicating their intention as they flew to their target. As the fourth Bralani cut into the devil it was already dissipating having been utterly destroyed. The evil scream as it was destroyed added to the cacophony of the whole room. Almost together the Bralani said, “challenge accepted and defeated!”
AC27 for 18, AC27 for 16, AC27 for 21, AC23 for 20 for a total of 75 for the archers
AC26 for 17, miss, AC38 for 20, AC26 for 18 for a total of 55 for the melee. Total of 130 which is more than double a normal bearded devil has so it should be dead.
08:14, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 27,18,27,16 using D20+23,d6+15,d20+18,d6+15. 4.
08:14, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 27,21,23,20 using D20+23,d6+15,d20+18,d6+15. 3.
08:13, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 26,17,17,17 using D20+20,d6+15,d20+15,d6+15. 2.
08:13, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 38,20,26,18 using D20+20,d6+15,d20+15,d6+15. 1.
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Narrator GM
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“PARLEY!” A familiar voice shouted out from around the corner. The heavily armed and armored, white ratman stepped forward near the corner where Vogh, Talin and Belie stood. Heavy, black armor clanked as he stepped over the fallen bodies of the ratmen felled by Deacon’s fireball. His nasty, serrated sword tinged in red inlay was with him as before.
“Parley.” He spoke again, meeting their eyes. “It is you. I feared you would return.” The white ratmans red eyes scanned the devestation he could see from the vantage of the hallway. (roll sense Motive checks [Private to GM: he seemed not to care about the deaths of his kin])
“You’ve made quite a mess of my troops. Destroyed our guardian. I know you seek the skull but my masters will never relinquish the item. What can I do to persuade you into leaving?”
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Bharash
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Bharash, sliding the bolt closed on the door cheerfully slaps it with the palm of his hand and then turns to jog back down across the war-torn chamber and past his allies, motioning for most everyone to follow along – since there’s things to be getting on with and he doesn’t like the look of those Force Walls.
Of course, he has no idea at all about the presence of the Grease spell in the charred, blood-spattered corridor filled with burned hair and tiny corpses, and when he hits it he’s moving at a healthy jog, whereupon his feet keep going and his arms start whirling… Presenting the albino Ratkin champion with the sight of a high-speed, windmilling Dragonborn shooting across the corridor, east to west before hitting the far wall with a sound like a tinkers wagon crashing into a smithy, peeling off it a moment later to land in a smeared, stained and badly concussed heap that promptly groans “I hate magic.”
—
Double-moving out of line-of-effect from the statues. ^_^
16:04, Today: Bharash rolled 9 using 1d20+7. Grease saving throw.
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Vogh
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22:13, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 24 using 1d20+15. sense motive.
22:13, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 9 using 1d20+8. sense motive.
22:12, Today: Talin rolled 15 using 1d20+6. sense motive.
22:12, Today: Vogh rolled 20 using 1d20+12. sense motive.
Vogh heard the same voice from the day prior. The one who led them on a wild goose chase through the sewers. The one who had already lied to them. She had gotten one word out when Bharash came running past her and Talin. She was about to warn him about the grease but it was too late as he hit the grease and then the wall on the other side. The clang of metal was almost as loud as the gunfire. It kind of stole the moment as Vogh was about to lay into the albino.
Vogh started again though as she looked to Bharash trying to right himself, “So now that we are killing all your kin you want to parlay. Should have thought about that the first time we spoke. Tell you what, we can talk if you tell me how to avoid the lightning pillars in the main room here. If you don’t we will kill you. Even clumsy here will help.”
Vogh was trying to intimidate but Bharash’s show of clumsiness ruined it. Had to roll with the numbers!
22:24, Today: Vogh rolled 18 using 1d20+14. Intimidate
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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Vogh noticed the ratman didn’t even seem to care about his kin. His expression was almost impassive, in fact, he looked more annoyed when commenting about the construct being destroyed.
The white ratman stepped back, dropping a hand to his sword but not drawing as Bharash crashed past the hulking ratbrute’s body, the four other ratman bodies, the piles of dead and smoldering rats and finally slips on the grease. The warrior didn’t have a prayer charging through the area, but that didn’t stop the bloodlust from making him try.
“Unfortunately I have no control over the towers… and they will likely fire again in a few seconds…” He said, looking over their shoulders and into the room.
“Perhaps you should step out of the room to avoid their blast. They might not loose their magic if you’re in the hallway.”
He steped back as did the two mounted ratmen move their disturbing mounts backward too. The group had to act quickly for they know only seconds remained before the lightning was loosed again. However, there was a also a pile of death in their way.
Make acrobatics checks, DC 12, to make it into the hallway. You can move into the room as well.
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Re: 284323 Vogh
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Vogh will dispel the grease and then everyone will move up into the main chamber.
It is WAY too crowded but I moved her where I want them.
07:59, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 34 using 1d20+14. acrobatics check.
07:59, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 21 using 1d20+8. acrobatics check.
07:59, Today: Talin rolled 17 using 1d20+16. acrobatics check.
07:58, Today: Vogh rolled 25 using 1d20+17. acrobatics check.
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Re: 312760 Bharash
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Bharash performs a surprisingly effective fish-out-of-water kip-up motion that sees him flop once then rise to his feet in a reverse rattle of metal plates before he manages to clear his head by shaking it, muttering something or other about slippery floor signage then growling at the albino “So far, I’ve only killed the two dire rats that went for me. Everyone else, I knocked out or chased off… But since every second we delay, you get to pull more preparations, how about this? I walk down that hall through anything you’ve got… And I’ll do my best to leave as many of your kin alive as I can. If you can stop me, well good for you. Otherwise, at least you can tell your masters that you all tried.”
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Narrator GM
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The ratman looks unconcerned where Bharash indicated then back. Thankfully the lightning did not flash again with everyone out of the room. “Well that is no hallway. It’s merely the nest of the ratmen you already killed. And that way leads into the sewers. You don’t have the full picture. The skull is being taken from this place and you’ll not be able to find it, even if you kill everything on this level. Better for you to depart before my masters decide to send darker and greater powers against you…”
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Deacon Havenhold
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Vogh had relayed what the albino ratman had said to Deacon and asked him to check the location once more. Deacon had already felt that the skull was moving away even before Vogh had asked.
“I felt it a moment ago, it is moving that way and it is starting to move down as well.” Deacon pointed behind the albino ratman
DM can you draw an arrow in the direction where it is heading?
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Vogh
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Vogh followed Deacon’s finger-pointing and then asked, “If it is going down, tell us how we can follow and we will leave your nest once more. If you lie to me again I will come back and burn this all down!”
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Narrator GM
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“I didn’t lie to you before miss. The skull is not in our part of the complex. My masters reside on the opposite side of the wall from where you entered. The right side. They have likely fled by now after all the devestation you’ve brought. I don’t know. My duty is to protect this entrance. Though why the fools see fit to even have this entrance, despite my many recommendations to the contrary, continues to frustrate me. Oh. Sorry. If you move across the main room, the wall there is an illusion and there is a locked door beyond. Before you ask or threaten to kill me, none of us have a key. We are not allowed into their area, nor deeper into the complex either.”
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Vogh
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Vogh wasn’t going to talk semantics with the ratman. Finally, when the albino had pointed them in the direction of where to go Vogh said in almost an apologetic tone, “I am sorry about this. If you had given us the direction the first time we wouldn’t have been forced to kill your people or guardian. Mind if I ask, who made those lightning pillars?”
Whether or not the ratman said, Vogh said to the others in their heads, “Okay, let’s get moving while we still have some of our protections up.” Vogh then began to move towards the illusioned wall and put her hand through it. The mere fact of doing this let her see what was actually there and move towards the door. “Belie, can you unlock that thing?”
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Narrator GM
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Rolling for who tower hits first, Belie, Narrator GM rolled 1 using 1d6.
1Be 2Vo 3Ta 4Bha 5De 6Ju. 41hp damage. Half on DC 19 reflex save. Same damage for everyone in line at DC 17.
Belie rolled 24 using 1d20+13 ((11)). Reflex Save.
As soon as Belie stepped into the room from the hallway, both towers erupted with lightning once more. The one nearest the group had destroyed its wall of force seconds ago, so the blast shot toward Belie. The rogue was ready for this response though and summersaulted forward. He deftly moved past the dead bodies. While dodging he drew and threw a dagger at the wall before them, which the dagger passed directly through to thunk into wood beyond the illusion.
Checking over the door, Belie immediately snatched his hand back as another blast of lightning activated from a magical trap. He narrowly avoided being shocked by the unexpected and magical trap.
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Belie
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“Sard it all!” The rogue cursed, snapping an angry look back at the group behind him. “You all are supposed to use your damnable magical sight to watch out for this magical garbage!” He quickly turned back, muttering to himself about hating magic before pulling out his pick set and setting to work.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh could stretch out her senses of the mind through the wooden barrier and sense several more ratmen in the room beyond, most of which felt MUCH different than those they just faced. She could feel the chaos and confusion in their minds, not at her touch, but simply as their default state of being. She also sensed three men and one woman. Two of the men were humans, the woman was half-drow and the male was a harrow elf, twisted elves from Ghul’s experiments.
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Bharash
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Bharash, who had been bracing himself to walk up the passageway into the teeth of the Albino Ratman and any minions he had left with the avowed intention of giving them a good kicking (and mostly leaving them alive if he could) finds himself being dragged away by the others rather after the fashion of a small lad in the playground or possibly a Chavette being told ‘he’s not worf it luv!’ by some overly-handsy friends… His boots kick up a little ash and muck as he’s hauled off, protesting about his needing to follow through with his threat or the ratmen will laugh at him or some other such nonsense, but apparently it gets short shift from the party, as a moment later he’s sulking at the back of the group with his arms crossed, kicking at the cobblestones and waiting to see what the front line are getting up to, beyond their illusion.
—
21:21, Today: Bharash rolled 25 using 1d20+7. zap.
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Vogh
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“Sorry Belie, was just getting to the other side before being hit again by that darn lightning.” Vogh said with a whisper.
When they were hit by the lightning pillar once more, Vogh growled audibly. The damn things were a pain in the ass, she wanted one. Vogh would come down here again sometime on a more diplomatic mission. Everyone managed to get over to the other side without too much of a problem.
Now on the other side, Vogh reached out with her mind once more and felt intelligence and chaos on the other side, “There are two strange ratmen unlike I have sensed before along with 3 men and a woman. One half-drow man and a harrow elven woman I can tell are twisted by Ghul. If we are attacked we hit them fast and hard. Deacon is the skull still moving away?”
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Narrator GM
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Painted in horrific combinations of color, this room was disturbing to spend time in, unless one is a chaos cultist, insane, or both. Two folding wooden screens created a partition between the main chamber
and another area in the northwest corner. The main room had no furnishings, although an everburning torch rested in a sconce along the north wall, and a normal lantern full of oil hung on a hook on the south wall. Just focusing in this room prooved difficult due to the insane patterns and colors that covered every surface of the stone.
