The Best Defence (team 1)

[kentma57]

So this is the IC thread, it will just sit here for now...

[dspeyer]

Frac finished up his discussion with the survivors, and turned to join Heli who is already pouring over a map.

"Well," he said softly, switching to draconic, "less information than I'd hoped for, but we know they were here, and then here, so they're probably around here now, especially if they're following the straightforward route..." With each here he gestured at the map, pointing or waving according to how certain he is.

"Herish, anyway", Heli replied, "the closest places I've been are here and here -- it's about the same distance so lets try the upwind one. You ready?"

"I've got all the scrolls, and the sending stone neatly in my bag. There's not a whole lot of preparation left to do." As an afterthought, he folded up the map and stuck that in his bag as well, then turned himself invisible.

"Right," Heli said, then switching to common and addressing the other fortifiers, "We'll send to you at least once a day, and pop back here if we need to. Send to us if you learn anything, or have any questions."

Then he went invisible as well. There was a bit of movement, an incantation, and a sharp quiet pop as the air filled in the space where the two wyrmling dragons had stood.

Spoiler

Show

Gather information to figure out where the enemy was: (d20+10)[15] (Frac)
Intelligence to extrapolate where they are: (d20+8)[17] (Heli) and (d20+3)[9] (Frac)
Knowledge Geography to know a good teleportation target near the enemy: (d20+13)[29] (Heli)
Teleport check (d100)[60] (I'll be going to a destination I've at least "seen casually", maybe better if luck is with me)

[AngelForm]

Just before the second of the draconic pair disappear Tirion puts in “send once you find the enemy and I will start scrying on you, if you get in critical danger Broxigar and the Lanterns can teleport to you but they can only teleport once a day so it will cut your chances of a quick getaway.”

Broxigar nods his head solemnly at this statement.

“If you get close enough to them I will try and see what they and aligned to and what magic they have.”

Tirion then takes a last look at Heli to make sure he can scry him, before turning to continue organising his followers.

Spoiler

Show

Rolling for the first Bach of Faithful servants, assuming I keep one casting as the norm and could cast it once on the way to the fortress.
(2d4)[3] Lantern Archons
3 days till next cast

[kentma57]

As Frac and Heli arive in a small town they find it abandoned...

[dspeyer]

... and take a quick look around for signs of violence. If the town was sacked by the enemy, there could be useful information here, but if the population fled the rumor of the enemy, it's time to go.

[kentma57]

The place is in a bit of a mess, but it dosen't look like there was an violence.

[dspeyer]

"Nothing to see here, I guess," Heli says, "of course, this is just the closest point I knew well enough to teleport to. We figured the enemy was about %d miles that way."

"And even that's mostly a guess," Frac answers, "but sitting here won't fix anything -- let's head out."

"Up first. My invisibility won't last forever. Plus we'll see more. If we don't find the enemy where we expected to, we'll head toward the place they were last definitely seen."

"Sounds good."

Together, they ascend to about 5000 ft and head in their best-guess direction toward the enemy.

Spoiler

Show

Spot checks for seeing the enemy or signs thereof:
Heli: (d20+20)[39]
Frac: (d20+8)[21]
Both have distance-viewing 4x human

How far is it from the teleport spot to the best estimate spot?

They keep looking until either they find signs of the enemy or night falls, whichever comes first.

[kentma57]

From 5000ft you easily see the army 30 miles to the south.

[dspeyer]

Both dragons maintain altitude and fly to directly above the enemy. This takes roughly 100 minutes. During that time, Frac restores his own invisibility as necessary, but Heli allows his to lapse. It is true the enemy might see him, but as a tiny creature nearly a mile away, in a direction they probably aren't looking (up), he hopes to be unnoticed.

As they approach, they attempt to take a count of the enemy, noting organization, wagons, siege weapons, extraordinary individuals, and the breakdown of forces by type.

Once within 9000 horizontal feet of the nearest enemy, Heli re-establishes his invisibility and they begin to descend, each minute dropping 1000 ft and crossing 1500. As they do this, they watch carefully -- if the enemy shows signs of spotting them, they will pull up immediately. If they are not spotted, they will arrive 1000 ft above the nearest elements 4 minutes after casting.

If not spotted, Heli will then cast True Seeing and Arcane Sight on himself, and dive quickly to 120ft, then level out and circle the enemy. Frac will follow but stay at 170ft (just within eachother's blindsense). Heli will attempt to determine if they are anything other than what they appear, if they are intrinsically magical (and how), if their equipment is magical (and how) and what magic they may be capable of.

[kentma57]

As you aproach the army they pay no attention to you. Once you reach 120ft, you notice several things:
-an endless stream of soldiers marching from the south
-various cavelry and siege weapons
but most importantly as you activate arcane sight you realize the area you are in (both you and the army below) is under heavy scrying; also the army below you under the effect of a spell that is very similar to telekinesis.

[dspeyer]

A bunch of questions before I act further:

How far south was I able to see? Was there any sign of a back to the army?

How wide is the column? (Both in feet and soldiers.)

How high does the scrying effect go?

What weapons are the enemy carrying?

