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Adun has followed along behind, still playing with his bag of marbles.
Spoiler
Fortitude Save: (1d20+15)[32] +5 if the source is undead. I have various immunities and resistances that may or may not apply.
Essentia:17 (-4 for Feats) (E=Essentia Invested) Capacity 3, +1 for bold
Soulmelds: [5] Armguards of Disruption: Disrupt Undead. Touch attack to deal 1d6+Ed6 damage. [Incarnum Focus grants +1 capacity]
[Bound]: Insight to AC and Saves equal to E against Undead
[3] Diadem of Purelight: 20+10Eft radius bright illumination, shadowy double. +2 to Spot within any light. Counted as spell level of E for purposes of interacting with magical Darkness.
[Bound]: Negate less than Total Concealment in Bright illumination. Includes spells. Excludes Invisibility.
[0] Dissolving Spittle: 1d6+Ed6 acid damage at 30ft ranged touch.
[3] Pauldrons of Health: Immune to Disease, Sickened, Nauseated. +E enhancement to Fort saves.
[Bound]: Immunity to Energy Drain
[2] StrongHeart Vest: Reduce Ability Damage by 1+E
[0] Vitality Belt: +4 Morale on Con checks and Con based skill checks, but not Fortitude Saves. Gain one hit point per meldshaper level for each Essentia invested. (+10E HP) These are not temporary. Removing these Hit Points can stagger, render unconscious, or even kill Adun.
Feats: Capacity: 2 (change E only once per 24hrs)
[0] Cerulean Will: Insight to Will equal to E
[2] Healing Soul: E/day heal 2Ehp as swift
[2] Midnight Dodge: Dodge for +E to AC
[0] Sapphire Sprint: Add 5Eft to speed. Retain Dex to AC while running. Add E insight to AC when leaving a threatened square.
__________________
Never can find my towel...
So it goes.
Healing is like accounting, but with life and death.
-Self
((The king is curled up in a fetal position? And tired? And sentient? Score!))
fort - (1d20+13)[28]
"Your majesty!" Radley exclaims when he sees the man. He immediately falls to one knee, executing a well-formed courtly bow with surprising grace given his girth, and suppresses a grimace at Stormcaller's corpse. "Majesty, please forgive us. We thought your mind had been destroyed in the attack..."
Now let's see if these few understand asking questions first...
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
He waits for everyone to assemble in a ‘proper’ arrangement before he speaks. With old man Raker waiting outside on guard they might have time for conversation; the problem lay in the smell and how long Radley’s perfumed rag would last him. Corvina tilted his head, listening.
Corvina doesn’t laugh at his own wit, his tone is… very grave. His conclusion isn’t entirely a mockery or a question. “I look lively to you, do I? I’m not dead.
“This isn’t the afterlife for a dirty King. My brothers, my Golden Knights, tried to murder me this morn. I thought this must be hell; I butchered every man like a pig and listened to every cowardly squeal. I took pride in my feminine looks. Women loved how handsome they made me. Now I only see bones charred black. I feel the pain but cannot remember how to cry. Tell, this is illusion..?”
He looks at all three faces arranged in his little den waiting for a good answer. He lingers on Egan Radley longest.
The Hanging Tree
Spoiler
Better pass a Fortitude save (DC 22) and a (DC 24) Will save or something really bad will happen. I warned you, Amos Bard.
His mind is too quiet even for his own self for a heartbeat. Then he could see. Something large, something hideous or beautiful or some word he didn’t know. So large and infinitely tiny, so many eyes but they were all mouths, talking in his head and all around him. Cold, heat, smooth but full of rough everywhere that scratched jagged wounds in his body but left Amos unblemished – it spoke in every language he knew all at once and countless thousands he’d never known were possible. All the sounds blended together, all the sounds were separate. Everything echoed and died the minute it got ‘off the tongue’.
“LOOK OUT! CLOSE YOUR EYES! OPEN YOUR MOUTH! PRESS YOUR LIPS TOGETHER! LISTEN UP! COVER YOUE EARS! BE SILENT! MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AS YOU CAN!”
