Calderion’s
Journeys Part 7:
The Escape from the Slithering Deeps
(A Solo Pathfinder game project)
Scene 30
So here I am again, putting Pathfinder through its paces using an online version of the Mythic
Game Master Emulator. The Flash player online
version I use is found here, although I also have the PDF and a copy of the Flash
version to use when I can’t get online. I’ve used it for 6 entries now, and
find it a really robust tool. (Not to mention fun!)
The character I created for this project, a
wizard named Calderion, is now 4th level & has recently been
transformed from a human into a tiefling after an encounter with a Contract
Devil. Cal tricked it
into a contract that forced it back to Hell without any victims to drag back
with it. As a kind of revenge it left Cal as a tiefling, so anyone looking close will know he had stained his
soul by contracting with infernal powers. That was a twist I wasn’t expecting,
and part of the fun of using the GM Emulator. Go back and read Part 6 if you want to see the whole
story.
Now, picking up where the last entry left
off, we rejoin Calderion & his companions: the paladin named Kushear, his
cousin Myrlia (priestess of the goddess Arshea), both of whom are half-elves. Also with them is the rogue Ralvor,
(Myrlia’s human lover) and Fannen, a hermit druid living in the Slithering
Deeps. Fannen is a former friend of Ralvor’s who agreed to act as a guide
(although his dislike for Ralvor has made him regret his choice). The final
member is a newcomer to the narrative: Lyzia the Lyrakien. She is the Lyrakien
Azata the group was sent to rescue. In the swamp called the
Slithering Deeps Lyzia was held prisoner by the necromancer Argren. Now free,
she has sworn to serve Kushear for a year and a day as a way of thanks. The
minor fact that Lyzia is also infatuated with Kushear, suffering from a heavy
crush and hero worship of her rescuer, may have played small part in her pledge.
This new scene starts with the team split
between 2 areas. While Cal and Kushear are stuck in the necromancer’s workroom
along with the newly-released Lyzia, the others are separated outside by a wall
of ice that one of the devils magically created to block the entrance. Cal has
just learned that he is no longer quite human anymore, and is wrestling with
how exactly to feel about that. In the meantime, the trio blocked outside the
workroom- Fannen, Myrlia, & Ralvor- have no idea the devils have been
dismissed, and are frantically trying to remove the ice wall barricading the
entrance to affect some kind of rescue. The barricade only lasts 12 minutes, so
it is going to collapse in a moment anyway, reuniting the group. Cal’s Hero
Lab file has been
updated to reflect the new changes as a tiefling and I have also updated the GM Emulator to
the new (lowered) Chaos level. I scaled it back to 6, although once another
combat is initiated that will jump again to 7. This is still lower than it was,
but then the next encounter shouldn’t be as dire as the previous with the Contract
Devil. My last entry had a random Negative Scene Change pop up
on the Emulator, and after a few questions to clarify things, it was determined
that the Ogre, Tommy Two-toes, that the group fought & killed in the keep’s
courtyard way back in Part 2 has a mate…and she is Not Happy. I named the love-struck
hulk Brutal Betty. When I asked the GM Emulator whether she would attack the
group inside the keep, the answer was “Yes”.
I followed that up with a request for some more details, particularly “Q: Does she attack from ambush? A: Somewhat
Hilarious Laziness”. I translated that into “Betty tries to ambush the
group but she’s totally useless at hiding and fails”. It makes sense- Ogres, after all, aren’t really all that
bright.
So that is the opening stage of this scene-
Cal and friends are upstairs upon the 2nd floor mezzanine of the old,
ruined keep, with its rooms off the balcony and the open feast hall below. The
necromancer Argren has been killed. His Lizardfolk and werewolf allies have
abandoned the ruins for the safety of the swamp, and the zombie minions have
all been destroyed. The devil that Argren had been bargaining with has been
tricked back to Hell empty-handed, and Lyzia has been rescued.
However, Betty is now downstairs waiting to
smash the puny man-things that killed her mate.
So the curtain rises…
Calderion looked at his friend with a perplexed expression that changed
to shock as understanding of what he said penetrated. “A teifling. A
fiend-touched. A shadow-souled. That I would be such…words escape me.” He
rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I know. Don’t fear, we’ll stand by you.
We’ll scour the world for a means of restoring you and wiping this stain from…”
Kushear begins to pronounce.
