Forbidden Scriptures

[Dudu]

If she was not considered tripped while getting up, any of She-ha's attack could try to trip again, while she was getting up, and in some cases this would mean that she would never get up again.

Prone gives a penalty of -4 to AC. Her AC with Shield is 23. It dropped to 19 when prone, and I considered that when she was standing up. She-Ha attack was 17, not enough.


edit: Wait. This isn't being discussed in the FDP?
We have the OOC thread for this.

[Chimaera]

Eustacio shout to Lokopor: "Flood the battlefield with more monsters! If possible bats or giant bats to hunt down the invisible man!" and after that he'll move to L23 and use a scroll of See Invisibility.

(I'll put the link of the OOC here so people can find it: Forbidden Scriptures OOC)

[Dudu]

Tanstafaal will try to free himself once more (with the +2 to resist enchantment this time).

(1d20+8)[21]

edit: He's finally free!
But he uses a fullround to get free, so it's your turn, André.

Turn:IIII
1. Tanstafall 26
2. Andros 20
3. Penelop 19
4. Lokopor 17
5. Nedd 14
6. Eustacio 12

[Dudu]

Andros closes in near Penelop and cast True Strike.
The two remaining Mesmers shiver with this action, remembering how their comrades were defeated.

Penelop feel the heat of the blade nearing her neck.
"I'm not dying before putting one Discoverer down."

Tumble checks (by PHB rule, don't know if there was an Errata):
(1d20+16)[21] DC 15
(1d20+16)[20] DC 17
(1d20+16)[21] DC 19
(1d20+16)[31] DC 21

She then uses attacks Lokopor.

She Ha jumps at the opportunity to deliver another AoO, but she misses.

With a swift, she casts what you identify as "Distract Assailant"

After that, she tosses one of her deadly, tiny knifes at Lokopor. She won't attempt to steal any spell.

(1d20+12)[27] (3d6+9)[19]

Ok Kevinho, by my counts, Lokopor is out. He already took 55 damage.
18 in #140
18 in #149
19 in #154

But "dying" in this fight don't occur on penalty in XP or not gaining XP since you're not really dying, just out of the battle.

When the knife touchs you you're instantly teleported safely, with full HP. The whole arena just works like a suspended reality, in real life you're excatly like you were just before entering the battle.

Now it's the skeletons and She-ha's.
Kevinho control them.



Turn:IIII
1. Tanstafall 26
2. Andros 20
3. Penelop 19
4. Lokopor's Creatures 16
5. Nedd 14
6. Eustacio 12

[Kevinho]

The skel at T8 will walk to V12 [without provoking AoO] and attack once [flanking]. She-ha will enjoy the flank position and full attack her and then 5-ft step to T11 and the last skel will walk to V11 to enjoy flank position and attack once.

Skel1:
Claw: (1d20+5)[12] Damage: (1d4+3)[6] + (1d6)[2]

She-ha:
Bite: [roll]1d20+11 Damage: (1d6+5)[7] Trip: (1d20+3)[15]
Claw1: [roll]1d20+6 Damage: (1d2+2)[3] Trip: (1d20+3)[7]
Claw2: [roll]1d20+6 Damage: (1d2+2)[4] Trip: (1d20+3)[4]

Skel2:
Claw: (1d20+5)[6] Damage: (1d4+3)[5] + (1d6)[4]

Edit: I'll re-roll She-ha's attacks on Bastião

[Dudu]

Penelop is still standing, despite the claw that hit her.

It's Nedd's turn and the mesmer can sense that, with both Eustacio able to see him and Tanstafaal not paralysed anymore, his chances of staying invisible drop dramaticaly.

Between those two, he chooses to deal with Tanstafaal.

No need to roll this spellcraft at all, you know that the jerk is casting Phantasmal Killer at you, Tansta. Like Penelop, he's pretty much certain that will loose, but only after he put a Discoverer down.

I'll roll the saves as usual. DC 23!

Will: (1d20+6)[24]
Fort: (1d20+3)[23]


edit: But you won't let him have this joy.

