After successfully resisting the creatures magic... Rav tries to set the Archer free with a
School transmutation; Level bard 1, cleric/oracle 1, druid 1, paladin 1, ranger 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
CASTING
Casting Time 1 immediate action
Components V
EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
DESCRIPTION
If the target is bound, grappled, or otherwise restrained, he may make an Escape Artist check to escape as an immediate action. He gains a competence bonus on this check equal to twice your caster level (maximum +20). This spell has no effect if the target could not get free by using the Escape Artist skill (for example, if he were under the effects of a hold person spell or paralyzed by Strength damage).
Mal focuses and teleports 20' away from the clutches of the retriever to the western most square as a move action using his Dimensional Hop Travel Domain ability. Then while the other retriever is engaged in holding Elise, he casts Freedom of Movement on himself.
The inquisitor escapes the retriever's mandibles leaving it shocked and angry. Siggut moves up safely and inflicts a powerful blow on the construct.
Elise tries to free herself using Rav's spell..
but cannot escape..
She attempts to cast Burst of Radiance(DC 19 Reflex)..
vs 39 for a 2nd level spell..
She targets the one on her at the back so it will hit both..
Raveral flies away as far away as possible from these things while staying within the limits of his Scorching Ray range (55ft)
And fires Scorching Rays at the one attacking Elise
nope..
Round 2:
You see some of the wounds on the retrievers heal and close little by little.
The retriever grappling with Elise shoots another petrification eye ray at Rav!
Then it releases Elise and focuses its attacks on the priestess, but she is protected upon high as only one attack hits!
The second retriever shoots a white eye ray at Siggut, which strikes him in his chest, spreading an icy white pain that freezes the dwarf's chest hairs and causes him intense cold pain, as his skin turns bluish!
Confident that Siggut and Rav will destroy the closest retriever, Mal delays to let them act, takes a 5' step forward hopefully after Siggut moves, and then unleashes a barrage of arrows at the other retriever.
Targeting the same retriever with another set of Scorching rays Rav tries to finish it off
Scorching Ray
Siggut's second blow destroys the retriever. Mal follows with a barrage of arrows that find their mark and rip through the construct and it falls to the ground inert.
Let's inspect the bodies and move on quickly....Don't want to give Antaeous a chance to find us"
detect magic and
"Oh... and is everyone OK?'
Before she can act her companions destroy the beings in a flourish..
"Thank you gentlemen.. Those things were not very nice.."
Elise will pull out her cure wand to top everyone off.
She also casts her Corruption Resistance on herself for the day..
"Thanks, Elise! Those things packed a punch." Mal pulls 2 arrows from the retriever's corpse and stores them in his quiver. He continues to lead the party through the maze,
Thanks to his uncanny tracking skills, instead of spending days and weeks or eternity, as some parties suffer, after two more hours, Malugor is able to lead the party out of the maze into the city of Blackburgh. Like all of the maze realms, Blackburgh is a tangle of buildings, streets, plazas, and alleys. If you try, you realize flight is prohibited above the city rooftops by the plane itself, but in wider avenues and plazas the sight of Baphomet’s Dread Tower, where the Demon Lord lives, serves as a constant reminder of the demon lord’s presence. This tower looms on the horizon, yet the realm itself reflexively adjusts Blackburgh to keep the tower constantly out of reach. You see demons of all types walking around: vrocks, glabrezus, babaus, and hulking minotaurs whose hooves are clad in imposing steel and they wear heavy bronze masks that covers most of their faces. No one approaches you or even cares about your presence as of yet.
"My guess is that he has enemies here and perhaps we can leverage that into some help. Shall we look for a tavern?"
Elise will attempt to do so..
"I'm not sure I like the thought of drinking with the denizens of this city but it can't be worse than walking the streets with them " I hope "but then again I've never seen a drunk Balor... Which could be pretty terrifying I suppose. "
"and I wouldn't mind the chance to prepare the Veil spell... Might make walking around this city a little easier "
Malugor follows the party quietly. He was great at tracking and surviving in the wild, but when it came to dealing with others....unless he was scaring the hell out of them, he lacked social graces. He kept his bow ready at hand, as he was sure the demons on this plane were itching for a fight. He kept a lookout for any possible ambushes. Hold on, Sheyla, we're close. I can feel it.