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Vogh
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With her movement still hastened along with the others, Vogh charged into the room right at a large ratman. With her music in the minds of the others, the melody was a mix of her two songs. +2 to hit and +3d6 fire damage. She swung Serenity into the midsection of the big rat.
15:29, Today: Vogh rolled 30,24,8 using d20+18,d8+120,3d6.
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Deacon Havenhold
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With the wand of fireballs still in his hand and a whole gaggle of ratmen in the other room Deacon said the command word once more and released a little red pea as it unerringly sped towards its release point. As it exploded, Deacon could see that it wasn’t too powerful of a blast, but it would wound many of the lesser ratmen and possibly kill them
15:34, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 12 using 5d6. Fireball DC 14 for half.
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Narrator GM
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The big beast grunted then bellowed at her when Vogh’s swing struck, then fire raced along its diseased looking body. The creature was unhappy, but unfortunately still alive. When Vogh entered the room, she also sensed another human whom she could not see, just to her left and a little behind her.
Bharash and Deacon need to go. Belie’s action was opening the door.
After you both post, the man on the left whose token has chainmail and a mace will speak to you.
Behind the rows of ratmen the group saw three individuals. A human man on their far left wore grey robes with an iron breastplate bearing the symbol of a coiled asp, ready to strike. His mace looked like a serpent’s head, similar to that on his chest. His hair was long on top, and pulled back in a braid, but shaved on the sides.
Beside him was a half-elf woman of exotic beauty wearing a long red cape and had a charcoal-grey skin tone.
Finally a hideous Harrow elf was wearing a hooded maroon robe and silver bracers. He held a wand in one hand, and a quaterstaff in the other.
“STOP!” The man’s voice boomed with authority. “You have entered the Outer Reaches unbidden and you do not belong! I know why you’ve come, but your quest is folly. The items you seek have been taken from here and will not return, nor will you ever be able to find or follow them again! Begone from this place before my master sends even more reinforcements to destroy you for inconveniencing him so!”
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Bharash
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Things look fairly crowded in there to Bharash, and with the doorway serving as a natural choke-point for any attempt to rush the group, he leans towards spreading the team out as much as possible to make them a more troublesome target for incoming spells, something which sees him dart through the door and jink hard-right before seeking to turn the enemy flank, backhanding the first rat he gets close to without a second thought…
…he’ll worry about killing them if they actually start to prove individually dangerous.
—
00:07, Today: Bharash rolled 41,21 using 1d20+23,1d8+18. Non-lethal backhand on the left-hand rat.
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Talin
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After the fireball erupted and the man had spoken, Talin didn’t listen. His woman was inside and already striking the diseased-looking ratman before her. If he didn’t get in there and help her he had no idea what would happen. He began a song of his own though this wasn’t directed at his friend and instead the song itself was a dire warning to the enemy before him. His satire spoke of the doom that would become of them should they attack.
Begin satire song giving them -3 to hit and attack.
Talin then swings SolarSong into the waiting diseased ratman he had moved to.
08:38, Today: Talin rolled 41,22,10,4 using d20+23,2d6+14,3d6(fire),2d6(holy).
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia moved into the room not wanting to let the others get too far away from her so she could heal them if needed. So, the skull is gone along with the other items and by the sounds of it, they will do their best to mask the identity of the items moving forward. That wasn’t a good thing… They would need to deal with these people here quickly and then follow the trail before they are able hide them for good. In the meantime, she thought about using a spell she hadn’t used in quite some time. She looked to the heavily armored in the grey robe and said, “You will kill your companion to your left(the woman in the red cape).”
Cast Murderous command on the man DC17 will save
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Deacon Havenhold
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Each bralani moved into the room, taking note of the room’s chaos in different spots. The clutter of ratmen meant they couldn’t use their flanking methods but it didn’t matter.
The two with their scimitars in hand went forward and steered left and right and spotted a ratman they wanted to test their mettle against. Each swung their blades at their targets.
Hit AC19 for 30 and AC 20 for 28
09:56, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 19,19,11,20,19,9 using D20+18,d6+13,3d6,D20+18,d6+13,3d6. melee.
The two archers moved in and left and took aim at the humans in the back. Each taking a shot at the maroon-robed man who seemed to be the leader.
Hit AC30 for 21 and AC24 for 23
09:54, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 30,13,8,24,13,10 using D20+18,d8+12,3d6,D20+18,d8+12,3d6. archers.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh could smell the horrible stench of rot emenating from the two huge rat beasts in front of her. She odor nearly stole her breath away as fire raced across its fur! Rot, burning hair, moist trash on fire, all combined to make a truly horrific stench.
Talin experienced much the same as Vogh. SolarSong opened a horrible gash on the rat, but it seemed not to notice its own blood and ichor spilling forth. He knew it wasn’t undead, as the blood was fresh and red, thus the thing had to be in a rage or magicked in some way.
Deacon’s fireball only exacerbated the stench! (Everyone make a DC 15 Con save or be Sickened: –2 penalty on attack, damage, saving throws, skill checks, ability checks.)
Bharash rushed around the room and flat-bladded the chaotic looking ratman into unconsciousness. He didn’t have time to celebrate because as the creature fell, glass orbs in each of its hands dropped as well, shattering on impact, as did one of the orbs strapped to its body in a leather harness which housed many more.
Bharash needs to make 3 saves:
1) DC 17 Fort Save or 4d6 damage from rot, and 1d4 Con damage. Successful save: 2d6 damage and no con.
2) DC 18 Fort: 6d6 points of desiccating damage, half on save, (Talin has had this happen before) as all the moisture in the area is destroyed, dehydrating you.
3) DC 15 Reflex Save: 6d6 (half on save) fire damage.
The other ratman, which held several orbs just like the one Bharash hit, jumped back as three effects happened in rapid succession. First, an unholy and terrible rotteness cloud washed over Bharash. Next, it felt like all the water had just been sucked out of him, and to make that even worse, the final orb shattered and exploded into a gout of flame!
Julia’s spell washed over the man, who glared back at her with murderous intent, but not at his companion. (Narrator GM, for the NPC, rolled 20) He spit out a spell himself and Julia felt an unredemably evil touch her. (DC 16 Fort save.)
Deacon likewise felt his eyes bulge painfully as the wizard pointed a wand his way and spoke the command word. (DC 14 Fort Save)
The half-elf woman knocked an arrow and shot at Bharash, then shot a second in rapid succession. Both arrows went wide as she tried to miss her rat-man allies.
To the far left the Bralani felt a stabbing pain enter its back from an invisible source. Its celestial body fought off the poison it felt pumping into its blood stream. However, one stab then another opened nasty wounds on the creature. Furthering its trouble, the flying man couldn’t see its attacker. (NPC Invisible, rolled 5,6,36 = 47 damage)
Each of the huge rats swung lumbering swings at Vogh and Talin, but neither connected with the powerful swings. Both bards had close calls, but were able to duck the large blades.
On both flanks, two ratmen had bizarre contraptions sparking energy from their brain, down their spine, and out to both claws and their tail. Two claws sparked with their electrified tail. However, neither of them even had a moment to act before the Bralani cut them down, dead.
The Bralani’s first arrow hit the wizard, but glanced off him, only leaving a small scratch, like it hit stone. Voghg’s magical fire raced across him but seemd not to harm him at all. The magic users knew this effect and could even do the same thing, protecting themselves from energy types. The second arrow hit an invisible field and broke without harming him.
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Bharash
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OOC: First observation: If ‘falling down’ breaks those vials, I want to know how a fireball didn’t sequentially detonate everything they were holding and wearing, making this a very short (and very funny) fight. Also, I hope one of our bards has shatter.
—
Reeling from the blast, and retching from the stench of combined alchemical compounds, Bharash grits his teeth around his rising bile and wades into the mass of ratfolk and magi, blades beginning to whirl in an altogether more lethal fashion as he acknowledged that there’s simply no way to preserve the life of someone who has actually strapped fragile explosive devices to their person…
…and therefore no reason to hold back, as for the second time today he emits a surging roar, a basso cry that dopplers sharply downwards as the throat emitting it pulls shadow-stuff to itself to add strength and power to his frame… More shadow-stuff flows outwards over his limbs, darkening them as his blades too, gain a dreadful heft that only enhances their ability to carve through flesh and bone with impunity.
All in all, it seems that he’s having a bad day and has, as a result decided that it needs to be spread around a little.
—
Saving throws:
Bharash fails the sickness save the only way that he can, with a natural 1.
For the globes, that’s 33, 28 & 18 respectively.
Bharash takes 8D6 (39) from assorted forms of damage, and nothing else.
Bharash starts attacking. Starting with the wizard. When the wizard falls, the closest gun-rat. When the gun-rat falls, the zap-rat. The last attack is a bite, aimed at the alchemy rat. Bharash does not let go after biting him (if he falls) to prevent further sympathetic detonations.
To Hit Damage
45 34, +7 fire, +9 if evil.
51(40) 32(96), +5(15) fire. (If 37 confirms a critical).
38 29, +9 fire, +6 if evil.
42 33, +9 fire.
35 31, +5 fire, +6 if evil.
35 31, +9 fire.
39 17, +8 fire.
16:34, Today: Bharash rolled 9,6,6 using 2D6,2D6,2D6. For evil.
16:33, Today: Bharash rolled 7,5,9,9,5,9,8 using 2D6,2D6,2D6,2D6,2D6,2D6,2D6. Fire is smaller now.
14:57, Today: Bharash rolled 4 using 1d6. And the bite.
14:57, Today: Bharash rolled 11,9,6,10,8,8 using 2d6,2d6,2d6,2d6,2d6,2d6. I forgot that the swords got big.
14:53, Today: Bharash rolled 9 using 1d20. Critical threat.
14:53, Today: Bharash rolled 13 using 5d6.
14:53, Today: Bharash rolled 4 using 1d4. Bite.
14:51, Today: Bharash rolled 17,9,18,22,20,13 using 5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6,5D6.
14:51, Today: Bharash rolled 25 using 6d8 with rolls of 6,1,1,2,7,8. Chop-chop.
14:50, Today: Bharash rolled 106 using 7d20 with rolls of 14,20,12,16,14,14,16. Wizard-Gunner-Zaprat, the bite is grabbing alchemirat.
14:41, Today: Bharash rolled 1 using 1d20. Fortitude save.
14:39, Today: Bharash rolled 39 using 8d6. Kabooooooom!
14:37, Today: Bharash rolled 46 using 3d20 with rolls of 20,15,11. Fortitude, Fortitude, Reflex.
