Fortuitous Findings in Foraging: A Study, Part II

[Todash]

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Yeaaaaaaah, you can forget about that.

Lol, fair enough.

Dare I even ask you have +40 to Acrobatics?

Dance with the Elements (Ex): Where other adventurers practice rigorously with weapons or craft powerful magic items, the monk understands that devices are mere distractions. A wise master looks beyond rigid structures and perceives the dance of earth, air, fire, and water in the world. Then, she learns to dance with them. At 3rd level, a monk gains a bonus to her speed (which grants bonus to her Jump checks as normal; see the Jump skill for details), as shown on Table: The Monk. She also gains the same bonus as a competence bonus to her Balance, Jump, and Tumble checks.

Raising slowly from his crouch, Marros looks at the prisoners in their cell. "Quiet brothers!" he snapped. "There are weapons and supplies in that storeroom. It's warded, but the guard should have some sort of key. We must move swiftly, now stand away from the doors!" With that, he swiftly moves through the hall, shattering the locks on the doors with single precise strikes.

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Shattering the locks as quickly as possible, starting at the end near the original guard. Auto hit/bypass/shatter etc. Unless they are force cages as well.

becoming a great bear.

Oh #%@*&.

[Valwyn]

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Not warded, huh? Good to know.

Alex holds a sigh of relief as he puts the wand back into his haversack. The Keep was not protected. Still retreating, he keeps his blades ready as he whispers:

It's safe.

Keeping an eye on the bear, he waits in silence, hoping help would come soon.

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Move: put wand away
Move: move away from druid, walking up the wall (up to 20 ft) if necesary. Taking 10 on Stealth for 35.
Free: Tell Harley to send in the clones dwarves.

Edit:

Oh #%@*&.

Indeed. And for the moment I have to solo* it.

*solo = run away from it like hell

[TheOasysMaster]

The prisoners swarm from the cages; and Marros finds himself being thanked by dwarves, humans and halflings, and even goblins who'd been pressed into bondage.
Pragmatists pat down the zombies, and find the stone orb that opens the store room and see to the distribution of weapons...


...outside, the bear-druid turns slowly, and stares directly at Alex.
"And just where did you come fr-"
He sniffs deeply.
Rwy'n GWYBOD chi ...

Run.

Canwch y larwm! SOUND THE ALARM!


One of the prisoners, a large man with a collar and a ring of tattoos around his neck, takes Marros' hands in thanks.
"Diolch yn fawr!"

[Valwyn]

Alex freezes for a second as the undead druid looks directly at him. So invisibility was useless against him.

Gripping his blades tighter, he turns and runs as fast as his legs would allow him away from the bear. He hardly needed Harley's advice on that. Hopefuly, this time they'd be able to destroy it.

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Double move to run away from the bear. If a wall is on the way, run on it upwards (up to 40 ft). If cover is avaiable (the top of the wall), he'll take it.

[Todash]

Clapping the large man on the shoulder, Marros grins widely, and says, "Mae croeso fy mrawd. Gadewch i ni fod yn wyliadwrus wrth i ni adael y lle hwn."

Taking a moment to himself, he focuses inward once more, recalling his body as it should be. Then, he walks toward the door, waves the nearby prisoners to silence them, then he examines the doorway, searching the frame for possible traps, and straining to hear any further commotion.

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Search for traps: (1d20+21)[24]
Perception: (1d20+33)[46]

[TheOasysMaster]

Standing before the door, Morros finds this steel construction is of good work, with good, strong lo-
There is a multitude of loud crunching sounds, like stepping on a large bug behind him, followed by a series of thuds.

[Todash]

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Oh for the love of...

Marros looks behind him to see what new surprise his captors have for him.

[TheOasysMaster]

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Mae croeso fy mrawd. Gadewch i ni fod yn wyliadwrus wrth i ni adael y lle hwn."

Marros cannot speak Druid.

Oh for the love of...

Welcome to the family, Todash!

The prisoners laystrewn across the floor outside their cells their heads twisted at odd angles.
Black collars around their necks glow a sickly grey color.
Alone, the steel door is the only way out of this sudden tomb.

[Todash]

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Marros cannot speak Druid.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon. Monk Babelfish!

Welcome to the family, Todash!

