1.) What are some common dangers for this area?
2.) What exactly happens when someone tries to teleport with an elixir?
3.) Why do we suspect the Aspis Consortium?
"You're headed to Thuvia, it's a bad desert. Between Osirian and the Godless of Rahadoum, there are desert warlords who guard oases with steel and spell. The desert beasts are not to be taken lightly either. Trying to teleport with the Elixir has resulted in us finding slaughtered guards (those who we could find at all) and missing elixir. It's happened so suddenly that we've been unable to get a feel for what happened. Our intelligence on the Aspis was earned the old fashioned way."
Emir barely finishes his sentence when one of his conjurers bursts into the chamber in a panic. The conjurer disregards all formality"Emir! I’ve just received word from the Pathfinders’ convoy. They’re under attack by a company of bandits and require immediate assistance!"
Emir begins questioning the conjurer, obviously flustered by the development. It falls to Saabira to extract the convoy’s coordinates, and she quickly advises that you head out as soon as possible (and requests that you carry back the elixir if necessary.) Farhaana Zadeh, as if on cue arrives to teleport you.
The magic works in an instant. Gone are the comforts of the palace, and now you're in the biting sands of the Thuvian desert. The smoldering ruins of numerous wooden carts fill the area. Wooden debris rests against the sides of long-eroded stone walls. Bodies are strewn about the area, many felled by hideous wounds.
Whatever struck, is already gone. The battlefield is ruinous, but there may be clues.
What now Pathfinders?
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"Save the ones you can!"
Roakar whispers a small word and his cape melds away to be replaced by a very large set of black feathered wings with tinges of gold along the edges.
He takes to the air, flying at a roughly 45 degree angle to move into and above the destruction 60ft (double move).
He takes an immediate look in all directs as he goes.
Looking for anysign of the group that did this.
If need be Roakar will go higher for a better view.
Based on what you can tell...
The Pathfinder Society-sponsored caravan must have stopped here. Now, the caravan and its constituent carts are nothing more than wrecks strewn about the area.
The wounds on the dead are awful:
The types of wounds vary between four distinct types: crossbows, swords, magic, and claws.
Shards of lead—remnants of the convoy’s lead golem— festoon the battlefield.
The remains are pieces of a lead golem and you conclude that the attacks that destroyed the golem were somehow able to bypass its damage reduction.
Everyone catches a scarab in the sand among these ruins.
a meek voice sounds from the lee of one of the ruins, "May... may the road... You know the Pathfinder call, and quickly move to find a badly burned gnome. He introduces himself as "Rotuzack Paan" It doesn't take much to get his story, "I was on the receiving end of a fireball early in the fight and managed to drag myself to safety and observe much of the assault. I'm the one who sent the alert signal..."
He's having a hard time dealing with the pain.
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Hearing the meek voice, I'll move towards it as quickly as I can, "Lay still, you are among friends. Here, let me see if I can help with your wounds while you tell us what happened. Do not worry, the true lodge does not leave it's own behind."
"There, that should help, brother. So you where attacked by mages? Do you know who it was that attacked you? Or for what purpose?"
"No.... Not wizards."
The charges from the wand bring him practically to full health. Only the dried blood and torn equipment tell his tale now.
"First one group of mostly human raiders, then a second, attacked the convoy. They seemed to be at odds with one another. A member of the second group proclaimed loyalty to “Loaralis the Great” before cutting down a my friend Disret. That's not what got me though."
The gnome takes a moment to put his words in order, "I witnessed... something after that; the arrival of some strange creatures. I don't know what they were, but I know they can teleport away with live victims. I assume that the raiders’ teleportation summoned the aberrant creatures."
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Roakar lands if he doesn't see any enemies moving away from the tragedy. He begins to focus on finding any other survivors and starts looking for tracks to add to the knowledge of what happened.
"So 3 groups?" Roakar pauses before continuing "Yah think that the 3rd group of whatevers are what caused previous attempts to teleport the elixir to gruesomely fail?"
As Roakar ruminates, eight rugose figures instantly "arrive", rearing up to a man’s height, their large hands bearing far too many twitching fingers. The appear out of nowhere! Not only did they simply appear, but they seem to not be completely here....
They are all currently using Blink.
They used Dimension Door.
Dimensional Shamblers! These outsiders are masters of slipping in between worlds. THIS is why teleportation is the key. They must somehow sense it... Now that you think of it, reality seems thin here...