Amos was deafened, unable to hear, even then he could hear far too well. His spine felt like it was growing eyes and tearing itself out through his skin, his nerves felt too sensitive to feel his own bones. His BLOOD pooling everywhere inside him, he could feel it running across his body but his flesh was not bleeding-
"Majesty, I'm so sorry," breathes Egan. "I-- I'd offer to restore your splendour with magic, but I haven't what I need for it. How can we serve you, Sire?"
Sense Motive - (1d20+10)[30] ((I'd like to figure out if he really is the victim here or if he has become evil-hearted))
Spoiler
sensemotive - (1d20+9)[13] so would C
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
There isn’t any kind of feeling you’re getting that tells you Corvina is being duplicitous. At least for now, the words he’s said can be trusted. To you they make sense. Killing a dead man, sharing a grave, digging your own grave, waking up in hell… it would look like that. You’d heard about how the Golden Knights went for Darvis and ended up dead to the last. If things were just right…
“My Knights did not lose their pride. What fell to my sword, not a craven dead thing, are my chamber staff fallen to my fright?”
King Corvina holds one hand aloft. “Where is my old friend Darvis?”
"Majesty, there are sad tidings of him. I do not know if it was of his own will, but in recent days he... he became a lich."
Radley pauses a moment to let it sink in, then goes on.
"Monsters credited to him are razing towns and farmland. Walking corpses... the capitol has fallen."
He motions to his companions. "As the common people fled, these men beside me planned a sortie to return the the capitol and try to restore law. We weren't sure if you still lived. Rumours abound."
He hangs his head. "Majesty, I have never been a virtuous man. I think often of myself. But the years of your reign have been kinder to me than any in my life. Your peace brought me the success I craved, and success for many others as well. Lord, give your orders and I will fight for you."
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
Green's fur practically stands on end. It looks all glossy and electric, like the fur of a cat in a fight. Still, he stands silently by while Radley talks. Challenging him now is pointless, and might just alienate the man further, but what he's doing is indisputably dangerous; treating the fallen king as if he still has some control over himself.
The Green Man keeps his paws low, right by the handles of his hatchets.
__________________ Freelance writer and editor, at your service.
It's physically impossible for Amos to succeed the Fortitude save. His save, with modifiers, is rolled at a +1. The Will save... is unlikely. I don't feel so good, all of a sudden... is this the sinking pain of defeat?
Fortitude save: (1d20+1)[18]
Will Save: (1d20+8)[27]
If you'll take a new character, lemme know.
OH FOR THE LOVE OF....
...I passed the Will save... and did it using the Will save modifier for Robilard Dunland, my other bard. If you want me to re-roll my Fortitude save, I can, or you can just add 2 to the result rolled here; Amos' Fortitude save, Con penalty considered, is only +3.
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Last edited by MountainKing : 10-04-2008 at 09:34 PM.
I went on a band trip recently and remembered to let every game I was involved with know - except this one.
Sorry for the hiatus, and I don't mind that Raker's actions were DM-determined. I'll stand on guard.
By the way, if Amos does scream I have a good chance of hearing it - Matthias has a good listen check and Forge has an ok one, even with a mediocre wisdom modifier and he might hear Amos, since he's outside - If I read things correctly.
__________________ "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel."
- Mark Twain
"Life is too short for [manuals], but occasionally much too short without them."
- Randall Munroe, xkcd.com (paraphrased)
Amos is in fact not screaming, unless Faithdreamer says that he IS and I have no choice in the matter. *I* still have a feeling that the Fort save was against instant death, so, it's probably unnecessary...
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Rotting bodies have become far too familiar as a taste on your tongue. No one could say how much longer it was ‘till you became accustomed. What then?
“That’s good news,” Corvina stares eerily at Radley, absent expression just makes his attention more unsettling. “I’m glad to hear Darvis is doing well.”