“What? Wait…no! This is classic bard stuff! The mysterious shadow-touched
mage traveling the land, fighting the forces of darkness! I TOLD you this
mission was epic! I’m living a ballad story! This is AWSOME!” Cal crowed.
Lyzia stared at the youngster. “Is he always like this, or has the
change driven him to madness?” She asked Kushear, sounding almost horrified at
the young wizard’s naiveté.
The
paladin looked pained and raised his helm to pinch the bridge of his nose. Eyes
closed, Kushear slowly shook his head. “No, this is pretty much normal for him.
I guess we should be glad of that, and grateful that the taint hasn’t truly
changed him from being…well…himself.”
“Normal. This is NORMAL?” the tiny woman muttered incredulously. “Maybe
I was better imprisoned by the necromancer.”
Cal didn’t notice the by-play of his companions. “I wonder what else I
can do. All the stories have the shadow-souled having strange things that they
hide from others: Tails, that they can use to grasp things; wings; or other
stuff like call unnatural darkness to hide in. Claws or fangs too.” He looked
at his unchanged hands and wiggled his fingers experimentally. “No claws.” He
opened and pointed to his mouth. “Wha bow wangs?” he asks.
Kushear started to look annoyed at Cal’s antics, but answered with
exaggerated patience. “No, Cal. No fangs. Just your eyes.” His face then paled
as he noticed a strange movement in back of the young wizard. The black-furred
tip of a cat-like tail was now visible over Cal’s shoulder. It flexed with
tentacle-like dexterity then wrapped itself twice around Calderion’s throat. “Gods
of Light! What did that hell spawn do to you?!”
After a long hiatus I recently got back into
this game again. The GM
Emulator popped
out a “Negative Scene Change” alert
as I was setting it up. I needed more info, so asked “Q: How is the scene negatively altered?” and got “Disturbing Creation, Calderion (Tiefling wiz
4)” in reply. Looking back over the rules for Cal’s new race, I saw Tieflings have the option to
change out their Fiendish Sorcery trait for a Prehensile Tail that allows them
to retrieve small stowed items as a swift
action. The tail cannot wield weapons, but
since Calderion can’t benefit from the Fiendish Sorcery trait anyway (He’s a wizard not a sorcerer) I decided to add a bit more weirdness to our hero,
since this is allowed within the rules. I changed his Hero Lab worksheet to reflect this addition.
“Oh!” Cal reached to touch the furry rope-like appendage. He blinked in
surprise as it obligingly let loose and looped around his wrist instead. He
stroked its length a bit, and closed his eyes in pleasure. “Gods! That feels
really niiice..!” he almost moaned. Kushear pointedly cleared his throat. Calderion’s
eyes flew open and his face flushed scarlet in embarrassment, as his new tail
uncoiled from around his wrist. “Umm, yeah…sorry. It’s a lot to get used to.”
Cal stammered. “It feels totally alien but at the same time completely natural.
It’s hard to describe.” he tried to explain, as he rubbed the tip of his new
tail under his chin in thought. As he realized what he was doing the tail
zipped back behind him, temporarily out of sight. “This is going to be really
awkward while I adapt to this. I guess there is only one thing left to do…” Cal’s
voice trailed off as he pulled out his dagger and reached around behind
himself.
“Wait!
There is no need to self-mutilate yourself! Self-harm is not the way to face
this! Cutting it off won’t change what you’ve become!” Kushear lunged at the
youth, and tried to pull the blade from his hand. “We can work this out! We’ll
help you get through this!”
Cal released the blade and stepped back with a confused expression,
while his new tail extended out in surprise. “What?! Why would I…what are you
talking about? I wasn’t going to do anything like that!” he said in a wounded
tone. “How could you think I would? I was just going to cut a slot in my
trousers to allow my tail to sit more comfortably! It’s rubbing against my
belt!”
“Oh.”
This time it was Kushear’s turn to turn red with embarrassment. The half-elf
ashamedly handed Calderion back his dagger. “Sorry Cal. I forgot who I was
dealing with. Of course you wouldn’t see this as a curse. You just don’t see
the world that way, do you?” he asked rhetorically, as he face-palmed and shook
his head. I asked the GM Emulator “Q:
Would Kushear's horror at Cal's change alter the way he treats Cal? YES”. So I checked further into how Kushear’s
attitude would change by asking “Q: Would
Kushear pity Cal for now being a tiefling? YES”. But there was also a
random event pop up at the second question regarding the story thread: “E: Progress on 'Rest up & return to
Bottle Bay to report the mission success.': the Release of Expectations”. The
random event moves the story forward. It also came after Kushear’s change in
attitude. So I decided the “Release of Expectations” refers to something that
makes Kushear realize his pity is misplaced and he now accepted Calderion’s new
condition.