Round 1:
Baddies: ATK
Rumil: Go
Ignatious: Go
Roos: Go
Hugo: Go
Roakar: Go
By Nethys! They came out of nowhere! Each of you is flanked by some kind of creature! Each of you face a handful of claw attacks as they try to latch on to you!
Rumil:
MISS
GRAB!
Ignatious:
MISS
GRAB!
Roos:
MISS
MISS
Hugo:
MISS
MISS
Roakar:
MISS
GRAB!
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"I know these creatures. Scholars within the Society call them "Dimensional Shamblers", as they are very adapt sliding between the planes. This might also explain why "teleportation magic is taboo", as I believe these beings can sense and track it. I don't, however, recall anything about them appearing, . . . oh, I see. They are ensorcelled, blinking between this reality and their's, while opening doors through dimensions to arrive so quickly and undetected." Almost as an afterthought, "And I believe their presence here might be etching away at the walls between realms."
Yes, they burn!
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"Oh ho ho. Sneaky bastards!"
Roakar then breaks the grapple and moves 15ft.
Come on....take the bait...I can be sneaky too.
If hit make a DC 24 Fort save or negate the provoking attack and be dazed for 1 rnd.
If hit make a DC 24 Fort save or negate the provoking attack and be dazed for 1 rnd.
Rumil:
Roos:
MISS
GRABBED
Hugo:
MISS (Blink)
GRABBED
Roakar:
MISS (Blink)
Rumil is already grabbed.
Roakar BARELY manages to break the bear hug. The shambler's demeanor is beyond mortal ken, but it's outstretched arms seem to indicate that it's going to take the bait.
Round 1:
Baddies: ATK
Rumil: Go
Ignatious: Go
Roos: Go
Hugo: Go
Roakar: Break
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Hugo does not like the idea of being grabbed.
How unsporting of you both.
Move action vs 10+CMB + ?
Std action vs 10+CMB + 8
He first tries to dimensional hop out of their grasp.
If that works, he will still cast FoM on himself. Otherwise he tries to cast while in the grasp.
"You are very stubborn whelps. We will have to introduce you to Roakar.
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earlier-
"Looks like this lead are pieces of a lead golem and whatever took it out did so even with the natural toughness of that type of golem. Very powerful attacks."
Roos begins singing a worthy battle song (Standard action) to provide inspire courage to his allies...
He also takes a 5ft step to the side thus not staying flanked and does an attack against the black foe to his side...
...
...
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First calling on help to protect my new friend, as an Immediate Action I'll cast Liberating Command on Rúmil, then I'll fly directly up to 25ft, grabbing my metamagic rod as I do and Ready an action to call on Father's burning ire for such creatures that would simply attack us, and the innocent Pathfinders for once Rúmil clears the area, if he is able.
Immediate Action: Liberating Command
Move Action: Fly and grab Metamagic Rod as I move
Standard Action: Ready Action after Rúmil moves
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Readied Action: Intensified Fireball
=============================================================
I'll instead stay around ground level, shouting at both Roos and Hugo to come a bit closer to me. As an Immediate Action, I'll cast Liberating Command on Hugo, , then moving 5ft and Readying an Action to cast Blessing of Fervor directly after Hugo acts.
Immediate Action: Liberating Command
Free Action: 5ft Step
Standard Action: Ready for after Hugo acts
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Readied Action: Blessing of Fervor (all but Hugo unless he gets closer)
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Then I'll fly directly up to 25ft, grabbing my metamagic rod as I do and Ready an action to call on Father's burning ire for such creatures that would simply attack us, and the innocent Pathfinders.
Intensified Fireball, Refl DC 17 Half: 14d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2, 4, 1, 2, 5, 2, 4, 1, 5, 3, 4, 6, 1) + 1 = 43
Rumil TRIES to break free, but it's not enough. Nor can he hold onto the words of the spell! Regardless, Ignatious burns a trio of them:
One burns worse than the others, and it screams as Roos stabs his grabber (Black) drawing a lot of blood!
Hugo vanishes from the shambler's grip! A split second later he gives the party some much needed Fervor:
White: Holding on to Rumil it begins to phase out! Rumil must make a Will save to resist. There's something thin about reality here, and you take a -10 on the save.
Blue: Goes after Roakar. The big man swings, but his hammer goes right through the creature while it blinked! He tries again to grab the man. and digs his claws in for and tries to grab and does!
