Tsk. Tsk. Probably not the best idea. Agrippa says mockingly, and safely invisible.
What do you think is going to happen? Do you think you are going to escape?
”Mitra watch over us! He’ll protect and deliver us from this predicament! The earth itself rebels against your villainess! This is divine providence and you’ll fall here!” the man answer on a clear and strong voice, unfit for someone trapped and tortured for so long, his belief giving him strength to resist.
The sister says nothing, but as soon Eldred shows up, she starts to cry and her hands to shake.
"Zull..."
Chains shoot from the darkness whipping at the legs of the nun and the knight. Upon them hitting the ground a third finds its way around the neck of the nun as she begins gasping for air as her sobs become muffled. The fourth chain rips the sword from the knight as he lays looking helplessly on to the nun. Cedric steps forward he touches the knight and his struggles stop for a moment.
"Leave the woman for master Crofter Zull. Choke and beat this one into unconsciousness. We need him alive yet still. Eldred you can deal with your slave girl."
Cedric bends down and places his hand around the mans neck and begins squeezing to aid along in the process. Once unconscious the chains wrap about the man and lift him into the air carrying him along.
"I will have Sideous create a new cell, a pit we can keep him in for the next few days. It will be sealed with only holes big enough to allow air and water to be lowered in."
"Fool. If he were smart he would have taken his own life."
Johan is happy not to have to lift a finger to re capture the prisoners. Leaving the situation in Cedrics hands, he surveys the rest of the horn and how many of their minions had been killed in the quake.
Despite being almost completely buried by the collapsing room, the Golem's metal shell deflected most of the damage and it escaped mostly unscathed.
The mudmen guarding the third floor teleporter were wiped out by falling debris.
The roaming undead on the 2nd floor were decimated by the tremors. Only two of the burning skeletons were not destroyed, so Johan confined them to the teleporter room with the undead archon and the surviving fast zombie boggard, giving the rest of the level over to Agrippa's summond infernal horde )
Though many others were injured by the catastrophe, Sidious was able to heal the worst of the wounded in short order. Overall, they had fared well considering the level of damage.
Time: Day 217 – During the midnight ritual
With every prayer, the ritual is creating a bridge to Vetra-Kali through the astral plane allowing the daemon prince to return to the prime material. From this bridge, emanations of magic and evil ebb and flow, rippling through reality. One of those disturbances draws the attention of a dweller within the astral -- a good celestial named Brastius Star-Feather. Brastius is a flier upon the astral winds, an avoral agathion. Curious, the agathion investigates. He happens upon the rift in the astral. Seizing the moment, Brastius plunges through and finds himself high above the Caer Bryr just outside the sanctum.
During the midnight ritual, after asserting the damage to the minions and securing the prisoners, you group up to perform the midnight ritual. It’s during that time; you hear the sound of wings just near the Sanctum balcony. It appeared suddenly, giving you almost no time to react.
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
Sensing both the raw magic and evil of the Horn, he casts dispel magic removing the interference for a moment and bursts into the sanctum through the balcony (S2) hoping to disrupt whatever is going on.
Is it the dragon?Johan asks.
Posca, attend me, he shouts, and with a burst of brimstone Johan's hellish servant appears. But where Johan expects to see the melted wax visage of the pathetic creature Posca the dwarf had become instead stood a vicious, stooping devil gripping a saw-toothed glaive. Below its toothy maw writhes a hideous, twitching beard.
Johan blinked in surprise. Posca, you've ...matured As was his nature, Johan rolled with the unexpected and started snapping orders to the other minions gathered about. Daemons! teleport to the balcony and defend this place. Hellhounds! If intruders land on that balcony, burn them.
Johan grinned a twisted grin. With the gathered might of no less than 6 servants of the lower planes at their disposal, the knot might not even have to lift a finger to destroy this latest interloper.
Agrippa raises his head at the sound of wings and whispers an arcane phrase. He blinks out of sight, now invisible. He moves to take cover from dragon's breath.
"Wings? The Dragon?"
Cedric's next few words are in infernal as his spectral mount appears. He jumps upon it and draws fourth his blade.
"Sidious prepare yourself. Zull ready your chains."
The chains laying around the devil begin to float as Sidious and Drax both go invisible
Images for you to add as tokens please.
@Hellhounds
As commanded, they move closer to the barely standing gate, waiting to breath fire if the enemy gets closer enough.
@Daemons
Maybe, because they know the end is near, this time Hexor and Vexor does as commanded, without even any sarcastic or ironic response, moving in and identical manner, they teleport to the other side of the gate, ready to engage the intruder.