He takes his gaze and plants it squarely on the Green Man, oh, sweet irony…
“He’s of sound mind..? This man isn’t, lunatic..?”
He pauses for the Green Man to answer him, and continues on, making more noise than his voice would. Dignified men rarely stood shakily, only when others couldn’t. He swept passed everyone (provided they weren’t getting in the way) with a rustle of cloth. The water had been cold. He paid that no attention when he immersed himself in it. Did he even realize what he was..?
Fractures in his bones, torn clothing, all of it was slowly stitching back together. Unlike the dead man in the corner of this animal den; the smell of the corpse seemed to get stronger and demand your attention. Better now, while Corvina was mostly back outside.
The Safety of a Hanging Tree
Amos struggled to understand, to realize what he would never be able to fathom. It was too big. He was too small. Understand.
He became… bigger. He understood why gardens grew; he understood what the sun was. He knew the wind blew in a special way, and he knew why the rain fell. He realized he understood why the water never vanished. Why some men died and others lived through the same wound. More. More.
The paltry breadth of a wise wizard’s knowledge; all the learning in his bardic college on his tongue!
His world became clear, he was transparent, translucent, transient, transcend –
The world became clear. Blackness -- Something from nothing wrapped around his ankles, faces, slimy things, ugly with infinite depth, endless teeth and silent deafening screams that tore at his insides and pulled on things he never imagined he –
CLOSE YOUR NOSE! SMELL EVERYTHING! COME HERE GO FAR AWAY!
He failed his Fortitude save, so his body suffers the appropriate agony. He sustains the rolled amount of damage to each ability noted. Lucky for you, you haven’t been driven insane. But you don’t want to ever see that again. Or with any more depth than you just have.
Amos’s body wailed in so many languages, in so many tones with so many voices; inhumanity and a deep guttural song.
The unsettling endlessness even reached Matthias where he was standing. The sound stopped at its source moments later, but the echoes still pounded in Matthias’s skull. Amos was seemingly, not at all. He felt what it was to feel when you were moments after sleeping.
If, when anyone got there, they’d find Temun standing over something with a bloody rock in his hand. Harin watched everything, but when he tried to remember it…
He couldn’t seem to remember if he’d seen anything. What was he doing here?
Harin was supposed to… deliver a message...? To the Bard called Amos.
The only things here were the boy Temun, and something that once, may have been human. It was a twisted knot of bones, blood, flesh and ugliness. It hurt his eyes to look at it. What was he looking at..?
“Do something!” Temun screeched.
Digging, Digging, where an Adun was…
Your hole in the ground shook a little.
Spoiler
So, contrary to what the dice rolls mention about Amos's death; I am not going to kill you over something like this. It would be unfair and silly. You'll have the answers you're asking soon. First:
I have a question.
You can heal ability damage, right?
My suggestion is to investigate that (probably Amos) thing on the ground. Unless you don't want to, I won't force you to save him or anything like that.
Last edited by Faithdreamer : 10-08-2008 at 01:45 AM.
Radley, who had seemed so confident a minute ago, looks shaken by the king's comments. As his lord sweeps past the others out of the cave, the merchant raises his eyebrows and gives a "holy crap" stare to the others.
faithdreamer only:
Spoiler
Calvin will invisibly follow the king, staying 100' up in the air. If the king wanders more than a mile from the site Calvin will give a final "this way" sensation to Egan and then go off-net, continuing to follow until he can find a way to send further directions to his master. If he gets an easy chance to take the signet ring he will.
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
“He’s of sound mind..? This man isn’t, lunatic..?”
"I have no earthly idea what you're talking about, but the words 'crazy' and 'not' haven't exactly been buddy-buddy since we came here." The Green Man shrugs and steps aside, letting the dead king shamble past.
"So, Radley, you still feel like we should trust him?"
__________________ Freelance writer and editor, at your service.
If the king is not looking, Radley will shake his head "no" while saying, "Of course. He's our king."