Turn:IIII
1. Tanstafall 26
2. Andros 20
3. Penelop 19
4. Lokopor's Creatures 16
5. Nedd 14
6. Eustacio 12

[Chimaera]

Eustacio look at Nedd even though he's invisible and say: "Your show is over, lad" and Pierce his Invisibility (can't remeber if eh have any other illusion over him) and then cast a powerful Sound Lance at him.

Fort DC 19 for half damage.
Damage: (6d8)[30]

Lasting Spells:

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0: Ray of Frost (7);
1: Shield (1), Mage Armor (1), Lesser Deflect (1), Transdimensional Missiles (3);
2: Darkness (1), Scorching Ray (2), Seeking Ray (2);
3: Soundlance (1);

[Dudu]

With a final act, Eustacio dispels his illusions with the same effort he would need to take a mask out of his face.

Nedd lies there, vulnerable and astonished, when a soundlance pierces him and take him out of battle.

Penelop is the only one, but considering she can't sneak attack Andros (and can't damage him without it, since he have DR) she surrender.


In other words: Discoverers won the tournament.


You can see that the alternate reality field is dismissed and you're now in the real world again. Lokopor is teleported there so he can be honored along you for the brilliant victory. Penelop is still there in the arena, staring at the ground, she probably realizes now that you deserved this victory. With the alternate reality field out, you're full HP and spells just like Lokopor, including Penelop. The 5 students are in the midle of the arena right now.

The crowd rejoices with your victory and many fireworks are fired from many wands. In the sky there's a big cloud from all the fireworks fired.
Suddenly, this cloud is turning darker and darker.

Knowledge (Arcana)

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Eustacio: (1d20+15)[16]
Tanstafaal: (1d20+8)[21]
Andros: (1d20+9)[11]
Loko: (1d20+14)[20]

Knowledge (Local)

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Eustacio: (1d20+10)[27]
Andros: (1d20+8)[11]

Eustacio fears that this cloud might be something way, way worse than fireworks. You are not considered flat-footed for whatever comes out of it.
He says it might be one of conjuration clouds used by the Brimstone Marauders, a group full of renegades, orcs, half-orcs and gnolls that pillage entire places.

Many comet-like blobs of black smoke start mauling the arena and the spectators. You soon realize that Eustacio was right. Out of those clouds, the marauders surge like they were teleported, killing many innocents in the way.
There wasn't time for a ceremony of your victory, it's like they were waiting for the tournament end so they could assault the arena.

Eustacio's realizes one curious thing. These Brimstone Marauders aren't bold enough to assault a place like the Arena, filled with one of the most powerful wizards and sorcerors in the world. Something is fishy, there are traitors inside the college that are aiding those people, Eustacio is almost sure of that.

Six of the comet-like smokes drop at the arena, right before you five (the 4 discoverers + Penelop). You can ready an action against then as soon as the marauders show off, since you were expecting them.




Inits:
Andros
Eustacio
Lokopor
Tanstafaal
Penelop
???
???
???
???
???
???


Plus, everyone got 3100xp from winning the combat against the Mesmers and winning the tournament.

[Kevinho]

Lokopor will cast Invisibility upon himself and She-ha, and then will walk to W13.

She-ha will ready her action to bite and trip whatever appears close to her [melee range]

[Andrezitos]

Andros prepares his most powerful attack. He casts true strike before fight if he is able to do it, if not, he prepares to impale any charger. init (1d20+2)[21]

[Beschoren]

Tanstafaal prepares himself to intercept any incoming foes, taking them by surprise for extra deadlyness

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prepare action to shoot split ray kelgore's fire bolt in any 2 different foes in sneak attack range:
ranged touch (1d20+11)[31], damage (5d6)[15], SA (1d6)[5] (confirm critical (1d20+11)[21], damage (5d6)[15])
ranged touch (1d20+11)[19], damage (5d6)[15], SA (1d6)[4]

EDIT: forgot +1 damage from point blank shot

OOC: I'm not sure the SA damage applies for my 2º target. Precision damage might work only once (like on manyshot) or for each attack separetely (like on scorching ray). I'll leave it to the DM.

innitiative (with nerveskitter): (1d20+10)[27]

[Chimaera]

Eustacio's init: (1d20+2)[7]

Eustacio prepare to cast a Fireball at R7 southeast point.
Ref DC 19 Damage: (7d6)[18]

[Dudu]

As soon as the marauders get out of the cloud, you welcome them with the best blasting, charging and sneaking they ever saw.

