AVB - Pacific Rim

[Kalirren]

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Right you are. Thank you.

Sascha does her best to direct the remaining elementals to the cracks that Fama's chain is making in the tree's bark to prevent its toxic sap from leaking into the soil.

[Rizban]

The flying man continues to launch bolts of deadly energy at the tree, dealing another direct hit.

---

Sascha continues to hold her spell as she directs the elementals. Unfortunately, all of them miss.

---

Fama continues to strike the tree, but only one of the two attacks hits.

---

The tree, becoming desperate, attempts another spell, provoking another AoO. Concentration - (1d20+11)[20].
If it succeeds, DC19 Will and Fort saves from Fama.

[Jeriah]

AoO: Spiked Chain – (1d20+19)[35] – (2d4+12)[17] + electric - (1d6)[5]
Fama's AoO breaks the tree's concentration!

Will - (1d20+11)[28] Fortitude - (1d20+12)[29]

---

Assuming she's not dead.

Full Attack:
Spiked Chain – (1d20+19)[36] – (2d4+12)[18] + electric - (1d6)[6]
Spiked Chain – (1d20+14)[21] – (2d4+12)[18] + electric - (1d6)[5]

Swift: Heal (2d6+6)[15].
Tumors: 4/7 (8;9;10)

Edit: That healing puts Fama back at full health. 72/72.

[Kalirren]

Cognizant that she's not being of much help, Sascha laments having used up her spells so hastily. One good lightning strike would have done it. Just one good bolt from the sky, and she could have exploded the whole trunk.

Instead, Fama was having to do it the hard and dangerous way. Sascha was more certain than ever that there was more under Fama's clockwork than the usual frail flesh of a being.

Sascha directs her elementals to focus their fire upon a single point of attack. She doesn't have the skill to tell them to merge physically, but maybe they'll make more progress together than separately.

1 fire elemental aided by 2 others and flanking: (1d20+11)[12] to hit for (1d4+2)[5] bludgeoning and (1d4)[1] fire and Burn (1d4 for 1d4 rounds) Reflex DC 13. This might be their last round.

Edit: Ha. And that is a miserable failure.

[Rizban]

Pew pew! The flying man continues to whittle away at the tree.

---

Sascha, having not cast anything else, continues to hold her spell as she directs the elementals. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, the one they choose to support is the one who has never been able to hit. Indeed, were he not made of fire, he'd probably have already burned himself to death...

---

Fama continues to strike the tree, tearing great hunks from its trunk.

---

The leafless tree looks even closer to dead than it did when uninjured. Indeed, it seems you are on the verge of someone needing to shout "timber!"
In a last ditch attempt to save itself, the tree uproots itself and moves 10 feet away, provoking an AoO for movement.

Assuming it survives, it attempts to cast the same spell again, requiring DC19 Will and Fort saves from Fama.

[Kalirren]

"Argh!" Sascha yanks at her ponytail in frustration as the elementals vanish after their pathetic performance. She resolves to learn some basic commands in the elemental languages just to make better use of them - if she survives.

Out of ideas, she begins summoning a dire beaver (trading in her last 2nd-level spell, a Barkskin) to do it. She'll go for the biggest single beaver she can summon with that energy. The new energies dissipate the cure spell in her hands, which went unused for so long, preempted by Fama's strange Lady's assistance.

[Jeriah]

Fama swings at the tree as it leafs!
Spiked Chain – (1d20+19)[22] – (2d4+12)[19] + electric - (1d6)[1]

---

She then attempts to NOT DIE!

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Will - (1d20+11)[14]
Fortitude - (1d20+14)[21] - Using the 1/day +2 from her feat if this roll is necessary.

---

Assuming she lives, Fama charges towards the tree and attacks!

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Tumble - (1d20+1)[4]

Spiked Chain – (1d20+19)[31] – (2d4+12)[16] + electric - (1d6)[4]
(lost +2 from flanking, gained +2 from charging)

Edit: Forgot to update the tumor count.
Tumors: 4/7 (7;8;9)

Don't the 3 fire elementals get AoOs before vanishing, since they won't vanish until the start of Sascha's next turn?

[Rizban]

Fama manages to strike a telling blow against the tree as it leafs.

