Overpowered Game

[rockdeworld]

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OOC thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...31#post4139031

"Welcome, all of you."

These words are spoken by a man in brown robes, a priest of Ehlonna, standing before you. Father Cloomsey, as he has introduced himself - an older man, perhaps in his fifties, with a shaven head and white robes held together by a brown cord at his waist. The three of you stand in the large church building of the Church of Ehlonna in the center of town, in front of the stone steps leading up to the pulpit from which the priest speaks.

The church is a large one, and there are stone columns supporting the ceiling on two sides of the church, separated by about 40 feet of stone seats and a center aisle. Between the stone columns and the outside walls are another 5 feet of walking room, for people to come in along the sides. There is a red velvet carpet coming up the center aisle, but other than that no fabric adorns the seating area of the church.

At the front of the church - a good hundred feet from the back wall and doors - is a grand pulpit, 4 steps risen off the floor, to provide its speaker with the ability to be heard and seen by all in the seats. At the back of the pulpit are more raised platforms from which a choir can sing, and on each side there of the pulpit are doors, closed at the moment.

To your right stands a young cleric - Alekel, a man maybe 23 or so - who, instead of vestments, has donned a traveler's outfit. As you look at him, you see him twitch a bit whenever Father Cloomsey mentions undead, shuddering as though at the very thought of the unliving creatures. Cloomsey has explained that Alekel will accompany you as a representative of the church and Ehlonna, both for your own protection and to make sure the church stays well-informed. Cloomsey has also stated that he believes that going out into the wasteland to see their enemy will be a good experience for the young cleric, and has asked you to tolerate him. You have been assured that Alekel does possess the skills required to be of some use.

Father Cloomsey looks down at the four of you from the pulpit, and finishes up what has been a long speech about the vileness of the undead and the bravery of any who go against them, yourselves in particular.

"Villum thanks you for your courage and bravery in facing the horrors of the abomination's keep. Are you ready to set out?"

[shadow_archmagi]

"I cannot speak for everyone here, but I can leave at a moment's notice." I turn my head to look over at my soon to be fellow adventurers, awaiting their own answer and thinking over my latest task. When a town lives so near such a threat for so long, there should be a reason. Usually that reason is power. I wonder if I know just what I'm getting into? Oh wait, I know exactly what I'm getting into. Terrible danger and almost certain death, as usual.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

One of the three "guests" stands listening. He wears a large black robe hanging down to the floor, with almost nothing visible inside it. His hood is pulled over his head, giving no angle from the sides though from the front the preacher can see his face. On his back sits a small pack, hanging loosely as if it were empty. His hands are gray in color, and when he shifts you can see his arms are almost white.

He seems to be dancing under his robes, of shifting constantly in a regular pattern. It doesn't create much movement, but he is clearly moving more then is necessary.

When the preacher finally asks his readiness he let's lose a yawn and turns to leave, but as he is walking away he'll mentally whisper in the young Cleric's head, Don't worry, mostly zombies, they only eat your body. It's the specters that eat your soul.

[AmberVael]

Alazne

The last of three adventurers is a woman with short, dark red hair (obviously dyed in some fashion) and deep blue eyes. Her clothing is simply made, but created for the wear and tear of a far more active life. The styling of her dress, along with the arcane tattoos that crawl up from her hands to her bared upper arms hint at a tribal and ritualistic life, though the mismatched cloak on her back and the rod at her side, out of place and yet expensive as they are, announce her as a scavenging adventurer.
She regards Cloomsey calmly, listening and saying nothing until she has need to speak- until he asks his question. "I have everything I need prepared. The group will not have to wait on me."

[rockdeworld]

Alekel twitches visibly as Kel speaks into his mind. The part of his face that can be seen is white, though he keeps his attention on the priest. Meanwhile, Father Cloomsey nods.

"Go then, with the blessing of Ehlonna." He says, before turning to walk away and through one of the doors on the side of the pulpit. As he leaves, Alekel turns around, shaking some as he does so.

"S-so, s-shall we be g-going then?" He asks hesitantly. He sees that the one called Kel has already left, but waits for the other two - Alazne and Yogma... something, he remembers, from being introduced earlier - to move before following them.

As the group heads outside, sunlight hits their faces, and they see various people on the roads - mostly shopkeepers - who nod to them. Evidently the rumor has spread that the group is going to take on the lich, however most of the population of Villum is either out among the farms outside the town, or in their houses doing other things.

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Provided no one has anything important to do, I'll just speed us along. Feel free to post if you wanted to stop

Btw, I forgot to mention but Kel sensed that Father Cloomsey and Alekel are both humanoids.

At the edge of the city, the group passes a human-looking gaurd, who nods to them from beneath a metallic helm. Kel can sense that the man is a monstrous humanoid shapechanger with Int 14.