Tanstafaal gruesomely slays a gnoll that appeared near him.

Eustacio exploded a fireball catching 2 gnolls and 2 wild elves. Everyone took decent fire damage, but survived...
... well... not for long. One gnoll that survived was further impaled by Andros halberd and died.

So, Inits are:

1. Tanstafaal 27
2. Andros 21
3. Marauders 15
4. Penelop 10
5. Loko 9
6. Eustacio 7

[Beschoren]

Tanstafaal hopes to keep things quick, brutal, and gruesome, destroying the enemy before they can act

"Qui-Ianito!"

*ZAP!*

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moves to P8

split ray kelgore's fire bolt to Elf at T4 and Gnoll at T9
ranged touch vs T4 elf (1d20+11)[18], damage (5d6)[15]+1, SA (1d6)[4]
ranged touch vs T9 gnoll (1d20+11)[22], damage (5d6)[9]+1, SA (1d6)[3]

if attacked, Tanstafaal will cast greter mirror image as an immediate action generating (1d4+2)[6] images (images have AC 15)

[Dudu]

The wild elf is down.

The gnoll is badly injuried.

[Andrezitos]

Andros moves to (M6) attack the soon to be dead elf at K5, with his zapping halberd:
(1d20+15)[16](1d10+11)[18]+(5d6)[15]

edit: crapppppp!

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+3 agaist humanoids
Spells avaible:
lv0 2
lv1 7
lv2 4

[Dudu]

Andros is about to give a might blow at the fiend... but slips.

Penelop attempts to sneak attack the weakened gnoll, flicking her wrist for a surprise knife attack.

(1d20+12)[19] (3d6+8)[19]


Just outside the Arena, Nedd, the mesmer you just defeated in the championship, comes to aid, acompanied by no less than Gobadin himself.

Nedd casts one of his Phantasmal Killer at the elf.

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Will save DC 23
(1d20+2)[9]

"Lad, don't waste precious spells like phantasmal killer on those good for nothing gnolls." Says wise Gobadin. And with his sledge hammer he hits the ground, and a spike grows from the earth impaling the poor elf.

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I'm not even rolling any dice for this. The elf is dead.

The marauders fall like leaves with each powerful strike. However, you look at the sky and see more and more mini dark comets about to strike the earth and bring more marauders. It seems an endless battle.

"Follow me! All of you! Let's enter the corridor and transform this arena into burning brimstone. That's what they like, eh? Brimstone? Let's give then a taste of real brimstone."

The dwarf signals at the entrance. There are two doors on each opposing side of the arena for mundane means of getting in and out of it and corridors leading to rooms (inclusive the room you stayed just before entering the arena) and a door to outside. Outside the arena you can found the college, which seems to be the main target of the attacks (most comets are falling there). They're both on the same floating rock, and it's 5 minutes to get there if you rush.



The "?" dots are not occupied, but "about to be occupied", so you can move pass it without any penalties.

[Kevinho]

Lokopor will cast Summon Undead II and summon 2 cold subtype skeletons at U18 U16, and She-ha will walk to V17 and prepares her action to attack whatever appears with her bite attack.

The skeletons will also prepare action.

[Chimaera]

Eustacio will move to R23 and cast Mage Armor on himself.
"Let's get out the arena young fellows, the College is in peril and I have a bad feeling about Kain"



Spells

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0: Ray of Frost (7);
1: Nerveskitter (1), Shield (1), Lesser Deflect (1), Transdimensional Missiles (3);
2: See Invisibility (1), Darkness (1), Scorching Ray (2), Seeking Ray (2);
3: Soundlance (2), Fireball (1), Alter Fortune (1);

[Beschoren]

Yes, kain is of importance! he's too precious and too vulnerable right now!

Tasntafaal takes a doble move toward the doors, hoping to exit the area and head for the college

[Dudu]

Penelop join the other 3 discoverers that ran towards the gate. Nedd casts Dimension Step and brings Lokopor and She-ha close to them.

