Three Goddesses (IC) Thread #3

[MikelaC1]

(1d100)[37] confusion

The spell from Melinda seems to work (this time) and the giant standing next to the king starts to babble on about lava and magma and how fun it would be to bathe in it.

END ROUND
Lok up, Dot on deck, Lil to follow

[lostsole31]

Lok-Too-Loo-Baz teleports to the other side of a giant, immediately adjacent rather than 5' space, and as long as it is a giant he is flanking with another party member that threatens. He tries to trip the giant with his TK.

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TK to trip (1d20+10)[27], TK acts as the size of the user, so no size bonus to avoid being tripped by giant.

Active
Mirror Image (8 images)
Defensive Precognition (+3 insight to AC)
Force Screen (+4 shield to AC)

Both AC bonuses are noted on sheet.

[MikelaC1]

(1d20+12)[20] STR check
The fire giant engaged on Taleira is caught off guard by Lok's attack, stumbling and falling from his trip attack.

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Kerry Fraser immediately pops up, assess's Lok 2 minutes for tripping and then disappears

Dot up, Lil on deck, giants in the hole

[lostsole31]

"À votre service," Lok says to Taleira in the vile and terrible-sounding language of the Abyss, while giving a hand-at-waist bow.

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*Giggle* Aww, c'mon. French is my favorite language. I just want to see how the Canucks here felt.

In Common Lok looks down to the giant. "Stay down, champ. You know this fight is over for your king. Your bravery and prowess will be welcomed in another kingdom should you choose to survive this day."

[MikelaC1]

Dot, seeing magic being randomly redistributed, and not wanting to contribute to the rising level of lava in the room, chooses to hold her magic for now.

Lil up, giants on deck, Sword in the hole

[lostsole31]

Towards one of the giants that has the fewest of our group, Lildorrinene summons forth a bebilith, otherwise it would be behind a giant to flank with a friendly.

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I'm starting to lose the tactical picture here.

The bebilith attacks the fire giant furiously, biting at him and attempting to tear his armor open.

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Bite (1d20+19)[38], damage (2d6+9)[14] + poison
* Injury, Fort DC 24, (1d6)[5] Con/ (2d6)[4] Con

Claw #1: (1d20+14)[16], damage (2d4+4)[9]
Claw #2: (1d20+14)[30], damage (2d4+4)[9]

If both claws happen to hit, then the claws rend the giant's armor for (4d6+18)[32]damage. Armor reduced to 0 hit points is destroyed.

Lildorrinene spins with Talbot and her cloak to fake out whatever giant is the target of her spell. Then, she launches out to one of the giants with a powerful spell, hoping to bind it in place.

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Go ahead and randomly roll which giant that may be excluding the lead giant and the one that Lok tripped.

Giant must make Sense Motive vs Bluff (1d20+41)[47] or be affected by surprised casting.

Lildorrinene's spell is hold monster, Will DC 34 to negate. Will DC 32 to negate if he made his Sense Motive (which I doubt).

CL Check (1d20+22)[28]

Lildorrinene will then fly to that giant, pulling Wish-Killer as she goes.

[MikelaC1]

Lil summons forth a bebilith that bites at the giant Lok tripped. It connects with its mandibles doing damage, but the great constitution of the giant allows it to resist the poison. His claws scrabble ineffectively at the armour of the giant, and he is not able to lock on and rip.
Meanwhile, Lil casts her spell at the other liege giant, and this time, the gem is not able to capture its power. The giant is not able to resist the spell and is frozen in place.

[MikelaC1]

Tactical: Fire giant king is being attacked by Atarath and Coquika. Apart from battle damage, appears to be fine.
Giant #1 has been tripped and bitten by bebilith, about to be attacked by Taleira.
Giant #2 has been confused and held, Lil flying towards him.
Giant #3 is dead.

giants are up, Sword on deck, Atarath to follow. The giants are about to take their attacks....?

[Kalirren]

Dot's pause in pushing the Fellowship's assault gives Melinda an opportunity to reappraise their precarious situation. From start to finish this whole affair had reeked of being a trap. She had suppressed her urge to make that remark to Clylious, but still believed it all the same. She just didn't know what sort of a trap it might be.

The only real clue had been that Thorg was capable of working the entire ritual himself. In Melinda's judgment, King Thorg was exactly the sort of egomaniac who, in the event of his project's failure, would rig the whole mountain to collapse atop them if he were to perish. "Spare him, Atareth," she calls out to the angel. "We may need him conscious to safely undo whatever ritual he's done."

[The Great Skenardo]

Coquika
Coquika frowns, glancing at Melinda.
"Is that wise? The giants simply stood and weathered the assault. There is some kind of deathblow coming; some trick from their master."

