The long-foretold moment of auspicious conjunction has arrived: Friday the 13th. Full Moon. Mercury in Retrograde.
A thousand trumpets sound. A hundred heralds on brave white horses, barding agleam in gold, race into view, holding lavishly decorated scrolls of finest linen. In a singing shout with voices like the Heavenly Chorus, they harmoniously proclaim:
A POST!
For a moment the entire Multiverse pauses, the cartwheeling of galaxies shocked into vast, motionless surprise, and then…
The cavern is at least 80 feet high, 60 wide, and 120 long, approximately. On the map, Ptolemaeus is next to Arkesh, Halfaz is moving along the wall toward The Pile of Stuff, Halt has landed at the Pile of Stuff, and the Margravine is in the air near the center of the chamber. Other characters are where labeled, or otherwise are along the wall to the left of the Pile of Stuff.
As Halt ponders strategy and Lightning Leaps, and as Gleron unleashes a horrifying Fireball, the Uruk-Hai shaman casts too. Where one of the two Mariliths was struck down a moment ago by Ptolemaeus’ river of damage, the swirl of drifting motes suddenly shimmers and forms again; but while her upper half still is much the Marilith with six powerful arms, her lower half is no longer snake-like. Instead she has powerful legs to match, much like the legs of a Uruk-Hai warrior. The body of the altered Marilith lies unmoving on the ground. Those with Spellcraft easily recognize the Shaman’s casting: Polymorph Any Object; this information flashes across Arkesh’s link.
The motes that are what is left of the other Marilith drift apart, unimpeded; she seems truly to be gone.
However, the curl of smoke at the edge of the band of Uruk-Hai, which had been a Uruk-Hai a moment ago until Ptolemaeus demolished him, also re-forms, his body coalescing into a crumpled heap of legs and arms. Then quickly gathering strength, he stands again, glaring triumphantly at Ptolemaeus with a contemptuous sneer.
After Halt bolts down onto the Pile of Stuff, as he quickly gathers his belongings back in hand – and in pouches, and pockets, and wherever else he needs them – checking his position he is quite sure he has landed precisely where the Marilith disappeared into the microworld just moments before, and fortunately NOT where Sable disappeared shortly before that. If she could be affected by the Lightning splash, she surely was.
Halfaz had taken the shape of a mass of sand that simply poured off the wall and – with no time to change back – flows himself down the line of stapled allies looking for someone to help. He discovers they are all breaking free on their own, by one means or another, and so reaches the end of the line, nearly at the Pile of Stuff. Halfaz sees Shimnack, and his bejeweled ship (in its little form), and his other things, in a clump together. Now he does have a way to help as he intended to do, so from Sable’s inventorying, Halfaz is immediately able to help everyone get the things they need, sending items wherever they should go.
From this point onward, assume you have the stuff you need, with a big thankyou to Halfaz for getting it all there.
Halfaz –
Read this spoiler but before you decide anything – or even react to it much – please finish reading the post to see what happens when Halfaz is… oop, no spoiler in the spoiler! You’ll see.
First, though you may not have time to change back this round, you still don’t need to spend an entire Standard Action on changing to sand to escape the staples. You and I originally looked at the standard Monster Manual III version of Harssaf, but there is a Harssaf in Oslecamo’s Monster Classes,
supplied by VennDygrem. That version does much better with the speed of changing to sand. “At 8 HD, they may assume Sand Form as a move Action. At 11 HD, they may assume this form as a Swift action, and at 14 HD, they may assume it as an Immediate Action. At 10 HD, they may fly as normal for the spell.” So you can fly in sand form, and you can change as a Swift or Immediate Action if you choose to do so, which leaves you a Move Action and a Standard Action to move down the row and still have an Action left over to help get the stuff where it needs to go. Next round you can change back, if you choose, as an Immediate Action at the top of the round or on your turn as a Swift Action, and still have both a Move and Standard Action left to attack – even a Full Attack, which is your usual blade combat style – or whatever else you’d like to do. Check out the rest of the class features in the writeup; see if you like them, and feel free to use them. Anything in Oslecamo’s Monster Classes is fine here.