---

A horrible creature appears before Fama's very eyes! A truly horrible visage, the likes of which she has seen only in her most fevered of nightmares reaches towards her fully intent on curing her of all her ailments and diseases! The horror! Oh the absolute horror!

As the creature touches Fama, foul energies course through her, seeking to claim her life, but Fama resists the brunt of the attack as the spell dissipates. She takes only (3d6)[18] damage.

Spoiler: Spellcraft DC19 Reveals!

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It's phantasmal killer, though I'm sure the description gave it away.

Yes, the fire elementals should also get AoOs. I'll go ahead and roll them to keep things moving.
(1d20+3)[16] - (1d4)[4]+(1d4)[2]
(1d20+3)[6] - (1d4)[1]+(1d4)[2]
(1d20+3)[6] - (1d4)[3]+(1d4)[4]
All three elementals fail to damage the retreeting plant.

[Jeriah]

Fama quails in terror, but her wounds heal as her putrescence fights to resist the foul curatives.

Heal with tumor before charging.

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Swift: Heal (2d6+6)[5][4](9).
Tumors: 3/7 (7;8;9;10)

Edit: Rollv doesn't like addition, I see. 15 total healing.

[Rizban]

The flying man catches the tree in a crack, withering its very heartwood. The tree drops from 2 hp to -11! It is dead!

Fama heals but needs not charge, and Sascha does not waste her barkskin spell.

[Jeriah]

"May the waters carry you gently to eternal slumber."

Fama touches her forehead towards the tree in a sign of respect for a defeated foe.

She then turns to Sascha and says quietly, "I do not trust the flying man. He is as likely here to thwart our purpose as to aid it. Do not undertake any action that might reveal our grander purpose to him unless he proves trustworthy."

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So... Loot? Experience? Level ups?

[Rizban]

The flying man descends and speaks, which triggers a 3-player team up thread.

[Rizban]

Digging into the dirt a little as she searches the remains, Sascha finds the same sticky sap-like substance seeping up from the ground. If she quickly kicks dirt over the place from which it seeps up, she can prevent the flying man from easily spotting it.

[Kalirren]

Yes, she does that. She would bury this all anyway, to avoid übersquirrels and überracoons in addition to überbeavers.

[Kalirren]

Katoerian having gone ahead, Sascha and Fama were again left to their own devices.

"Well, what do you think? He seemed pretty innocuous." In his absence, Sascha's fist has fallen from her hip, and she no longer stands in a way that fights for dominance. "I have to tell you, I didn't like what I saw at the bottom of that pit. My friend Hallethil was right. Whatever blight this is wells deep from within the earth. It was even stronger upstream, but even here it was welling up to the surface." She casts glances to and fro, suspicious of everything around her, then starts moving, trying to pick an easy path for her friend to follow.

"Gods willing, when we get to that village, whatever we do, let us seek out a holy place before we get too comfortable. We should be wary of the people, and of the water they drink. In the morning, I plan with the blessing of one of their leaders to check their well. I hope they do not need our aid, for to convince them that they do may be a hard task." The redhead druid shakes her head and sighs lightly, then opens her countenance anew to change the subject. "Speaking of gods, I pray you tell me of this 'Lady' of yours, for she seems powerful indeed."

[Rizban]

"My lady is grace and beauty. I will gladly tell you more when the time is right. Until then, let us focus on the tasks at hand."

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I'll let Jeriah tell you more. It's kind of her thing to describe.

"Speaking of the water supply, what effects do you think drinking this would have on a humanoid?"

[Kalirren]

A shudder, then a shrug. "Safety is so much harder to show than danger. I truly don't know, and have little way of guessing. As my own powers prove, we are not that different from them beasts," Sascha notes. "We are all of flesh and bone and sinew, which I think that blight warps all the same. With time, I'm sure any barrier between us and them can be overcome...though I know not if it has some sort of form of its own, some foreign law of nature it obeys, that it finds and emulates in its warping. Like how the tree was weakened, but the animals strengthened. I just don't know. And I'd rather not find out firsthand."

[Rizban]

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BTW, you both gain 1,200 XP for progressing the plot this far, overcoming a significant foe, and discovering the southernmost edge of the actual corruption.

[Kalirren]

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Yay! Do you have an editable copy of my character sheet? I'm not sure I do anymore.

[Rizban]

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Yay! Do you have an editable copy of my character sheet? I'm not sure I do anymore.

