GM Rednal's Planehopping from Bard's Gate (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

"If I can find some creature who can navigate through the lead to imitate I can try to dig a way in maybe..." Mused the young man, still he had no idea if even the native inhabitants of the plane could actually do the deed and besides, digging inside a vault wasn't exactly going to earn them many friends in high places.

"But yeah I guess it's better if we just wait for the Gargoyles to lead us in..."

There were some alternative plans, of course - including sealing the door or dropping explosives in. Either might require a trip back to town, perhaps with one of you keeping the passage shut, but there were other options available if you chose to pursue them.

"Let's head back to town and see if we can get some supplies to help stake out the entrance. We can stop by the entrance to the vault to keep the guard informed of our findings and our intentions to further investigate."

Heading back to town to buy an appropriate hunter's stand with camouflage blind for 60g, unless someone disagrees or something happens along the way.

"You know what... We can also just jump in and take a look right?"

You could certainly do that. It wasn't clear how deep the hole went, but it was unlikely to be absurdly deep.

"Let's open it up shall we?

Asem will take a look inside if the hatch opens. He can see in the dark.

Anders checked his potion of fly in his wrist sheathe, then nodded. As Asem cracked it open, Anders raised his palm and a dim light began to glow as a tiny wisp of energy coalesced. He turned his hand, and the wisp began to descend into the dark pit.

Using my bound nexus to send a spirit down the pit. Might give us an idea on the depth.

The pit was big enough for a gargoyle to flap its wings and ascend, and went down some forty feet before a sharp turn into a larger chamber. Four gargoyles were here, talking - and stopped when they saw Anders. One of them slowly reached for what looked like a rolled-up piece of paper.

Meh Asem can't get there fast enough as he still needs a move action to change shape...

initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

"Turns out we are going to have to bust some gargoyle ass" He told cheerfully, as his flesh started again to shift and turn, revealing the monstrous form he had already wielded against the gargoyles.

Asem will wait for Anders turn however before jumping in, in case he has something to do at range he doesn't want to get in the way

"Drive out the thieves of this place," Anders whispered, then clenched his fist and a pulse of something rippled out. As the wave passed, color seemed to shift slightly, and five distinct motes of energy became visible floating around the man before vanishing again. Down below, the mote swelled slightly, then vanished entirely. Just as the gargoyle was looking to swing, a large stone lifted off the floor and hurtled towards it.

Not sure how much I can do within the time frame, but we'll see how this goes. Using the Soul Weaver's bound nexus to transform the soul into a poltergeist for 3 rounds, and it can use telekinesis to chuck a rock at a gargoyle. If we can get that far, telekinesis has guidelines for damage based on the object, likely 1d6 per 25 lbs for a hard dense object, and the poltergeist's telekinesis can throw a maximum of 75 lbs.

Telekinetic Rock: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Well, I guess damage doesn't really matter this round.

As the rock darted through the air, the gargoyle near what was apparently a scroll grabbed it and grunted something, then tossed the paper through the air. It ignited as it flew, then shot towards both of you - and detonated, sending flames up the hole and right into Asem's face.

Fireball: 7d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 6, 6, 4, 1, 6) = 25
Reflex DC 15 Halves (Anders): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15
Reflex DC 15 Halves (Asem): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
You both take 12 points of fire damage.

As the boom faded, all four of the gargoyles shot towards the back of the cave - and what looked like more magical tools.

The gargoyles are 40 feet from the entrance.

Anders raised his crossbow and gathered another spirit to him, this time imbuing his shot with uncanny aim and powerful energy to wrack the gargoyle with nausea.

Targeting the gargoyle that fireballed us, using 1 grit to make it a touch attack, using a tangleshot bolt and adding a sickening cryptic ghost strike (with a spell point for nausea).

