Age of Ruin OOC: Tempting Fate

[Ozzy_G]

I'll answer those shortly, I just want to hear from Skenardo about his armour.

[The Great Skenardo]

Oh, sorry; Missed the question. Jackel will take the time to put on his armor properly.
...Although I would have thought a chain shirt would be somewhat faster to don!

[Ozzy_G]

It's a minute, or 5 rounds if you just sort of throw it on.
By comparison, full plate takes 4 minutes if you have someone else to help you.

[Ozzy_G]

5. knowledge local (southwest part of your world) to know if there are any mythical (or perhaps not so mythical) sea beasts that are of massive, massive size. (1d20+7)[19] also a knowledge arcana for the same, but for magickal beasts of huge proportion, preferably aquatic, preferably something that could be cast with "major image". (1d20+11)[29]

This particular sea, as an inland sea, is fairly short on the titanic monster department. There are a few sea drakes, but mostly the problems are with smaller sea creatures like sharks and sahuagin.

[Ozzy_G]

As for your other questions, the sea is fairly calm, and a Zeppelin is probably worth a huge amout of money... if you can find a buyer. This particular one doesn't seem to be in great condition.

And yes, they are Sky Pirates.

You guys have 5 rounds then before Verlyn arrives on deck, as the ship closes. It'll be over you 3 rounds later, 2 rounds before Jackel arrives on deck.

[Ozzy_G]

Just to clarify:
Round 1: most of you reach the deck
Round 5: Verlyn reaches the deck
Round 8: The skyship will be above you
Round 10: Jackel reaches the deck

[Toliudar]

Ah! Even better.

My actions for the first five rounds will require only a modest adjustment, because by round 5, I'll be able to throw the darkfire (which doesn't give off light, and which therefore shouldn't be identifying me like a beacon saying "spellcaster here! ) the 120 and reach the ship.

[Lycar]

Just how high is the airship flying?

Or, more to the point, how long would it take Verlyn to climb the rigging to the crow's nest and would it then be possible to reach the airship's deck with a jump?

Verlyn could jump 23 feet even with a 1 on his jump roll.

Lycar

[NobleSavage]

Not sure of the locale, I'd be willing to let that be up to you. Grew up in Shavaar, has some connection to the Dar'Ven, and would have spent a decent amount of time in hives of scum and villany throughout the area. Always thought 'Local' was on the current local, ie what certain city signs meant, where gangs were likely to be, etc. Don't super care.

Oh, and his Knowledges are all trained, forgot that, just CC.

And a Know Arcana (1d20+3)[13] to get a layout of the ship, and important keeping-afloat parts.


Edit: I'm not sure whether the Bull's Strength will help Reyhan if he switches forms, but he should know. He'd stop her from casting if it is the case, if not, he'll stay for the blessing, then taking off.

He's running away from the oncoming Qusan ship so as to stay outside of their line of sight, so he can transform unseen. Think that would make it the prow, if not, reverse it to the stern, or wherever is appropriate.

Going into Dire Hawk form, Medium Animal, 5HD, fly 80. If that'd be a little to big to be expected (and visibility is pretty good) he'll go a different direction, probably just regular ol' hawk.

[knewsom]

going to cast "haste" on Verlyn as soon as she can as well, and prepare to cast "legion of sentinels" once the pirates decide to board, and she'll cast that right where they're dropping in.

[The Great Skenardo]

Just puttin' on my armor.

[Ozzy_G]

important keeping-afloat parts.

The ballon, basically. It looks pretty tough, but it is a balloon.
Also, it's attached to the ship-like bit with struts, if you destroyed all those they'd fall off.

Going into Dire Hawk form, Medium Animal, 5HD, fly 80. If that'd be a little to big to be expected (and visibility is pretty good) he'll go a different direction, probably just regular ol' hawk.

It's the middle of the night, so visibility is poor.

Just how high is the airship flying?

Or, more to the point, how long would it take Verlyn to climb the rigging to the crow's nest and would it then be possible to reach the airship's deck with a jump?

Verlyn could jump 23 feet even with a 1 on his jump roll.

It'll take about 2 rounds to climb to the crow's nest, you think by then the airship will be about ten foot above the crow's nest.

[Ozzy_G]

Edit: I'm not sure whether the Bull's Strength will help Reyhan if he switches forms, but he should know. He'd stop her from casting if it is the case, if not, he'll stay for the blessing, then taking off.

Yeah, that'll still apply.

[Ozzy_G]

Okay, the airship is starting to change course. However, they will get closer before they move away. They might realise it's an illusion.
Or not.
Eventually however, they will because the ship won't fall apart. That may not be for a while though.

[The Great Skenardo]

Just let me know when Jackel finds the deck above awash in flame.

[Ozzy_G]

Shall do. It won't be long.

[Ozzy_G]

Give me an attack and damage roll for Reyhan, and a climb roll for Verlyn.
The struts attaching the wooden ship-like area to the zeppelin balloon above it are thick wooden shafts. They won't be easy by any means to break, but it's possible. There are 10 of them.