Your old myth-weavers sheet is locked and read only, but there should be an auto-transfer copy in the new sheet system called "AutoTransfer {SameSheetName}"

[Jeriah]

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BTW, you both gain 1,200 XP for progressing the plot this far, overcoming a significant foe, and discovering the southernmost edge of the actual corruption.

Woo! Getting closer and closer to that elusive level up!

[Rizban]

Return From Team Up

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As the two of you stand around the well, a group of about 12 adults emerge and approach you, led by a clean-shaven elderly man leaning heavily on a staff. Once within about 20 feet of you, he calls out a greeting.

"Hello! What has brought you to our village?"

Glancing at the men, you see that they carry a number of farming implements but are holding them defensively, and at least two of the women you see are carrying large knitting needles.

[Kalirren]

"Good afternoon, elder! Hello...!" says Sascha somewhat uneasily to pitchforks and scythes. What did she expect? She addresses the village elder. "My name is Sascha, and this is my friend Fama. We work with the Aldhaven City Watch. We came out of the city to check on a large beaver dam made by large, magically changed beavers that you may be aware of?" She points towards the river where the dam is. "The beasts have built a dam a ways downstream that I think will flood out some of your fields to the southeast if left unchecked. So we came here because I was concerned for the safety of your crops and your water. Will you have me explain further?"

[Diplomacy: (1d20+5)[12] + all the circumstance penalities...if she gets a chance, open the spoiler.]

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"We know now that the beavers grow large when they eat the sap from tainted trees. They eat this sap and grow huge, as huge as a horse, or larger. It's really a rather horrible sight. Here is the sap as a resin; you may yet see a strange glow about it." The druid offers her dried sample in her open palm to anyone who is willing to take it, in the process gauging whether or not the villagers trust her yet. "The trees themselves are tainted from tainted groundwater," she continues. "The tainted water itself also flows thick, like sap. The nearest tainted tree we saw was only a mile or two away to the east - and it was large, twisted, leafless and vile, and would draw you in with a enspelled song to consume you. Fama here and the other man who just left were the ones who cut and burned it down. If it was troubling you, it won't anymore."

"So we were concerned about the well here because it's so close to a place we know is tainted. Of course, I beg your hospitality. But with your permission, I'd also like to go down into the well to see if there are any signs of the taint."

[Rizban]

The elder nods.

"That would explain some things... the missing children, the strange illnesses. What do you propose if you do find this 'taint'?"

[Kalirren]

Sascha gasps quietly in instinctive sympathy at the mentions of children and the sick. "If I do find taint down there, you mean?" gesturing at the gaping well. "I'd say ward the well to magically cleanse all the drinking water. No regrets there. Besides, we don't yet know where the source is, other than somewhere deep upstream. If we can't stop the taint at a source, protecting the people and the crops and the beasts that use that water could be the best we can do. A priest might tide you over for a while until a ward could be laid. If there is a priest here, that is."

"Do you want me to look?"

[Rizban]

He nods sagely, a playful though slightly malicious light in his eyes.

"Yes, of course, but... how much is all this warding going to cost us? Hmm?"

[Jeriah]

Fama senses the hostility in the air and protectively leans a bit closer towards Sascha, hand firmly planted on her "belt."

[Kalirren]

"That would be your problem, unfortunately. I can't enchant the well for you. I can't quote you a price. I have an acquaintance who might, though," she offers. "But why don't we first find out whether her help would be needed at all?"

[Rizban]

"Ah, yes, of course. It always comes down to that. Doesn't it? We'll do the work now and give you the cost later. Oh, and it likely won't work perfectly the first time, so we'll need to sell you a service plan too. Lady, I know a scam when I hear one."

[Kalirren]

"What?" Sascha is now obviously confused. It's not helping that she's never been great with money. "You're the one who's said anything about payment. If it were within my power, I'd do it just 'cos it's the right thing to do, if'n I could. But I can't.

"Now if it is tainted, and you're thinkin' I should take payment for it and make it my problem, that's fine too!" Sascha obliviously runs her tongue. "Write me up a title to the woodland by the river, the one crawlin' with giant beavers and tainted water. Then I'll arrange for the well to be warded, all the stuff and all the work. No risk for you. You just hand a deed to me when it's done. How's that?"