Auromar: Beginnings and Endings (IC4)

[Greymist]

Kjapp

Seeing those acting as a physcial barrier fall, hearing the terrible scream and watching a foggy tendril whip the hound causes Kjapp to hesitate a moment.

While preparing to shoot the hound again should it close with the collapsed defenders he shouts out to those in the room.

What the hell is going on, what is this thing?

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HP: 88
AC: 20

Ready action to attack the hound if it closes with anyone but the spirit creature.

Hit: (1d20+11)[9](20)
CC: (1d20+11)[23]
Damage1: (1d8+6)[8] + (1d6)[4] cold
Damage2: (1d8+6)[7] + (1d6)[4] cold

[Greyen]

Dothen

Dothen is running out of options at this point and is getting desperate. Rolling back a few feet to give himself some breathing room he digs clumsily into his pack. His hand comes forward with a small glass jar which he snaps forward into the hounds face.

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AC 29 +5 CoEx and +1Dodge
Tumbling 5ft prone! (1d20+15)[17]

Retrieving an acid as part of his move action.

Throwing at hound (1d20+7)[20] touch

Damage (1d6)[6]

[Moral Wiz]

Hist

as the ritual starts to make the... creature, Hist... just whispers the words he has heard under his breath, even when he can hear them no longer. They seem to have affected him... strangely

The dreaming city is dying.
The dying city is dreaming.
Asleep is the city of the dreamers.
Awaken, oh city, and rise up on the backs of the dreamers.

Your form is called, summoned, cursed, beseeched.
Bring forth the destruction wrought upon the sleepers.
Send forth the cities death to those that would awaken it.
I offer my so- Oh no you don't.

He snaps out of it then, looking around, and even smiling slightly, though with clenched fists

No idea. Well, apart from what I just said. That's from the ritual used to summon it. I eventually managed to make it out.

[Lochar]

Anura shouts to the group. "I have no idea what it is, but as long as it's just going after the hounds, let it! If it goes out of the temple, grab Father Horace and the others and pull them away from the door!"

Kjapp pulls two arrows, ready to attack should the hounds attack anyone but the creature.


Outside, Dothen throws his vial of acid, and the hound gets a good burning on the face.

[Grazys left for this init, will not effect the outside, so moving forward with that.]

>>>>Init 14 (G2)
The hound shakes off the acid, stepping forward again and biting down on Dothen.

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You forgot to include the -4 against melee for being prone, so your AC is 25.

A:(1d20+19)[25]
CC: (1d20+19)[23]
D: (2d6+10)[18]
CD: (2d6+10)[19]

Between the shock of losing his arm, and the new bites the hound is tearing out of him, Dothen passes out. The hound gives a gleeful howl.

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Dothen's HP: 23/58. Subdual 30.

While the other hound rises into the air, giving futile chase to Reid.

>>>>Init 11 (Hist[Already done his action], Reid)

[GimliFett]

Grazys Senneker

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HP: 63/63; AC: 22

Shaking off his stupor as the townsfolk cry out, Hist announces the ritual and Anura announces her ignorance, Grazys turns and helps move Horace and another man from the barricade of humanity. "At least I can do something constructive right now!"

[Toliudar]

Reid

Reid stiffens as, in the midst of chaos, a sending comes to him. He nods, murmurs a quick response, and then jams the borrowed rapier into his belt long enough to transform a prayer into one of healing. After the hound's savage bite, he needed to prepare before he could safely face it in battle.

The fly continued to spiral upwards at top speed.

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Converting Remove Curse: (3d8)[16] x 1.5 + 10 = 34 hit points recovered.

Current HP 49/85, AC 26

[Lochar]

Grazys moves to help get Horace and the others out of the way, only for an ethereal tendril to slam down in front of him, blocking him from moving closer. [It purposely failed an AoO against Grazys to stop him. Grazys can continue to move forward if he wishes to though.]

The fly continues to rise, keeping out of range of the hounds. From this height, Reid can see the whole town, and it is still, so still. With what remains of the hounds here at the temple, nothing moves in the town tonight.

>>>>Init 6 (G6)

The hound takes a five foot step into the air, over the unconscious body of Horace, trying to bite the thing, only for it's jaws to go through the creature.

<<<<End Round 12>>>>

>>>>Init 26 ????
The creature strikes out with multiple tendrils, tearing into the hound, even through the wall to the two hounds beyond.

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(4d20)[20][7][18][14](59)
(3d6)[13]
(1d4)[2]

(3d6)[13]
(1d4)[4]

(3d6)[13]
(1d4)[2]

(3d6)[8]
(1d4)[2]

There is a heavy thump as one hound falls, but oddly does not explode into gore. Outside, you hear another, similar thump.