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Vogh
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The explosions on the right side of the room as Vogh stands, catching her sight for a mere second while she dodges the clumsy strikes from the large rat thing in front of her. She couldn’t do anything to help Bharash at this time except to take out as many of the ratmen as possible, starting with the big guy before her.
With the song still raging, Vogh cut into the large ratman with both Serenity and Clamour. She wanted to finish it off so she could move deeper into the gaggle of ratmen.
Hit AC 28 for 32, AC38(Crit) for 58, AC26 for 29, AC32 (Crit check 16) for 32 or if crit 61
07:56, Today: Vogh rolled 28,25,7,38,25,8,26,24,5,32,26,6 using d20+18,d8+21,2d6,d20+18,d8+21,2d6,d20+18,d8+21,2d6,d20+13,d8+21,2d6. attack.
07:57, Today: Vogh rolled 30,25,16,29 using d20+18,d8+21,d20+13,d8+21. crit checks.
There’s a place in the city
Just down in the sewer
All the Rats went crazy
Got fangs made of silver
Kill those rats
They’re cruisin’ underground
Their eyes full of anger
If they can’t hurt you
They will find another
Kill those rats
They will shoot down your father
They will spit on your mother
Eat your daughter
And slaughter your brother
KILLIN’ RATS
[Refrain]
Those Rats need a scratch!
Old cats they quiver!!
‘Cause it makes them remember
About a long time ago
When they fought rats’ father
KILLIN’ RATS
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon had tried to dodge out of the way of the acid as it sped towards him but with all the explosions and confusion the acid hit him square in the eyes blinding him momentarily. He didn’t want to take a chance at casting a spell for he could get his friends in the crossfire. He did know though that a few of their spells were about to expire particularly the one that is hastening all their movements.
So, even as Vogh’s song raged, Deacon cast his spell centered on Talin to keep up their deadly dance of blades.
Caste Haste for another 11 rounds of speed.
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Deacon Havenhold
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The one bralani that was hit by a sneak attack turned and tried to spot where the invisible attacker was.
08:24, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 33 using 1d20+15.
He wasn’t sure if he knew so he stepped back 5ft and fired his bow repeatedly at it trying to hit the unseen.
Only 1 possible hit AC25 for 31 damage.
08:30, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 29,16,10,17,25,18,13,89,21,14,15,31 using D20+18,d8+12,3d6,d100,D20+18,d8+12,3d6,d100,d20+13,d8+12,3d6,d100. 1-50 miss.
The nearest bralani cut down the strange electric ratman who had somehow bypassed his natural immunity to electricity and then moved to one of the ratmen which had a bunch of baubles on him and slashed his scimitar at him multiple times.
Hit AC 19 for 29, AC38 (Crit check if 19) for 31 or if crit 49, AC30 for 32.
08:34, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 19,16,13,38,19,12,30,19,13 using D20+18,d6+13,3d6,D20+18,d6+13,3d6,d20+13,d6+13,3d6.
08:34, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 19,18 using D20+18,d6+13. crit check.
The other archer kept up his aim at the humans in the back taking aim at the red-robed woman.
Hit AC30 for 28, AC28 for 27, AC 22 for 27
08:38, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 30,19,9,28,19,8,22,19,8 using D20+18,d8+12,3d6,D20+18,d8+12,3d6,d20+13,d8+12,3d6.
The other bralani finished his weird ratman as well and so stepped towards the large ratman that Talin had already hit.
Hit AC30 for 29, AC 34 for 32, AC31 (Crit check of 14) for 25 or 42
08:41, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 30,18,11,34,19,13,31,19,6 using D20+18,d6+13,3d6,D20+18,d6+13,3d6,d20+13,d6+13,3d6.
08:41, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 14,17 using d20+13,d6+13. crit check.
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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Bad guys at -3 to hit b/c of Talin’s song
(Waiting on some clarification from Bharash so I can handle correctly)
Vogh’s rapid slashes and movements moved around any defense the big, hulking brute could possibly offer. His sword was always behind her movements and his footwork was lumbering at best. As Serenity stabbed into its heart, Clamour took out both lungs with a side stab and it slid off her Violet blades in death.
Deacon’s Bralani picked out the invisble attacker with impossible perception and its arrow stabbed into the man, what appeared to be center mass. He let out a scream in fear and anger.
The celestial to the north took off the head of the strange, orb carrying ratman. Thankfully none of its payload detinated. Moving to aid Talin, the other angelic creatures likewise ended the life of the large rat before the bard could get in another swing with SolarSong.
Two arrows stabbed into the dark skinned woman. She maintained her composure, but was clearly wounded terribly. Her stagger from the projectiles hitting her actually saved her from the third arrow. Growling defiantly she knocked and loosed two arrows back at the summoned being. Two arrows hit the bralani, but neither managed to harm it, much to her wide eyed shock and horror. (Your DR sucks?! Argh!)
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Re: 313012 Belie
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Much to Belie’s glee, the perfect opportunity opened up for him to use his newest magic item! The rogue cartwheeled forward, flicking his cloak as he went and a spray of daggers flew out from the garment at all those in front of him.
Belie rolled 14 using 6d6
Two of the ratmen in the front line died immediately, perforated by blades that disappeared. The next line of firearm toting beasts also grunted in anger at the invasion of their flesh. Unfortunately, the humans at the back weren’t reached by the cloak’s magic.
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Talin
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Talin was about to finish off the big rat when the bralani stole the kill from him. With a growl, he looked to the bralani. His blood pumping Talin steps 5ft towards the ratmen in line that were alive still and swings his mighty blade before them in a dazzling display of prowess. The bloody SolarSong twirls around in the air splashing the blood onto the front rats.
10:13, Today: Talin rolled 29 using 1d20+10. intimidate. This demoralizes all foes within 30ft. Which is all the enemies here.
Demoralize Opponent
You can use this skill to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds. This shaken condition doesn’t stack with other shaken conditions to make an affected creature frightened. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier.
Success: If you are successful, the target is shaken for one round. This duration increases by 1 round for every 5 by which you beat the DC. You can only threaten an opponent this way if it is within 30 feet and can clearly see and hear you. Using demoralize on the same creature only extends the duration; it does not create a stronger fear condition.
Fail: The opponent is not shaken.
So as long as 29 beats the DC then they are all shaken.
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia saw that Bharash had been hurt pretty well from the explosions around him and though she couldn’t reach him with a heal just for him she could heal him with her channel which would get the bralani as well. “May Lothian heal all your wounds!” The holiness of her words cut into the chaosiness of the room like a knife.
10:27, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 30 using 9d6. heal.
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Narrator GM
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Bharash’s savage flurry of attacks in his heightened state slashed, stabbed and slammed into the wizard. He could feel the stone-like resistance and see the fire effects being defeated on his first few attacks, but Bharash knew he defeated the wards when the wizard’s eyes went wide and with a blood curling scream he went down under the dragonborn’s blades. Fire raced across his body, singing his hair, blistering his flesh, and blackening his already hideous face. The bracers on his arms seemed completely unaffected from the flames, and he dropped both his quarterstaff and the wand he was holding.
The orb carrying ratman tried to flee, but Bharash cut him down, then two of the firearm toting beasts ran as well toward a doorway which would likely have been well hidden had it not been standing open.
Seeing one of their masters drop and Bharash’s fury, combined with Talin’s horrific visage caused the remaining ratmen to flee to the far corner of the room. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t escape. The fleeing orb ratman tossed one at the Bralani nearest him as he fled to the corner as well.
(Rot: DC 17 Fort. 4d6 dmg, 1d4 Con. Half dmg on save, no con on save.
With their allies fleeing, one companion dead, and the woman well on her way to death the cleric screamed out as he dropped all his weapons. “WE YIELD!!!” He moved to support the injured woman who slumped against him. Pulling the arrows from her flesh, he cast a healing spell upon her. She glared with hate in her eyes, but also dropped her weapons.
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Bharash
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“Accepted! Weapons Down!” Bharash bellows loudly enough to make the charred glass debris around him shake, size and the shadow-stuff rippling along his limbs and jaws making overlaying his voice with resonance and depth enough to feel rather than simply hear, the enormous Dragonborn sweeping his gaze around from one former-foe to the next with an audible snarl of “If I see anyone looking to un-surrender, they’d better not have kin waiting for them. Otherwise, see to your wounded. Just enough to stop them dying, no more.”
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Vogh
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Just as the call came out that they yielded, Vogh knew that there was one invisible foe that had gone behind the curtains to her left. “If you are truly giving up tell your invisible friend to come out or he will be hunted down!” Vogh had lowered both her violet crystal blades but had yet to put them away. Her music had stopped as she reached out with her mind to find the invisible foe. If she found them she would speak to them, “Come back to the main room and you won’t be killed. Your companions have yielded.”
While she waited for an answer she said to all gathered, “Take off your armor and weapons and any items you have on your body and lay them in a pile before your feet. Don’t think you can hide anything from us either.” All was said as she scanned the whole room as she approached the cleric.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh’s mind reached out but could not find the human she had sensed before. No one seemed to be beyond the partitions which separated this room from the side room.
All the ratmen dropped their weapons, except the orb carrying one, who removed the bandoliers and set them down gently. The rats carrying firearms threw them down, toward the group. Thankfully none of them fired from the rough treatment!
The cleric and woman complied as well, removing armor and weapons. Only the man spoke to them.
“Grealdan has certainly fled after your creature injured him. There is a secret door in the room beyond those partitions. Who in the nine hells ARE you people?!” He asked. Clearly flummoxed.
Did you all allow the two at the bottom near the door to leave?
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Talin
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As everything seemed to be wrapping up Talin noticed that two of the ratmen near a door were about to leave. Talin moved over to them menacingly with SolarSong raised high, “You two going somewhere? Get back with the others before you end up dead like those unfortunate fools who fought us!” The two ratmen were charred from Deacon’s fireball and he honestly didn’t blame them for wanting to leave quickly.
As long as they followed his order, Talin walked them back to the main group of ratmen. There wouldn’t be anymore killing unless one stepped out of line.
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Julia Graymantle
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With combat ended, for now, Julia moved over to Deacon who looked as if he was having difficulty with something green on his eyes. She touched him on the arm lightly to not alarm him, pulled out a piece of cloth, and placed it in his hand. She then moved his hand to his eyes and helped him wipe them clean.
Julia wouldn’t leave his side till he gave her a thumbs up.
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Narrator GM
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Talin ran at super human speed and blasted between the two startled ratmen. They immediately threw up their hands seeing his blood soaked sowrd, and dropped their weapons in the process.
The bard looked and saw two dead end corridors that looked like they had not been dug further. Another corridor extended off into the darkness beyond his vision. As he walked the two defeated ratmen back, he also noticed a wooden door.
[Private to GM: Have explosions and attacks happening above ground. It looks like Killraven but it’s actually the Holy Emperor, or the other Emperor in Tarsis.]