The group heads north, out of the town, following an old and white-washed road leading to the north, where the lich's tower resides. The road is a pale stone white against the grey stone and dirt of the regular ground, and is very clearly marked by the fact that no one else is on it.

After a few minutes walking, the sky begins to grow dark. Looking up, the adventurers can see clouds above, which seem almost to be growing out in a circle from the Lich's tower, which can be seen in the distance. After a bit more walking, the clouds blot out the sun completely, bringing a sort of twilight - half light, half dark - over the terrain.

Trees grow on the sides of the road, but not living trees. Instead, the trees are black and bent, as though they had died a long time ago and just been left standing. Beneath one of the dead trees, a group of human-shapes sit. Kel senses that they are all undead of varying intelligence scores - from 8 to 16 - and that there are 4 of them beneath the tree.

Interestingly, Kel also senses several intelligent, undead beings moving around underground, as though through a series of tunnels.

As the adventurers approach the group, one of the group notices the approaching adventurers and stands. The others notice he is looking beyond them and turn around, smiling. The standing one is also smiling. They look human.

"Ho fellows!" The standing one calls out. "Where would you be headed? Would you care to stop and rest awhile?"

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Kel' finally stops his dancing when he makes it out of the Church, but he doesn't wait long for everyone else. Nor does he speak at all on the walk, ignoring any possible questions.

When the undead man attempts conversation he quickly initiates telepathic contact with all his allies: These men are undead. There are more undead beneath us. I am the silent one. You need merely project your thoughts to me and I will receive them and relay them to the rest of the group. Be wary. Upon completion he enters his Battle Meditation, which consists of constantly relaying the thoughts of the party members to each other so that they may bypass the spoken word with their plans.

Towards the undead he directs a metal query: Why are you so deceptive about your nature and your allies beneath us?

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

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The deceptive part can only be heard by the undead, and only the undead who spoke to us first. You didn't hear that part.

[AmberVael]

Alazne

Alazne follows Kel, keeping up to his pace with no complaints. She frowns at the silence of the party, wishing someone would be a bit more sociable- it would be a lot better to abate the serious nature of this task, at least. However, she merely gives a quiet, irritated sigh as she moves on.

When they reach the men, she looks about to speak when she hears Kel's words, and seems a bit irritated by the interruption, despite the information he gives to them. She hesitates, but since she can't hear Kel speaking to them, and neither did he inform them that he would be speaking to the men, she decides to play a more active role.
With a smile, she addresses them.
Nowhere in particular, and we have not traveled far enough today to need rest, though we appreciate the offer.

[rockdeworld]

Alekel gives a little squeak of fear as Kel mentally communicates with him, and takes an involuntary step back.

The three sitting undead continue to smile, but turn back to the standing one - evidently the leader, whose smile has turned to a frown.

"So one of you is a telepath." He says, looking from face to face. You can see from where you stand that he appears slightly older than the others, like a father with his children. "And not a very respectful one at that."

"Shall I kill him for you master?" One of the others asks, standing as he speaks. The first undead considers for a short moment, while the other two - a male and a female - stand as well. Then he nods his head, and all three turn, bearing fangs at the party.

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Roll for initiative!
Alekel: 14
"Master": 13
Upstart: 20
Female: 18
Male: 15

Whoever gets first initiative (if any of you), go ahead and post your action.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

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I'm going to roll init, but post as if I win it. I'll correct that if it needs correcting. However, do you have a map or anything, because from your description I am not sure if there are four or five, and if one is behind us somehow. For someone with an assortment of AoE disables, it is moderately important.

(1d20+13)[20]

I will begin by using a standard action to cast Grease under the three on the side, and the one who approached us if he is also in range. DC 17 Ref save or be knocked Prone. Then I will move away from the undead as best as possible, not really sure about that because I don't know where they are.

Apparently immortality has done nothing to calm your natures. You swift races always jump straight to the killing.

Pulling a bit of pork rind from the pouch on his belt, Kel' tosses it at the three undead behind, muttering a swift incantation that turns it into a carpet of grease around them.

He thens backs quickly off from the undead towards his companions.

[AmberVael]

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Alazne's initiative: 1d20+2=18
Can I get a map or some more measured indication of where things are? Would help with area and targeting.

[rockdeworld]

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Done! I'll provide an updated map each time I post, beginning with this one before Kel acts.

Also, here's the lineup:
20 Kel
20 Upstart
18 Female
18 Alazne
17 Yoggy
15 Male
14 Alekel
13 Master

Notes:

• White is the road, light grey is the wasteland around it. There are no walls.
• The dots are trees, too small to have their own space (so you can stand in a space with a tree, as the Master is now) or to impede movement (so consider them empty squares for movement purposes), but if you stand behind one it provides cover.
• M, U, F, and Ml stand for Master, Upstart, Female, and Male, respectively
• C stand for cleric. The other letters are the characters' initials.