Gobadin then transmutes the most of the arena ground into brimstone and cast a quickened stone wall surrounding you. Now all the marauders that fall into the arena will calcinate into the heat and won't be able to reach you even if they survive, thanks to the wall of stone.

Upon exiting the arena you enter a corridor. This corridor is a ramp, going down. There are two rooms on each side of the corridor. To the left (using the north as reference), lies the room you were before entering the arena (and when Lokopor was waiting when he was defeated in battle). To the right is simply the room where the arena's employees store many things (like broomstick).

At the end of the corrider is the hall. From the hall you know there are 4 doors. One of them is the door you're staring right now. To opposite one leads to the outside. The other two ones lead to corridors that make a circle under the arena (and can access the rooms where the Mesmers waited to fight).

"Both of you are correct (refering to Eustacio and Tansta). I'm sure this is related to Kain and we need to head to his room ASAP. But I fear the whole college is at peril, not just the kobold."

"Agreed. By the way, good to see you guys, I still need to find Todd and Katrina, though."
Says a worried Nedd.



Tanstafaal and Lokopor could hear the noises in the hall room. They're talking very loud. Something about killing every mage they can find and then gather around the Discoverers building at the college. It quite confirms your hypothesis about Kain, it's pretty obvious that the marauders are after him.

"I should say that even though Kain is frail for this moment, he isn't stupid. He probably built a way to defend himself in case of loosing his power. The whole college is probably surrounded by constructs of many kinds that I helped build and were activated in a dire situation, so we are far from naked against this assault."


BTW, everyone gained 500xp. You probably leveled up, but you won't be able to prepare any spells, so this might just be a bad time to level up anyway.
Look at the OOC to find new rules about crafting and scribing.

[Chimaera]

"We better hurry and find the other mesmers for regroup then depart to the College", said an worried Eustacio.

Remaining Spells:

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0: Ray of Frost (7);
1: Nerveskitter (1), Shield (1), Lesser Deflect (1), Transdimensional Missiles (3);
2: See Invisibility (1), Darkness (1), Scorching Ray (2), Seeking Ray (2);
3: Soundlance (2), Fireball (1), Alter Fortune (1);

Eustacio now got two new abilities from the Force Missile Mage:
Swift Shield: once per day can cast a Shield spell as an immediate action;
Energy Missile: at will he can cast magic missiles with cold, fire, eletricity or acid descriptor (they're still force effects, but willl cause damage as the descriptor.

New Spells: Thunderlance, Fire Shield.

[Beschoren]

Tanstafaal says in telepathy to all at once Agreed, Eustacio. And we must not split the party at anytime. A group of 8 wizzards can handle almost everyting, a group of 4 is very vulnerable

(From level up: 1d6 sneak attack with ray spells. learns orb of force and wall of deadly chains. +8 hp, +1 bab)

[Dudu]

Tabletop resume:

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The four of you left the arena with the aid of Gobadin as well as Penelop and Nedd, the Mesmer competitor. Under the arena you were walking in wide corridors the conected the rooms underground. You managed to save both Todd and Katrina, the two restant Mesmers as well as two innocent workers. And then you exit the coliseum.

Finally outside, you grasped the real situation. The cloud was huge, and was hovering above not only the coliseum, but mostly the college and also the homes and shops surrounding these two buildings. It’s night now, and it’s still a bit hard to see both the huge cloud as well as the much smaller clouds carrying marauders. Fire and flashy spells are the biggest source of light in this chaos. The immense walls of the university were covered with statues of warrior and amazons wielding greatbows, these statues were alive and attacking the marauders, so you can say that the college is far from helpless. The city guards were helpless, rather helping the citizens hide in their homes they face the marauders in melee. You could see that the marauders were crowding at the gates of the university and the small black clouds (the ones that carry a marauder each) were still falling from the huge cloud hovering in the sky.

Gobadin guided all of you (including the Mesmers) through a secret entrance at the left side of the university that leads to its underground and is hidden by a grove. Inside, you, Gobadin and Mesmers parted ways. You decided to head to the building where you live, that is, the building of the House Discoverers. It's the same building that all the students learn about divination spells and also has the highest tower in the whole college, the Stargazer Tower, where you can see the stars through a sizeable telescope.