[MikelaC1]

As Melinda and Coquika call out their warnings, all hell seems to break loose.
First of all, a figure in robes that was using invisibility and the gem to shield themselves from a direct line of sight suddenly materializes.
Know Religion DC:20

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The figure is wearing the symbol of the church of Celeste on their robe.
Clylious wondered if the Celeste people were providing support to the giants

After coming into view, they cast a Greater Dispel Magic on the confused and held fire giant, freeing him from the party's magic. She then speaks (clearly a female voice) Execute the final stage of the plan.
At that instruction, the fire giant king and the formerly confused, held giant both throw their swords directly at the gem. As well, the giant on the ground grabs both his own sword and the sword of the felled giant (and by activating a belt of battle) and throws both of them at the gem. It would seem a futile gesture at first, but then the party realizes to their horror that all 4 of those swords are magical....and the gem is powered by magic
But the warnings of sneakiness from Melinda and Coquika triggered Sword to action. He sees the swords flying towards the gem, and with his unbelievable speed, he cuts in front of their pass. All 4 swords stab into him, but he stops them from hitting the gem as 4 huge gouts of blood burst from him. His momentum carries him right into the gem, smashing it as his body crashes into the green globe
KA-POW as the gem explodes.
NNoooooooo
Sword slides the length of the floor to smash against the far wall, unmoving, while the robed figure disappears. The giants collapse to the ground, wailing at the loss of their gem.

Taleira up, Atarath on deck, Melinda in the hole.

[Telasi]

Taleira Ulharvyth

Tali can't be bothered to summon any sympathy for the giants, so she just calmly swipes Dancer across her opponent's throat while he's distracted.

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Coup de grace autohits, PA -18/+36 gives a total of [roll]4d4+1d6+110[/roll] damage plus instant death. Karmic Strike still active, on the chance somebody does something.

[MikelaC1]

Taleira slashes one of the giants throats while Atarath crunches the skull of another.

[Kalirren]

The giant's voices aren't the only ones in the chorus of wailing "Noooo...."s. For an instant Melinda is similarly transfixed by everything going wrong, Her scream starts when the swords travel through the air, and continues throughout Sword's martrydom.

They would all have been dead. Every single one of them.

The young high priestess forces herself to think, wrenching herself out of expressing the emotions she wanted ot express. Her headband flashes, and she fixes her shocked eyes on the spot that the mysterious figure (woman?) had occupied before disappearing. There had been no audible casting, which was confusing. She had to determine if it was a quickened teleport, an projection, or simply an invisibility spell.

[Activating the scout's headband for 1 round of true seeing, and taking a good look around.]

[PSinger]

When she is able, Atareth will speed to Sword's side. "C'mon boy, c'mon. Dear Goddess, please, let your gifts aid him."

Never having used this power yet (in this game), Atareth lays her hands on Sword and unloads for 80 points of healing, entirely expending her reserve.

[MikelaC1]

Melinda activates her headband and takes a good look around but she can see nothing that her normal vision would reveal. Whatever teleportation method the woman used, she clearly had it prepared well in advance. The fire giant dupes she had been using might have been immune to the magma but she wouldnt have been.

Atarath rushes to the side of the fallen Sword, pouring her healing magic into it. At first, it doesnt seem to do any good. Concentrating on the horse, she and the rest of the party see nothing happening. All of the party that is, except for Melinda.
Above the fallen horse, two ghost-like images appear. One, Melinda knows, the unified goddess. The other, she recognizes only from her religious studies, Thorbald Volkskraag, god of the mountains. The two appear to talk, and then the goddess offers her hand. The god pauses a moment, and then extends his, shaking hers. As he does so, the spirit of Sword seems to emerge from the walls of the mountain, wreathed in a purple radiance. It transfers itself back into the body of Sword.
As the spirit re-enters the horse, Atarath's magic has the desired effect, his wounds heal and he manages struggle back to his feet.

[Kalirren]

Melinda kneels, and touches her hand to her forhead twice, reverently and appreciatively. "Thank you, Thorbald," she expresses aloud with a smile. "Through others we make ourselves whole."

She leaves Atareth and Sword to have a few moments, and navigates a small maze of shattered gem and lava to approach the last giant, saying to him, "We've all just witnessed a miracle of life here. You too. I won't spoil that spirit with a slaughter." She pauses to gauge his degree of relief. "I still pity you, you know. Your lord is dead, and you're the one who gets to tell the rest of your people what happened here. That can't be easy."

"Go," she commands, turning her back. "Four of them are still upstairs, or were, when we left them. They can't have far."

She picks up a few hot shards of the giant gem, pondering how a shrine of some sort would eventually have to be built inside the very blood-hallowed chamber in which they stood. "Dot? Is there anything more we ought to do here? Do you think we have a few moments?"

[MikelaC1]

With his lord dead, no way of leaving this room and his mission a failure, the giant does the only honourable thing left to him...casting himself into the pit of volcano. Even now, the magma is being to cool and harden, and no more is oozing out of the pit.

