Author Topic: Action thread: Group 10  (Read 30106 times)

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #40 on: April 12, 2012, 11:15:03 PM »
Sable passes his hand across the trigger area of Explosive Runes, a very small area compared to the Glyphs since "read me" is the simple condition... and accurately taps on the connector to the explosion part, with perfect timing just as the Magic flows through to trigger the boom.

His fingers sting from pulling out the Magic charge and his index finger feels a little numb, but no damage ensues.

The Runes sit there inert. Shortly, a backflow of Magic to reload the trigger begins, but nothing whatever happens as Sable gives the Rune a smirking scrutiny that surely would have set it off.

Star says appreciatively, {Star} Sable... Nicely done! That should take care of it for two minutes at least.

We needn't worry about setting these off ourselves, but if Sable or any of us is exiting with slaves we have rescued, they might trigger the Magic unless we turn off the traps to let them past safely.

As to the Forbiddance, we may wish to leave most of it in place, but we may also wish to take it down, at least in some areas, so I want to find out what I can about what we need to do, in these moments before we come under attack. It is not my intention to slow down our own rescue or attack; if it pleases you to continue, Vir, Sable, certainly do so while I study this Spell... it may please RorO or SheerakO to join me in this to test their methods, or they may prefer some other part of the assault and test themselves in combat.

Offline Sneaky_Sable

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #41 on: April 12, 2012, 11:33:51 PM »
A smirk spreads across the features of the weasel, and with the satisfaction that he can tell these glyphs where to go and how to get there, he sets off towards the slave pen region, sticking to the walls and floors with the Earthglide. He didn't like relying on magic, but damn if it wasn't fun now and then.
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #42 on: April 13, 2012, 12:03:34 AM »
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Offline Sneaky_Sable

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #43 on: April 13, 2012, 09:12:10 AM »
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« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 09:19:52 AM by Sneaky_Sable »
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Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #44 on: April 13, 2012, 10:26:30 AM »
Vir learns the disarming with ease (+30 modifier and roll from my phone is hard)

Vir says "I have all kinds of birds!the ice birds should hurt us since they give energy resistance before you get in the pain range. The smaller in death ones do the ame for us allies of the birds. I recommend thinking very happy thoufhta about them. I were a song about how you each love birds but I think you'll manage. The big unsheathed birds will hurt us from forty feet out to thirty set outer but will give you undead protection after that so stay away or get close to them. Stay away from the fire and the shard birds unless you have good reflexes and evasion.

As no one had any objections,Go Go birds!"

Vie has by now put the second mistaken flight back in the bag and tells the ditsy flight that is over 40 feet from any of the group and is underground to activate its intel whence ritual and then everything else. The makes a cloud of death that is forty get in radius and a cloud of instant death won a ten foot radius. They fly in the rock clockwise around the barracks moving 29feet per round. The number of temp hp they get will indicate the forces in the barracks.

Offline Sneaky_Sable

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #45 on: April 13, 2012, 10:29:24 AM »
( @Vir: Want me to throw a few rolls up for you? If nothing else, it'll get your Natural 20 Count rolling. I seem to be a touch on fire these past few rolls. )
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Offline ieatfood7

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #46 on: April 13, 2012, 01:57:07 PM »
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #47 on: April 13, 2012, 03:37:54 PM »
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #48 on: April 13, 2012, 07:19:11 PM »
Star continues on the Link with RorO: {Star} My, I think I've confused this Spell Analytics conversation... I'm... foggy! Ha. The fog is doing its job, I can't see clearly how the Effects are tied together. Ror, you may have a better view than I do.

I can see that a Guards and Wards overlays the Forbiddance, but I can't see into either, to be able to tell if it is one Spell with Effects tied together, or two separate Castings. I can see the Invisibility Metamagic and associated Spelltags because they are right here on the surface of the fog, so they are clearly a part of the Effect that generates the Fog, yes.

We might find out from taking them down. If all their combined Effects are Dispelled together, then we still won't know whether two Castings were ended or one, but at least both will be gone. If one Dispels but the other does not, then they likely were separate Castings, two separate Spells, and will take twice the resources to remove. Or we can leave the Guards and Wards in place as you suggest.