Reflex saves:
Upstart: 16
Female: 19
Male: 22
Master: 14

Kel gains first initiative, casting a grease spell that covers the area under all four of the undead (what I assume you'd want). It is half successful, as both the master and upstart are knocked down, but the other two keep their feet. Looking up, the upstart grins at the party.

"That's not enough to stop me!" He calls out as his body dissolves into mist.

The small cloud of mist moves over onto the road, two squares above Alazne, where it hangs ominously.

The female successfully retains her balance as she steps off the greased surface, moving left 1 and down 1. Looking at Alazne, her eyes seem to glow as she gazes into Alazne's eyes.

"Submit..." She whispers, though her voice carries to where Alazne can hear her.

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Will save DC 14 or be dominated.

Also, when I said the female moved "left 1 and down 1" I meant that from her starting position on the map, she moved left 1 square and down 1 square.

Since I can only post once in a given day, I'll post what the other enemies would do on their turns if nothing else happens. Then when I post the next day, I'll modify it to fit what actually happened (i.e, if someone moves out of the way of an attack I'll adjust for that). This should allow for at least 1 round of battle per day.

--Alazne's turn--
*Alazne can do nothing if dominated.

--Yoggy's turn--

The male also keeps his balance as he steps off the grease, moving down 3. Similar to the female's action, he looks at Yoggy and hits him with a gaze attack (Will DC 14 or be dominated).

Alekel, terrified, steps left and tries to hide behind a tree.

"S-sanctuary!" He says, casting the spell.

The master growls as he falls to the ground, annoyed by the spell effects.

Insolent mortal! He thinks viciously, directing his thoughts at Kel. The master disintegrates, leaving a cloud of mist in his place, and he moves forward toward the group (down 2 left 1).

[AmberVael]

Alazne

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Will Save: 1d20+10=25
Denied!

Move action to move Left 2 and Up 3 from her original position, and draw out her metamagic rod from her belt.
Standard Action: Cast and *gasp for breath* Empowered Searing Fiery Fire Substituted Lightning Bolt (with a use of my Sculpt Metamagic Rod).
I'll use the 4 10ft cubes, slapping one on the two prone people, another on the female, and a third on the gaseous form guy.
And, just because I'm crazy and have a cube left over, the fourth cube will go towards burning up a clump of three trees next to the grease spell. Alazne doesn't waste magic- Alazne wastes YOU.
Damage: 15d6+15=74
Ignores Fire Resistance. Deals half damage to fire immune creatures.
Reflex Save: 18.

Grinning like a madwoman, Alazne darts off past a few trees, pulling out her rod, which lights up as she invokes a spell. Fire bursts around the fallen enemies, and around the female enemy, and on top of the flying gaseous enemy, and, for whatever reason, on top of a clump of innocent trees. Obviously Alazne isn't overly fond of wildlife.

[shadow_archmagi]

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Five foot step to the left, onto the tree. Glitterdust targeted to hit as many as possible. I only pray undead are in fact, vulnerable to blindness. DC 16 will save.

Hopping to one side to get a clear shot, Yog mumbles something and a cloud of metallic dust materializes around the undead, reflecting the sunlight and shining like tiny fireflies.

[shadow_archmagi]

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Ooops. Didn't see that gaze attack. Roll is here.

(1d20+7)[22]

My mistake.

[rockdeworld]

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@shadow: It's alright, since the gaze attack happened after the end of your turn. Next time you have to make an extra roll, though, just put it in the OOC thread, since I check that too.

@All: I think I might have confused you with the actions in my post, so look at this map.

This is the battlefield as it was before Alazne's attack.

Alazne unleashes a devastating blast, destroying three of the vampires and a few trees. The other one - the female, dodges most of one blast, though Alazne's superior power leaves her severely wounded. Glaring at Alazne, she tries to dominate Alazne, only to fail.

Alekel still runs to hide behind a tree, but rather than casting Sanctuary, he watches from where he is.

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Shadow, you might want to re-think your post. You said "5-foot step left onto a tree" but there aren't any trees on the road. Also your glitterdust won't hit anything from where you were.

Chosen and Alazne: Go ahead and post again after Shadow, since everyone between your turns has died.

[shadow_archmagi]

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Oh. My mistake. I meant to say right. There was a tree on my right. Here, I edited your diagram to (hopefully) clarify my movement and attack pattern.



The black is my movement, the yellow is my aim, and the green is the area affected by the spell (10 ft in all directions from center, but two diagonal tiles is 15 feet so the second one isn't affected.) If my math is right (and I'm a noob, so it probably isn't) I should be able to hit all four of them.