[Lochar]

>>>>Init 25 (G1)
The hound outside the temple whimpers, but still pushes forward, over the body of it's packmate, getting a tendril in the head as it attacks back, only to find it cannot find purchase.

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(1d20)[7]
(3d6)[13]
(1d4)[4]

The other hound chasing Reid spirals higher into the air after him.

>>>>Init 24 (Anura, Kjapp, Grazys, Dothen[Unconscious]

[Greyen]

Dothen


Dothen lays there burbling blood and leaking other bodily fluids.

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Internally, Dothen is praying to Olidamarra "Oh ya great prankster. Ya finally got me. Take me home to the eternal score."

[Toliudar]

Reid

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Since it's unlikely that anything far below will change his immediate action - unless the hound below him spontaneously disappears or gives up, he'll continue on as shown.

So quiet. That's good, I suppose. Means that the summoner isn't blasting away somewhere else.

Continuing to spiral up, Reid draws on more of Pelor's blessing to stop the bleeding in his side.

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Converting Resist Energy - (2d8)[5] x 1.5 +10 = 17 hit points.

[GimliFett]

Grazys Senneker

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HP: 63/63; AC: 22

Grazys stares at the creature. "Just tryin' ta help, here!" he calls to it even as he narrows his focus on it. "What's goin' through that mind of yers?" he mutters to himself as he tries to read the creature's thoughts.

[Lochar]

Grazys gets an image of a vast tract of nothing, as if there were no mind to read. The creature is immune to his ability, by virtue of something.

[guardinal]

Anu
As the nightmarish creature begins its attack, the Anura-troll calls 'magic missile' back to her mind with her second pearl of power. Otherwise she is concentrating on staying well out of its way.

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knowledge (religion) (1d20+11)[12]
knowledge (the Planes) (1d20+8)[27]
to try and identify the creature.

[guardinal]

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Oh yes.
lore (1d20+10)[21] on ritual and monstrous beastie.

[Lochar]

Kjapp and Anura both hold, Anura watching the creature very, very carefully, while at the same time getting a sober look at the room around her, taking note of where the windows are in the church. They both appear to be willing to leave the creature alone as it seems to only be attacking the hounds at the moment.

>>>>Init 14 (G2)
The hound chasing Reid rises again, still unable to catch up with the swiftly rising Reid.


On the other hand, Dothen is unconscious and there is a hound, very hurt by the thief, right next to him.

The hound takes a step forward, placing an overly large paw on the Tiefling's chest. The hound's weight is actually enough to crush Dothen's sternum, and the tiefling wakes one last time, even during this night, with an unholy scream that echoes throughout the town.

With a howl, the muzzle of the hound comes down, biting through Dothen's throat, nearly severing the head. Not finished yet, the hound gives a single jerk, and with a horrendous snap, Dothen's head is completely removed from his body.

Blood quickly begins to spurt from the ragged stump, and the hound discards the head of Dothen to begin lapping at the blood, like it was water.

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Coup de grace, doing enough damage to kill Dothen. Actual points of damage: (4d6+20)[35]

Did I make anyone sick with the description?

>>>>Init 11 (Hist, Reid)

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Reid, if you want, you can post a reaction to Dothen's death. You're about 300' in the air at the moment, and the hounds are directly below you, 20' away at the moment.

[Toliudar]

Reid

Dothen's hideous scream snaps Reid's head back, and he cranes around to look down at the hound hulking over his fallen companion. He is about to send the fly into a plunging descent, but checks himself. Tears well in his eyes.

NO! Move past the anger. You have a responsibility to the others, to this town. And now to Uri. If you die, you can't bring him back to life, right? Even if he would have wanted that, and he's often said that the living should stay living, and the dead dead. Still...

The wind whips a tear away. Reid blinks, and continues upwards.

[Moral Wiz]

Hist

Hist hears the cry, and for one terrible moment, all is still. Even the cry seems to hang on the air as Hist's hart sinks to his boots.

Not again. No. No.

You've seen people fall before. Many, many times. This is just one more....

Shut up!

With a single movement, Hist is running, dodging around the creature and apparently sprinting towards the wall. After a few seconds he vanishes.

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Move to U45. FtS to O39 and prey the Hounds don't see me. OOC

[Lochar]

Hist uses his ability to move outside the temple into the garden area, keeping well away from the ethereal creature. When he appears outside, the hound outside the walls is lying unconscious. Due to the walls of the temple around the garden area, he cannot see where Dothen was left at.

>>>>Init 6 (G6 Hound)
The hound on the ground whimpers in it's coma.

<<<<End Round 13>>>>

>>>>Init 26
The hound on the ground inside the temple, and the one outside the temple that lies unconscious, both vanish. Not in the blood and gore as you've come to expect, but a literal vanishing. Those inside the temple see something of the hounds enter the body of the creature.

The creature flails a single tendril at the hound.