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Bharash
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Bharash immediately releases the shadow-stuff that swept across his limbs, his stature and manner returning to that of a still large, but now quite obviously exhausted Dragonborn male who takes a few moments to breath deeply before wiping and sheathing his blades and immediately moving amongst the read, checking on the ratkin who fell for signs of life – quite obviously with the intention of seeing them treated, since he’s doing so with at least a reasonable amount of care.
“You.” he states, indicating the cleric with a finger, “Don’t just stand there, help me check your allies. The moment you stood down, you became our responsibility.”
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Deacon Havenhold
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After a moment of two as Julia helped Deacon remove the acid from his eyes, Deacon was finally able to see. His eyes burned though and were bloodshot from the ordeal. His eyes immediately went to where the elf was that shot him and saw that he was a bloody corpse.
Deacon would want that wand for it was a nasty thing against wizards. Deacon began walking over to the body to look it over.
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Vogh
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When the cleric said there was a secret door behind the curtain, that explained why she probably couldn’t sense the other anymore. That was too bad. When he asked to they were Vogh tried to see what he knew first. “We will get to who we are in a little bit. While you help my friend here see who of your allies are still alive, why don’t you tell me your guys deal here? Don’t feed me some story that you were reacting to what you heard was happening on the other side. I know you are a part of the chaos cult. Julia already has an active spell to tell whether you are lying when we dealt with the albino leader in the other area who gave your position away.”
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Narrator GM
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“I’m not wasting any of my power on this filth.” He scowled like she just told him to heal a street rat. “We are the priests of the outer reaches. A place beyond your reconning or comprehension.” Finally he stood from aiding the dark complected beauty and squared his shoulders. “As to the chaos cults, yes, we serve them as they fund our research and needs. You will never survive facing them… Wuntad has grown powerful beyond belief through the power of the Shigmaa. You cannot defeat him. You cannot stop what’s coming.”
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Bharash
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“Maybe, maybe not… But I am absolutely certain that your fingers are more detachable than you’d like to think, and if you don’t start using them to help these people, we’re both going to find out together.” Bharash states flatly, staring right at the cleric in question as they deny his request to help their own former allies… Conscious of the fact, no doubt that the ratkin who have also surrendered are watching their cultist ally dismiss them as filth while the enemy they were thrown against is speaking up for their fallen.
—
23:09, Today: Bharash rolled 24 using 1d20+15. Intimidate.
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Vogh
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“Priests of the outer reaches? Is that supposed to mean something to us? Cause it doesn’t nor will it matter. We The Calling, have dealt with people much like you from the outer reaches and have subsequently put them down as we will you and your kind.” Vogh had said matter of factly.
As the man continued to ignore Bharash in his requests for the cleric to give the fallen ratmen aid, Vogh looks over to her companion and then back to the cleric, “I suggest you figure out how to aid the fallen. You witnessed a few seconds of what he can do.” Vogh looked to the bloody corpse of the maroon-robed harrow elf and then back to him, “I think your friend there underestimated what an angry Dragonborn is capable of. As for this Wuntad, I have been told about him and what he did to my companions. He is lucky that we weren’t all together as he was with his companions for you wouldn’t have even mentioned his name now besides in reverie. You said we can’t stop what is coming… why don’t you tell me what is coming since we can’t stop it anyways.”
“Once you are done here you will be taken to the proper authorities who by the way are waiting just outside. Lucky for you I guess. The others here will be given back to their kind as a peace offering. We have no desire to kill the ratmen here unless they stand in our way to what we are looking for.” Vogh said at last and then began to gather up all the weapons and armor and other goods that were dropped on the ground. In the meantime she cast detect magic and then patted down everyone, looking for purses or sacks or rings or anything.
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Narrator GM
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Hatred and rage filled the man’s eyes, but he began moving around and healing those not already dead. The stench was unbearable.
“You cannot fathom the Outer Reaches. Ha!” He laughed out loud as did the dark woman, looking at each other. “Wuntad would kill you in a moment. You cannot fathom his power. He has died and returned many times, increasing in power every time.”
The man shrugged, after having sent a little healing energy into an injured ratman. “You can take us where you will. We won’t be there long. Your trust in the system is misplaced.”
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Vogh
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Vogh joined in the laugh of the two enemies. It was a mocking laugh of course and one that was meant to be known was mocking. “If the three of you are an indication of the power that the outer reach has then I am not too worried.” Vogh stopped laughing then and said with a deadpan face, “Enough playing around. If you think your group has nothing to worry about from us mere mortals then you should just tell us what your plans are! That is if you even know? I mean someone of your stature surely has been given the mission.”
When Vogh finished gathering all the items and had finished looking over the bodies. “As for the system, it does what it does. It isn’t perfect nor exact, but I have a feeling that they will be interested in you all.”
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Talin
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When Talin lead the two ratmen back to the main room and saw the door he called over to Belie. “Belie want to come over here and check out this door for any traps? I will check for anything magical on it first.”
Cast detect magic and look at the door.
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Bharash
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“Thank you Vogh.” Bharash rumbles in an altogether more normal tone of voice, expression relaxed and at ease… Before he turns back to the Cleric and glares at him hard enough to generate spontaneous human combustion in anyone or anything that doesn’t have an appropriate number of hit dice. Whenever a survivor is found, he carefully moves them over to the bulk of the remaining ratmen, growling “Sit down, keep your hands where they can be seen.” then heading back to where he’s keeping tabs on the Cleric and snorting “Not my problem. We’ll probably leave the Ratkin here, I doubt they’d get a fair trial up top. You? You might get arrested… All I know is that I’m not allowed to chop your head off unless you go back on your surrender. As for your boy One-ball, if dying doesn’t stop him, I’m still willing to bet that it bloody stings. Alright, is that all of them?”
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Narrator GM
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The cleric looked between the two of them with a cocked eyebrow and a look of confusion on his face. “Who ARE you people?” He asked again.
Shrugging in resignation he explained, “Wuntad seeks to bring about the Night of Dissolution. His ritual, if successful, will awaken the Lord’s of Chaos and grant him immeasurable power.”
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Narrator GM
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Their efforts only saved 3 of the ratmen who had dropped during the attacks, but it was better than nothing.
Vogh saw magic on the people before her, including the bracers, wand and staff the dead wizard had. The cleric and woman both had magical armor and weapons.
The ratmen surrendered all their weapons, explosive powder and metal balls their dragon weapons shot out. Orbs containing different colors and materials were taken from the downed creatures, and the one left alive. None glowed with magic, these were the makings of chaos.
Wizard’s Possessions: Bracers of armor +3, wand of acidic curse (14 charges, new spell), +1 quarterstaff, flask of acid, flask of alchemist’s fire, spell component pouch, 3 pp, 10 gp, 9 sp.
Upon inspecting the room beyond the partitions they discovered a discarded arrow with blood but no person.
Two folding wooden screens created a partition between the main chamber and the twenty-foot-square area in its northwest corner. In the area was a large bed, two wardrobes, a table, two chairs and a chest of drawers. The main room with it’s psychotic painting had no furnishings, although an everburning torch rested in a sconce along the north wall, and a normal lantern full of oil hung on a hook on the south wall.
—
Talin saw no magic on the door and Belie discovered it to be unlocked.
More a meditative study than a bedchamber, the mostly empty room had a straw mat in the middle of the floor surrounded by candles. On the walls hu g tapestries depicting great wizards of the past. Along the south wall rested a small trunk and a wooden bookshelf.
A hawk sat atop a bird perch and squared at them loudly when they entered.
Directly across from them stood another wooden door.
Treasure: The trunk contains clothing and personal gear, including ten tindertwigs and a flask of antitoxin. The bookshelf held a dozen books about various magical subjects, as well as a spellbook.
Spellbook: The spellbook contains these spells: 0—acid splash, arcane mark, assess creature, dancing lights, daze, detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead, flare, ghost sound, light, mage hand, mending, message, open/close, ray of frost, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue; 1st— acidic curse, color spray, comprehend languages, endure elements, protection from chaos, protection from law, ray of enfeeblement, reduce person, shield, silent image; 2nd—invisibility, minor image, mirror image, obscure object; 3rd—displacement, fly.
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Narrator GM
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Through that door the found a hallway which to the right had a door returning them to the main room with their friends. To the left was a locked, but nonmagical door.
Belie picked the lock and pushed open the door, immediately crinkling his nose. The room was extremely untidy, with a fetid smell permeating everything. It had simple bedchamber furnishings, fairly crude and ill kept.
Treasure: In a secret cache below a lose stone in the floor under the bed, they found a leather bag with 372 gp and 451 sp.
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Vogh
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In reply to Narrator GM
Vogh didn’t know much about the Night of Dissolution but it isn’t the first she has heard its reference. She will need to do some research in her spare time if she gets any.
Once everything had been gone through in the main room and the other room Talin had found. Vogh turns to one of the ratmen and says, “go get the white ratman and bring him back here. I wish to speak with him and hand over all his dead and living.”
With the others, they put all the items they had found in their packs ready to leave once Vogh talked with the ratman. She turned to Deacon and asked him if he was still able to track the skull.
I just need to know if Deacon can.
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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The ratmen skitter away as soon as Vogh allows them. Deacon unfortunately can no longer feel the presence of the skull.
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Re: 312760 Bharash
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“Well… That’s a difficult question. I mean on the one hand we’re a group of violent wandering troublemakers of no fixed abode, and on the other hand we’re the ones who just gatecrashed your crazy party, smashed our way through your defences and are currently ransacking your lair because some asshole couldn’t keep it in his pants and attacked an apartment building in order to turn the residents into demon bugs.” Bharash answers as he checks on the three dead ratfolk, only to bellow as the entire pack starts moving “She was only talking to one of you!” and pointing at the first ratfolk in the band, “You. Go.” before addressing the others, “If we’re done with the bedroom.” – here, he glances at his companions and waits for a nod – “Then take the three who nearly died and go set up in there. You’ll be out of the way if a fight starts and you should be able to keep your heads down.”
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Narrator GM
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The ratmen stopped at Bharash’s words and the lead one practically ran away without a look back at his kin.
Shaking his head in confusion, the cleric ran his hands through his pulled back hair at Bharash’s answer. To his comment about the thralls he nodded, “Those creatures have indeed caused a stir. Some see them as tools, some as gifts of the gods. Who’s to say? Listen, you’ve attacked and bested us. You’ve robbed us. We have nothing else to offer. I know you seek the chaos weapons, but you’ll never get them back. Wuntad covets them above almost all else. So what’s next? Are you intending to arrest us and take us above? Could you be persuaded to leave us be and we depart this city, never to be seen again?” He asked the last part with a bit of hope in his voice.
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Vogh
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To Bharash she said,“Were all done gathering up their items. I don’t see any other reason to stay since Deacon can’t detect the skull any longer. We will need to try again later.”