Letting out a cry, Marros kneels at the body of the large tatooed man. Finding him already cold, he closes his eyes. I am sorry my brothers. Then he begins to move, retrieving the guard's orb, before leaving this blasted room.

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Taking 10 on perception for 43, before trying the door.

[TheOasysMaster]

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Tongue of the Sun and Moon. Monk Babelfish!

Don't use it front of Druids.
They won't appreciate it, no matter what he's done to get it...

A monk of 17th level or higher can speak with any living creature.

=/
Okay, so I guess the fix made more changes than I thought?

All the prisoners have similar collars and bands around their necks, and tattoos roughly etched into their skin.
The steel door still remains stubbornly shut.

[Todash]

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TotSM is now gained at a more level-appropriate point in the monk's career

from the design notes.

The idea with the majority of the fix, is to basically give tools at the same character level that the other classes get rough equivalents. It's honestly the best, most thorough, most enjoyable fix I've seen.

I hate to ask this, but, Marros doesn't have a collar on right?

Second question, is he currently above or below ground? if he knows at all.

[TheOasysMaster]

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TotSM is now gained at a more level-appropriate point in the monk's career

Yeah, but who judges what's more appropriate?
In what stories/films can monks spontaneously speak to anything that lives? Without being a wise-Yoda like person? Even in the original class it seems odd to me.

The idea with the majority of the fix, is to basically give tools at the same character level that the other classes get rough equivalents. It's honestly the best, most thorough, most enjoyable fix I've seen.

Yes, yes. I care little.
Note that the spell allows the monk to communicate with other creatures-he cannot read the languages or actually speak with them. They're more like reaching some mystic connection that eavesdropping won't quite produce.

I hate to ask this, but, Marros doesn't have a collar on right?

No.

Second question, is he currently above or below ground? if he knows at all.

Safe bet to say underground. He's got no idea how deep.

[TheOasysMaster]

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TotSM is now gained at a more level-appropriate point in the monk's career

Yeah, but who judges what's more appropriate?
In what stories/films can monks spontaneously speak to anything that lives? Without being a wise-Yoda like person? Even in the original class it seems odd to me.

The idea with the majority of the fix, is to basically give tools at the same character level that the other classes get rough equivalents. It's honestly the best, most thorough, most enjoyable fix I've seen.

Yes, yes. I care little.
Note that the spell allows the monk to communicate with other creatures-he cannot read the languages or actually speak with them. They're more like reaching some mystic connection that eavesdropping won't quite produce.

I hate to ask this, but, Marros doesn't have a collar on right?

No.

Second question, is he currently above or below ground? if he knows at all.

Safe bet to say underground. He's got no idea how deep.

[Todash]

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Thematically it's always made sense to me with the whole "enlightenment" schtick. Essentially they move beyond the mere sounds, and simply discern the meaning or intent.

Mechanically, I've always seen it working such that the monk always hears them in his natural language, and they always hear the monk speaking theirs. Universal translator style. Agreed on the reading bit though, enlightenment doesn't help you read ink on paper.

The prisoners were dead. All that remained was for him to leave this place as swiftly as possible. Rising from the bodies, Marros leapes towards the wall, kicking off and flying up towards the ceiling. As he reach the apex of his jump, he stretched out his arms, and pushed sliding effortlessly into nothingness.

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Empty Step, going ethereal and floating straight up. Lasts 6 seconds, will recast if I don't see anything before that.

[TheOasysMaster]

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Empty Step, going ethereal and floating straight up. Lasts 6 seconds, will recast if I don't see anything before that.

Where's he going? Into the ceiling?

[Todash]

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Yep, jumping off the wall, to start the spell from as close to the celing as possible, then going straight up, half speed is 35, full round gets me 70 feet. Hmm how would running work in the ethereal plane?

[TheOasysMaster]

'Solid' rock rests atop the prison cells.
More solid rock than Morros could have accounted for.
As he reaches the limit of his jump, he finds himself painfully shunted back into the corridor.

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(35d6)[141] Too far.

[Todash]

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Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa....couple things...

First off, I can recast it 8 times per day, he would have gone ethereal again, rather than get shunted.
Second off,

you are shunted off to the nearest open space and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet

How did I go 175 feet? Absolute max would have been running(quadruple) half (ehtereal) so 35x4=140 / 5 = 28d6 damage if the corridor I came from was the closest.