Once I know what I'm dealing with, I can easily target a Forbiddance with a Dweomer Vortex in preference to an overlaid Guards and Wards, because Forbiddance is the lower Level, more susceptible Spell.


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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #49 on: April 13, 2012, 09:26:40 PM »
{Star} As I consider this, I think I should be the one for this part of the experiment. Ror, from what you have told me of your Axe, it will simply chop through whatever Spells it encounters... very useful for its speed. And Sheerak, your Dispel will immediately take down whatever it finds, if it succeeds.

My Dweomer Vortex has very specific limitations even though it is powerful in what it can do. It could not have told us about the entanglement of the Glyph and the Runes because they were too weak to withstand it together or separately, but for stronger Spells such as these, the Vortex will only take down one at a time… so we will find out if they are in fact tied together into a single complex Casting or two separate Spells. With Spells of this strength, the Vortex will be a sharp surgical knife, carving away just one Spell at a time; then we can analyze what remains after each stroke of the knife, and predict with some certainty whether Ror’s strategy will work, to leave up… and turn to our own use… a visible fog from the Guards and Wards but take down the Forbiddance to clear it out of our way.


Star repositions herself at the very back of the newly created space, and opens out a large flap from a very small pouch. A silvery, whirling cone slides out, the Dweomer Vortex soon revealing itself as a ten foot length, four feet at the wide end, half a foot at the narrow end. Just as it reaches its full length, it touches the fog, and the fog and the cone vanish in a whirling, winking sparkle.

A section of floor becomes visible, with the Alarm spell also visible below, near the floor, to those who can see it. The Forbiddance is now fully visible to Detection and Spellcraft, and still there.

Star purses her lips, and runs her fingers through her hair, freeing a shower of sparks of her own. On the Link: {Star} The two Effects were Cast separately, apparently; the fog did its job and obscured my analysis, until it was gone. I’ll need to use another Dweomer Vortex to test the Forbiddance and see if it can be taken down, as well as to find out if yet another Effect is hidden behind it.

Another silvery, whirling cone slides out. Just as the Vortex reaches its full length, it touches the Forbiddance, and the Spell and the cone vanish in another whirling, winking sparkle, leaving an area clear of the Forbiddance that Detects show to be roughly 10 feet on a side, with only the Alarm remaining.

Star changes her image on the Link, from holding her breath, to letting out a sigh, though for safety she’s not actually breathing.{Star} At least, the Forbiddance can be taken down, and nothing remains behind except the Alarm... but I had hoped for a larger area, more like sixty feet, not ten.

One more test remains: Sequence. If the Forbiddance and the Guards and Wards are truly independent, then I should be able to cut away just the Forbiddance and leave the rest intact. I’ll try a Dweomer Vortex on that neighboring area; if I aim above the Alarm, into the Forbiddance and the Guards and Wards, the Forbiddance should fall first since it is the lower Level Spell.


Star lets out a third Dweomer Vortex, aimed at a neighboring area with both fog and Forbiddance, and sure enough the Forbiddance and cone vanish in a whirling sparkle while the fog stays, as Ror’s Spellcraft and Detects confirm.{Star} The tangle is revealed, untangled. The Forbiddance can be taken down separately.

Thus I put them on the combat map on the Link, like this:

The outermost layer of three Spells… all things in threes… form a tube that coats the walls, floor, and ceiling: Ghoul Glyph separately, and Glyph of Warding and Explosive Runes interlaced. I say a tube because we also discovered these three Spells are not tied to the substance of the walls and will not Dispel by unraveling when our explosions destroy the underlying rock; my Passwall left the Spells intact when the underlying rock vanished.

And also a tube because they seem to contain the other Spells; the walls may have been used as frame of reference when the interior Spells were cast, since they do not seem to penetrate the walls, at least not here. It may please you to be careful though; the geometric constraints of some Spells may override a particular frame of reference intended by a Caster, will he, nil he. So we may yet find Forbiddance in some walls.

Within lie three more: Invisible Guards and Wards, and Forbiddance, filling the volume of the tube, and then Alarm, near the floor but with range to cover the volume, or most of it.