Light Crossbow (touch): 1d20 + 8 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 8 - 1 = 16

If hit, the target needs to make a DC 15 Fort save against the ghost strike (Save: Sickened 1 round, Fail: Nauseated 5 rounds). It's also entangled, and needs to make a DC 10 Reflex save or be glued to the floor or fall to the ground if it was flying.

"Stop them from getting those tools!" Anders called down to his invisible spirit companion as he reloaded his light crossbow with another tangleshot bolt.

Can the poltergeist scatter the magical equipment with telekinesis?

Asem jumped down, using his wings to slow the descent and land on top of one of the gargoyles, claws and fangs ready do dig into their flesh.

Claw: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20 damage: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Claw: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (9) + 13 = 22 damage: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Bite: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15 damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14 + trip trip if bite hits: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17

Asem won't have rend this time however his bite attack has trip. He will also try to make opportunity attack with the bite + trip against garogoyles that move to retrive the items he has combat reflexes and +2 dex.

*Checks something* Asem, you may want to note in your profile's offense block that your attacks do magic damage. XD That's very relevant for foes like this.

Puncturing a gargoyle's hide was difficult for arrows - just hitting them was rather easier, and Anders' bolt splashed over the gargoyle he'd targeted.

Meanwhile, Asem...

...With a 30 foot fly speed, the gargoyles' 40-foot distance from the bottom of the entry shaft, and a bend from the vertical shaft to the horizontal chamber, can't charge for a pounce. Would you like to try something else with your turn?

Aren't they directly below the shaft? Anyway, than Asem will just do a double move to fly down and find a spot where he can land or even just hover that is within 10 ft of the gargoyles, but in melee with the smallest amount of them, since he has reach 10 he could still do opportunity attacks, but at least he won't take full attacks from all of them.

+1 post count.

As mentioned in my earlier post, they're 40 feet from the bottom of the shaft (which is the entrance to their base).

Fort Save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19
Reflex Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

As Anders' bolt hit the creature, it didn't seem to suffer the magical effects. It was, however, tightly gripped by the effects of the arrow, and screeched as it tried to get free. Asem, meanwhile, was rushing towards the group of gargoyles.

For their part, two of them managed to land amidst their tools, and one of them promptly downed the contents of their vial. A crackling aura of electricity appeared around their body, and they grinned slightly as they turned back to face you.

Yeah I have read the post, the way I imagined was that we had a straight line to them to be is that they were directly below it and that the distance was 40 ft in total. My bad no problem, instead if I got things right the distance is 40ft of shaft and 40ft more to get in range with them? So Asem wouldn't have been able to get close to them even with a double move right?

With one of the gargoyles suddenly electrified, Anders' spirit ally used the last of its energy to thrust out in an attempt to shove the other one into it.

Bull Rush (telekinesis): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

While Asem descended to deal with the others, Anders dropped his light crossbow next to him and drew his heavier repeating crossbow and took a shot at the gargoyle glued to the floor.

+1 Crossbow, DA: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 8 + 1 - 2 = 18, Damage: 1d10 + 3 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 1 + 4 = 9

Yeah, you need to actually get down the shaft somehow before you can move over and attack the gargoyles. Buuut things like ranged effects can help compensate for that. Or self-buffs! Especially because it's just the two of you, it's never a bad idea to have a couple of backup things to do with your turn in case you're not quite in position to affect an enemy. The planes can get pretty weird, after all. ^^ I'd be happy to toss a few ideas your way if you want some and aren't sure what might be helpful.

There's one gargoyle glued to the bottom of the shaft right? So he's open for a good maulin'? In other news, I'm supposed to be off work next week (vacation got pushed once already), so I think I'm going to finally have time to sit down and draft up my rebuild, and that should hopefully give us a bit more capability.

Well Asem has spent the last two move actions flying down up to 60ft at this point, so he should be in range now? He is going to charge the one gargoyle that isn't glued and doesn't have the electrical aura. By the way Asem is going to need a hand dealing with the electrified gargoyles I think... probably doing the full 3 attacks against them won't be that smart.