[Lycar]

So Verlyn channels his inner monkey and climbs that rigging.

Climb: (1d20+8)[12] (includes ACP from hastily donned armour).

EDIT: Actually, that woudl be a +9 but I don't think it matters.

Lycar

[NobleSavage]

Sorry 'bout that, knew I forgot something.

So, the DC would be something like 10-7(-5 for 0 dex, -2 more for unanimated status)+size modifier?

Here's the first attack (assuming he uses his move action to get there), using the bite attack,
Attack (1d20+4)[8]
Damage (1d6+8)[13]

Not sure how Str and Power Attack work here (PAing for full), so I put them down as x1 (I want to say bites get x1.5?). If he finds the hardness is over 5 he'll move on to a different tactic.

If not...

[NobleSavage]

Full attack
Talons Attack (1d20+4)[18] (1d20+4)[22]
Damage (1d4+8)[9] (1d4+8)[10]

Bite Attack (1d20-1)[7]
Damage (1d6+8)[13]

[Ozzy_G]

Well, how does the strength bonus work on bites? Is it x1 or x1.5?

What's everyone else doing at this time?

[The Great Skenardo]

Putting on armor, until you tell me otherwise.

[knewsom]

hasn't it moved off to the side of our ship now to avoid the flames? Or is it still directly above, but higher?

If it's to the side, I vote we just pop the bastard. If it's just HIGHER, Runa will concentrate on her illusion to make it seem as though the explosion on the deck blew out most of the flames, and killed most of the sailors, making it more inviting to board.

[Toliudar]

Well, I rather thought we were going to go for the simple avoidance - or, failing that, to try to score the zeppelin for ourselves. But if that's not the case, I'll post IC to the effect of Dion starting to target one section of the balloon itself. Even with half damage to objects, it shouldn't take TOO long to cause a rupture.

[Lycar]

Well, Verlyn kinda had the Fox-in-Henhouse-effect in mind.

You know, he should be able to really cause quite some havock among the pirates (that is, distract them from shooting the people down below. Yes, he thinks he can pull it off all alone. I mentioned that he's a bit overconfident, yes?).

At least if they are mostly low level warrior types and not battle-hardened veterans. But I'm hoping that Ozzy sticks to the 'most people around you will still be people and not lv. x class whatnot' style that I found so refreshing.

Because sometimes you need to pull all stops to defeat the big bad, but sometimes you just can go and mop up mooks so the warrior types can feel usefull.

Besides, technically, with Insightfull Strike, Verlyn can do between 10-29 damage, maybe enough to destroy one of those struts or cut a significant gash into the balloon.

(Coming to think of it: If he seeks and challenges the pirate captain or something, and while they fight, the rest of you disable the balloon, then maybe the captain surrenders to Verlyn, not because he couldn't defeat him, but because he doesn't want to drown when his airship sinks below the waves. Verlyn still would think it was because of him of course. )

Lycar

[knewsom]

Avoidance was my initial thought, but I doubt that'll work, because the Zhan will probably just wait for the ship to sink and pick out survivors to sell as slaves, or board as soon as it looks like they've got an easy win, which was what I was trying to trick them into doing. ...but if the ship is no longer directly above us, it'd probably be safer to just pop the bastard or disable it. If Verlyn wants to dive aboard, it's better if they're still above us, but if not, and he jumps aboard, Runa can cast her spell summoning spectral sentimals onboard the other ship, around verlyn, so they can aoo some of the minions.

Still, I think prudence would be wiser. However, if Wis is his dump stat (like a certain Dragon Shaman who shall remain nameless), then go for it!!!

[Lycar]

Still, I think prudence would be wiser. However, if Wis is his dump stat (like a certain Dragon Shaman who shall remain nameless), then go for it!!!

WIS is not his dump stat per se. It is just that he has, until now, not had any experience that would dissuade him from his 'I'm too awesome to fail' attitude.

Sure, he wouldn't always win a challenge at the academy. But there he was fighting peers, other nobles with as much training as himself.

But this? Pirates? Mere rabble who dare oppose him? He expects to cut through these pathetic worms like a hot knife through butter. If this actually turns out that way remains to be seen.

Mechanically, if his HP drop at an alarming rate, he can still try climbing the balloon or simply jump overboard. He can swim after all.

And wouldn't Runa just love to watch a wet and bedraggled Verlyn climb aboard the ship again.

Of course, if he should be able (by some miracle of the dice) to actually manage to (help) defeat the pirates/make them surrender, he'll be quite insufferably smug about it.

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Puttin' on armor, doot doot doo...

[Ozzy_G]

The ship was going to sail about ten foot above the crow's nest. They're now angling up to go over, so it'll pass about thirty foot over the ship and then carry on, presumably.

[knewsom]

so in the scheme of things, they're still behind the ship? About how far from it?

Conceivably, we could still fireball the balloon.