Time: Day 217 – During the midnight ritual
Round 2-
Ordered Initiative-
Enemies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Agrippa: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Cedric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17
Eldred: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Johan: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Grumblejack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
Great feathers sweep back from this fierce bird-man’s brow, and long, clawed hands grow from the end of his wings.
This creature is a good celestial knows as Agathion, Avoral.
They have innate magic resistance as well immunity to lightning.
--
They resist damage that isn’t evil or silver,
They aren’t fooled by any illusion or spell that hides it from normal seeing.
--
They have a variety of magic-like skills, some that can be used at will, others that can be used just a few times per day.
They can heal wounds touching it with it’s feathers.
--
From his vantage flying position, the agathion is quick to identify the targets and proceed to cleanse the place;
He speaks in an language you’ve never heard before, but the meaning of the words is well known, as if you soul knew what they meant all along.
”This blasphemy ends here!”
The air around the bird-man crackles with energy and power as a burst of lightning spreads from the tip of his feathers pointing to Eldred.
After striking Eldred, it arches among the villains, unforgivingly hitting everyone, except Agrippa that took the wise action to shield himself from the enemy.
After that, the birdman flies back putting some distance between him and the daemons.
Cedric lands on his feet as the mount vanishes from under him. The lightning not doing much to damage his eternal body. He looks to the creature annoyed at it's interruption. He holds up his sword as one would before a charge to signal a hold.
"Sidious..."
As he speaks the faithful priest sends forth his flying devil now invisible form his innate power. A wave of Evil energy springs fourth from the invisible devil and washes over Cedric and his comrades.
The evil energy relieves the pain of the chard spots the electrical current left in its wake.
"Zull harass it. Master Agrippa. Can you make me fly? I will make sure this thing is put down."
With that he drops his sword forward pointing at the creature. Calling on the power of Asmodeus to smite it.
"Let us see you fight without your eyes"
Cedric cast Blindness upon the creature. DC 19
He then waits to see if Agrippa can enchant him as Zull moves forward to engage.
Agrippa knows that enchanting Cedric would be the most tactical thing to do...but he is a vain man, and not one to forget slights.
Let the fool Barca wait. he thinks to himself, not even acknowledging Cedric's request.
Instead Agrippa enchants his skin to better withstand injury
Posca, kill. Johan states simply, pointing to theangelic intruder.
The bearded devil lopes across the stone floor, leaping over the wreckage of the fallen wall to get at the invader
Johan walks forward almost casually, incanting a prayer of protection as he goes.
Eldred leaps out of the lightning way showing impressive reflexes. And at the same time, the pulls his bow, aiming at the flying avian creature.
Unfortunately, only one of this arrows find the target.
Time: Day 217 – During the midnight ritual
Round 3-
Ordered Initiative-
Enemies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Agrippa: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Cedric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17
Eldred: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Johan: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Grumblejack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
The agathion quickly notices he is outmatched and outnumbered.
but when he tries to leave, the magical barrier is already back in its place, preventing him from fleeing.
He casts his magic once more...
... but it fails, leaving the avoral trapped inside alongside the horde of evil creatures.
"My lord the creature is attempting to flee. I will keep him from doing so."
Sidious moves forward and readies to counter if the Agothian attempts to cast again.
"Well done Sidious. Zull advance on in. I will as well."
Zull move toward the creature and uses his gaze. DC 15 will save or be shaken for rounds.
Cedric double moves forward, and drax flies forward as well.
Hexor, Vexor, destroyed that winged beast! Protect your master's sanctum! Johan shouts to the two hulking Daemons. He comes level to the gate, then hurls his morning star at the foe, hoping t o cripple it before it can fly off.
;
Meanwhile, Posca leaps at the avoral, trying to slash at its wings it with his glaive.
;
Agrippa moves forward and gestures at the Avoral, hoping to strike it blind.
Capture it if you can Master Hale. We could learn much from a Celestial.
Hexor (or maybe Vexor) moves in closer to the celestial opening his mouth and breathing lightning on his foe, not unlikely he did when he first met the party of villains. But unlikely happened back in the occasion, this time, and the lightning breath causes no damage to the celestial.
Vexor (or maybe Hexor) seeing his counterpart causing no visible harm to the flying creature, adopts a different strategy, as it too open his mouth, but instead of breathing lightning, it bites the flying creature.
But it’s also a miss, as the flying creature nimble dodge the ferocious bite.