Green: Also goes after Roakar, thinking he can't attack, but attack he does! The hit spins the creature around and misses! Something about your weapons isn't right though... each weapon has done slightly less than excepted...
Black: Holding on to Roos it begins to phase out! Rumil must make a Will save to resist. There's something thin about reality here, and you take a -10 on the save.
Orange: Abandons the attack on Roos, and goes after Roakar Rokar fights through it all and goes for another swing for and tags the creature! for .
Yellow: Dimension Doors back to flank Hugo!
Red: Also Dimension Doors!
Round 2:
Baddies: ATK
Ignatious: Go
Rumil: Go
Roos: Go
Hugo: Go
Roakar: Go
White: 21
Blue: 21
Green: 58
Black: 25
Orange: 15
Yellow: 0
Red: 0
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Hugo, seeing Ramil hurt, will swiftly channel to heal the party (except Roos?).
positive
They seem to be a bit grabby. We need to drop them quickly. Abadar, send us your blessings to efficiently end this exchange
vs DC23
Casting Blessing of Fervor on party (again, not sure I can reach Roos, and Roakar probably ignores both)
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Roakar does not appreciate the blinky grabbing kind of play. He looks to the one grabbing him (blue) and smiles before saying "Ok Ok. Let's dance" and unleashes a torrent of attacks.
If blue lives it needs to make a DC 24 Fort save vs every hit. Failure = Daze, 1 rnd.
If Blue dies Roakar will 5-ft step onto his corpse.
Roll an AoO for the first 4 attacks against me. Spiked armor kick, Atk=1d20+22, Dmg=1d6+23, if hit make a DC 24 Fort save or be dazed.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Ignatious tries to burn away their very presence!
They recoil and screech, some more than others. Hugo can't shake his attackers, but he gets a spell off in time!
Roakar continues to try and fight off the assault. he tries to sunder the Blinking spell, but can't quite do it!
He savagely attacks the one on him, but it doesn't drop!
The shambler holding on to Rumil tries to shift out of this plane, but Rumil resists the spell! He's still grabbed, but at least he's grabbed in the material plane...
The shambler and Roos vanish! The other shamblers shout:
We have one, quickly get the others back!
You arrive on a strange sort of plane. The space around you is a roiling purple chaos. You stand on a large rock in a series of large rocks. Near you are two badly beaten, but living Pathfinders. There is also a man nearby in armor holding a sickle. He seems to be a mortal man, but his laugh is megalomaniacal. You're still grappled with the shambler. If more get sucked here, I'll put up a map. For now it's single combat with the shambler.
Round 2:
Baddies: ATK
Ignatious: Channel
Rumil: Go
Roos: Fail to break free
Hugo: Buff
Roakar: FIGHT!
White: 51
Blue: 85
Green: 73
Black: 40
Orange: 30
Yellow: 0
Red: 0
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"No worries Igi, I know those words. It's Aklo"
Roakar looks straight into the shamblers eyes and speaks with a forceful but restrained voice a bunch guttural tones.
"Bring us back all our people, now and earlier, and maybe we can have peace. Don't and I will hunt everyone of you down until I have my people."
Our tongue! He speaks it!" and "We must not fail Imlathre!"
Round 2:
Baddies: ATK
Ignatious: Channel
Rumil: Go
Roos: Fail to break free
Hugo: Buff
Roakar: FIGHT!
White: 51
Blue: 85
Green: 73
Black: 40
Orange: 30
Yellow: 0
Red: 0
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"They do speak, though it is some devil tongue I do not yet know. Rúmil?"
Rumil's hesitation and stammering seems to go away under pressure. "They've got Roos and I think they're trying to retreat now! They mentioned a name... Imlathre!"
Still surrounded and grabbed by one of the nasty creatures, Rumil simply tries to pull himself free.
Rumil then kicks Chippy into action, riding away and calling his bow into his hand. He takes up position further away from the action where he can scan the happenings from afar.
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"Imlathre? Do you recognize the name? Elven?" as he repeats it quickly three times to himself to help him remember it for later. "We need to focus on a few of these creatures at a time. Roakar, can you break and move to help Brother Hugo?", realizing that all Roakar probably heard was Roakar Smash! "Rumil, try to get some distance and do your upmost. But remember, we need one alive. Roos, we are coming for you!"