Epik steels himself against the golem's inevitable counter attack as he full round attacks. He will also heal himself as a swift action.
;
;
Nowzai continues to unload spell after effective spell at the golem as the paladin rails again, noting this time is desire for damaging blows is costing him purchase against the construct's armored body. A better aimed blow, while less damaging, may have a chance of getting through.
Perhaps the two of you could work together ... find a way to flank, or even once of them distract or aid the other one
The celestial serpent's voice appears cleanly in your minds
; HIT!; ; CRIT!;
Magma however, finds a weak spot and crushes home a massive dent in the construct's left side, nearly buckling the thing in half. It moves erratically for a moment before it slams home a couple of blows on the fighter.
i have 10 hp left
defensive withdrawal
As Magma falls back, Tlanextic heals him with an invisible touch.
"One good hit will drop it!" Nowzai hurls his last prepared sonic orb.
Epik stays in the fight but changes tactics and does not power attack. He will also heal himself as a swift action.
;
;
;
Nowzai misses with his spell as Epik strikes the golem once with a well aimed blow that slices easily through Magma's previously created hole and cuts the golem cleanly in half.
The party rushes Fario over to the batthouse, where Meerthen and Fellian explode into well orchestrated motions, disrobing, cleaning and healing the fallen half-elf's many wounds, using salves and spells. Within minutes, the normally plucky half-elf is sitting up groaning and holding his head in his hands.
"Rhiavadi!" He exclaimed when he finally came to, immediately creating a battery of questions about his health and whereabouts from the two Striders.
Epik will heal Magma and will then search the room and the remains of the golem for anything of value. "We were lucky to survive this encounter. We need to shut down this gate and return to Cauldron."
Any check to make to recognize that name? Other than that, no, I don't really know anyone here so I will just listen and add in my $.02 when needed
Nowzai sighs in relief as the golem finally falls. "Agreed. We wanted to find out more about what is going on here, but this excursion is clearly too risky for just the four of us. Perhaps with the others here, we could search more thoroughly."
Any check to make to recognize that name? Other than that, no, I don't really know anyone here so I will just listen and add in my $.02 when needed
No check necessary, House Rhiavadi is one of the major noble houses in Cauldron. It's on the Cauldron info sheet on Roll 20.
"What about Rhiavadi? Who captured you, I mean I know the Last Laugh, but whom from the guild? What did they want?"
thank you for the healing
Epik will exit the room and will examine the stairwell/hall going south and will make a cursory check of the eastern passage by listening at the doors and detecting evil.
Epik finds that staircase ends in rubble entirely encased in ice.
Fario groans as he feels his head and side and blinks at the bright lights. He finally falls back and becomes more lucid, noting and brightening with recognition at the familiar faces.
"Yes, House Rhiavadi is involved in something dire in this city. I was investigating the strange disappearance of the Mayor and I retraced his last known steps to the city archives where I paid the archivist to find out what he was researching. Noble families in turns out ... the last book he looked at had recent ink smudges on the Rhiavadi page and a bleed through of ink from something else he wrote ... it appears it said Vhalantru. House Vhalantru has no entry in the Cauldron archives given Lord Vhalantru's relatively recent rise to prominence here.
As such, I traced the Mayor to Osibu where I was rebuffed from entering. Frustrated I returned to watch House Rhiavadi where I watched some strange things over the past couple days. I saw members of the Town Guard ... those not engaged in the siege ... and members of the Blue Duke's half-orc mercenary unit entering and leaving the House at all hours. Many would travel to House Vhalantru. Some shady guests appear to be staying at House Rhiavadi and I saw some others arrive. Of note, a pale half-elf clad in scant, tight fitting balck garments came in a horse drawn coach. Her cloak was made of what appeared to be a black shadow and it fluttered about her as if there was a wind, but the night was still that evening. She was ushered in by a smiling slip. A pair of well-armed humans arrived the night after, one carrying a black mace capped with an iron skull and the symbol of Zon-Kuthon emblazoned on his shield. The last evening I watched, five well-armed dwarves arrived. One of them looked familiar, a white-haired, white-bearded dwarf wearing ablack leather half-mask set with a black gem in place of his eye. I never once saw Lady Rhiavadi but dozens of her servants came and went, mostly slips. It was shortly after the dwarves that I lost memory."
Nowzai looks around, frowning in frustration. "Shall we move back to the portal? I would like to explore here further, but without Jenya healing your wounds, I fear it is too dangerous. We have a little time yet -- we could enlist her aid and return, or disable the portal now and leave it. Your thoughts?"
Epik nods and leads the way back to the portal. "Let's shut it down."
"Sounds like we need to check out house Rhiavadi closer, perhaps I can disguise myself as one of the guests and gain entry. It sounds like this may be the golden egg!"
"How did you come to be in the custody of the Last Laugh? Were you watching them as well? What did they say to you when you were in their care....if you want to call it that."
Nowzai nods, "Pass through, and I will teleport home when it is done."
yes shut down the portal.
moving through the portal
Sam will listen and then see if he recognizes anyone from the discription
Knowledge Local -
"It's not a bad idea Dalamus but it might also make sense to gather up the rest of the group, we are talking about walking into one of the great houses of Caulderon, there is no telling what we might face. Remember how things went at the church, if we ran into another group like that with just us 3 we would be dead"
The one-eyed dwarf sounds like Adrick Garthun, who Dalamus has met a couple times, most recently at the Cusp of Sunrise. The Kuthite sounds like Kkyron Bonesworn, a Nidalese priest exiled from Nidal for his mercenary nature, but still dedicated to the shadowy god. His companion is likely to be Melagorn Thureq, a necromancer who never leaves his side.
Khryon is the leader of an infamous band of adventurers in the region called the Necrocants.