“Definitely might have been better with the necromancer.” Lyzia groused
repressively.”
Calderion looked at the lyrakien in
confusion. “But we just rescued you! What…?” he never finished his thought, as
they were suddenly interrupted by a glacial cracking noise behind them. All 3
spun around to look, just as the devil-spawned wall of ice blocking the
workshop door suddenly crumbled away & then vanished. Their companions who
had been trapped outside, having no knowledge of the situation within, charged
into the necromancer’s workshop with weapons readied, only to come up short
when no enemy was seen.
Just a side note- Cal’s Hero
Lab file
originally had “power hungry” as Cal’s character flaw. That has never been put
into play, and indeed is really off-base for the way he has been portrayed. So
when I updated him to a tiefling I
also switched that out for “naïve”. I think that suits him more accurately.
“Kushear! Cal! Are you alright?” Myrlia asked with desperate worry. “The
power of those devils was incredible! What happened?” She then noticed the
lyrakien azata perched upon Kushear’s shoulder. “Mistress! You’re free! Thank
the Goddess!”
“Myrlia, meet Lyzia, holy messenger of the Goddess Yuelral. With Argren dead, freeing
her was simply a matter of breaking the seal he had trapped her with. As for
the devils…they had me magically paralyzed, freezing me in mid-act of drawing
my sword. It was left to Cal to deal with the horrors. He was successful, but
paid a terrible price for it.” Kushear told her solemnly .
“What?! Cal! What price…?” Myrlia twirled around to face Calderion, who met
her concerned look with his new violet eyes, while his new black cat-furred
tail hung despondingly from his shoulder. “Oh, Cal! What did you do?”
Cal’s earlier exuberance deflated in the
face of the half-elf cousins profound worry and grief over the changes wrought
upon him. “I had no choice. I could never have defeated them in a direct
conflict- I’m not sure all of us together could. So I picked up where the
necromancer left off. They were here to bargain, so I bargained.”
“You gave your soul to damnation?! What were you thinking, boy!” Fannen
said in an angry, disappointed tone.
“No!
My soul was NEVER offered!” Calderion explained in the face of his friend’s
condemnation, as his tail bushed out in anxiety. “I sacrificed a portion of my
magic, and my most valuable magic item, as the price for the devils simply
leaving back to their own domain. But I tricked him! The headband
I surrendered was my most valuable item, but since it also increased my magic,
giving it up filled BOTH conditions of the contract. The devil had to settle
with just the headband, and leave me untouched. It was naturally angry at this
result, and crushed the headband. A pulse of power was released by its
destruction, and I suspect it used that as an excuse to sneak in some revenge. It
transformed me before it left. We can’t prove it was the devil, and not some
freakish magical effect, so we can’t claim it broke the contract.”
“Huh.
That was a good trick you pulled off. I don’t expect any of us would have
thought of it. Not when faced with risking our souls like that. You wear your
new face as a badge of honor, kid. You saved everyone here.” Ralvor said
roughly from Myrlia’s side. I asked the GM Emulator “Q: After hearing Cal's daring bargaining with the devils,
and hearing the praise of his companions, does Ralvor begin to resent &
envy Cal? NO”. This was a bit of a minor twist,
but fits with Ralvor’s attempts to reconcile with Cal after stealing from him
& getting caught (see the details in Part 6), so I added it to the
narrative.
Calderion flicked
his violet gaze to the rogue & straightened his tail in surprise, then
looked away in embarrassment. “I…uh…Thanks.” He cast his eyes downwards for a
moment, then breathed deeply and exhaled. He straightened up as he seemed to
reach a sudden decision, and looked directly at Ralvor. “Thanks greatly, Ral.
That meant a lot to me.” Cal took a few steps and offered Ral his hand. I decided that, given
Calderion’s inherent belief in goodness, he can’t continue to hold a grudge
against the rogue, especially in the face of Ral’s obvious remorse. This is Cal’s
unspoken forgiveness of the rogue’s earlier actions.