Elise begins the arduous process of finding some source of information for the party. One hour passes and all she gets are dirty looks and thoughts of rape so the party moves on before the situation can escalate. The second hour is fruitless as well, with none of the demons willing to speak to the party, except to give them leering looks of desire and malevolence. By the third hour, the party is very frustrated at the lack of progress they have made. However, as they turn the corner to head down another maze-like street, your eyes focus on the demons walking the street and who do you see but the same Antaeus that you fought before, a mere 50' away from you! He smiles as he sees you and whistles. The keen eyes of Malugor and Elise quickly spot the secondary danger as three lanky humanoids covered in layers of long, ropy skin growths with bat wings 40' up converge on the party from the sky!
Round 1:
Antaeus roars in delight, scaring the other demons on the street who quickly clear the street and then he puts his head down and charges at Siggut, the party's front-line warrior, but the attack is poorly executed and leaves the horned demon exposed, as the dwarf evades like a matador, as the attack misses!
Energy resistances, SR, Special attacks etc etc
Combat map?
Rav gathers Arcane energies quickly forming them into 4 Ice blue balls of Cold energy surrounding the enemies
Ball#1 attacks Antoneous. Remaining Balls attack Stringies
School evocation [air, electricity]; Level bloodrager 4, druid 4, magus 4, shaman 4, sorcerer/wizard 4; Elemental School air 4
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M/DF (a small iron ring)
EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect two or more 5-ft.-diameter spheres
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Reflex negates; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
You create two globes of lightning that fly in whichever direction you indicate. For every 4 caster levels above 7th, you create an additional globe of lightning (3 globes at 11th, 4 globes at 15th, to the maximum of 5 globes at 19th). These globes fly at a rate of 20 feet per round and have perfect maneuverability. Wind does not affect a flying sphere’s course.
If a globe enters a space with a creature, it stops moving for the round and deals 3d6 points of electricity damage to that creature, though a successful Reflex save negates the damage. Creatures wearing metal armor take a -4 penalty on this Saving Throw.
Each globe moves as long as you actively direct it (it’s a move action for you to direct all the spheres created by a single casting of this spell); otherwise they stay at rest. These globes have no mass and cannot push aside unwilling creatures or move solid objects. A ball lightning globe winks out if it exceeds the spell’s range.
You can daze creatures with the power of your spells.
Benefit: You can modify a spell to daze a creature damaged by the spell. When a creature takes damage from this spell, they become dazed for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell. If the spell allows a saving throw, a successful save negates the daze effect. If the spell does not allow a save, the target can make a Will save to negate the daze effect. If the spell effect also causes the creature to become dazed, the duration of this metamagic effect is added to the duration of the spell.
Dazing is a mind affecting effect. And therefore creatures like undead are immune.
once a creature has been affected by Dazing every round after the first it can make a Will save to act normally for that round. If the creature is subject to continous damage (Ball Lightning for example) it receives a -2 penalty to its Will save to act normally for the round
the logic behind these changes is that high level enemies tend to have reflex as their poor save particularly huge and colossal enemies. Giving enemies a chance to resist the Daze round by round after the initial round with their stronger save (Will) weakens the power of Dazing metamagic significantly. I think this is a fair nerf that allows me to continue using Daze without overpowering encounters
Level Increase: +3 (a dazing spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level.
Spells that do not inflict damage do not benefit from this feat.
Elise will cast Prayer targeting the party..
so no negatives for him..
Malugor imbues his bow with greater bane (evil outsider) as a swift action and then 5' steps the side and shoots his arrows at Antaeus! "Time to die, horned one!"
Seeing the party's might devastate Antaeus so effortlessly and the danger the archer and the wizard present, the two unaffected demodands fly away as fast as they can.
Rav is Very Satisfied at the sight of Anteous slumped on the floor and the retreat of the 2 stringy demodands...