The party returns back to the ice lattice room to depart the area when a blast of cold air and ice fragments blows through the hole in the icewall.
You spy movement up ahead in the room, you may act in the surprise round and post a surprise round action
"The one-eyed dwarf sounds like Adrick Garthun, anyone know anything about him?" Sam pauses and rubs his chin, "The Kuthite sounds like Kkyron Bonesworn, he's a Nidalese priest exiled from Nidal for his mercenary nature, but still dedicated to the shadowy god. His companion is likely to be Melagorn Thureq, a necromancer who never leaves his side." After another pause he says, "If I remember correctly he is also the leader of an infamous adventure group known as the Necrocants"
"I hear you Sam, but what I am thinking is more or less a solo mission. I get what intel I can, and get out. Worst case scenario, I will DD out and disappear. I also have a distinct advantage, as I no longer look like the Dalamus that they would be looking for, besides I am pretty good at it."
Dalamus stops and thinks a little more about it
"I also have the option of going invisible and watching and listening like a fly on the wall, that actually might be the best option. That would give me solid intel for me, if I do have to sneak in....What do you think?"
Epik will heal himself and then searches for the attacker.
Nowzai recoils from the sudden icy blast. As he recovers, thankful for his cold resistance, he looks around for the devil foe.
;
After the blast of ice, the devil is visible just inside the crack in the wall
Nowzai starts to cast a summoning.
On his turn, Epik will smite evil on the devil and will move to power attack it.
; first strike smite damage = 2/level for evil dragons and outsiders
reflex
int
move to attack anything i can see vital strike
damage
"How did you come to be in the custody of the Last Laugh? Were you watching them as well? What did they say to you when you were in their care....if you want to call it that."
Fario rubs the bridge of his nose, trying to recall details, "I assume they were the ones thst ambushed me. I am not sure what gave me away, but I think the Last Laugh guildmaster, the Jester, was involved some how. They referenced him a couple times in interrogation. I get the sense he may have discovered me. Which makes me wonder, was he at the House as well? I doubt he was casing the place, but maybe Rhiavadi hired the Last Laugh as guards?"
He shakes his head a bit, "It gets fuzzy. I blacked out a lot, but generally I think they were trying to figure out what led me to them. They mentioned you and your allies as well, but I cant remember the context."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Surprised and slow, the party gets blasted by the cold and looks about quickly to spy the ice devil back inside the lattice room. It is on its toes quickest and sets itself up just inside the door with a readied pose.
Nowzai begins his summoning spell as Magma and Epik move in to attacl.
Magma hits the breach first, walking through a cold blast of air taking points of cold damage as he passes through the wall.
The devil thrusts hard going for max damage with his thrust
; HIT!;
Magma flows in and bounces his hammer off the creature's armored chitin.
Epik also enters taking cold damage and slips in behind Magma, drawing an opportune attack from the creature.
; HIT!;
Epik also cannot find a chink in the creature's hide.
It retaliates with a flurry of blows.
; HIT!;
; miss
; miss
; miss
; miss
Nowzai's elementals appear. The 2 western ones take cold and negative energy damage from snapping lattice work
Nowzai casts and sends a lance of thundering energy into the foe.
The summoned elementals pummel the flanked devil.
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"They specifically mentioned my name? That is rather interesting if they did. Did you happen to see this "jester?"
Dalamus thinks about this for a minute then asks "If you were going to try and impersonate someone with the hope of gaining access to the house, who would you chose?"
Epik heals himself as a swift action and then attacks.
; first strike smite damage = 2/level for evil dragons and outsiders
;
;
Nowzai smashes the devil with a lance of solid formed sound staggering it back into the elementals which drub him four times.
It turns to stare at the elementals raising its spear forming ice at the tip ...
... and Epik separates its head from its shoulders.
; fail
Nowzai nods grimly. "Check the devil's corpse and let us leave this place."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Nowzai points out the magic weapon. "Beware. Coming from the hands of a fiend, it may be cursed."
Epik heals Magma and then pushes the fiend aside. "I have no use for devil gear. Let's finish the job."
He searches the room for any remaining threats and then approaches the portal and waits for Nowzai to activate it.
"Go through. Touch the portal when you get to the other side. I will do the same from here, then meet you in Cauldron when the portal is disabled."
Epik salutes Nowzai and then steps through the gate. On the other side, once Magma is through, he touches the portal and waits.
Fort save
Epik, Magma and Tlanextic pass through the portal. Epik turns and touches the portal frame and within moments, the outside turns gray and then cracks, the mirror like surface disappearing with an audible pop and a hissing sigh.
Nowzai appears next to you a few minutes later.
"They specifically mentioned my name? That is rather interesting if they did. Did you happen to see this "jester?"
Dalamus thinks about this for a minute then asks "If you were going to try and impersonate someone with the hope of gaining access to the house, who would you chose?"
Fario speaks slowly as he recalls details, "Not your name specifically, but the group of you as a whole. I did not see him, they just talked as if he might have been there. A servant would be good, but a halfling would be perfect. These nobles don't notice the slaves ... besides, maybe you could find a way to free them or better yet, get them to aid in some sort of revolt,"
Nowzai sighs, slightly frustrated. "Well, it is a partial success anyway. I wish we could have learned more about that place, and why it is so important to our enemies. At least they are cut off for the time being."
"Shall we find the others?"
"I like the way you think Fario....a servant, of course! Nothing will be expected of me, in the ways of contacts and knowledge! I am going to prepare myself for the mission."
Dalalmus will walk away and start preparing his disguise, he will also enhance his disguise with "disguise self" just before arriving at the lords house.
Disguise
After sometime he will return to the room where the others are
"So, what do you guys think? Do you think this will pass? I am trying to be a female servant"