Ralvor’s usual dour
expression softened for a moment as he accepted both Calderion’s hand and his
meaning in the gesture. “Just make sure you stay on the right side of the
shadows, kid. Despite your new change I trust I’ve been closer to the dark than
you, and believe me when I say it’s a damned and lonely place to be. But so
far, you’re doing good.” the older man said as he released Cal’s grip.
I think before I continue I’ll assign the experience
points (XP) for
the encounter with the Contract
Devil earlier from
Part 6, before I forget. Defeating such a creature is normally almost 10k worth
in XP. But Cal DIDN’T defeat it. (Quite frankly it would’ve destroyed him if he
had tried.) That moved the encounter into a role-play type, which drops its Challenge
Level down to the Average
Party Level. With an
APL of 4, this encounter now becomes worth 1200 XP.
However, the results of this encounter,
particularly Cal’s change to a tiefling, have significant effects on the
narrative. This, in my opinion, boosts it into the category of Story Awards
(see Awarding Experience) which doubles it to 2400 XP. I
added that amount to Calderion’s Hero Lab file.
It moves him closer to Level 5, but for the moment changes nothing. I didn’t
split the award with any of the NPCs because the encounter was all
Calderion’s. They had no real part in how it played out.
“In any event, we’re done here. Let’s get
back to Fannen’s cabin, collect our gear, and see about making our way back to
Bottle Bay. I would really like to be sleeping in a nice clean bed as soon as
we can arrange it!” Myrlia interrupted.
Ral gave his lover a lecherous grin. “Oh,
that sounds good too. The bed part, anyway. I think we can even fit in some
sleep…eventually.”
Myrlia rolled her eyes at the remark, but
grinned back at him. “I am a priestess of the
goddess Arshea. I have devotions to perform. You’d better be well-rested
if you intend to meet my divine needs.” she reminded him.
“It’ll
be ‘divine’ alright…” Ral leered. He moved back to stand again at her side.
“Bah! Besotted, the both of you. Yes, let’s
go. The sooner you trouble-makers leave my swamp the better!” Fannen turned and
stomped off toward the stairwell back down.
“Wait! Fannen- don’t go off alone!” Kushear
put a hand to Fannen’s shoulder to restrain him a moment. “The other werewolves
are still out there someplace. Let’s not become complacent. We still need to be
careful.”
“What remains to be done? We’re finished
with your mission, are we not?” the old druid snapped belligerently.
“I, for one, would like to see this workshop
in flames before we leave.” Calderion answered, as he began to pull down
Argren’s posted notes and make a pile of furniture and equipment out of the
room’s fixtures. “It would be prudent to destroy his lab, to ensure no other
student of necromancy can duplicate his efforts. You really don’t want to do
this again, do you?” I already know
Betty is going to try (and fail) to ambush the group. My first idea was to have
her block the stairs. She’s a giant-kind, after all, so just by standing in the
way she will take up most of the spiral staircase. The smartest place is for
her to await them at the bottom of the stairs…but Ogres are not noted for their
brains. Checking with the GM Emulator: “Q: When Betty attacks in the stairwell, will she attack from the foot
of the stairs? EXCEPTIONAL NO”. So I guess Betty will hit them at the top
of the stairs. In fact, with the EXCEPTIONAL part of the answer, I decide to
have her be really stupid, and charge the group as they approach, taking them
on up on the mezzanine. This is dumb because it allows the team to encircle
her. This might be a quick fight.
I just got a Random Event involving Cal from
the GM Emulator while I was asking it about how
the Ogress was going to attack the group.
“E:
Negative for Calderion (wiz 4): a Betrayal of the intellectual”. From this
I extrapolate that this idea of Cal’s to burn the lab is a Bad
Plan*. To find out how
bad I ask a few more questions. “Q: Will
destroying Argren's lab cause the whole keep to burn? YES”. Umm…ok…so…yeah,
bad.
Could it get worse? “Q: Will the burning keep attract any other foes? YES”. Yes,
apparently it can. Oh joy. I do a check to find out which enemies will show. “Q: Will it be boggards that
investigate? YES”. So it looks like the team will have to fight Brutal
Betty, Ogress mate of the now-dead Tommy Two-toes, to escape the burning keep,
only to run into a clutch of evil frog-men on their way out. At least it’s not
boring.