--
Agrippa waves the arcane and pushes his power to blind his foe. But he didn’t expected the monster natural to be this strong, and the magic effect is deflected by the celestial innate resistance.
--
The same happens with the spell cast by the cleric and demons. Everything gets stopped by the monster innate resistance.
--
Johan and Posca does his best to attack the creature, but it proves too nimble to be hit by such attack.
--
Lastly, Eldred continues his barrage of attack, aiming to bring down the celestial creature, but this time, he focus on accuracy rather than attack power.
But the celestial seems impervious to any and all attacks, dodging all of Eldred’s arrows.
HP: 114
AC: 29
Saves: 13/14/8(+4 vs poison)
CMD:33
SR:20
Round 4-
Ordered Initiative-
Enemies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Agrippa: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Cedric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17
Eldred: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Johan: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Grumblejack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
Once again, the enemy tries to dispel the magical barrier preventing him to flee.
But being surrounded by enemies has the effect of breaking the flying celestial concentration and he fails to cast his spell.
Zull lashes out at the creature with his dancing chains:
Sidious calls out: "My lord it tried to escape again, but failed to cast the spell. I will continue to prevent it from leaving."
He readies again to counter the magic of the creature as Drax flies forward positioning himself if he is needed.
"Good Sidious. Now taste the hell fire of Asmodeus celestial scum."
Cedric advances toward the Celestial cutting at it with his blazing sword.
+ + 35 + 5 fire no DR, DC 23 Fort save or Dazed for a round.
Agrippa snarls at being stymied and he hastes his allies
Johan had been content to stand back and let the minions handle the intruder, but the familiar rush of Agrippa's magic filled him with a bloodlust that he could not resist He charged forward with a snarl.
Posca:
; +2 bleed
; +2 bleed
; +2 bleed
; +2 bleed
Johan
Swift: activate Bane/good outsiders
Full: Charge
;
Eldred continue is barrage of arrow, but with little precision.
From all the arrows he fires, only one hits the target.
---
The unholy knight moves forward attacking with deadly precision and power, his dark powers bypassing the celestial innate resistance.
--
Agrippa Enhances his minions allies speed with the arcane arts.
--
And Johan and Posca deliver as well powerful and deadly attacks.
Round 5-
Ordered Initiative-
Enemies: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Agrippa: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Cedric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17
Eldred: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16
Johan: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Grumblejack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (8) + 0 = 8
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
The enemy, yet again, tries to dispel the magical barrier preventing him to flee.
Sidious, being attentive of what’s being done, tries to see what the enemy is doing and disrupt his magic.
But his magic isn't potent enough to cancel's the enemy spell.
--
With the barrier finally broken, the celestial flies just out of range of melee attacks , but still in range for larger creatures or reach weapons.
f the target of your counterspell tries to cast a spell, make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the spell's level). This check is a free action. If the check succeeds, you correctly identify the opponent's spell and can attempt to counter it. If the check fails, you can't do either of these things.
To complete the action, you must then cast an appropriate spell. As a general rule, a spell can only counter itself. If you are able to cast the same spell and you have it prepared (or have a slot of the appropriate level available), you cast it, creating a counterspell effect. If the target is within range, both spells automatically negate each other with no other results.
Sidious gives up his dispell magic slot and it counters the creatures dispell as they are the same spell. Dispell magic only has to make a Caster level check if you are not casting the same spell as the caster.
Auto Miss
+
+
"Well done Sidious. Be on guard. Surely this thing didn't come alone."
Cedric stands over the dead celestial.
Contrary to Cedric’s prediction, no other enemy assaults the horn that night. That same night passes without further incident and so does the morning ritual.
I'll not speak for another player, but I reckon you'll have a harder time talking Agrippa out of his plush quarters and into the exposed ( both to the elements and to attack) and crowded sanctum than I will convincing to stay there. :>
We did tell the wisps that occasional service away from the mural would be required ( and greater reward to compensate) when we negotiated their deal - and they can understand us - they assented to the deal when they chose not to keep attacking us.
Anyway, I said I was fine moving to the Sanctum if that's the group consensus. Just seems like a waste is all.
You get me. =)
With no other threat presenting itself Cedric talks with Sidious and they decide to move into the Sanctum for the remaining days. Zull and Drax will keep watch with the Hexor and Vexor while Cedric and Sidious discuss the future of the land and what the tears of Vetra Kali will do to the people.
The villains weren’t able to agree on what to do.
