Test of Might THX 1138.

[Eurus]

There's the +5 from Mass Conviction, too. But I forgot that sickening reduces saves as well, so her modifier's actually +15.

EDIT: And it's not 60 feet away from Lin, is it? She could only move 30 feet on her turn and still attack, so she'd only be about 10 feet away from it, or so. Unless it moved on its turn, anyway.

[Dark_Scary]

I knew there was something else, but I couldn't find it in the thread. I'll keep in mind that 2's fail also for her.

She has taken (1d6)[2] dex damage now.

And in that case, Lin sees it tunnel into the ground, and watches in horror as one of the swarms begins flowing into Harga's mouth, nose, ears and other places.

[Eurus]

Ouch, right where it hurts. So did the swarm ignore the acid sheath, then?

[Dark_Scary]

Swarm takes damage, still up though. Acid Sheath says that it does nothing to stop attacks, merely does damage back.

EDIT: You noticed your dagger had difficulty penetrating, even finding a weak spot. (Sudden Strike did go through, DR.)

[Eurus]

Yeah, I just didn't know if it hurt them at all. Okay then.

Seeing what the swarms are doing and remembering the fate of the dragon, Lin quickly tries to drag Harga's body out of the swarm that crawls into her and calls for help through her telepathic link. Mary casts Dimension Door to bring both her and Sunheart over to where Lin says she is, regrouping the party around Harga and the swarms.

This is not good. I'd have rather fought the dragon... We've got to at least get Harga back up before that thing comes back, and hopefully get rid of some of these bugs, or we're done for.

[Dark_Scary]

All of the swarms reverse direction, surging over the remaining group, Many die to the Acid Sheath, but the wasps continue their assault, as do the centipedes.

Meanwhile, the creature bursts out of a wall again 40ft away, and let's loose with another breath of Acid.

Damage to the group:

(14d6)[41] Acid damage, DC 31 Ref for half.
(11d6)[34] Swarm damage

DC 11/12/13/18/18 poison saves for each member. Nausea saves at the beginning of turn of DC 13/18.

Also, I think Harga is way lower then -58, as even before this round she'd taken a breath, and the full attack and swarm damage. Now she's at some ungodly number with everything going down.

[Eurus]

Most of the first breath got healed, but yeah, at this point she's past saving anyway.

(d20+19)[38] Mary's reflex
(d20+25)[34] Lin's reflex
(d20+15)[16] Sunheart's reflex

[Eurus]

And a whooooole bunch of fort saves... Last two for each character are vs. nausea.

Mary's:
(d20+15)[26]
(d20+15)[27]
(d20+15)[30]
(d20+15)[25]
(d20+15)[29]
(d20+15)[17]
(d20+15)[17]

Lin:
(d20+14)[23]
(d20+14)[16]
(d20+14)[21]
(d20+14)[32]
(d20+14)[19]
(d20+14)[31]
(d20+14)[34]

Sunheart's:
(d20+25)[44]
(d20+25)[45]
(d20+25)[42]
(d20+25)[42]
(d20+25)[45]
(d20+25)[28]
(d20+25)[37]

EDIT: So Mary's nauseated for 1 round, which is great since she's the one with the area attacks. >_> Poison seems to be resisted, though.

[Eurus]

Okay, everyone (except Harga) is still up, but barely. Stupid swarms. >_>

(d6)[4] Withheld maneuvers
(d5)[3]

EDIT: Any web between us and it?

[Dark_Scary]

No more Web. This is going to be endgame, one way or another. I think that Nausea might be the deal breaker.

[Dark_Scary]

Yo Yo Yo Yo?

[Eurus]

Yeah. The damage from Mary would've been a major help right now. So would White Raven Tactics. >_> I could've done a lot with White Raven Tactics right now... But hey, there's still always the chance of a lucky crit. Also, I now remember why I hate burrowing monsters.

Anyway...

Nearly dead and vomiting uncontrollably, Mary staggers away toward the cave mouth, fleeing. Lin and Sunheart, however, steel themselves for their likely deaths and charge at the creature once more.

Good luck, Sunheart.

As Sunheart brutally charges the beast and attempts to knock it back, Lin prepares to try to get between her friend and the monster to buy Sunheart more time.

(Sunheart does a full-out power attack/stone power/smite/War Leader's Charge, with +4 Furious Counterstrike. If she hits, she'll activate the Brutal Surge property of her weapon to try to bull rush it. If Sunheart manages to push it, but it still has a clear line to charge her, Lin will run at it and attempt to stand in its way (Child of Shadow stance giving her 20% concealment). Let's see what happens).

(d20+35)[36] Attack roll
(2d6+96)[102] Damage
(d20+21)[40] Bull Rush. Modifiers are +7 from strength, +4 from Powerful Build, +4 from Improved Bull Rush, +2 from Armbands of Might, +2 from charging and +2 from holding the weapon 2-handed. Directed Bull Rush lets Sunheart move it one square to the left or right for every square she move it back; if possible, she'll try to put it somewhere so it doesn't have a straight line to charge. If not, hopefully Lin can stall it for a turn.