“I hate it when you make sense.” Ralvor
grumbled, then marched over to the workbenches and helped Cal add items to the
growing bier. A quick splash of lantern oil over the pile completed the work,
and a trail of oil was poured to the door of the workshop. As the group left
together, a tindertwig was applied to the oil and the workshop door was closed
behind them, as the last remnant of Argren’s evil went up in flames.
It was with feelings of a job well done that
the five companions marched towards the stairs that lead down back to the old
fort’s main hall. They ignored the billowing smoke flowing from under the
now-smoldering laboratory door behind them. It was soon to be a non-issue, they
felt, since they would be quickly back out into the Slithering Deeps, and
finally away from the necromancer’s lair.
So it came as an unpleasant shock when the
door to the stairwell before them shattered from a massive blow, and a
hideously malformed giantess stepped onto the stone mezzanine in front of them.
She was humongous, with roils of flesh squeezing out from under the
reptile-hide armor worn over her bulging frame. Her face was blob of
lesion-pocked flesh with tiny piggish eyes under a few strands of greasy hair
and a nose so flattened it was almost unnoticed against her face. Crooked,
irregularly-spaced jade-green teeth poked from her mouth as she screeched her
rage upon seeing the group.
“Y’all kilt mah poor Tommy! Y’all done mah
boi-frond! Iz gonna gitcha all! Betty’s gonna bust ya’ll up!” the enraged
Ogress screamed. She pulled out a delicate glass vail filled with something
oily and smashed it against her two-handed club, spattering it over the weapon.
She then charged towards them at a lumbering pace.
“Oh, bugger.” Ral muttered, as he pulled out
his bow and prepared for combat, along with everyone else. “Not again…”
Unseen, and overlooked by all, the smoldering
workshop door ignited into flame, as the conflagration within spread to the
wooden remains of the old fort’s roof beams.
So now a new fight begins, and with that a new
scene. The GM Emulator already
determined this place is going to burn, so I guestimated that it will take 4 rounds of combat time before the
ceiling of the top level is aflame and
everyone up there begins to take damage from the heat & smoke, similar to
being trapped in a forest
fire . Two rounds
after that, the roof will collapse, burying anyone still up there in burning
rubble. Four rounds after that the ceiling supports for the main floor will
also burn through, bringing the entire structure crashing down. Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock…
…And the GM Emulator just
flashed a random negative Scene Alteration. It checks whenever a scene ends and
a new one begins to see if the new scene is altered. In this case I lost the
odds and the change goes unfavorably for the players (me). I examine the ogre’s
Hero
Lab file and find she
has an Oil
of Magic Weapon on her
equipment list. I decide to check with the Emulator to determine if her use of
this potion to give her a boost to her attack and damage will count as the
negative alteration. “Q: Is the negative
alteration Betty adding her Oil of Magic Weapon to her club? YES”. Okay
then. I edited the description above to add that detail to the narrative.
Scene
31
I’ll now shift everything into a combat
mode. Rolling for initiative, I get these results: Betty
(17), Calderion (12), Fannen (19), Kushear (14), Lyzia(19), Myrlia (27), and
Ralvor (21). Lyzia and Fannen tied with a 19 each, but according to the rules,
because Lyzia has the greater bonus to her roll (+8 versus Fannen’s measly +1)
she goes before him. Rearranging the characters into Initiative order (highest
to lowest, with highest going 1st) I get: Myrlia, Ralvor, Lyzia, Fannen,
Betty, Kushear and Cal going last. Doing some further prep work for the combat
I make some more rolls to determine if anyone is Surprised before the combat round begins.
The Ogress already has a -6 penalty to her stealth skill, and since the GM Emulator has
given her another blow to her sneakiness, I added an additional -2 penalty. That
resulted in Betty having a paltry roll of 6. I then rolled a Perception skill check for each of the
good guys to see if they countered her stealth and spotted Betty before she
attacked. Everyone easily beat the 6…except Cal. So not only is he dead last in
the combat order, he is the only one caught flat-footed by the Ogress’ arrival. Derp.
If he didn’t have the NPCs to run interference, he’d be
flattened by the Ogress.
Hurray for cannon-fodder! So what will happen is Cal will
lose his action in the 1st round, while combat begins around him.
Anyway, I’ll dive right into it.