As the man said he had nothing left to offer Vogh scoffed at the comment, “Oh but you do have more to offer if you are wanting to be set free as you requested. I think we could be persuaded with the correct information. Like all the locations where the chaos cultists are operating out of. Names of known accociates. Lastly for me where we can find Wuntad. Where does he plan on performing the ritual? What does he need to complete it.”
If the others had questions she would let them ask as well.
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Narrator GM
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The man looked hopeful and then his face fell as the questions rolled out. “Listen… Miss…” He looked around at the assembled group arrayed against him. “I would be happy to tell you all of what you asked. But we’ve operated out of this place since we joined with the Brothers of Venom after the Knights ran us out of our old temple. None of us, that I’m aware of, have ever been to any other locations.” He looked to the dark skinned woman who shook her head to indicate she had not. “Vocaetun or Grealdan might have, but if they had, they never told us. We weren’t invovled in the thrall researc the Ebon Hand, Brothers of Venom and Tolling Bell were testing. Our job was to remain here and defend the entrance to the Deeper Temple and allow those to pass who were allowed. Only a few did, passing between the appartment above and the temple below. As to the entrance… I cannot tell you where it is…“
For some reason the man raised his voice as if to have someone overhear him, but Vogh sensed no one; however, during his answer he opened his eyes wide and looked directly at the wall to the north of their location while nodding his head in that direction. No “entrance” was immediately apparent to Vogh, but few things in this place had been as they immediately seemed so far.
“As to the ritual, I would assume Wuntad has a place deeper in the temple that we’ve never seen. He is very secrative. Also, there are things below… We don’t know everything, and we’ve never seen these, but we’ve heard things. Demons. Devils. Monsters. And worse… If I knew more, I promise I woudl tell you. Like I said, we’ve never been down there. We were left alone to do our own research and paid well enough to stay here, deal with the rats a bit, and allow people to pass. You all are the first ones who have even tried to gain entrance.”
OOC: Vogh sensed no deception in his words.
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Vogh
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Vogh got the signal loud and clear and knew that the man may have more to say so she said, “Okay then, once we get these ratmen taken care of we will see to what we do with you next.” Vogh then spoke to the man in his head, “Listen I know there is more you want to say and this is a safe spot in our heads. Give me all you know and I will see to letting you go.”
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Narrator GM
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The cleric blanched hard and staggered back a step which drew a concerned look from his female companion. He shook his head a grumbled something about being light headed out loud which she seemed to accept. She still stood like a caged animal, surrounded by enemies.
“You’re telepathic too?! By all the gods of chaos. Why are you people even messing with these cults?! Couldn’t you go kill dragons and retire or something. Anyway. There is another illusory wall to my right. Beyond it there is a locked and magically trapped door which I have the key for. The key disables the trap too. Beyond a staircase leads down deeper into the temple. I’ve got no love for Wuntad and I certainly am not willing to give my life for HIS cause. So I’ll give you the key if you’ll let us go.”
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Vogh
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Vogh relayed all she was told to the others in their heads and then asked, “Shall we head deeper? I still have a lot of my spells available.”
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Belie
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“I’m game. What do we do about the escaped guy? Can you sense him? What about this Wuntad guy? If he’s that powerful maybe we should seek some additional support? I also don’t like the idea of leaving all these ratmen at our backs. Can you all use some magic to seal these doors or something of the like?”
[Private to Vogh: No, you can’t sense him 😀]
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Bharash
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“Don’t ask me, I’m just the blunt object the brains of the outfit use to do all the smashing.” Bharash cheerfully announces as he gathers up the ratfolk and chivvies them into the accommodation area, making sure that the three wounded ones get the bed and then taking the time to gather up all the thunderguns with their explosive powder for subsequent disposal (or, presumably resale if they’re any good – he’s no judge of such thing), after which he heads back to check in on the rats and announce to the lot of them “Alright, not sure if we’re leaving or pressing on… But you know now that we can and will kill your folk if you put up a fight, but we’ll also let you live if you don’t. You might want to spread the word.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s paying no attention to the rest of the room, which is why he perks up and asks curiously “Research? Don’t feel you have to answer, but mind if I ask what you were up to?”
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Vogh
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In reply to Belie
“Belie, no I have lost ‘sight’ of him. Not sure where he went to but we do have his blood and could possibly track him through a spell like we did for the skull. I think since we are still quite capable, we should head deeper while the iron is hot. As for this Wuntad I am sure he is powerful and with that in mind, we must keep our resources to escape quickly if needed. As for the ratmen, once the albino has spoken with us I think we can come to an agreement. So, I am not worrying about that right now. With the information we have just received I am thinking we let the two humans go as long as they keep to their word.” Vogh said all this in their heads.
She turned back to the man and said aloud, “We are going to look around here further to see if there is anything else we are missing. In his head she said, “Once you answer my friends’ question I am inclined to release you both. Need I say that if for any reason we find you in this city again without you contacting us first, we will be forced to take action.”
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Narrator GM
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The human looked to the big dragon bourn and then heard Vogh’s voice in his head so he nodded her way. “We seek the beauty of nothingness. We strive for the elimintation of matter in order to find the Outer Reaches. It’s very complicated and takes a great deal of mental fortitude to achieve this level of nihilism.”
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Narrator GM
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With the group seemingly satisifed with this answer the man and his female companion rushed from the room and beyond Vogh’s mental connection as quickly as they could. They had left behind all their gear, weapons and armor as instructed prior, happy to be escaping with their lives.
After about 15 minutes the group realized the albino was either not going to return, or the rat man they sent simply fled in terror and didn’t notify the leader. Either way, they had discovered the illusions magic covering the wall the cleric mentally identified to Vogh. Belie stepped through the illusion and confirmed there was indeed a locked door. Belie had also retrieved the large key which the cleric had taken from around his neck and left with the rest of his gear.
After Talin again checked for magical traps for the rogue, Belie inserted the key, turned it and pushed open the incredibly thick steel door. Immediately beyond them was a set of stairs descending into darkness and turning at a 90 degree angle.
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Narrator GM
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Ask anyone in Ptolus with an extensive knowledge of ancient history and they can tell you that Ptolus is actually the second city on this spot with that name. The first one existed ten thousand years ago in the location Oldtown occupied now. Remnants of that ancient settlement, called the Buried City, still existed beneath Oldtown. Within a series of natural caves and excavated chambers stand ancient stone buildings, at least some of which belong to this lost city. They have been swallowed up figuratively by time and literally by the earth. In this area of the Buried City, however, the cultists have refitted ancient walls with new doors, and reinforced old ceilings with iron poles so that modern inhabitants can use them.
Stairs from the entrance level lead the group down to a large courtyard, which seemed to be part of the old Buried City. They entered what appeared to be a cavern with some fairly crude (and very old) portions of masonry stone and a man-made cylindrical structure in the center, rising from uneven floor to a rough ceiling.
The tower stood in the middle of a walled courtyard; a wall bisecting the area extended to the cavern ceiling. The tower and the wall that cut through the middle of the “cavern” had been reinforced over time to keep them from collapsing. Portions of the perimeter wall still survived as part of the surrounding cavern bounds.
The ceiling was thirty feet high and the room was unlit. As another sign of cultist infighting, a corpse lay on the floor here. It has likely been dead only a day. The male half-orc had no gear but wore a tattered grey robe and had a black hand tattood on his chest.
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Bharash
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“Okay. Not going to lie, that sounds weird to me but also kind of interesting… I mean, the thought that if you peel everything away, then there’s noth…” Bharash starts to reply, only to end up talking to a pair of approximately humanoid clouds of dust which set to settling a moment later, leaving him to sigh and glance back at the rats, rumbling “Humans, am I right?” before settling in to chat with them about nothing very much just to pass the time until Belie indicates that they should press on and he harrumph’s before moving to do so with a last “Alright. You folks can run off or stick around, it’s up to you. We’ll likely lock the door behind us, so you ought to be safe enough either way.” and a tip of an imaginary hat.
Once downstairs (and after making sure that all the weapons and equipment was policed up, and the door locked behind them) he moves to the foot of the stairs and glances about, grumbling “I don’t like it. Looks too quiet.”
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Vogh
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Having gotten as much information as she could from the cleric Vogh was pleased that he had cooperated, at least mostly.
When it seemed that the albino wasn’t coming Vogh could only shake her head. Bharash then had released the ratmen and went through the door that had been searched.
The cavern they came to was huge and very old. Vogh echoed Bharash’s words, “I don’t like it either. I have read much about the city below the city. Being down here puts those words to shame. I don’t sense anything right now though so the quietness is expected.
Shall we take a look at that orc?
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Talin
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“Let’s keep on our toes, something or someone was observing us above so they should know we are here.” Talin commented as he approached the orc.
When he saw the black hand he said, “There’s that black hand again. We keep seeing it.”
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Bharash
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“And? There’s Pale Dog tags in half the alleyways in some parts of town… Gangs mark their space.” Bharash states, more or less relegating the ancient evil cult and its quasi-demonic master to the status of a bunch of squabbling youths settling their differences with back-alley knife-fights.
A sigh then, and he nods “But alright, we’ll cover you and stay back until we know if it’s a trap or not.”, drawing his blessed sword in order to be ready to hand out appropriate levels of violence if they should be warranted.
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Narrator GM
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Three dire rats popped into existence and tried to bite the bards. None were successful at biting into their sturdy boots. Two arrows flew out from the tower, seemingly appearing from nowhere, and one was touched with darkness.
OOC: So the arrow has darkness cast on it. There are no light sources currently, right? So does that mean you’re all blinded in full darkness or what?
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/darkness/
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Bharash
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Darkness doesn’t trouble Bharash any more than darkness does, his dragon-kin vision piercing the murk readily – and even if they didn’t, he spent quite enough time in his gramma Shadows basement to manage to descend the steps, more or less ignoring the summoned rats as he stalks towards the tower with a growl of “Called it.” and – before starting to try brute force on the thing – actually tries opening it.
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Vogh
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Vogh too had no issue with seeing in the dark thanks to Deacon’s spell earlier in the day. She saw the summoned rats in time to be able to battle away their bites. She took her blade and slashed at the one in front of her to kill it before moving forward to join Bharash.
Do I sense anything or anyone?
07:50, Today: Vogh rolled 32,25 using d20+18,d8+17.
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Talin
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Talin was looking over the body when the rats appeared. He didn’t see them right away but thanks to his new armor their bites didn’t pierce to his skin. “Dire rats? Really? So, there is a summoner somewhere. You may as well show yourself for if we have to find you, we will kill you!” Talin was getting a little testy with all this already. He wielded SolarSong and slashed it across at the two rats.
07:54, Today: Talin rolled 24,19,26,21 using d20+20,2d6+11,d20+15,2d6+11.