Oh, and (1d2)[1] for the maneuver granted at the end of this turn.

EDIT: Oh, come on. Talk about anti-climactic natural 1s. >_> Well, that's game then.

[Dark_Scary]

The remaining three swarms will move over Mary, doing (5d6)[14] damage, forcing DC 13/18 saves against poison. One will beat itself to death on the Acid Sheath. And Mary will face a DC 18 Nausea save.

Meanwhile, the large creature will respond in kind to Sunhearts advances:

Observers Only

Spoiler

Show

full attack
(1d20+29)[42]
(1d20+23)[39]
(1d20+23)[39]
(1d20+23)[30]
(1d20+23)[41]
damage
(3d6+14)[21]
(4d8+7)[18]
(4d8+7)[21]
(4d8+7)[21]
(4d8+7)[23]
grapple
(1d20+44)[54]

Roll a grapple check, a DC 11/12/13/18/31 Poison saves, and 11/12/13/18 Nausea.

[Dark_Scary]

Oh, and (8d6)[32] damage from swarms.

Takes 83 damage from the full attack plus above 32 for 115 damage this round.

[Eurus]

Well, Mary's dead. Did Sunheart get attacked, then? Because she's probably dead if so; she's only got 43 hit points + 10 temporary ones, and an extremely low AC from Shock Trooper.

EDIT: Ah, okay. Sunheart's dead, then.

[Eurus]

Well, I suppose Lin will stay ethereal (bringing her remaining ki uses down to 7, I believe) and stab it.

(d20+20)[21] Attack
(d4+12)[15] Damage
(7d6)[24] Sudden Strike

[Dark_Scary]

You and your natural 1s.

The Swarms converge on Lin, and the creature burrows underground once again.

[Eurus]

Alright, I know when fate wants me to give up. >_> Lin flees ethereally, hoping to escape with her life. And that finally, truly, is game over.

[afroakuma]

Battle Ended

A very good showing by challenger Eurus. Excellent planning by DM Dark Scary.

A big hand to both participants in helping with this trial!

[Dark_Scary]

Commentary:

1) Natural 1s suck.

In one round of The Augmoha being in plain site, a natural 1 on an attack role for a charge doing 100 damage, and a nausea save caused a subtraction in damage of about 300. (Big Joke on player: Entry in the creatures statblock: "Cold Vulnerability (Ex) The augmoha takes double damage from cold.")

I feel like the multiple swarm technique takes unfortunate advantage of natural 1 rules, making them more dangerous then CR would indicate.

2) I breaking line of effect with Web was the breakthrough move.

3) I feel bad about positioning for the following reason: When burrowing, I had the Augmoha assume everyone would stay in place, and it worked. But it would still be nice to see Tremorsense in addition or in place of Blindsight.

4) Technically, infestation reads, "when it hits with a claw attack" while the creature has no claws. I assumed it was slam, but there was never an instance where the Augmoha attacked and did not land both a slam and bite.

5) The hellwasp swarm animating the Zombie is a bit bad, since it may constitute a CR increase for situational advantage, and lord knows you guys didn't need that.

6) I decided the Augmoha's biggest weakness is the sheer damage capacity that could be put against it by most parties, so I attempted to arranged for maximum wear with a Zombie Tank. Breaking Sunheart away was just pure luck, and Mary joining him instead of scorch burning was a tough call, since she was primary target otherwise.

7) The Hellwasp Swarm attempting to enter poor Harga served it's purpose masterfully, bringing you all together for the five swarm attack and breath weapon. However, Harga was in fact in practically no danger, as it takes a full minute to animate the body in that manner. That was a purely psychological attack.

[Eurus]

Natural 1s do indeed suck. And, cold vulnerability? Seriously? That's just plain depressing. XD But I have to say, that was a well-made (and well-played) monster. I didn't even realize what I was fighting until it did its first acid breath, which is why I let the party split up like that. Burrowing, pounce, and a breath weapon that doesn't hurt the swarms... ouch.

Actually, any chance of being able to see the stat block for that thing now that I'm done fighting it?

[Dark_Scary]

a breath weapon that doesn't hurt the swarms

Oops!

It's actually not that big a deal though, because the first breath weapon attacked only the one swarm, and the second one was can just be arranged as the creature going before the swarms move over ontop of the group.

I think it's fair. Mr afrokuma can yell at me later if I'm wrong.

Here

[Eurus]

Ah, okay. Yeah, it's not really a big deal. Anyway, that's a nasty beast. Bigger than I thought, too. I probably could've blasted it apart with a bit better luck and tactics, though.

[afroakuma]

The slams are supposed to be claws. Oops.

I'll consider the tremorsense switch.

Eurus: sure, look to your heart's content. Just constrain yourself to the one in case you decide to try a different round.

And you're barred from ECL 5, since it's just the smaller version of this.

[Eurus]

No problem.