Round
1
As
the massive malformed creature lurched towards the group, Myrlia stepped
forward and swung her morning-star mace at her bulk. The weapon’s spikes
stabbed into the Ogress’ ample fat, leaving deep punctures behind when Myrlia
pulled her weapon back. As Betty screetched in pain, Myrlia said “Tommy likely
wanted to die, with an ugly thing like you in his bed!” Betty has an Armor Class of 21, so weapons need to get a roll equal or
higher than that to hit her. Myrlia barely made the roll with a 22, and did 6
points of damage. The Ogress started with 38, so drops down to 32 points.
Over Myrlia’s head,
Ralvor launched an arrow at the giantess’ globular head. The shot flew true to
its target, but barely penetrated the flab around Betty’s triple chins at her
throat. She brushed away the arrow sticking out, with hardly any notice. His shot hit with a 26, but only rolled a single point
for damage. Betty is left with 31 hit points remaining.
Lyzia drops behind Kushear as he moves to confront the hideous Betty.
“Be strong, Champion! Let the Goddess Yuelral aid you and your patroness
Iomedae! At her words Kushear’s sword blade bursts into flame. Lyzia casts her Sun
Metal spell upon
Kushear’s sword upon her turn.
Fannen moved to the side,
away from his allies, and produced what appeared to be a small twig. He pointed
the stick at the Ogress then spoke a gibberish-sounding word. A purple, magical
aura enveloped the Ogress, locking her in place. Paralyzed on the spot, the
corpulent creature quivered in rage, unable to act. Fannen
uses his Wand of Hold
Person upon her. She needed to beat a difficulty class
(DC) of 13 on a
Will-based Saving
Throw roll, and failed
by rolling an 8. Betty will be paralyzed for 3 rounds, although she does get
another saving throw each round to try and break free. In the meanwhile, her Armor
Class drops to 15
while she’s affected. She loses her action this round, so I’ll jump to Kushear
next.
I’m really shocked the wand worked. Betty
has a +5 bonus for her Will-based Saving Throws. With that kind of bonus and
such a low DC on the wand, I doubt it will hold her for long.
Kushear, wearing a grim smile, strode up to
the Ogress, his longsword flickering with flame in the dim light. “Feel the
justice of two goddess’ power, you grotesque deviant!” He plunged his longsword
into the bulbous flesh of her chest, the flames along the blade cauterizing the
wound even as he buried it half way along the blade’s length. Kushear rolled a 26
to hit. He needed only 15, so hits easily. Damage done was 9 points from the
sword, with an additional 4 points from the flames, for a total of 13. That
drops Betty down to 18. They’re really working Brutal Betty over. I doubt
she’ll last another round. I sort of figured this might be a quick fight.
But then there’s Calderion…
Cal stared dumbstruck as the massive misshapen
giantess lumbered toward the gathered group. As his colleagues jumped into
action, the young tiefling finally shook off his surprise and grabbed at one of
the scrolls fastened to the bandoleers across his chest. Clumsily he tried to
unroll it to use, only to fumble the bottom and end up with the parchment
unraveled at his feet. With his face bright red with shame and embarrassment,
he let the scroll drop to be retrieved later rather than waste the time to
re-roll it. Ralvor, the only one of the group back far enough to see Cal’s
blunder, rolled his eyes at the youth and said “Nice to see you’re still you,
kid. Being a tiefling doesn’t seem to have changed you much.” Cal made no
answer, but he managed to look even more chagrinned as his tail drooped in
embarrassment. Cal was
caught flat-footed and surprised this round, so has no actions until the next.
The rest of it- his dropping the scroll- I just made up to add some fun
details. The only scrolls he has left with any attack spells are Burning
Hands spells, which he
really can’t use anyway, not without hitting the other characters as well at
least, so it shouldn’t affect anything. Got to say I’m having fun adding his
tail in the descriptions to show Cal’s reactions. >Grin<.
Above the combatants, smoke swirled
unnoticed, blackening the ceiling. An orange glow illuminated the trusses, as
the flames formed an aura overhead.
Round
2
Start of a new combat round, so I start back
at the beginning of the initiative order again, with Myrlia
starting first.
Myrlia swung her spiked mace again,
intending to bash Betty’s chest where Kushear’s flaming sword had burned
through, but missed her mark. The weapon instead bounced solidly against the
hardened leather of the Ogress’ reptile hide armor. Despite only needing
a 15 to hit Betty, Myrlia rolled a paltry 9, bonuses included, and so failed to
hit.