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Deacon Havenhold
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With the rats dead Deacon looks to Julia and says, “I think we should spread out in case they cast some area of effect spells.”
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Narrator GM
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No answer comes back to their threats as they move farther apart from one another.
Are you all doing anything else or is it my turn again?
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Narrator GM
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Another creature appears, directly in front of Deacon. This was a snake-bodied humanoid hissing with anger. Spines of crackling flame danced along the creature’s blackened, fiery-red scales. The beast stabbed out with a hellish looking spear, once, twice then it slapped at deacon with it’s barbed tail. The wizard could feel heat emenating from the very body of the thing, and from each of its attacks.
Salamander, rolled
28,9,5, (last dice is fire dmg, if he has immunity or something)
26,9,4,
10,6,5 (missed the tail attack, so no grab/grapple)
using 1d20+11,1d8+4,1d6,1d20+6,1d8+4,1d6,1d20+6,2d6+1,1d6 ((17,5,5,20,5,4,4,1,4,5)).
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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Bharash moved forward and grabbed the door ring. It was locked, and of rather sturdy construction.
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Re: 312762 Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon couldn’t get out of the way of the two sword attacks by the summoned salamander before him, but he did manage to jump over the tail as it swished across to get him. Deacon stepped back and cast a spell as shadowy wisps began to form into a streak of darkness that hit the salamander blinding it for a moment. “Little help over here Belie!”
Cast Gloomblind bolt Hit touch AC15, 30(crit of 24) for a total of 33 damage
18:03, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 24,9 using d20+10,4d6.
18:03, Today: Deacon Havenhold rolled 15,14,30,10 using d20+10,4d6,d20+10,4d6.
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Belie
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Thanks to Deacon blinding the creature, Belie was able to use his full ability to stab vital parts of a mosnter’s body. One then two daggers flew out from his grasp. The first took the creature in the rib, but the second stabbed straight into the blind creatures throat. It’s life ended with only a bit of gurgling before its form dissipated back to its home plane.
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Vogh
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“Nice work Belie! We need to get inside that tower! I will check for traps both magical and mechanical and try to pick it.” Vogh said in their heads while moving to the door checking it for traps and if it is unlocked, she will open it.
18:21, Today: Vogh rolled 30 using 1d20+18. perception for traps
18:21, Today: Vogh rolled 29 using 1d20+11. disable device to unlock door.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh got the door open and looked inside. An ancient tower, now buried, rose from floor to ceiling within the larger surrounding chamber. The doors are new. The tower had two levels. The bottom level was a round room with a table, a wooden bed (with a straw-filled mattress), a fulllength free-standing mirror, and a chest with drawers containing clothing and little of value.
A strange statue rested on the table. The green ceramic figure represented a hideous, tentacled, bloated, humanoid thing holding a large, cracked bell.
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Vogh
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Vogh quickly scanned the lower half of the tower to see if there were any intelligent creatures before letting Bharash and the others enter.
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Talin
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When Talin saw Vogh open the door he came forward to back them up in the case something came out to attack them.
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Bharash
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Bharash looks to be about to put his shoulder to the door when Vogh comes up and chases him away from it, leaving him to grump a bit good-naturedly and cover them from incoming fire – if any – after which he’s fairly quick to take shelter inside, motioning the others to do likewise with a rumble of “Get into cover… I’ll check upstairs, someone secure the back door!” before putting actions to words and starting up the staircase with long, loping, misses-most-of-the-steps strides.
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Narrator GM
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When she focused, Vogh sensed an aranea in the tower above, likely near the top as far away as it was from her.
As Bharash ascended the stairs, he quickly noticed the entire second floor was one, huge spider web that prevented him from seeing the top of the tower at all. It prevented him from seeing even a few feet so thick was the webbing.
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Bharash
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“Anyone got a tindertwig on them? Whole place is chock-full of webbing up here, and I’m not really in the mood to cut through it.” Bharash calls down cheerfully.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon moves up into the tower quickly once the others had moved inside. Belie thankfully had waited for him so he wasn’t alone out in the main room. Along the way, he activated his healing belt to heal almost all the damage he had taken from the salamander.
Deacon moved to the bottom of the stairs and waited for what to do next.
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia moved into the tower and over to the left side to check out the objects in what looked like a bedroom. She cast detect magic as she moved to see if there was anything magical. “I’ll check out this area while you all secure the lower room.”
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Talin
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Talin was about to head up the stairs with Bharash till he said to secure the back door. So, Talin moved to the back door and readied himself for anything that might come through it. “I got it Bharash!”
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Vogh
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Vogh could sense that there was in fact a sentient being upstairs. “There is an aranea up top!” Vogh said in their heads even as Bharash saw the webbing.
“I have a flint and steel you can use, but no tindertwig, sorry. Want to come get it while we keep watch down here?”
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Bharash
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“An Ara-what-now?” Bharash calls back, extending his open off-hand to invite the flint and tinder being tossed up to him, asking as he does so “That something we can talk to, or is it something we’d be better off torching? Because I’m perfectly happy to do either… It’s not like sparing most of the ratfolk cost us anything.”
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Narrator GM
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“I have some tinder twigs too Bharash” Belie offered.
—
The second story of the tower was a tall, cylindrical room. They weren’t sure how tall the room was because the upper section was completely obscured by the spider webs. The webbing didn’t start until 15 ft above the floor. Bones and grizzly detritus covered the floor, the top layer was fairly fresh, although underneath lay a thick layer of dust and grime covered debris.
—
Vogh could sense the aranea was 30 feet above, but she could not physically see him through the webs.
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Vogh
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In reply to Bharash
“We can try and talk to it. Normally, they are neutral creatures. Let me call to it quick and see if it is willing.” Vogh said to all.
“Greetings, I know you understand me. We won’t kill you if you speak to us and give us the information we need.” Vogh asked the Aranea in its head.
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Bharash
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“Throw one up to me, if you would. I’ll hold off lighting it until we see what happens.” Bharash calls, keeping his holy sword out but his other hand free as he favours Belie with a broad grin, adding “I knew we kept you around for a reason.”
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Narrator GM
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As Vogh was used to people’s first reactions now, so she wasn’t caught off guard in the least when a “confused” voice rang back in her head. “Who… Who are you? And what information do you want?”
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Vogh
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Vogh was actually surprised that she got an answer and so quickly replied to Bharash, “Hold for now, it replied.”
Vogh then answered the Aranea, “We are The Calling who are you? We are here looking for Wuntad. We were told that he is here.” Vogh said honestly.
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Bharash
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“I wasn’t actually going to set someone’s home on fire Vogh. I wanted to put the wind up them.” Bharash answers just a little sulkily, although with her telepathic abilities she can readily tell that he’s mugging for the audience more than he is actually upset at the suggestion that he – perish the thought – would go around committing arson willy-nilly.
It also helps that he’s trying to hide the tindertwig behind his back as he says it.
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Ibulli ()
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“Calling? The Calling? Like that’s what you call yourselves? As a group? Strange name. Wuntad? He’s not here. He’s far deeper in the Temple, if he’s down there at all. I hold no love for the cults. I lived here before they came, but they have benefitted me, so I’ve not opposed them. What is your name? Not your group, but you, your name specifically?”
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Vogh
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“I see, I am Vogh, your name is?” Vogh waits for the name if given, then says, “Were you the one summoning those dire rats and the salamander below? Or is someone else here?”
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Ibulli ()
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“My name is Ibulli. No. I didn’t summon anything. That was likely Woreron. He’s a cultist cleric of the chaos gods. And Gavele is a nasty one. She just ran out before you barged in it seemed. What is your surname Vogh? And what do you all intend to do in this area?”
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Vogh
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“Vogh Kath, perhaps you have heard of our house in the city above?”
When Ibulli gave her name and other information about two cultists Vogh asked further, Did Woreron leave as well or is he hidden like you are? Are they both human?
All of what was said, was said so everyone could gear in their heads.
“Our only intentions are to stop the Night of Dissolution.
That means we need to stop the cultists and Wuntad. If you are wanting your home free and clear of the cultists we will help.
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Re: Ibulli ()
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“Oh I imagine Woreron is still around here somewhere. I think he has a hiding place in the main chamber you entered which he’s able to attack from. He is dwarven, Gavele is a tiefling. One of those demon touched types. Indeed, I have no love for the cultists of Wuntad or their foolish notion of raising their chaotic gods. I’ll not hinder your passage, and I would welcome my home being clean of these vermin.”
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Re: 312760 Bharash
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Bharash, with only a limited ability to hear any of the conversation flashing back and forth telepathically leans against the wall and plays with the tindertwig after sheathing his sword, playing little catch-games with it as he keeps an eye on the webbing for signs of trouble.
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Re: 284323 Vogh
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“Do you think you would be able to call Woreron out of hiding by telling him that we all left as we hide on the second floor?” Vogh asked Ibulli.
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Ibulli ()
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Ibulli didn’t respond for several moments, likely thinking. Vogh could tell he wasn’t moving anywhere. Finally Vogh got a mental response. “I do not want to call him out in such a way.” There was another pause. “However, I will tell you that there is a secret door in the chamber you left. As you’re standing it would be on your right, but once you walk out the door it will be on your left. There is a set of stairs that will lead you up to a room overlooking the big chamber which he’s able to attack from.”
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Vogh
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“Thank you Ibulli.
We will be coming back through the bottom of your home as we chase the tiefling.
Vogh relayed it all to the others and said, “Belie can you go with Bharash and deal with this Moreron spellcaster? Talin and I will stay in the bottom of the Ibulli’s home watching the other exit.”
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Bharash
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“Can do. Uhm, this isn’t going to come back and bite the spider person in the… Abdomen, is it? I mean, if we’re a guest in their home, that’d be poor form.” Bharash calls back as he starts back towards the door they came in through, handing the tindertwig back and drawing one of his swords again.
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Narrator GM
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The rogue nodded and walked after Bharash looking for the door and at the ceiling. He nudged the big warrior to indicate a break in the ceiling that at first looked natural. He and the big guy moved along the wall, searching. Finally Belie found a crease and worked a dagger in to pop the door open. It swung silently and the duo could see a set of stone stairs ascending into blackness.
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Vogh
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In reply to Bharash
Ibulli wants us to get rid of the cultists. So, no it shouldnt be a problem at all because we will get rid of them.” Vogh relays back to Bharash.
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Bharash
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“Fair enough.” Bharash replies with a nod before moving out, letting Belie go a little ahead of him because, of the two of them he’s significantly quieter, for all the big Dragonborn’s relative grace – at the end of the day, there’s just no tip-toing in full plate armour.
When Belie locates and opens the door, he draws his second sword and nods for the other man to go first, mostly in order to try and get the drop on who or whatever’s up there.