Second, I don’t want to play your character for you, so I just stuck with the direction you were taking with your actions for this round, which was to spend the round helping everyone else after you freed yourself from the wall – a great and selfless purpose, sounds just like Halfaz, and maybe the most useful thing you could do for the party in general (with the bonus that you get your own stuff too). However, if you’d like your actions in the round to go some other way (after all, you didn’t know you would have a Move and Standard Action left over after turning to sand), let me know and we’ll find a way to make it happen without a retro. Also, for the same reason I didn’t post exactly HOW you would get everyone their stuff while in sand form… that’s up to you; feel free to post it, if you’d like to stick with this plan. If you need some ideas, let’s talk, but I’m sure it’s do-able with the abilities and resources Halfaz has.
The two remaining Mariliths exchange glances; from Halt’s information on the Link, they communicate Telepathically. Then just before Gleron’s Fireball blossoms, one of them simply… disappears. She drops out of Tanatou’s Detect Evil, and even Truesight finds nothing where she was, or anywhere else nearby. She is gone from Star’s combat map too, Star reports (apparently she is keeping it in her head, even if she can’t share it on Arkesh’s link); the Marilith’s position is unknown. Star begins scanning the room carefully to see if she can pick up the Marilith’s Aura anywhere in sight range and get the creature back into her mapping calculations.
Ptolemaeus – an opposed KOATB check to pick up where the Marilith went, Or you can choose to use the Silver Key, though you know it’s inherently less precise since it depends on your sight anyway, which has a smaller modifier than your KOATB modifier.
Anyone with Mindsight: You can make an opposed check too, using Spot.
A few reminders about Skill check buffs:
+5 Morale (from Ror), +10 Competence (from Ror), +2 Luck (from Janis)
The Morale and Competence bonuses from Star are less than Ror’s, and don’t stack, so you can ignore them.
For Skill checks there is no Time buff from Star, and roll once only – unless you choose to spend your one extra generally applicable d20 per round (from Star) on this particular roll.
Then Gleron’s Fell Frighten Fireball does blossom. With a dull roar, a ball of horrific flame engulfs the five… well, used to be five, a moment ago… Mariliths in a cluster roughly midway between where Ptolemaeus and Arkesh are standing, and where Gleron is casting. One Marilith finshed casting the flood of lava. Two were turned to dust by Ptolemaeus’ attack, but one of those was just reconstructed by the shaman. One has just disappeared. The fifth has not yet acted.
There were seven Mariliths altogether, plus the Sheerak-faced Marilith. The sixth is singing two melodies, simultaneously somehow!!, in grating discord, standing against the wall and out of range, removing herself from the direct fray. The seventh has descended into Sable’s micro-world in The Pile of Stuff underneath Halt’s feet, where the nano-arms race, apparently, is on.
Not horrified, the Mariliths don’t seem even taken aback by the Fireball, though it does get the attention of the Marilith who brought forth the lava flood; she turns to face Gleron, with an evaluating gaze. The attention of the other Marilith standing is focused on the Witchlight Marauders twitching on the floor.
Gleron rolled 1d20+15: 4 + 15, total 19, +2 Luck (from Janis… you may have forgotten about her after all this time but she hasn’t forgotten about you
) = 21
Apparently Gleron’s Spell Penetration of 21 for the Fireball didn’t have enough punch to force its way through the Mariliths’ Spell Resistance.
Then the emerald green whirlpool of enraged Dwarven spirits forms around the Mariliths: desecrators of Dumathoin’s temple; enthrallers of Dumathoin’s arch-clerics; and servants of Dumathoin’s maniacal Enemy; and its intensity grows as more and more spirits swarm into it. At first, all are Dwarves dressed like those from Bral, but soon Dwarven spirits in dress from many worlds and times add their rage and anguish to the whirlpool.