Once the king is definitely, certainly out of earshot the businessman casts the spell Message twice, secretly delivering these words to his companions:
But following him for now will still help with all of our aims. He can lead us to Darvis, or at least give us good intel; he gives our mission the air of legitimacy that I feel is so important; and we may yet find a way to restore the rest of his mind. I hope so.
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
I think Faithdreamer is saying that that's what'd normally happen but she's bending the rules. She wanted to use an attack thast would inflic con damage, fort save reduction, hp depletion, all that good stuff but which would ultimately be non-lethal. Call it a Su ability if you like.
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
OOC: "It was a twisted knot of bones, blood, flesh and ugliness." My Con and Int are both at 0 or "less". There's no way I'm not dead. We don't even have a cleric, or anyone who to my knowledge can cast even Minor Restoration. Amos is toast; if Faithdreamer is cool with it, I'd be happy to roll up a new character (possibly using the same rolls Amos used for stats, eh, eh?) and continue playing, but that's up to her.
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OOC: Don't know if it works this way but Harin can cast Bears endurance to raise your Constitution score high enough to not be dead. Follow this with loads of healing spells.
Just an idea.
__________________
Zenith Caste Solarbold-Bard by Lord Raziere. | Backer #121 of the Giantitp Kickstarter | My homebrew
Quote:
Originally Posted by OverlordJ
New law: Obey me or you'll be crushed by a MOUNTAIN.
That's fine, but at the very least, I still can't *do* anything until I'm no longer the twisted and destroyed waste of a human that Amos was before this happened. If the party can find a way to undo it, then hey, sweet. Good luck guys.
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...I fail to see what you're getting at. Pardon my frustration and despair here, but I just had a *bard* take 18 Con damage and 14 Int damage, on a save I failed by *two*. Two. Now, apparently, Amos has been transmorgrified into a lump of twisted up flesh, bone, and fluids. If he's actually supposed to be alive right now, the only words he has to say are "Please... kill me... every moment I live... is agony..."
I mean, really, what am I supposed to do here? I don't have a character, I have what theoretically should be a dead bard, in a party with no cleric (I don't expect DMs to cover the mistakes of the party, under any circumstances).
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Harin
Harin was closer to keeling over in disgust the nearer he got. He felt suffering. He felt despair and a thread of hope. Curse him for thinking it but… ‘Like in a story’; the only other person who had been there was Amos. He trusted in his magic to… help whatever that was somehow. Averting his eyes, Harin began chants and litanies and pleaded for Kord’s wisdom.
There, shaky sound. There was something… if he’d been conscious Amos would have been in ineffable agony. Maybe he could still feel it, wherever his mind was, who knew. But some flicker of life told Harin:
Like in a story, hang by a helpless thin strand of brittle hope.
If he awoke… would you kill him in mercy..?
Kord’s miracles were heartfelt, and through your compassion, something used the bond between your two hearts to bridge the gap into Harin’s mind. It was a tickle at the edge of your sanity, an apprehensive child peering through the crack in the door to your soul; whispering a question.
What would you do if he awoke, and suffered, anguish..?
The thought of something crawling around inside your body disgusts you. It knows you. It understands everything. It has become like you.
Would you stay with him in the rain, in the dark..? Answer three times.
Temun looks too afraid to move, too frightened to breathe. Tears fill his eyes and stick to his cheeks.
Matthias
A solitary figure wades out of the water, onto the bank of the river, and sits down. It’s Corvina, the contours of his bones visible through his soaked clothing. He watches you like a scholar writes about the world, like a connoisseur appreciating fine art.
Amos
Darkness. Something about it made you feel uncomfortable. That was why the light helped. It seared your eyes and burned your skin. The light frustrated you. No matter how much you’d try to sleep it was that infuriating light that forced you to be wakeful. Your eyes drift open as quickly as they do. You’re underneath a grass blanket, and you find the very dead looking head of the Dryad peering up at you from underneath it. You’d looked underneath to find that you weren’t wearing any clothes. With no memory of what you ‘d just been doing…
“How do you feel?” Her unnatural voice is soothing, and no different from the way it was before. You can feel her hand creep up your leg. Ohmi's hand is soft.