Is there any magic present besides those two spells?

Can I see anything of the enemy besides their armor? (eg. do they have faces?)

[kentma57]

How far south was I able to see? Was there any sign of a back to the army?
You could clearly see a full mile, and as far as you an see the column is endless.

How wide is the column? (Both in feet and soldiers.)
3 to 4 hundred soldiers

How high does the scrying effect go?
There is one surrounding the army and a second smaller one centered on you. (other than that maybe 200 ft from any edge of the army

What weapons are the enemy carrying?
Standard equipment(fullplate, longsword, bows, spears, shields...)

Is there any magic present besides those two spells?
Some of the armies equipment is magic...

Can I see anything of the enemy besides their armor? (eg. do they have faces?)
No, the armour is all you see.

[dspeyer]

Heli ascends to meet Frac. "It's too dangerous to do the stuff here," he whispers in ignan, "lets head for the back."

Together they ascend back to 5000 ft and follow the army south, looking for the back row or point of origin. They both maintain their invisibility and Heli maintains arcane sight.

If they do not find an end, they continue this way for half an hour, covering roughly 8 miles (requiring 3 recasts of invisibility and 2 of arcane sight). If the scrying on them stops, Heli fills Frac in on everything he saw (still in ignan, because there's no such thing as too paranoid).

They also try to estimate how long it will be before the enemy reaches the pass, assuming they are near the front.

Spoiler

Show

Knowledge Geography (d20+13)[17]

Bookeeping:

spells cast:
lvl2: Invisibility x5
lvl3: Arcane sight x3
lvl5: True Seeing, Teleport

time spent:
roughly 2 hours. I figure we started in the morning, so plenty of daylight left

note:
if the column stretches 8 miles, has rows 2 ft apart (reasonable marching order) and is 350 soldiers wide, it will have roughly 7 million soldiers in it, roughly twice the population of LA. Just an observation.

[Irrealist]

The sending stone in Heli's pocket vibrates. He recognizes Varilon's voice: "I am scrying on you now and, if you agree, will read your surface thoughts for communication. Just relax and think of what you see."

Spoiler

Show

OOC: Varilon uses his daily use of the sending stones. Heli can reply likewise (up to 25 words) immediately without using his daily use. If he agrees or does not reply, Vailon uses the crystal ball's inherent detect thoughts ability on Heli to get a live feed of what's going on.

[kentma57]

After traveling another 7 miles you come to the edge of the desert, below you rages a sandstorm that streatches as far as you can see, unscathed by the storm they smerge from the wall of raging sand.

ps: At no point does the scrying leave you.

[dspeyer]

After a moment to summarize what he's seen, Heli replies to the sending:

Proceed detect thoughts
Enemy at least 7 miles long, 300 abreast
Under scrying and telekinesis -- suspect are puppets
Reverse scrying possible?
I will now proceed with tests

Once he feels the detect thoughts take effect (which will, of course, negate the need for the detailed reply, but redundancy is safer) Heli takes a moment to reflect on everything he's seen. The sheer scale of the enemy is frightening of course, but the possibility that it's all being controlled telekinetically is more so. It's hard enough controlling two or three illusions realistically! To split one's attention to the manipulation of a million puppets -- that's the sign of a god.

Of course, it's also possible that the inability of each 'soldier' to think independantly is their greatest weakness. It's even possible that the spell is actually a self-contained construct effect, and not detailed remote control at all.

He also considers the storm in front of him. Clearly not something he wants to fly into, but what does it mean? Could it be natural? Could it be how the enemy is created? Or arrives? He peers into the storm with Arcane Sight, and considers....

Spoiler

Show

Knowledge nature: (d20+27)[42]
Knowledge planes: (d20+15)[33]
Knowledge myths and legends: (d20+15)[22]
Knowledge geograpy: (d20+13)[32] (to know if this sort of thing is normal here)
What do I conclude?

"OK," he says to Frac, still in Ignan, "time to do something. Let's play it like in Cambrax's valley -- I'll give them something to go for, you give it punch, then get ready with the stone and we'll play it by ear. We'll drop to 300 then to ground. Sound good?"

"Sure, I'm tired of just watching."

They move away from the storm far enough that it won't effect them, then drop to 300 ft. Frac pulls out his scroll of Wall of Stone and Heli casts Greater Invisibility on him. Frac then describes a very specific place about 50 ft from the edge of the enemy. Then he goes there and stands ready.

Heli waits a little longer than necessary, to ensure Frac is in place. Then he begins his illusion. The ground at the chosen spot bubbles, and out comes a hideous creature, like a cross betwen a magma mephit and a chaos beast, with blue arcs of power coursing up and down its body. The the arcs come together at its left foot, down the middle claw, which erupts in small red tentacles that unfold....

Which is the signal Frac was waiting for. From in the midst of the illusory tentacles he strikes the nearest enemy with an eldritch blast, then ascends straight to 75 ft to watch the enemies response.

The illusion bellows in joy and anger, and waves its flaming arms at the enemy.