Gleron’s Spell Penetration of 35 was far more than enough to get through to the Mariliths, and an N20 to boot. Hot stuff. Then Gleron’s percentile roll: a 58. Not truly spectacular, but still, better than average, so...
The faces of the two Mariliths still standing in the center of the emerald maelstrom seem like chiseled adamant, as they harden themselves against the emotional power raging around them. The circle of Dwarven spirits swells, its intensity growing. Soon it bursts the bounds that Gleron had set for it, expanding to fill the chamber and engulf every Marilith there, but none of the spirits claw at the party members or any others who have felt the Smith’s anvil.
However, when the swirling spirits reach Darayat, he feels a wrenching, and with a brilliant blue flash, a new flood of Dwarven spirits bursts forth from within the circle of his Ring, dressed in ancient but well-worked raiment, with fine Mithril axes and broad notched swords, mailed brimmed caps and steel shouldered long coats, tufted leggings and leatherbound shields. Darayat immediately recognizes them as Naugrim, Dwarves from the Uruk-Hais’ world, which he can send on the link. Fierce, or shamed, or resolute, or shattered, these Dwarves’ expressions vary, but all share in the rage of times long oppressed by Evil, and they join the circle too, a fresh impact upon the senses. Though the Naugrim are showering hateful glances on the Uruk-Hai, Gleron’s Spell is holding them focused on the Mariliths.
Though the two Mariliths ignore the swirling cloud of emerald Dwarven spirits, the spirits assail them, and a thousand pinpricks of bright green fade to inky blackness on their long, sinuous torsos. Star reports the damage on the link: pinpoints of Negative Energy.
Gleron, roll 1d4 Negative Energy damage, which will apply to each of the Mariliths this round. Yes, this is stronger than the Ghost Storm you thought you cast, but… you sensed that anyway, by now, in channeling a Spell directly from the Smith. As Gleron well knows already, Dumathoin does not approve of others using the Dwarven dead, or of his clerics using Negative Energy, but does not hesitate to use them Himself, especially in guarding a stronghold.
And you can feel the Storm accelerating.
The third Marliith in the ghastly green cloud of spirits, the one formed and transformed by the Shaman, reacts quite differently. She stands up jerkily, wheels away from Ptolemaeus, and heedless of the Dwarven spirits who are likewise heedless of her, begins to lumber forward, first at a lurch, then at a run, straight toward Gleron and the shaman.
Now the Marliths take a turn at horror of their own... The fifth Marilith in the center of Gleron’s fading Fireball stares downward in intense concentration, and with a brief gesture, the downed Witchlight Marauders turn hale and whole. Then just before the renewed Witchlight Marauders begin to stand and focus their resumed attack, the Marilith gestures again, more broadly, her thirty fingers flickering in all directions, and… almost every member of the party, and every member of the band of Uruk-Hai, looking at each other, can see that they all look like… Elves!!
On the link, those with True Seeing can perceive the falseness, and Spellcraft can identify the effect as an incredibly talented, twinned casting of Illusion magic, Deceptive Façade, somehow expanded to affect nearly everyone across the cavern. In the whole party, besides Arkesh and Star, who already look like Elves, only Sable seems unaffected, which he can report on the link.
The Uruk-Hai roar in confusion at their sudden change in appearance as well as everyone else’s, but one of them barks attack orders, and he and three others leap forward, regardless of what they look like. As Gleron can tell from his host body’s knowledge of the language, the commander has taken quick stock of his own troops’ appearance, and sends them after the other Elves that the party has just become to his eyes; that’s what they came to this world to do – kill the Elves here, not each other (at least for now). Gleron can relay on the link that the commander ordered a strike on the two Elves at the Pile of Stuff, to keep them from getting their weapons… a bit too late… and a strike on the Margravine in the air, and on Ptolemaeus as a secondary, more distant target, to prevent them from unleashing a flood of damage again.