Third,

he focuses inward once more, recalling his body as it should be

I healed back to full with Wholeness. Just double checked my sheet......and it didn't save properly. My bad, updated HP and wholeness remaining.

Of course the massive damage would still be an issue, but staying ethereal should prevent it anyway.

[TheOasysMaster]

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First off, I can recast it 8 times per day, he would have gone ethereal again, rather than get shunted.

Right...
...and with thirty five feet each round on the Ethereal Plane...
Ah, okay, I see the mistake i made

Of course the massive damage would still be an issue, but staying ethereal should prevent it anyway.

Alright, editing the above post.
How many rounds, recastings does he travel the ethereal?

[Todash]

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Well, as much as I would love to meta-game this one, I would have recast it 3 times, before getting nervous and turning back, taking another 3-4 to return, angling slightly to arrive on the other side of the cell door. So 6 uses total, sound fair?

[TheOasysMaster]

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Well, as much as I would love to meta-game this one, I would have recast it 3 times

Just after the third casting...

Marros hears moaning sounds on the ethereal...
Below and behind him.

[Todash]

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An ethereal creature inside an object on the Material Plane cannot see.

Am I still in solid stone?

Edit: Stupid question.

[TheOasysMaster]

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Am I still in solid stone?

No.

Well, yes, on the Ethereal Plane though.

[Todash]

Shifting through the ether, his world is dark stone. Dammit, how far underground am I? As he holds himself in the Ethereal plane for the third time, he starts to think he may be too far...

Maybe I should head back, perhaps a little farther... suddenly the sound of moaning reaches his ears. Looking around, he can still see nothing but stone and dirt. That's impossible... mind whirling, he recalls the Orc guard outside of his cell..He could always see me, but not with his eyes...he used something else, I need to get someplace I can see!

Practically blind, Marros reverses his course, angling away from the moaning sound, but heading towards the cell room with all due haste.

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Heading back there as fast as possible, angling slightly away from the noise. Not certain if I only moved 2 charges (70 feet) or 3. Let me know.

[TheOasysMaster]

Seemingly from nowhere, familiar faces rise out of the Ethereal to meet him.
The prisoners.
Or at least their ghosts.
And of course, they have the weapons they'd clutched in their hands at death.

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Three charges spent.

Kurjan, the orc necromancer grimaces.
His sensors couldn't see to the Ethereal.
But with half the prisoners being made into ghosts with his manipulation of the Dark Tide, he'd know what happened soon.
In either case, it appeared as if fair Veronia had arrived with its remaining forces to drive him and his clan out.
He spits, moving away from his crude work desk, and robes himself.
Kicking the startled slave from the cot where he sleeps, he roars at her to fetch his troll guards.
As she scuttles to obey, weeping as she flees, Kurjan feels a distinct burning in his chest, and winces.
Fighting down the bile, his vision blurs as he reaches for the wall to steady himself.
The loss of his son wasn't easy.

[Todash]

Seeing the weapons reaching for him, Marros does the only thing he can do. He must step between the spaces, between the space between spaces.

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Abundant step, to the room on the other side of the iron door from my original cell. Still ethereal. I was really hoping I could just bypass the nasty place by thinking (and floating) outside of the box.

I can't find anything that says this is bad news, but correct me if I've missed something. Also, I just really wanted to use that phrase.

[TheOasysMaster]

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I can't find anything that says this is bad news, but correct me if I've missed something. Also, I just really wanted to use that phrase.

8 Ghosts...
1 Ghost Lord...
Take a look at the Ghost template.

Anyways, I can't do this encounter right now.
The stats are on another machine.
Roll initiative please.

[TheOasysMaster]

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Does my action avoid combat entirely? 3 rounds of full ethereal travel (210 feet) Then DDoor back towards the cell.

It could. Depends on when their initiative rolls and how well he does against their horrific appearance.
Fortitude is his worse save...

[Todash]

Pah, stupid server.

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[roll0]
Does my action not avoid combat entirely? 3 rounds of full ethereal travel (210 feet), Then DDoor back towards the cell.

Unless, I heard them moaning 210 feet back in the cell?

Also worth noting, all of Marros AC and melee attacks work on incorporeal thanks to my force rings. That said, I'm pretty sure I'm running like hell...

Anyways, I can't do this encounter right now.

It's cool, just let me know whats up.

[Todash]

Init: (1d20+7)[14]