Last edited by Faithdreamer : 10-10-2008 at 07:03 AM.
Sine the others didn't object and the king doesn't seem to be trying to ditch them, Egan approaches the king once again. In his courtliest formal tone he inquires, "Majesty, will you do us the honour of accompanying us to Calamdan?"
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
"...confused... afraid..." Amos confessed, "I do not know what has happened to me, or where I am. Am I dead? Mad?" The bard stopped himself from asking too many questions; he'd asked enough just now to get a good starting point as it was.
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"Majesty, will you do us the honour of accompanying us to Calamdan?"
"What, what?! Wait just a minute!" The Green Man darts over to Radley, lumbering gracefully. "Are you kidding?" he rumbles low. "You want to bring the disgustingly powerful tainted king who has fallen under Darvis' sway, back to the capital where Darvis lives? If you want to keep him alive, we should be sending him in the opposite direction, where he'll be harder to control. Or at least farther away when Darvis does get a hold on him again. I do not fancy fighting this man in the middle of the lich's court."
__________________ Freelance writer and editor, at your service.
I'm assuming Corvina came out, sat down, and then a few seconds later Radley and the Green Man came out talking.
Matthias was ready to head towards the scream, and ready to call Forge to his side, when Forge leaped to his feet and growled. Corvina made his appearance - but something was different this time.
As he sits, Matthias has already readied his weapons - sinking to a semicrouch, with his axe poised to throw and his crossbow in his other hand, pointed at the former king, ready to "let him have it."
Did the others not find him, or are they dead even now? The possibility that they met without violence doesn't even occur to the unsteady ranger.
But he is not completely mad - not yet. A few of the undead he had fought over the years had been talkative, and Matthias needs his companions - he's no longer confident that he can destroy Darvis alone. The king was certainly verbose - for a dead man. Perhaps...
"You! Abomination! Where are the others? What are you after? Speak!"
The answer he gets, however, is the last one he would expect. As Radley and his bodyguard emerge from the stream, Matthias grins and prepares for battle. And then Radley says:
"Majesty, will you do us the honour of accompanying us to Calamdan?"
Matthias is too stunned to speak. However, the Green Man makes his argument for him. Finally, he speaks, his voice a growl to match the Green Man's. "That is an excellent idea. Better still would be us killing him here and now."
__________________ "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel."
- Mark Twain
"Life is too short for [manuals], but occasionally much too short without them."
- Randall Munroe, xkcd.com (paraphrased)
Amazing Zealot avatar by Elder Tsofu
Last edited by Jade_Tarem : 10-10-2008 at 11:23 AM.
"Not enough killing yet?" Radley asks. "Mathias, hold; his Majesty has revealed that his mind is intact. And I agree--" he says, shooting a look at Green, "--that he shouldn't be brought to Darvis directly. It would be far too dangerous for his royal personage to be further enchanted by that man. But!" he exclaims, a weary look on his face, "Since anyone else he encounters will attack him on sight, we cannot very well separate from him. He knows the capitol better than most; I'm sure he could guide us to great strategic advantage against Darvis, and then be kept safe in some refuge while we go to the battle."
It's painful trying to explain the situation to one man, reason with another, and not offend yet another all at the same time. But Radley is doing his fervent best. He has to.
__________________
In real life I quit my job and left my home to become a professional adventurer. The Great Adventure
...clearly thinks this is a Bad Idea, but instead of protesting further, he turns to Matthias. "I hear what you're saying, and normally I'd agree, but if we can keep Corvina away from us, that's far better than having to fight him."
"Radley, the capital is not going to be that hard to find, and I would sooner go there with men I can trust than an unknown quantity who might shank us all in our sleep if the mood takes him. The best thing we can do at this juncture is to send him off into seclusion in the woods. I don't think any forest animals are gonna mess with him, and it'll keep him out of our hair 'til we get all this resolved."
__________________ Freelance writer and editor, at your service.
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