I pologize about all this trouble and holding up the game.

[AmberVael]

Alazne

A thought:

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*Desperately avoids metagaming*
But you know, I can't help but think...
Assuming she's a vampire- or vampire spawn, her surviving the blast means she has more HP than the typical spawn (IE, above 29).
However, that also implies she has more HD, which means that unless her charisma was lower than average, she would have a higher DC on her domination attempt.
Do note that my last spell wasn't enervated, if that's what you were thinking...
Or you could be doing something I'm entirely unaware of, and that's okay too. *shrug*

The turn:

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Alazne casts Magic Missile at the female vampire unless someone beats her to killing it.
(4d4+4)[14]

Alazne weaves her hand in a strange pattern, muttering something, then punches one hand towards the vampire. Flickering, white fire crafted of force fling towards her enemy.

[rockdeworld]

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The female is a stronger-than-normal vampire, but her HD increase was only by 1 (from 4-5) so she didn't get a save DC increase (and she has the same charisma).

Also, I think my maps may be a bit confusing, so I'm going to have to illustrate them a bit better (sorry Shadow).

This is what it looked like when Alazne unleashed her spell (if I'm correct).


This is what it looked like afterwards, with the female moving. The yellow-ish area is what is affected by the Grease spell.


If you step onto the grease, you have to make a reflex save.

And unless Kel wants to do something...

Alazne wipes away what little health the female vampire has left before the female even gets a chance to act. Disappearing in a cloud of smoke (like the other three) she is gone with nothing more than a whisper left behind.

"We won't forget this!"

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Huzzah! You each get 3000 exp.

Kel, during the entire fight, has continued to sense undead beings move around underground, though they don't move as if they have taken any notice of him. Instead, within his 100' radius, he senses some intelligent creatures milling around through the ground - sometimes stopped, sometimes moving, but always on a mostly-level plane, as though he were standing in a building a floor or two above a several people.

With the last of the vampires destroyed, Alekel comes out from behind his (admittedly small) tree.

"S-sorry." He apologizes. "I was just so s-scared... Is anyone hurt?"

[shadow_archmagi]

Yog turns to the frightened cleric and pats him on the shoulder. "It's fine, she slaughtered them all before they could react. Before I could react, come to think of it."

[AmberVael]

Alazne

Alazne stretches out her arms, smirking at the others before examining the damage she caused- dead vampires and smoldering trees...
Hmmm. I wonder if anyone will be able to put up more resistance than that?

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Chosen smiles at the devastation, but frowns at the lack of vampire remainder.

In everyone's heads he reports to them all, There are still many undead below, passing as if walking through a tunnel. We should either move from here, or investigate.

[rockdeworld]

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Sorry about the lack of vampire remains. Just remember that "Any additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect."*

The misty traces of the vampires leave headed north, in the direction of the lich's tower, which is clearly visible a thousand or so feet away.

Meanwhile, Alekel gulps as Kel whispers into his mind.

"I-I heard rumors..." He says. "Of t-tunnels l-leading underground... S-so the lich c-could steal bodies f-from the graveyard..."

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

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I know, I just wanted to follow them to their coffin.

[shadow_archmagi]

Yog ponders the tunnel situation for a moment, then voices his opinion. We'll have to keep an eye out for tunnel openings. We find one, it'll save us a lot of time. Why wander about in the open sun when there is a direct route?

[AmberVael]

Because when the sun is up, there won't be vampires.
Alazne points out to him.
We're at more of a disadvantage in the dark than we are in the sunlight.

[shadow_archmagi]

"The sun is just a bunch of fire. I believe making lots of fire is your specialty. Unless you don't feel up to the task?" Yog replies.

[AmberVael]

Excuse me? The sun has to be much more than 'just a bunch of fire.' I don't see firelight killing vampires- sunlight does. Use your head. It's probably a source of divine energy- I think I've heard it posited before.
Alazne crosses her arms.
I don't see a reason to go below and through tons of vampires when we could just walk up to the place unopposed by them due to their weakness.

[shadow_archmagi]

"First, what is fire? Heat, pain, and light. Is it warmer in daytime? YES. Do things that fly too high die? Yes. Is it lighter in daytime? Yes. Also, fire does kill vampires.The sun is not divine. Try it. The sun is just so much fire coming within sight of it kills, compacted into a single sphere. Thats power artificer work, but still far below a god.

Second, if we walk straight there, we probably won't face any resistance. This means that once the lich calls his minions back, we'll have a major problem. If we take the tunnels, we can kill some of them on the way there, and every stinking freak we murder then is one less to murder later. " Yog gasps for breath.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

This conversation is pointless. We should move on.

Kel' begins walking towards the tower again.