Spoiler

Show

Eldritch blast damage: (3d6)[13]

[dspeyer]

Spoiler

Show

I forgot eldritch blast required an attack role: (d20+17)[22]

[kentma57]

Unfased by this new monster the soldiers march on; as a soldier is send to the ground by Frac the soldier infront and behind lashout at Frac, just missing. Make a spot check.

[dspeyer]

Heli spot: (d20+20)[27]
Frac spot: (d20+8)[19]

Does the hit soldier appear disabled?

How do the soldiers counterattack?

Do they aim at where Frac was (in the 'monster') or at where he is now hovering invisibly? (Or did they react so fast that he hadn't moved yet?)

[kentma57]

As the soldier falls to the ground his partners draw their weapons in a flash, unfased by the monster they go for Frac, but he manages to get clear and they return to their posts as he hovers away. Mean-while you watch in amazment as the soldier that you sent tumbling to the groud falls to pices, the armour is hallow. And to your even greater supprise the armour pulls it's self back together and continues to march.

[dspeyer]

The empty armor is the least of Heli's worries. He'd halfway suspected that once he saw the telekinesis. What's disturbing was that the shot straight at Frac! That means they saw through both the invisibility and the illusion.

Or realized there is no such creature and targetted the source of the eldritch blast.

Well, we can hope, but the midst of a battle against a vastly superior force is no time for optimism. Time to spread some confusion....

The 'monster' vanishes back into the earth, making a realistic but somewhat rushed job of it. That done, Heli calls out (still in Ignan, for what it's worth) "hound by the edge, still ready on the stone," then he drops to 60 ft and upgrades himself to greater invisibility.

Frac shifts the scroll he was holding to his rear claw and fishes out the Summon Monster. He summons a hound archon at the left edge of the column, then circles the battle. If at any time a small number of the enemy are seperated from the column, he will surround them with a circular wall of stone.

Heli first casts detect thoughts on the enemy. If there are any, he takes the time to listen to some of the surface ones. After that, he tries dispelling the telekinesis effect from two random soldiers

Spoiler

Show

Dispell checks: (d20+10)[16] (d20+10)[18]

If any of this goes badly wrong, I don't do the stuff that comes after the failure point, but I though posting a lot at once would be a good idea

[kentma57]

In a flash a great hound archon is summoned to the battle, you watch in amazment as 200 soldiers break from the column in perfect unison and surround the creature. As they close in on it weapons drawn it's claws rake their armor, none falter. It's cries are soon silenced...

As the soldiers turn to leave the site a great wall bursts from the ground entraping them. Ignored by the rest of the force they simply stand where they are, like they are waiting for something or someone.

[dspeyer]

Well, wall of stone doesn't expire, so let's see what they're waiting for.

What happened with detect thoughts and dispel magic?

With the remainder of his greater invisibility, Frac tries the energy damage scrolls, firing each at a different soldier, moving randomly between shots, and generally seeing what happens.

[spoiler]
Fire: attack (d20+17)[36] damage (d8)[7]
Cold: attack (d20+17)[29] damage (d8)[4]
Electricity: attack (d20+17)[23] damage (d8)[1]
Acid: attack (d20+17)[28] damage (d8)[7]
Sonic: attack (d20+17)[32] damage (d8)[4]
[/spoiler

[kentma57]

Right sorry about that, no result on detect thoughts and you despel magic is overwhelmed by the magic moving the soldiers.

As for the damage scrolls none seems more efective than any of the others.

[dspeyer]

Hmm, an eldritch blast smashed one apart (though it quickly reassembled itself), energy did a little damage, and the teeth of a hound archon did none. Weird.

"Let's just watch," Heli says (still ignan). He then flies to outside the space of the scrying effect, goes underground, burrows to inside the wall of stone and hides with just the tip of his head above-ground -- sort of like a crocodile in a swamp, but with more skill and cleverness. This way, he can watch for a long time without being seen or exhausting his spells.

While there, he checks the enemy's feet (well, boots). Do they touch the ground?

Frac circles for a while and then lands on the wall and sits there to watch, renewing his invisibility as needed.

They stay there for an hour, or until something happens.

Spoiler

Show

Hide check for Heli: (d20+24)[38]

[kentma57]

The scrying effect follows you. Do you want to change your actions?

[dspeyer]

The scrying centered on me doesn't worry me. I figure that must be my friends back home.

[kentma57]

The moment Heli surfaces(even a bit) he takes about 10 spears/swords to the face take (5d10+20)[44] damage. (because I can)

[dspeyer]

Ouch!

Heli withdraws back underground, stopping at a depth of 2.5 ft if not pursued. He then casts clairvoyance to see what's going on up top.

Provided there seems to be no immediate threat to himself, he drinks a cure-serious-wounds potion ((3d8+5)[16]), casts message (cursing himself for not thinking of this spell sooner) telling Heli "I think I'll be underground for a while, keep an eye on things", and then sticks a silent image of his head breaking ground somewhere else much as it really did.

After that, he settles back to wait.

[AngelForm]

I am assuming Heli was up top at least one round so Detect Evil will kick in for that one round, not long enough to get more than presence/absence of Evil but any information will be useful.