You started climbing the spiral stairs the linked the underground with the upper levels of your building (where Kain probably was). You faced some of the few marauders that managed to already infiltrate the building. They were about to execute one of the Keeper professor as well as three students, but you saved then by killing some of the marauders. The rest tried to escape but some of the golens (the college is filled with them) killed those marauders as well. The professor asked you to help him free a powerful devil that was held way back in the underground, a Horned Devil that he binded days ago to do some experiments. You helped him and unleashed the Devil who slayed countless marauders.

The Keeper professor also helped you arrive at an interesting pool inside the Keepers building. Gobadin told you about a pool that could refresh all of your spells, developed by a powerful Keeper and that was still in stage of testing. All of you drank from such pool and refreshed all of your spells.

After that you headed way back to the point where you saved the professor. Luckily, you didn't find marauders blocking your way. Until you came to a corridor and faced a shadow swallowing the whole hallway. Tanstafal sensed that sentient beings where inside the darkness, but obtained no responce from them. Eustacio casted a daylight spell and revealed that the shadow was actually five drow paladins of slaughter. You four completely flipped the game by blinding them and making the floor slippery, finally slaying all of the five evil paladins.

The initial assault of marauders killed many magicians as well as innocent people. But most students are now either hiding in rooms and protected by their masters or aiding their masters fighting valiantly against the marauders. It seems you’re turning this battle into your favor, finally. The golens are also a big help. And yeah, let’s not forget the fearsome Horned Devil that is in the middle of the fray, slaying the barbarians by the dozens. However, when you glance at the windows, you can see that the black clouds are still falling from the sky.

Now all of you are still walking in the corridor. The five drow corpses lying on the floor. A disturbing voice talks directly into your minds (not just Tanstafaal).
"CongratulatIONS, Younglings, you did a fINe job gETTing rid of those marauders so far.
BUT The clock iS TICking... he he he."

The voice is distorted and annoying, but it isn't annoying to the point of damaging your combat capabilities, so you're still mentally fine. You're powerless to pinpoint the source of the voice. Tanstafaal can actually say that the voice isn't near, but just that.

Anyway, I'm assuming you won't spend time trying to discover the origin of the voice, so you just kept going forward, until you encountered an elf, wielding a sizeable longbow. He puts his finger in front of his mouth signaling “silence”. Andros identifies the elf as one of the mountain rangers that hunt the dangerous creatures lying at the surface Arcane Mountains. Even though such creatures aren’t as deadly as the ones underground the mountains, they’re still deadly nonetheless and those rangers possess great skill. They are friends of the Minervean Arcane College and many Discoverers helped them in some of the biggest monster hunting, so you can safely say that the elf is an ally. When you walked in the corridors of this building you found some dead marauders, some fewer destroyed golens and even fewer dead students (that you didn’t bother to identify so it couldn’t disturb you and slow your mission) you also found some arrows, now you know that those arrows were shot by the ranger(s).

The elf is currently facing you, and behind him there’s a big door that leads to an atrium. A place in this building filled with chairs, tables, bookshelves where students of the Discoverers House can take so indoors leisure time. However, as far as you can listen, (and peek from the opening in the door) it’s filled with a significant amount of brimstone marauders. They’re interrogating (and probably about to execute) one of the Destroyers professors, close friend of Kain, a gnome who attend by the name of Gauco Guacamold. There’s a fellow discoverer student, it’s Gwen, one of the nerdiest girls of the House.

Now. You can either storm the room and attempt to save both Gauco and Gwen, facing the big number of marauders (20+) or you can simply let them execute both of the two and face them in smaller groups. Your decision: Storm now or wait?

[Chimaera]

Eustacio look at Tanstafal and the rest of his party and telepathycally say to them: "We better save them! Their numbers are nothing compared to our powers and wont help them surviving my Fireballs! Lokopor can exchange one of the hostages with his Benign Transposition and I've got a stone with a Darkness spell which can be handy to whoever go in the middle of the large group...", look at Andros for a moment, "... if that someone can see in darkness and is immune to Tanstafal's Stinking Cloud and is a good melee would help too. The problem is taht we can only save one of the hostages qucikly that way, but maybe we can manage to trade She-Ra by the other hostage. What you think?".