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Vogh
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Vogh spoke to Ibulli once again with Talin, Deacon, and Julia listening in, “Thank you for your information. Two of my friends will see to the Woreron fellow and then we will be after the tiefling and out of your domain. When we are finished I may come back and visit with you if that is okay. Oh, one other thing, you said ratmen often come through here? I can see about speaking to the leader and ask that they not anymore unless you don’t care.”
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Narrator GM
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Belie and Bharash ascended a steep ramp that led them to another door. The rogue checked it over for traps, found none, and also found the door unlocked. He nodded to the dragonborn and pulled the door open.
Immediately they saw two little frogs in front of them that lashed out the second the door opened, and a crossbow bolt flew between the duo to embed in the wall behind them. Beyond the frogs was a full plate wearing dwarf who had just fired his heavy crossbow. Immediately after doing so, he stepped out of their sight and fell slowly to the room below through a murder hole he had obviously attacked them from prior.
One of the frogs managed to hit Belie and he felt the burn of a minor posion which he shrugged off before they killed both frogs in moments.
OOC: You can see the part on the map, it goes over top of the room you all passed through. The dwarf fell (slowly) down into the room below.
Surprise: Frogs & Dwarf Attack
Round 1: Kill frogs & Dwarf moves
Round 2: ?
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Ibulli ()
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While Bharash & Belie were dealing with the dwarf and frogs, Vogh was conversing with the aranea.
“Certainly. Though their ‘leader’ is basically any of the cultists. I’m not sure why they work together, but the cultists and the albino ratman – who is unnaturally intelligent for his species – have been training the rats. The things are much more adept in battle, and with chaos equipment to boot. I’ve seen a few very strange abominations of the ratmen come through. Some sparking with what looked like lightning. They do not taste good, so I wouldn’t mind never seeing them again.”
He paused for a moment and Vogh could sense he was moving a small amount, but not leaving. Then his voice spoke out audibly, not telepathically.
“I want to give you something as a token of my appreciation.”
A single strand of webbing descended through the thick webs which obscured the spider creature from their vision. Attached to the strand was a deep blue spinel gem. A rather nice gem worth several hundred gold likely. [Private to GM: 700gp]
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Vogh
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Vogh knew that the albino ratman would come back to bite her quite literally in the butt… good grief, she promised to end the albino next she saw him. “Oh we know quite well about all these chaos tech using ratmen. We have fought and killed a good amount already. Should have killed many more now that I think about it.”
When Vogh sensed Ibulli moving and then a strand of webbing came down holding a gem, Vogh plucked it out of the webbing and said, “thank you very much. I would like to see you if you don’t mind? Come on out of your webbing.”
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Ibulli ()
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“You’re welcome. I don’t mean to offend, but I would rather remain where I feel safe. There are many of you and you are clearly powerful people to have made it this far.”
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Re: 312760 Bharash
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Laser frogs? Those would be worth catching, anyone bring a pokeball? ^_^
—
With Belie engaging and annihilating the frogs in a heartbeat, Bharash focusses entirely upon the dwarf and shoulders his way through to drop down the murder-hole, hot on his heels – intending to take full advantage of his longer legs to give the sneaky bastard no chance to vanish on them, giving chase the moment he hits the ground.
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Re: 284323 Vogh
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“Okay, I understand. Stay there and we will be out of here soon enough.” Vogh said to Ibulli.
Vogh then sent out a message to everyone, “How’s it going guys? Did you find Woreron yet?”
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Re: 312761 Julia Graymantle
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Julia had looked over the stuff in the little room and had positioned herself to see the 2nd door and out the first door, they had entered into the tower keeping watch while Vogh was talking to the Aranea.
11:43, Today: Julia Graymantle rolled 25 using 1d20+12. perception check, do I see the dwarf?
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Belie
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Belie rushed after Bharash, dropping behind the big warrior a few moments later, his feather fall ring likewise slowing his descent. (OOC: Is it possible to “suppress” a fether fall ring to allow yourself to fall faster?) And likewise gave chase to the dwarf.
He hollered back in Vogh’s mind, “Found the dwarf! He’s running!”
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Narrator GM
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Bharash’s long legs catapulted him up the stairs like a galloping horse, skipping several steps with each stride. The dwarf had to pause to fumble with a key to open the door, but the dragonborn caught him before…
In reply to Julia Graymantle
If the door was still open, then yes, anyone on the first level sees the dwarf. And actually, you all notice there are arrow slits in the second story so you all would likely have seen the dwarf and the others drop down through those so long as your dark vision is far enough.
This would be odd to the characters, because from the outside, the arrow slits are invisible, covered by illusion apparently.
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Bharash
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The sensible thing to do would be to stop and engage in some fashion, but Bharash quite simply keeps moving, fully intending to plough said dwarf into the door with enough force to knock seven kinds of sense out of him, leading with the hilt of his holy sword and bellowing a hearty, ferocious “You’re nicked, sunshine!” at the fleeing cultist.
—
26 to hit, 16 non-lethal, 8 holy damage.
23:14, Today: Bharash rolled 8 using 2d6. If evil.
23:14, Today: Bharash rolled 26,16 using 1d20+18,1d8+12. Charging dope slap.
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Vogh
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Vogh heard the call from outside and rushed down the stairs and into the main chamber, but not before saying to Julia and Deacon to stay and watch the back door with Talin.
“Thought you could get away did you, Woreron. Yes, I know your name, it seems your ratmen friends aren’t so keen on their arrangement.” Vogh lied to the dwarf. “And to think you were going to just run up there into the fire. We know about Zlith, Vocaetun, Grealdan, Gavele. We know about the involvement of the Ebon Hand, Brothers of Venom, and the Tolling Bell. Wuntad will not succeed in bringing about the Night of Dissolution, we will see to that. You can of course make things easier on yourself and give up information for leniency. Others have already and they are reaping the benefits of their cooperation. Course if you want us to kill you we can do that as well.” The last part added for assurance that Vogh was well informed about what was happening.
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Woreron ()
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Woreron was dishevelled to say the least after Bharash caught up to him and nearly knocked him out cold. The dwarf slammed into the door, slid down it and turned to rest on his rump while looking up at the group on the stairs. His thick, jet black beard and thick eyebrows were in complete disarray, chaotic and sticking every which way, while his head was shaved bald. He mumbled to himself while his eyes crazily darted to Vogh and Bharash and the others. Beside him sat the heavy wooden shield he had been carrying, and a magical battle axe was still strapped to his belt. Rather nice full plate armor had plates interlocking that covered his entire body, except his head. Around his neck hung a mithral and onyx amulet of a hand. He also had a cross-body leather satchel. He seemed to take in everything Vogh said, while Bharash’s hulking form dominated most of his observations.
“What… Whatdayawant. What do you want?” He asked in a shaky voice, almost like he was struggling to get the words out. None could tell whether it was from fear or from some mental malady.
[Private to GM: As soon as Vogh moves out of the area, Ibulli is going to slip out of the top of the tower and hurry to alert the Pactlords.]
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Vogh
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“We want information and you have the answers. What is beyond the tower?” Vogh pointed towards the tower where Talin still waited. “I want a drawing of the layout and any secret doors or passages and defensible positions where they can lay traps. Oh, yes, and if there are any traps as well. I want to know who is on the other side, how many, and what creatures. The last thing I want to know is where I can find Wuntad?”
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Narrator GM
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Again the dwarf had a far off crazy look. He kept having to snap his attention back to Vogh as she spoke. Vogh even had to repeat herself a couple times, feeling like he didn’t catch what she said.
“You what? What? Defenses? Yes. There are defenses. What? Show you? They are this way…” He almost stood, but those near him made it clear that was a bad idea. “Draw it? I maybe cut cut can do that.” He stuttered, saying the wrong word but finally pushed his way to the right one. “Gavele knows beatles it better.”
Saying those words his whole face contorted into rage and he let our a feral yell as he began to speak the words of a spell!
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Bharash
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Bharash isn’t really a man for half-measures, when it gets right down to it and his follow-up to slamming his pommel into the back of the dwarf’s head was to grab one of his ankles and start to lift him up by it with the fairly obvious intention of bouncing his head up and down on the steps… Something he rather guiltily stopped trying to do when Vogh caught up with him in favour of looking a tad sheepish, as she started laying into the whole ‘negotiation’ side of things that’s not really his forte.
So naturally he puts the dwarf down, grumbles something about ‘totally meant to do that’ and kicks a small stone off the steps while letting the conversation kick off, at least until the spellcasting looks to be starting, which is where he moves to step away from Vogh and put himself behind the fellow (so as to provide no easy group target) while attempting to grab his arms.
—
02:10, Today: Bharash rolled 29 using 1d20+17. Grapple check.
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Vogh
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Vogh is having a tough time understanding the dwarf. She isn’t sure if he is playing stupid or just afraid, either way it all doesn’t matter when she sees him begin to cast a spell.
Vogh reacts just as fast as Bharash at trying to stop the wild looking dwarf standing before her.
She takes Serenity and slashes at the dwarf twice.
Hit AC27 and AC23 for 23 and 18 respectively.
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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Before the dwarf could complete his casting Vogh’s blades took out his throat. His face relaxed into the calm of death.
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Re: 284323 Vogh
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Vogh hadn’t known that the dwarf would die quite so quickly she checks him and finds that he is fading but knew that she could save him. So, she asked Bharash, “Tie him up while I stabilize him. He isn’t quite dead yet. He still needs to answer some questions. Hey, guys come back out here!” Vogh called to the others to come to the main room she was in.
“Talin can you charm this one? He knows something but is having a problem speaking.” Vogh asked.
As long as Bharash tied him up Vogh takes the dwarf’s spell component pouch and gags on his mouth. She then touches him and sends some healing magic into him. (13 healed)
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Re: 286214 Talin
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Talin gathered Julia and Deacon and headed to the main chamber where Vogh had called from. When she asked if he could charm the dwarf he nodded his head. “Sure it is easy when they are willingly fighting the spell.”
Talin will cast charm on the dwarf before he is awake. The dwarf won’t be able to resist his spell that way.
Once the spell is cast and Vogh heals the dwarf, Talin removes the gag and says, “Hello Woreron, I am glad you are feeling better. We healed you up. Are you feeling a bit better?”
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Narrator GM
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The dwarf gasped back to life, his eyes darting back and forth between Talin and Vogh. “Yes. I wub. Was. You… You just cut my throat… I was dying…” He said, the confusion plain on his face and his brain succumbed to the charms compulsion.
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Vogh
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Vogh knew she needed to be careful here as she knew that the dwarf was charmed.
“I was only protecting myself Woreron. I thought you were going to kill me with a spell. But, once you had fallen I rushed to your side and cast a healing spell to bring you back. I know you aren’t fully healed though and can heal you further if you wish to be. We can untie you as well as long as you promise not to hurt us or run away. We truly are your friends here.”