Sheerak, Ror, all… do what pleases you; at least you now know what you are dealing with, in some detail, in this tangle of Spells.

« Last Edit: April 13, 2012, 09:33:05 PM by MetroMagic »

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #50 on: April 14, 2012, 03:43:40 PM »
Star says to Halt on the Link: {Star} Halt, I heard your inquiry about other Arcane Casters to Cast Cooperatively with you. My training is somewhat different, I suspect, but I am quite familiar with Cooperative Casting... perhaps even more flexibly than that training tradition. I have worked with other Mages to cast the same Spells together for better Effects than either of us would have obtained alone, and I have also worked with Mages and other types of Casters to cast different spells simultaneously to obtain Effects that were beyond what either of us could have obtained separately.

Most recently, in a battle against an army of thousands of Armadoons, I worked with a Dragon to turn its breath from one destructive force to another... I constructed an Elemental Transformation matrix for it to breathe through, changing the Magical Energy from Fire to Cold... Fire did little, but Cold did not match their immunities, so the Dragon could destroy them. Between the two of us, a large part of the army was defeated.

Perhaps you and I can work together in ways that may please you to do so, even in ways you may not have considered before... for example, I have an Arcane transcription of a Divine Combine Spell that focuses a circle of Casters. I also have a Channeling technique that is similar, and allows a female Caster to lend strength and abilities to a male Caster, though not the other way around if it's just the two of us... we become Linked with that type of circle but we are already on a Link, so we could use it to circle as well, and you then could Cast Spells that I know, as well as Cast Spells that you know, at a higher Level than usual.

If you can imagine some pairing of simultaneous Effects that has synergy, with similar Spells as you usually use for Cooperative Casting, or even  different ones, I would be pleased to help. It may even result in an interesting experiment!!


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« Last Edit: April 14, 2012, 03:48:57 PM by MetroMagic »

Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #51 on: April 14, 2012, 06:01:22 PM »
{Ror10 - on the link}Halt, there may also be a ritual you could use to accomplish the effect you're looking for.
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{RorO - on the link}Star, that was a very nicely done investigation of these spell defenses.  Now that we know how these spells are interacting, why don't I take a whack - literally - at the Forbiddance, and see if I can absorb some piece of it.

RorO Glides over to the edge of the tunnel, and into the air at the very top of the corridor, being careful to stay above the Alarm (which Ror should be able to see from the Detect Magic).  (If he needs to shrink down to stay above the Alarm, he will.)  Ror adjusts his grip on the waraxe, and takes a swing at the Forbiddance (which should also be visible with the Detect Magic).

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Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #52 on: April 16, 2012, 07:41:06 PM »
Halfaz3 says through the link: "I was thinking, if everyone not morally aligned to Illithids are getting hurt, either the slaves are in a non-Forbiddance area or not even here, correct? Because they would simply die a few seconds after this magic is up."

{RorO on the link} That's not necessarily true.  I believe that if you are inside the area of a Forbiddance when it is cast, then you are unharmed, unless you leave the area and then re-enter.  So, assuming the slaves never left the area - probably a valid assumption considering they're enslaved - they would have been unaffected if a Forbiddance was cast around them.  That's still a very good thought though.

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #53 on: April 17, 2012, 11:31:44 PM »
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Star acknowledges Halfaz3 on the Link: {Star} The possibilities for their location are narrowing. In Ror’s Divination, Dumathoin told him that they had not left, and had not died.

I have another piece of analysis to share, visual inspection of some of this Spelltag information. The Guards and Wards area that was cleared by the Dweomer Vortex looks to me like about 30 by 100 by 40, given the average ceiling height in this area; perhaps it is laid out in blocks of that size. Looking out across the cages, I note that it does not quite reach the ceiling in some places, since I can see over some of them now, according to the map. That is roughly 12,000 cubic feet of fog, which I calculate, implies a Caster of roughly 30th Level. Such an estimate is not inconsistent with the professional polish of the Spell’s Casting, with the loose ends finished almost perfectly leaving little purchase for a Dispel to unravel them. Perhaps other explanations are possible, but the explanation of a 30th Level Caster is consistent with my observations.