If they accept Eustacio's tactics, he'll cast his Nerveskitter for better initiative.

Spells over Eustacio:

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Greater Mage Armor, Shield, See Invisibility, Dragonskin (red), Darkness (in a stone).

Spells Prepared:

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0: Ray of Frost (4), Light (2);
1: Nerveskitter (1), Shield (2), Lesser Deflect (2), Magic Missiles (3);
2: Eletric Vengeance (1), Repeat Magic Missiles (3), Seeking Ray (1), Scorching Ray (2);
3: Fireball (1), Chain Missile (1);
4: Fire Shield (2), Thunderlance (2);

[Beschoren]

Tanstafaal is quite to announce his intentions We must save them! If we don't act NOW both are dead for sure! Hunter do you have any spell for this situation? (using nerveskitter on next innitiative check)

Tanstafaal still has a stinking cloud left. He agrees with Eustacio's tactis. Andros would be a perfect deliverer of doom.

Once he's closer to the hostages, he could teleport them with dimensional step. Unfortunatelty, he will need to be 35 feet of them and both must be within 30 of each other...

If there still are way too many marauders on a single side of the room, he could try isolating them with a wall of deadly chains. After, that the kamehameha starts.

[Chimaera]

Can we get a map of the situation to better plain our tactics?

[Dudu]

Assuming that it was Tanstafaal who peeked the room, he could see a lot of enemies. You guess that there are at least 20, possibly much more.

The rangers is startled by the telephaty, not everyone (actually, only a few in this world) are familiar with this form of communication.

"Wut! Ok, I think you're the elf talking to my head." Tanstafaal nods affirmatively. "There are dozens of marauders there. If we can storm and bring the two mages with us, we can bring the fight to the corridor, where their number advantage drops. Copy that?"


There's a powerful duergar talking with Gauco and Gwen. He looks large for a dwarf, even more with his powerful dwarf build. He wields a great sword (he's the one with a little crown signaling leadership). Gauco and Gwen are under that wretched bluish rope that blocks magic. The elf ranger tells you that Gauco was tortured, he looks very weakened. The effects are clear to you, that excell in arcane knowledge. He was targeted by multiple enervations. Gwen seems just fine with only a minor scratches.

There are broken tables, chairs and shelves scattered through the floor (they are the brown retangles in the map and are difficult terrain). There's also two set of stairs leading to the upper part (where the duergar and the two mages are), something like 20ft above where you currently are. There are also very large windows where you can barely see some chaos unfolding in the night. There's this door where you are peeking now, plus two more doors nearby (you can't see everything, but you remember because you know this room).

[Beschoren]

Ok now, here's what we could do:

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according to DM, we have a swift and an standard action on the surprise round.

To make benign transpostion work, the subjects must be willing. Tanstafaal telepathy does not reach them to communicate. Someone will have to shout "Allow rescue!" as he moves in so the captives might better know what's about to happen and count as willing creatures for teleportation spells.

Ranger fellow
siwft: kick the door
standard: self buff

Tanstafaal:
standard: stinking cloud
siwft: uses 3 charges from the cirlet of mages to retain stinking cloud spell instead of spending the slot.

Eustacio:
fireball!

Lokopor:
benign transposition between the very damaged professor and androzio

androzio, teleported to Q8
standard: exposes stone with darkness spell
takes five foot step closer to the other captive, saying "let go"
swift: quick cast dimension hop, teleporting the mage 20 feet south and at the edge of the darkness zone. if the captives try to blind-shoot his previous position for a kill, they will fail.

------------------

round 1: enemies will try to execute the prisioners and/or gang up on us.
Between the darkness and the stinking cloud, Andros should be safe.

do we know how to remove the magical rope in situ?

[Beschoren]

with the plan set, The ranger kicks the door and fire. Tanstafaal immeditly casts an stinking cloud at P-Q; 7-8