Cedric wanted to hole up into the sanctum to prevent any other attacks from disturbing the place. Johan and Eldred were indifferent of what to do, while Agrippa took the suggestion as some kind of insult to his noble person.
In the end, Cedric stayed at the sanctum with all the defenders and his followers, while Johan and Eldred stayed in the third floor, closer to the wizard in case anything happened.
And as always, something happened.
There was no warning, or any sound that might have informed of this new threat.
An animate pile of mud seems barely able to maintain the semblance of a humanoid form made of dripping sludge slides inside the sanctum from outside, and by the looks of it, the thing climbed the wall until reaching the sanctum.
Time: 3:55 pm, Day 218
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
"My lord, we have company."
Sidious stands and chants some divine words as Fervor takes hold of those in the room bolstering their prowess. Drax goes invisible and takes to the air.
"Is that thing made of mud? No matter. Hexor, Vexor destroy it. Zull bring your chains we have work to do. Well done Sidious."
Cedric leaps up with speed thanks to the spell from his companion. He readies his shield and attempts to take the creatures sight.
Zull takes his place by Cedric with his chains dancing about.
1. Increase its speed by 30 feet.
2. Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
3. Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus.
4. Gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
5. Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell.
Hexor leaps acros the ruined half wall and casts a spell at the shambling mud-thing as it lumbers onto the balcony
Eldred moves to alert Agrippa.
We've got company!
The villains converge onto the new threat, and Hexor (or maybe Vexor) cast a spell to stop the monster and the mud monster is not able to resist the effect.
Vexor (or maybe Hexor), jumps over the broken fence as well and open his mouth as energy thunders out of it in a deadly cone.
The mud thing taking the full brunt of the attack.
--
The thing make of mud, seeks only the power emanating from the silver seal. The foul power which if consumed, is guaranteed to make him a paragon of its kind. It didn’t expect such resistance tho, or even being bewitched.
Time: 3:55 pm, Day 218
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Enemies: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Cedric: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
Vex and Hex: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Grumblejack: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (12) + 0 = 12
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
Hexor steps forward and tears into the mud creature.
;
;
;
While the band of villains was trying to decide: Is the monster under the spell effect to do anything, Hexor steps in, clawing the monster while it’s still vulnerable.
And in a brief moment, what could have been a threat, ended up being only mud smeared and dirtying the sanctum.
Not long after, Johan, Eldred and Agrippa steps onto the sanctum, ready and prepared for battle, only to find out the problem had already been solved.
Investigating what and how this happened, the Knot discovers that the mud elemental was formed into the caves, and before climbing the horn, the boggards were its first victims. Being concentrated in defending the sanctum, they didn’t notice what was happening in the caves. Some of the already ragged boggard tribe seems to have survived, but they have fled and abandoned the horn for good.
After dealing with the boggards, the elemental climbed the outer wall of the horn, and when passing thru the third floor, it absorbed the four mudman guarding the teleport room. It them continue to move into the sanctum, where it met its end.
Time: Just as the midnight ritual begins on Day 219
Vetra-Kali is not the only being barred from entering this world. The powerful magic of the ritual could be useful to liberate any number of others barred from our world. On midnight of the 219th day, from the corners of reality, emerge six Hound-like creatures. These loathsome non-Euclidean beasts are not here to save Talingarde. They are here to slay anyone involved in conjuring this transdimensional rip (i.e. anyone in the sanctum) and to instead see that the when the portal opens, it is not Vetra-Kali who emerges but a horrific entity trapped between the black spaces between the stars, their master – a Leng spider.
The malevolent energy around the ritual make difficult to perceive and nothing things out of its sphere of influence, even then, Eldred who had been mostly uninterested in the ritual so far, caught something with the corner of his eyes, something appearing on the corner of the room, some fearsome creatures, out of some horror history.
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Active Effects-
Map-
Notes-
Narrative-
The creatures open their mouth as the energy forms shooting into the villain’s direction. The energy formed from corruption itself.
With otherworldly precision, the hounds made sure no one will flee from this place, at least not using magic to do it.
This gaunt, long-limbed quadruped has huge, soulless eyes and a toothy maw. The lean creature moves with a predatory grace.
These monsters are known as hound of Tindalos.
They are evil extraplanar, resistant to all common attacks (DR/Magic), and due to their nature, immune to all mind-effecting effects.
They have several spell like abilities, they can teleport and move between planes, but they can only do that if their destination is some sort of edge or corner of a structure.
AC 24, touch 17, flat-footed 17 (+7 Dex, +7 natural)
hp 105
Fort +12, Ref +14, Will +10