[Toliudar]

Dot

Dot is still formulating an answer to Melinda's question when the lead giant drowns himself in the magma. People were odd. All people, even the massive red ones.

"Well, that raises an interesting problem. Getting out. We have no exact sense of where we are - how far we travelled to reach this point - or whether there is a more mundane form of exit. With this strange magic-sucking magic at play, it may be difficult to find a safe place from which to teleport, but I'll prepare to do that right away. If it fails, well. It could be a long walk."

She moves down from the ceiling slightly, and raises her hands to start casting a spell, but pauses.

"Er. Back to Clylious, outside the temple of Ailena, then?"

[lostsole31]

"I think we'll be fine teleporting," says Lildorrinene, nodding her head. "The gem is destroyed, the fire giant king is dead, our ruby necklaces have re-established some link, it seems. I don't know what this magic-sucking thing is you speak of, as mine has been fine, but the only loose end would be the curious cloaked figure."

[Kalirren]

"Well, our cloaked friend is either from the church of Celeste Corwyn, or from a faction who wants to frame them. And I'm inclined to trust Clylious's opinion. They'll get around to scrying on us soon enough, once they know we're -not- dead. And we'll return the favor."

Er. Back to Clylious, outside the temple of Ailena, then?

"Athkantla is fine," agrees the First Priestess. Her eyes forlorn, she offers her hands wide to complete their teleportation circle, mindful that this would probably be the second-to-last time they would ever all join hands as the First Fellowship of the Triune. "Clylious will be expecting us."

[lostsole31]

Lildorrinene and Lok-too-loo-baz joins hands with the others.

[MikelaC1]

The group forms up for a teleport and returns to the temple of Ailena in Aklantia.
Clylious is happy to hear of the success of the mission and checks out the shards of the destroyed gem. He might have wanted to actually have the gem whole so that he could study it, but when he hears of how it was destroyed, he understands....and realizes that even in the right hands, such an item would be too dangerous, to say nothing of the wrong hands.

[PSinger]

Atareth says a silent prayer to the Goddess, thanking Her for their successful mission, giving her the chance to heal Sword, and the successful return of all who went on the mission.

Yes. Even the demons.

[Telasi]

Taleira Ulharvyth

"Place was defended fit to take on an army, so whoever's behind this really wanted it to happen." Is this still going to be our problem once Cylious decides we're here in good faith? The former statement is aloud, for everyone's benefit, while the latter question is for the group.

[MikelaC1]

Clylious responds to Taleira's first statement, although it sounds like he sort of knows what she is implying with her second, silent one.

We will, of course, make an official protest to the Vardune government about this. They will deny it but one of two things will happen. If it was a state sponsored mission they will not likely try to pull it again, knowing that we will be vigilant. If however it was some rogue faction, they will make a move to stop them. After all, flooding a continent with lava tends to be harmful to the humans caught in the way, and wouldnt be in keeping with the long term goals of Casia.

[Kalirren]

Odds are, yes, admits Melinda. The Silescians can't be the only ones who had a plant here. I think they were expecting us to come, and presented Clylious with the circumstance that would necessitate him sending us into the trap they'd set. To boot, it would have eroded whatever trust might ever lie between Tishtina and Ailena if we were to have failed.

"We certainly appreciate your prosecuting the matter," she concurs with Clylious. "It is disturbing that any would seek to work against even the most basic, convergent interests of the settlements on this continent. Please let me, and Elinon, know what comes of your efforts to monitor their response. Maybe some opportunity will come of this against Kotep," she earnestly yet noncommittally expresses.

Returning to the topic of their mission, "The giants also admitted to having killed the four scouts who preceded us to the mountain. We couldn't recover their remains." Raising the fingers of her left hand to frame her eyes, she wipes the side of her nose and bows her head ever so slightly in a symbolic gesture of sorrow. "Please convey our condolences to their families for their loss."

[Telasi]

Taleira Ulharvyth

I think we were probably being tested to see what we had in us. There's no good reason for the riddles and such if they just wanted to burn things. Good to hear that you agree.

"Well, if something more comes of it, you can let me know. I'm inclined to take interest in anybody or anything that can arrange all that."

[MikelaC1]

With that, Clylious presents a scroll to Melinda.

One copy of this is being sent to every temple that venerates Ailena, and will be publicly proclaimed at the next day of worship. I, as well, will be publicly proclaiming in and leaving it publicly posted in our temple for as long as needed
The scroll reads:
Be it known that from this day forth, Her Holiness Ailena Domar wholehearedly supports the prophecy of Cassiopia, and wishes nothing but the best for the new Trinty that will be created thus. Our longstanding support for Tishtina in the past is unabated by this, and despite some friction that has occured with both the faiths of Sabrina and Nocticula, we look forward to welcoming a new goddess in our pantheon.

[PSinger]

Atareth raises clangs her warhammer against her shield and gives a cheer.