The first two Uruk-Hai race toward their intended victims, Halt the Elf, and Halfaz the Elf, who no longer looks like a pile of sand!
The Uruk-Hai charging Halt has an immensely outsized, craggy forehead, for an Elf, and rushes to head-butt Halt into the wall. Halt has prepared Arrow Mind to fire his bow as the charging Uruk-Hai closes with him, but finds that the warrior’s subtle shifts of weight and irregular stutter-step motions make it impossible to get off a clean shot. The Uruk-Hai ducks under the bow without missing a step and slams into Halt with enough force to send him through the wall into the next chamber beyond... or out into Wildspace.
No AOO. The Uruk-Hai is high enough Level in his class to be unhittable with AOOs when he uses his Charge Attack with features special to the class, sorry. To anticipate the question, so is the one attacking Halfaz; no AOO there either.
It’s a single attack which hits AC54 and does 150HP damage up front from the initial impact plus some further effects and more damage. Before we describe the outcome in a post, though, we want to check in with Halt about what special defenses, contingencies, or whatever else he might have, that could prevent events from taking their apparent course… so let’s discuss in the OOC.
The Uruk-Hai Elf attacking Halfaz races up onto the wall while sprouting tentacles from his back and, brandishing two shortswords, springs down onto Halfaz the Elf Pile of Sand. Despite the Uruk-Hai’s obvious bewilderment from landing on sand instead of an Elf, the shortswords and tentacles rise and fall so rapidly they are a blur of motion. For every slash and slap, the Uruk-Hai rocks with pain himself, and soon begins smoldering from the blazingly hot sand that is Halfaz. Partway through the attack, a silent explosion of Mirror shards in glorious rainbow colors blows outward from the combat, leaving the Uruk-Hai reeling in surprise, though he returns grimly to the attack again, much more effectively. Then at last the badly burned Uruk-Hai leaps away, back to the wall, becoming a blur himself.
There were 10 attacks, hitting a variety of ACs; we think two missed. We have Halfaz’s AC as 30 on his Character Sheet, +6 Deflection (from Star), total 36. Is this correct?
Halfaz also has DR 10/Magic, DR 5/Bludgeon, and has the Wall of Mirror from Star which reflects the first 120HP of damage back on his attacker. The DR 10/Magic has no effect because the tentacles and weapons are Magical. The DR 5/Bludgeon does apply because none of the attacks were bludgeoning.
We have a total of 214HP damage, minus 40 from the DR 5/Bludgeoning for the 8 attacks that hit, minus 120HP from the Wall of Mirror that Star painted onto Halfaz (which were reflected back onto the Uruk-Hai instead); a net total of 54HP damage to Halfaz came through the defenses.
Meanwhile, the Uruk-Hai took 120HP reflected from the Mirror, plus 3d6 each time he touched Halfaz, from your Flaming Aura, correct? For 8 hits, this amounts to 24d6 Fire Damage. You almost always have the Flaminhg Aura up during combat (correct?), and can raise it as a Free Action, so your limit on Actions at this time is not relevant. I took the 3d6 from the Harssaf in Oslecamo’s Monster Classes, where each 5HD increases the damage by 1d6. If this is all correct, you can roll 24d6 damage on the Uruk-Hai.
Did we miss anything? Again, before we describe the outcome in a post we want to check in with Halfaz about what special defenses, contingencies, or whatever else he might have, that could prevent events from taking their apparent course… so let’s discuss in the OOC.
Suddenly, six of the stacked Proto-Emerald plates pick themselves up and launch toward Ptolemaeus the Elf in a flying leap of an attack, as if they will try to slam him into a smear on the Proto-Emerald floor. On the way, they begin dripping fire and vibrating to the discordant beats in the cacophonous Marilith’s song, just like the other weapons the Mariliths are wielding.