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Narrator GM
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“But I… And stuff. Ok.” He seemed to be struggling with words and comprehension, kind of like something even unconscious to him was inside his mind. Still, he didn’t resist any further.
He explained Gavele was a tiefling who worked a lot with the ratmen and other cultists. It was mostly his job to watch for intruders and attack from his secret watch post.
The dwarf also explained they had been warned by those Vogh named that intruders had teleported inside the first level and we’re attacking. Gavele and he took their positions to attack but she fled to fetch reinforcements as soon as the group neared the tower.
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Bharash
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Just like that, Vogh discovers why – when he doesn’t want to kill someone – Bharash doesn’t cut their throats with the edges of his sword-blades, but instead focusses upon beating them senseless instead, a firm respect for the lethality of a sharp edge having been instilled in him from an early age.
Not to mention that the throat-cutting from which Bharash doesn’t take much more than some errant spatter, treats Vogh to all the fun and visceral spatter of a suddenly opened jugular.
“I wish you’d make up your damn’ mind.” he rumbles as she goes from cutting throats to healing them, stripping off the dwarf’s weapon-belt and using it to bind his arms at his back, making good use of the inflexibility of plate vambraces to to so, then stepping back to listen in on the interrogation.
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Vogh
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“I can’t do all you do with your blades. Never learned to be hold back as I fought.”
Vogh cursed the info she received. They had let the one person flee and warn these people down here and presumably more for they weren’t here either.
Vogh pulled out some paper and ink and had the dwarf map out as much area he could that was beyond the tower.
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Talin
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Talin added with a smile. Thank you for what you are doing. You wouldn’t want any of us to get hurt and none of your fellow cultists either. Speaking of which I would like to know as many other names as you can remember and also where they could be located. We want to make sure that we can safely speak to them all for other information about this Nught of Dissolution.”
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Bharash
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“Pointy bit go in bad man, everything after that’s just getting technical. You just need to put the time in.” Bharash answers, looking momentarily just a tiny bit shady about something or other – no doubt for some inexplicable Bharash-y reason that sees him looking about for a distraction.
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Narrator GM
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Woreron named several demons who actually lived in rooms nearby. He said there were lots of ratmen and several rhohindor. Then he named 2 specific cultist women, one was a sadist who looked over prisoners. He also scribbled a crude map that showed a room beyond the tower with an old house that had several rat lords. That’s just on this level. There are other levels he hasn’t been to.
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Vogh
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All the information was very useful and Vogh knew that there were at least 2 others Gavele and the one that ran away on the upper level before they even got down here. The jab that Bharash gave her she shrugged off. She knew the concept but just never trained to do so.
“I think we have enough information to push forward. What do you all think? Once we open the door I feel we will be facing an enemy based on what Woreron has said. So, besides the spell that I have cast, I think we should do any others and then be ready to fight.” Vogh said in their heads.
She then followed up with, “What do you think we should do with Woreon? I think we take him with us.”
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Bharash
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Less ‘jab’ and more ‘self deprecation’ although Bharash seems to have distracted himself with some guilty thought or other towards the end of it, so the miscommunication can like as not, be excused.
Considering the sketch, he takes a second to think then states flatly “Prisoners. Go in, rescue them. Hopefully putting enough of a scare into the rats in the process that they won’t be too enthusiastic about getting in our way.” before glancing at Woreon “As for the dwarf, one dispel and he’s trouble. I’d cold-cock him senseless and park him back on his pallet upstairs myself. He’ll take no more harm and it’ll buffer him some from accusations of treason.”
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Talin
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Talin thought about what was displayed before them. He heard Vogh and Bharash state their thoughts and had to agree somewhat with Bharash.
“I agree, one dispel will ruin the charm quickly. So, taking him with us is not an option. I don’t think leaving him alone up in his room is an option though. Vogh do you think the Aranea would watch over him and NOT set him free? If you don’t think so then Bharash’s option is the best. We bind him up real good and gag him. That should be sufficient to keep him out of it.”
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon agreed with Bharash. “Yes, a dispel would not only possibly defeat our spells but the charm and we don’t need that. I say we just keep him tied up and up in his place gagged. If you want to knock him out, Bharash, that works for me.
As for the prisoners if we find some alive I think we just get them to freedom and not push forward. Sure it will give the enemy time to prepare for us but saving lives should be more important.
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Re: 284320 Narrator GM
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Link to map: https://ptol.us/wp-content/upl…le-Ptolus-scaled.jpg
This is the map the dwarf hand drew.
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Narrator GM
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Vogh also noticed the aranea was gone from her senses. Whenever they went to inspect the room, she confirmed that indeed the creature had departed the upper part of the tower and she was no longer able to sense it. However, she noticed a glint in the detritus on the litered floor. Within the bones and refuse on the floor are hidden a masterwork short sword, a large amethyst (worth 300 gp) set into a sword pommel – the blade long since broken away – a gold necklace worth 200 gp,
plus 39 gp and 84 sp in loose coins.
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Bharash
———————————————————–
Bharash might have a comment about the valuables and the fact that they found them in or around someone’s home – he’s weird like that – but he’s nodding and hefting the dwarf, studying him carefully and delivering a precise, if ham-fisted love-tap or two in order to render the poor fellow quite thoroughly unconscious for a bit… Trusting to dwarven hard-headedness to let him survive the experience and then hefting him back up to the concealed spot he watched from, leaving him up there after giving him a thorough pat-down and assessing his arms and equipment.
He may not be able to recognise magic, but he can determine the quality of weapons and armour well enough, and that’s generally a prerequisite to enchantment.
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Vogh
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Vogh put the stuff in her pack as Bharash knocked out the dwarf. Vogh came over and shook her head, “Well, I can’t sense the aranea any more. I hope she isn’t alerting anyone else but if she is she will pay for her poor decision. Let’s get him up to his perch and then push forward.”
Vogh made sure to completely strip any items of value from the dwarf and made sure to grab any keys or anything key like while searching the room in his area.
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Belie
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Belie will hog tie him up, letting the insanely strong dragonborn carry the heavy dwarf upstairs once more.
(1d20+11 CMB, take 20 = 31, or if I have to roll: 11:31, Today: Belie rolled 30 using 1d20+11 ((19)).
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Narrator GM
———————————————————–
When Vogh reached out her mind into the next room, she was almost overwhelmed by the number of life forms present. She sensed two rather intelligent ratmen and their dogmole mounts who were above their heads, probably 60 feet in the air. Two giant dire rats were just beyond the door, along with eight of the big ratbrutes, not super bright, but they were strong. She sensed 22 regular ratmen, a dozen of those were higher up than they were currently. Finally, she sensed the mind of the tiefling woman, Gavele, and also a Quasit who was beside her, both high up like the dozen ratmen and in the middle of the rats. (Both the tiefling and quasit are invisible, so no one can see them and only Vogh knows where they are for certain)
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Vogh
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Vogh discussed to the others what she sensed outside the door. It seemed that while they were messing around with Woreron Gavele had indeed gotten backup and they were arrayed outside the door for them to take care of nice and orderly. It honestly helped so they didn’t have to go searching all over and fight from room to room. “Well, it is a decent size enemy waiting for us. Suggestions besides buffing and going headfirst into the fray? We can do lots of things. I can cast grease in the middle of this main group in front of us. I could also dimension door a few people on top of the structure. Deacon if you did the same we could almost get all of us over there. Actually, I like that idea. Just to make sure we know what we are looking at after the buffs are done let’s open the door and withstand the first barrage of fire which I am certain will happen. Then we peek around the door and poof we show up!”
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon was nodding along with Vogh at her plan, buffing and then not doing what they were wanting us to do was perfect. “I can take 3 with me. How about I take Belie and Julia and be a little farther back, and you take Bharash and Talin with you into the fray.”
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Talin
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Talin liked the plan. The enemy wouldn’t know what hit them!
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Bharash
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Well, ogreishly strong at any rate… Bharash has quite a bit of muscle on him to begin with and that’s somewhat augmented by the magical bracers he’s wearing, but for the act of hefting an armoured dwarf around, he hardly needs either of them. He rejoins the others as they’re coming up with their plans and slowly draws both blades, rolling his shoulders and his neck a few times to loosen up.
“I’m still a little charred from all the fighting up top, but I imagine we can pull this off… Personally, I’d rather mess with their heads a little, but since you cast all those spells the clock is sort of ticking.” he comments, as he finishes limbering up.
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Julia Graymantle
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Julia looks at Bharash and his comment and before the door is thrown open she touches him with a wand sending healing into his body to mend his wounds. You recover 18 HP “That should help some.” Julia said as she watched the wounds begin to knit back up and scales become more malleable.
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Vogh
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With spells cast and ready to go, Vogh gave Belie the nod to throw the door open. All were behind the wall or door when it opened so that any barrage of fire would not hit them. After a few heartwrenching seconds, Vogh and Deacon cast their spells after a quick peek to see the building out before them. A moment later they were on top of the building behind the ratmen and Gavele who no one could see.
Cast Dimension door with Bharash and Talin.
08:37, Today: Vogh rolled 26,16,4,22 using d20+7,d20+7,d20+3,d20+7. Vogh, Talin, Julia, Deacon initiatives.
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Deacon Havenhold
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Deacon mirrored Vogh’s movement as he peeked then cast his spell touching Belie and Julia. Suddenly they too were on the building standing behind the others.
Cast Dimension Door
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Talin
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Talin came out of the dimensional door with his blade ready and saw he only needed to take a 5ft step to engage with the ratmen. So, after his 5ft step, he let SolarSong sing! Swinging the blade while beginning his own song, waist level it carved into the ratman like butter. The added fire searing the wounds as fast as they were made. Suddenly, there was one less alive ratmen on top of the building.
Hit AC30 for 39
08:33, Today: Talin rolled 30,39 using d20+26,6d6+15 attack .
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Bharash
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Stepping into the spell field and then phasing right back out of the never-was on the rooftop gives Bharash a momentary case of the shivers but he sets it aside in order to wade straight into the fight, taking a short step up behind the rearmost of the ratkin, slapping them around the back of the head with a growl of “Knock, knock.” as he offers the remainder of the pack a wide, wicked grin.
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On my surprise action, I get one attack (because you get a standard or move action) and I slap the rearmost rat for 23 to hit, 13 non-lethal damage. My initiative is then 17.
I’ve added nothing from spells or blessings, because I have no idea which ones are still up after all our faffing around time. ^_^
Also, that picture is bloody annoying because it messes with my screen width and I can’t see all of a post now!
03:37, Today: Bharash rolled 7 using 1d20. Initiative.
03:37, Today: Bharash rolled 7,1 using 1d20,1d8. Sucker-punch.
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Belie
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Belie dashed forward with Talin, stabbing his rapier through the back of the ratman’s skull, the tip bursting through his forehead with a spray of gore.
Belie rolled 20 using 1d20+9 ((11))
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