Confused with Sigguts suggestion of letting the Dazed demodand go.
what the hell... Abyss... Whatever
"Mal .. Finish off the remaining demodand... It is affected by my magic but it may recover at any moment. . "
"Killing it does nothing to help our cause.. Save your arrows and let's continue."
Look Antaeus over for magic before continuing..
Cast Detect Magic,
While he disagrees with the idea of letting the demodand live, Rav will not expend any of his precious spells to end its existence.. Instead he mentally moves all 4 Ice balls onto the demodand so that it can enjoy them until it dies or the spell expires
Each round it will take 3d6+3 cold damage for each of the 4 Ice balls damaging it
"I agree, no need to waste arrows." Mal walks over to dead demon and pulls out his arrows. He retrieves 2 of the 4 arrows.
"Like Tenser said, we need but to find an ally or to here.. Surely not every demon here is an ally of Baphomet.."
Elise will cast extended heroism on herself and will use touch of glory to try and find an ally..
After the party kills Antaeus and scares away the demodands, you gather that you have gained some respect and the demon population tends to stay away, aware of the group's might. You detect a magical ranseur on Antaeus' corpse: +1 vicious ranseur.
As you continue to gather information in this strange city and keep your ears open, by the end of the fourth hour, you do catch up some news that some of the locals demons are whispering and do not mind sharing with you: there are rumors that a powerful female paladin was recently captured by Baphomet's forces, but inquiries as to where the paladin is being held are generally met with confused guesses or outright lies. The one thing everyone agrees on is that the paladin is not here in Blackburgh or Baphomet’s Tower — none in Blackburgh have actually seen her.
As you continue with your search for information, as you pass by an alley, a voice calls out to you. When you look down the alley, you see a fist-sized buzzing, flapping thing that’s mostly mouth. Rav recognizes it as a single vescavor — a creature symbolizing the chaos of the universe and normally encountered in large swarms. The vescavor does not attack. Instead, it speaks in a high-pitched voice: “You are the ones the Horned Lord fears, yes? The woman there called out a prayer to her goddess of light and the sun in public! So we all know... If so, my master would have words with you! Follow me, before enemies find you and kill you!” The winged creature waits for you.
Oddly, for creatures known for their ravenous hunger in swarms (they have been known to eat through objects, creatures, and structures), it seems this individual vermin is not lying to you. And Elise does remember that she cast Prayer in the middle of the street with a slew of demons within earshot.
"The creature is telling the truth.. We should follow. It might be our chance to find an ally. Looking to the insect. "Be warned creature that here you die permanently, so go easy.."
Follow the creature..
"agreed "
Rav follows, wary of a trap but hopeful
Mal follows the party along, wary of any ambushes.
"Good, we are in agreement. This way, try to keep up!" The single vescavor leads you on a twisted, tangled route through Blackburgh’s alleyways for several minutes before arriving at a large sinkhole in a crumbling open area and diving inside. The city’s narrow alleyways end here in an open area not quite fifty feet across. The reason for the opening is apparent enough, for what would have been an empty lot is instead nearly consumed by a crumbling sinkhole. The sides drop away steeply into a tangled mound of rubble, filth, and bones some 30 feet below.
You see from down a passageway thousands of vescavor that churns and crawls and seethes amid the rubble below. The swarm of vescavor form into a 10-foot-wide shape that closely approximates the form of a single vescavor and speaks to you in an insectoid voice of buzzes and hums: "“Listen, meat things, and hear the voice of ages. If you be not fools, then leave this place. Do not return, for to wander into the Labyrinth is to die. Do not seek the prison. Do not approach the mountains. Worship the Horned Lord. Embrace the greater powers that surround you. For to do otherwise means only that your bones will join those of a million others. And yet... Lord Baphomet allows you to openly walk his streets despite the fact that you four killed the Kalavakus Captain of the Guard. Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.” More buzzing ensues.
"Why did you invite us here to speak with you? Surely not to warn us of the dangers on this plane.....Can you help us or not? We are here to rescue the paladin. Are you Baphomet's friend? If so, why speak with us? Or do you seek to weaken Baphomet? In which case our goals are aligned."