Two more of the Uruk-Hai leap into battle.
One has a headdress of vulture feathers and a sharp beak-like snout, much longer and sharper than usually found on an Elf. He takes to the air, and rushes toward the Margravine. A boulder-size gray globe appears in his hand; he flings it at the Margravine as he closes, and then circles her as he manifests and throws five more. Each of them vanishes on impact with a chilling moan of pain.
There were 6 attacks, hitting a variety of ACs; we think two missed. We have the Margravine’s AC as 33 on the Character Sheet, +6 Deflection (from Star), total 39. Is this correct?
We have a total of 73HP damage, for the 4 attacks that hit.
The attack routine requires a single Save as long as at least one globe hit. Make a DC32 WILL Save vs. Fear. We have the Margravine as +5 vs Fear. There are also a lot of party buffs in operation:
+5 Morale (from Ror), +2 Luck (from Janis), +2 Time from Star, +6 Resistance (from Star), total +15… plus your own bonuses.
Also: 1 is not an automatic failure; and roll twice, take the better result; and finally, once per round you may roll a third time if necessary to make a Save.
Once again, before we describe the outcome in a post, we want to check in with the Margravine about what special defenses, contingencies, or whatever else she might have, that could prevent events from taking their apparent course… so let’s discuss in the OOC.
The fourth Uruk-Hai Elf also launches into the air; on the way up, he changes into a Dragon-Elf, an inky black shape of roiling viscous liquid in the shape of a Dragon… Elf. True Seeing, as reported on the link, shows the change to be true! (the Dragon part, not the Elf part) He first veers toward Ptolemaeus, but seeing the Proto-Emerald plates about to come crashing down, he decides to stay far away from Ptolemaeus and heads toward the wall instead, where Throisar the Elf is still hanging, the biggest target there. A tiny Elf is buzzing around Throisar, its cute little face in a fury. The liquid black form sails gracefully in, raking, biting, clawing at Throisar, helplessly stapled in place. Acid from the rain of attacks splashes all over the rocks, sizzling and smoking. When the vapors clear, the rocky face is pitted and scarred, largely melted away, and the staples are loosely clinging to Throisar’s neck, legs, and wherever else he was pinned. Throisar himself seems absolutely unharmed; the Uruk-Hai’s inky black Elf-face shows extreme agitation and dismay as he wheels away from his attack run.
Ror, Darayat, you’re up next.
And Ror, you were about to summon an opponent to fight the Mariliths? A Balor? Or maybe a Pit Fiend who would be on the other side of the Blood War… or did I forget something? Whatever; have fun!
Initiative-related FYI to Ptolemaeus – For clarity: Those plates are not hitting till next round, in case we created a more imminent impression.
Initiative:61 – Star37 – Arkesh, Sable36 – The Margravine34 – Mariliths 3 & 533 – Ptolemaeus32 – Uruk-Hai 229 – Marilith 428 – Halfaz23 – Uruk-Hai Shaman20 – Halt19 – Gabriel, Marilith 118 – Marilith 2, Uruk-Hai 4 & 517 – Uruk-Hai 3, 116 – Ror
10 – Darayat
Also, for this round we’re going to add our missing players’ PCs to the end of the Initiative sequence, for others to play. You need all the help you can get. I’ll try PMing the players, though, to find out if they’d like to come back to the game now.
We have some time to deal with who will play them; not the DMs – they should be played by players until we retire them soon, at the end of this adventure segment, unless their original players return to the game.
To put them in some kind of order for this round, here are whatever numbers I could find. Next round we can put them in place.
23 – Vir (as most recently rolled by player)
17 – Throisar
17 – Throisar’s Tiamat-spawn, on the same Init
16 – Tanatou (as most recently rolled by player)
6 – Sheerak (as most recently rolled by player)
? – Sheerak-faced Marilith (Sable, your roll)