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(1d20)[18]
(3d6)[11]
(1d4)[1]

[Lochar]

It then flails again, and this hound also falls unconscious, damaged, but alive and in a coma.

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Three more hits will give me at least one hit, so not bothering to roll.

>>>>Init 25 (Anura, Kjapp, Grazys)

[GimliFett]

Grazys Senneker

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HP: 63/63; AC: 22

Hearing the scream of his friend, Grazys rushes out the doorway of the temple, heading for the gate to the street where Dothen was left behind.
"nononononononononononononononono..." he mutters over and over as he runs.

[Lochar]

Gimli ducks past the creature out into the temple garden area, but cannot make it past the walls this round.

>>>>Init 14 (G2)
The two hounds chasing Reid rise higher, still not able to catch him.

The hound at Dothen's body stops lapping at the blood, only to settle down on top of the body. It places Dothen's head between it's two massive paws and starts gnawing on it, ripping chunks of flesh and bone off and swallowing it down, joining the arm currently in it's stomach.

>>>> Init 11 (Hist, Reid)

[Toliudar]

Reid

Seeing Hist and Grazys moving around in the temple compound far below, Reid was more convinced than ever that he needed to keep drawing these two hounds upwards with him.

What's the matter, you, um, Yeth Poodles. Yeth Poodles not able to catch a silly fly? You two couldn't catch fleas!

He drew further on Pelor's blessings to put his wounds to right.

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Continuing up. Converting Lesser Restoration and then taking a move action to draw Grazys' rapier again.

(2d8)[13] x 1.5 + 10 = 29 hit points. Now 85/85.

[Moral Wiz]

Hist

Hist blinks as he leaves the temple. His eyes ajust quickly to the night sky though. He looks up to see Reid and some hounds in persuit, blasting the hound in the doorway as he runs, but stops

I can't help Reid. Or Dothen. I don't know where Dothen is, and I'm not in shape to help Reid. Even if I fly up. I'm too weak

That's it. Stop being foolish, and focus on more important matters. Things you can affect.

What?

Well, that creature might be an excellent starting point.

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Move to U35 and blast hound in doorway

(1d20+8)[26] attack
(1d20+8)[26] confirm crit
(5d6)[19] damage.

[Lochar]

Hist blasts the comatose hound, feeling that is he at least able to do that much.

<<<<End Round 14>>>>

>>>>Init 26
Only to watch as it vanishes into nothing, being drawn into the body of the creature.

The creature literally floats through the walls of the temple, ignoring the downed defenders, floating further through the garden. It seems to be drifting in the direction that Dothen's scream came from.

>>>>Init 24 (Anura, Kjapp, Grazys)

[GimliFett]

Grazys Senneker

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HP: 63/63; AC: 22

The binder keeps running through the courtyard and out the gate into the street, looking for Dothen.

[guardinal]

Anu
The Anura-troll breathes a sigh of relief as the abomination moves out of the temple. She moves to the fallen priest and checks to see if he is still alive, and if so attempts to revive him (or at least determine what's wrong). As she does this she tries to watch for any additional shinanigans on the ethereal.

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heal check (with +5 bonus from third eye: improvisation) (1d20+5)[22]

"Kjapp, I don't think we can hope to fight that thing. And it may turn on the living once the hounds are finished. Any ideas?"

[Lochar]

The priest is alive, though unconscious, or more appropriately, asleep. He is breathing easily.

[Greymist]

Kjapp

At Anura's question Kjapp snaps out of the daze he had been in.

Alone I have always been able to fight creatures of flesh and blood or with Fharlanghn grace find a way to flee them, but with this many people at risk and facing a creature which can strike through the walls I am at a loss of what to do.

He looks down cast at his lack of ability to help.

[Lochar]

>>>>Init 14(G2)

The hounds continue to fly in the air after Reid, not seeing the creature.

The hound that killed Dothen continues to strip meat from the bones of the tiefling.

>>>>Init 11 (Hist, Reid)

[Toliudar]

Reid

Sun-Father, preserve those who act in your name, even if we are sometimes foolish in doing so.

Hoping to catch the hounds off-guard, Reid sends the fly into an abrupt dive. He is careful to aim so that the fly does not contact either hound, but lunges forward with Grazys' rapier held high.

Although briefly distracted by the presence of some large, strange shape on the ground hundreds of feet below, Reid dismisses it as possibly some sort of creature Anura summoned to defend the temple...not something he can concern himself with right now.

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Charging, power attacking for 3 points, and praying REALLY hard. Attacking the one that's been able to get through his protection field all along (I think he's only struck one in melee, so should be only that one who can get through in return).

(1d20+10)[21] Attack
(1d20+10)[20] Crit confirmation
(2d6+6)[13] Damage
(2d6+6)[14] Extra damage on crit.