Perhaps the General himself laid down these Guard and Wards Castings, or provided them… directly or indirectly. I suppose it’s likely that he provided them at least indirectly, by hiring a Caster at the very least. So… we should anticipate and brace ourselves for other, similar Effects, perhaps well beyond the 7th Level Guards and Wards Spell.

Also I notice that the cages I can see, 100 feet into the area, are empty… that is not quite halfway across, again according to the map. And with the fog gone, I now can see Forbiddance out there. This is not new to those of you who have been seeing the area all along and putting it on the Link… thankyou for that… but that too is consistent with Halfaz3’s thoughts.

And to put aside these laboratory thoughts… it’s too quiet, isn’t it? I don’t like…
Star doesn’t finish; instead, her warning races out to several of the groups on the Link, as the combat map at last lights up with enemies and Star’s warnings ring out on the Link:

{Star} Groups 1, 2, 6! Umber Hulks… worse! You’re seeing tendrilled Hulks… those are the leaders and they’re far more dangerous! Two seconds later, reports from copies flood the Link.

In the same moments, a surge of vitality hits the parrots in the Clouds of Death10 underneath the barracks south of location9. On the combat map, a squadron of forty large creatures suddenly appears in the building, and then some of them spill out onto the street, as Star extrapolates their locations and characteristics from the information flowing on the Link… and their Life Energy quickly vanishes into the Parrots as they are mowed down where they stand. The Parrots have drawn their first blood, most likely from Umber Hulk troops held in reserve in the barracks.

Cheering breaks out on the Link, with congratulations to Captain Vir, the Deadly Pirate, on the brilliant strategy.

Star cautions VirO{Star} Vir, you may wish to find a way to verify what types of creatures are in the next area the Parrots attack near location9 or location10; the barracks were reasonably certain, but since we don’t know where the slave captives are being held… I hope there weren’t any among the creatures in the barracks, she says soberly on the Link.

Then Star flashes yet another warning, and an emergency image of a Lillend, a creature of Chaos that is itself a beautiful Blue-Green, on the Link to group9, to help them defend against the Blue-Green Energies of a Level 9 Maw of Chaos that just blew past them in a Dream!



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Offline Sneaky_Sable

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #54 on: April 17, 2012, 11:46:13 PM »
At the notion of combat, this is the distraction that Sable had been waiting for. He darts through the earth, shifting his vision slowly into the X-Ray spectrum to see if the fog obscured anything in that range of vision. Now was the time to truly start his investigation, to start sifting through for any clues. Along the way, he started prepping palm-sized globs of Janis' marvelous explosive, and 'arming' each of them with a piece of bubblegum. Sable never was a 'gumhead', but this stuff was the bomb.

He'd slap himself later for his terrible pun...
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #55 on: April 18, 2012, 01:45:20 AM »
Sable cruises through the rock underneath area BB, the slave pens.

It is filled with fog that obscures all vision, including X-Ray, except for a smallish area Star cleared out, about 30x100.

Sable's Blindsight and Listen work fine, though... neither is based on any kind of vision. Though he hasn't checked every cage, all the ones he has passed under are empty according to Blindsight/Listen.

As Sable preps the BOOOOM!!, Love JanisTM he discovers what flavor the special ScryBubblegum is, that he's using for the detonator:

Cherry.

(But I don't suggest you slap Janis  :-)

Offline GuyFawkes

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #56 on: April 18, 2012, 06:14:53 AM »
With the sudden outburst of activity across the Link™, Ptolemaeus looks at Ror. "Well, I guess that is our cue. I think we are far enough as we are right now, so let us get on with the fireworks."

Offline FireInTheSky

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #57 on: April 18, 2012, 06:19:00 AM »
Are we still in the rock?  Or did we move into an area recently cleared of Forbiddance?  If we're still in the rock, are we far enough away from the blast site to avoid hurting ourselves?

If we're far enough to be clear, Ror10 (it was Ror10 with the explosives, correct?) will think "BOOOM!"

Offline Debatra

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #58 on: April 18, 2012, 10:02:21 AM »
The Halts not in combat will discharge Lesser Rituals of Speed, with Circle of Good Hope.
 
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Action thread: Group 10
« Reply #59 on: April 18, 2012, 01:48:20 PM »
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