Originally Posted by
Acanous
OK!
Update to the story of Steve the Aboleth and the Party that Could.
The party, as said before, has decided to go enslave some lycanthropes and sell them for money, so they could buy equiptment and go confront Steve again.
They split up, two going out with their newfound map to hunt weres, one going to ransack the orphanage for children rations, and another going around the tippyverse town and making careful use of disable device to take magical traps.
There was a good deal of roleplay here, which ended in some epicly funny moments, but you really had to be there, otherwise a goblin putting back a little girl's corpse just isn't funny.
Anyhow, the two adventurers managed to track down and diplomance three wereboars into slavery. Then the Orc had his way with them.
I want to make a joke about a certain bank here, but don't know if it would break forum rules >.>
They gathered the rather large (10k) reward for the lycans, then grouped back up and went exploring. The Rogue tracked down a pack of Triceratops, and engaged them for food. The monk ended up dead before the rest of the party figured out they should really fight these things from the air, using ranged weapons. (Again, over half the party flies.)
Returning to Underbarrow, the monk got rezzed and the party took two weeks of preperations for raiding the Aboleth lair.
I gave them a free wish-based teleport to said lair, at their leisure. They had as many buff rounds as they wanted, followed by a surprise round.
So anyhow, 10 rounds have gone by, one party member (the Barbarian) has actually seen the Aboleth. He's about 160 feet away from the rest of the party, underwater, and has succumbed to Aboleth Mucous and also the contact poison that jellifies his flesh.
He got a shot off on the Aboleth, though, and did 56 damage.
The rest of the party is searching for Steve's hidden cache, where presumably their sword is stashed. They're all seperated, can't communicate well, and nobody knows exactly where the barbarian went.
The monk thinks she's being targetted by Steve, and has communicated such. So the party is gathering on her.
Meanwhile the Orc, 100 feet underwater and on the other side of a submerged ridge, is ACTUALLY fighting the thing, is burning rage and has frenzied.
Now, I thought that Frenzy meant he had to attack the closest thing, regardless of if it was allied, but aparently he says the blood orc frenzy just limits him to one target.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but if that's the case, are his actions not forced to "Close with target, attack if able"? If so, Steve's going to kite that orc to death with his 60 foot swim speed and 15 foot reach. (Until, at least, the rest of the party shows up to help, but even then, there's a lot of water they could be in, and two possible exits [inflow and outflow])
Right now, they're both right above the vortex outflow that leads into the swamp. Steve JUST took that 56, so he's full retreating this round, and will determine the Orc's swim speed, then start kiting next round.
Illusion spells up are Veil (Invisible Stalker), Hallucinatory Terrain (To make the surface of the water look like...the surface of the water [no tracking by disturbances or ripples] in an area) Project Image (The Barbarian and the Eidolon have saved against this and know it's illusory) Perminant Image (A wall, hiding Steve's cache.)
Steve has ordered some orcs into the swamp outside, to ambush/slow down anyone who follows him out, should he need to escape that way.
The use of Protection from Evil potions, Water Breathing, and Water Walk (In the case of the Rogue) have helped the party immensely. They aren't getting kicked around. The monk, the goblin, and the rogue are still mostly useless, with the Eidolon (which now has a swim speed) and the Barbarian doing most of the actual combat.
This fight has gone on for 10 rounds. We had to pack up due to time. Next week, we'll continue where we left off.
I'm wondering if I should send in mooks for the Rogue, Summoner and Monk to deal with, as they seem kind of bored splashing around in the shallow end with cruddy swim checks.
On one hand, it would entertain them and make them feel useful. On the other, if they don't help that barbarian, he's going to die. But they haven't helped him in the last 4 rounds, so 0.o