Claw: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18 damage: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Claw: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28 damage: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Bite: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25 damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 + trip trip if bite hits: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (9) + 16 = 25

he will still use the reach of 10 to make attacks of opportunity and try and trip the others if they get in range though, even if he will likely get zapped.

Anders' crossbow pierced into one of the gargoyles, and Asem ripped it apart a moment later, scattering the stony bottom across the bottom of the cave. That left three gargoyles (assuming no extras were hiding anywhere), and the two currently free let out a screech as they shot towards the exit. Of course, that did leave them open...

Both of you can make attacks of opportunity against each of those two gargoyles if you'd like! The last one is still trying to get free.

If Asem hadn’t shifted already he would have muttered a swear when the gargoyles screeched, likely the whole complex had been alerted of their presence now. He still did his best to try and catch one of the gargoyles into his fangs, hoping that the electrical discharge that would likely soon follow wouldn't be too painful.

Bite: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26 damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15 + trip trip if bite hits: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20

Asem will try to bite and use trip on one, if the electricity doesn't hurt him too much (3-5 damages or so) he will also try to do the same to the other thanks to combat reflexes. Hehe I don't know if trip does much against flying targets though

Bite: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15 damage: 1d8 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13 + trip trip if bite hits: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (12) + 16 = 28

I don't have a melee weapon, so I assume no AoO from me. It is time to keep them from fleeing though...

Anders dropped his heavy crossbow and picked the light crossbow up again. He quickly gathered his spirits to him and when he fired his tangleshot bolt was accompanied by a screaming bolt of spirit energy.

Tangleshot bolt + Exhausting Ghost Strike (touch): 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (4) + 8 + 1 - 1 = 12

Targeting whichever one is closest to getting away. If there's an opportunity to make one fall back down the shaft that would be great. Spending a spell point to make the target exhausted.

If it hits: DC 15 Fort, Save: Fatigued 1 round, Fail: Exhausted 5 minutes. It's also entangled and needs to make a DC 10 Reflex save or have its wings glued up and fall to the ground.

And I just reread tangleshot bolts, they're naturally touch attacks, so I guess I haven't spent any grit yet.

The Gargoyle Asem tripped slammed into the ground, and Anders managed to tangle up the other. By this point, it was pretty clear how the battle was going... the only question remaining was how you wanted to end it.

As Asem corralled the gargoyles back to the opening, a rain of bolts from above pinned them to the ground. It had started rather chaotically, but once the gargoyles had lost their advantage in numbers the skirmish ended quickly.

Anders called down, "How deep does the hole go? Just a simple cave, or more tunnels down there? Can you bring up the pieces of the gargoyles we need, and anything else that looks useful? When you get up here I can heal us both."

If he can Asem will try to get one alive to interrogate, does the tunnel progress past where we are?

From what you can see, there's no more to this area than the tunnel leading up to the surface and the cavern the gargoyles were living in. The globe you're on is only so large - going too far would probably brush up close to the vault, and that would be bad for any intruders.

sorry I realized that you replied only today :/ Than asem will try to capture one alive to see if it can be interrogated

The site's back! I'm good bringing one of the gargoyle back alive if that's possible. Otherwise just gather up what you can find and we can head back to town.

Show of hands - who had fun with Space Rat's Mandatory Fun Time? 8D

With everything in your favor, it was fairly easy to keep a gargoyle alive for interrogation - and convincing it didn't seem like it was going to be a challenge, given your vastly superior position.

I'm just curious what could have caused the whole thing to go down like that.

Asem, do you want to try to interrogate the gargoyle yourself, or bring it back as a captive and let the authorities handle it? Anders would probably vote to turn him in with the explanation that they seem capable of talking, reasoning and even casting spells from scrolls, so he should probably be handled like any other reasoning being, but you caught him so it's up to you!

I admit, I'm also curious. XD