Ralvor turned away
from tormenting Cal, and once more nocked and fired an arrow at their attacker,
but like his lover’s mace, his shot simply bounced off the giantess’ cuirass. He rolled a 13. Total.
With a +7 bonus to hit he still missed. This is not looking so good.
Lyzia approached the
paralyzed giantess. Flying just over her head, she channels the divine power of Elysium, unleashing a blast of holy starlight in a
5-foot burst. The touch of the pureness of this light burns into the evil soul
of the ogre, searing its flesh like a bad sunburn. The
Lyrakien
Azata uses its Starlight blast ability and
delivers 4 points of damage to Betty.
Fannen spoke in a
low voice, his words heard as a strange cadence. Using the secret language
known only to the Druids of the Green Faith, he called a small earth spirit- an
elemental- to his service. Pointing at the female
ogre, he directed it to attack. He used his ability to change out any of his spells for a
Summon
Nature’s Ally spell of
the same level, and switched out one of his Barkskin spells to cast a 2nd
level summons spell instead.
The small stone spirit, looking like a rough
tumble of rocks stacked in a man-shaped pile, moved up to the ogre-woman, and
swung one of its arms at her knee. The fist-sized rocks that tip its arm
slammed into her leg with the audible crack of bone. The elemental strikes
Betty with a 17 to hit, and inflicts 6 points of damage. Betty is down to only
8 hit points now.
Betty tried to break free of the magic
holding her, but the pain being inflicted caused her efforts to fail. The
monstrosity screamed silently as the wand’s power continued to lock her in
place. She failed her Saving
Throw roll again,
rolling an 11 total this time. That still doesn’t beat a difficulty class
(DC) of 13, so she
remains paralyzed.
Kushear again
plunged the burning longsword into Betty’s ample chest. Paralyzed by magic and
defenceless, the monster died with nothing to show for its efforts at revenge. Kushear succeeded his
Attack
Roll, getting 23
total. His damage was only 5 points, but the fire from the burning blade added
another 4 points to that, giving him just enough to end this fight. He pulled the blade free and shoved the
dead giantess, toppling the massive corpse to the floor. “That was much easier
than the last ogre we faced. A good thing, too.” He motioned upwards to the now
fully-engulfed roof above them. “We need to leave, and quickly!”
The troop hurried to the stairwell, intent
on escaping the burning ruin before the roof could collapse on top of them.
Smoke and ash swirled in the air, making breathing difficult. Calderion paused
just long enough to retrieve his fallen scroll before rushing after them.
Ralvor too paused a moment, and performed a quick search of the dead ogre
before following along.
He flashed a quick grin at the wizard as
they dashed down the stairs, and held up a trio of small vials for him to see.
“Sometimes it’s worth a moment to check things. You never know what might come
of it!” he advised as they head for the main door to the courtyard, and the
Slithering Deeps beyond.
Ralvor grabbed the 3 potions of Cure
Light Wounds that
Betty had. I thought I would just bypass the next encounter, though. Since the
team has leveled up, the boggards supposedly
waiting for them outside the ruined tower are now far too weak opponents to
make any kind of real challenge. Essentially they’re a waste of time, and play
no part in the narrative. However, when
I took another look at the monster’s stats
Crossing the
cobbled, algae-covered courtyard to the wall breach, they quickly retrieved
Fannen’s skiff from its hiding place, and pushed off into the steaming green
waters of the swamp. Scarcely had the small craft reached open water when
behind them was a tremendous crashing roar, as the upper floors of the old ruin
collapsed upon itself. The whole edifice was left as now as nothing but a
burning pile of rubble, hidden behind its still-standing curtain wall. Fannen
poled the skiff deeper into the mist and smoke, until the glow of the fire
faded from view, and eventually even the smell of the smoke disappeared as they
moved away, working back towards Fannen’s lodge at the edge of the Deeps. As
the mist closed around the tired adventurers, none notice the bulbous eyes
tracking them from the green murky waters.
And I think I’ll end this one here. The next
instalment involves a complete location change, so this looks like a good
stopping point. I would like to apologize for the long hiatus between posts,
but time and life seemed to interfere, with a lot of things hitting me in the
last year or so. I hope to post more later with less time between. Thanks for
reading!
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