I will be "listing" a post on this page so I can come back to your creations later, great job.
I'm glad you enjoy them, wraithstrike!
Those insane stat blocks are one of the many factors that make Turin the top GM I've ever known. I'd take him over anyone in the industry even. Second to none.
wowzers...Big G was one mean mamma-jamma. No wonder Da Cultist (?) got splatted.
Which book are you grabbing all these fantastic templates from?
Da Cultist will be fine.
Da Cultist will be fine.wowzers...Big G was one mean mamma-jamma. No wonder Da Cultist (?) got splatted.
Which book are you grabbing all these fantastic templates from?
I expected even deaths by mummy rot to be little more than a moderately expensive inconvenience.
Those insane stat blocks are one of the many factors that make Turin the top GM I've ever known. I'd take him over anyone in the industry even. Second to none.
I have a stat block that got Richard Pett's praise on the back end of the Savage Tide campaign thread. Combined with the KGM, carborundum, psionichamster, wraithstrike and others warms the cockles nicely. :)
Those insane stat blocks are one of the many factors that make Turin the top GM I've ever known. I'd take him over anyone in the industry even. Second to none.
Second that.
In a scant six days' time Our Rulers are slated to resume their rampage across their eastern frontier.
At some point they will enter "the Valley of the Dolls" and thus the last leg of Chapter 3.
What horrors await them? Only time will tell that grim tale.
If they play their cards right, they'll hit 15th level *before* the end of the "Varnhold Vanishing".
Of course, if there are any complaints, the players are perfectly welcome to make replacements at 15 point buy with strictly WBL for the "as written" level of the campaign. And no doll cohorts. (Well, not without knocking off 5 levels from each cohort, not to mention putting them at [level-2] and paying for the cohort's gear out of that WBL.) Some how I do not forsee my players going this route in this campaign ...
Today Our Rulers welcomed Hirish Varn to the table. One of Maeger Varn's brothers, he came south from Restov with his merry men in search of answers as to why Varnhold fell silent before winter set in.
During the winter months - resolving past-due kingdom turns (and dealing with the two months' game time of kingdom stuff that followed the bloodbath at Varnhold Pass) - it seems that one or more wendigo recruited new "members" from some sorry outlying extended family of farmers. As spring warmed up some rat bastard offed Starfall's General, creating 4 unrest as a result. (8 houses being built the subsequent month wiped that piddly concern right out.) "Oh noes, General so-and-such was brutally murdered! Wait, new houses? YAY!!" Ah, the quirks of the kingdom rules.
Finding themselves bereft of leadership for their miniscule military with Varn's brother in town, they settled on inducting Hirish Varn as the General of Starfall. All told Starfall's military forces are comprised of Our Rulers and the combined retinues of five of the six player characters - about 600 armed men, give or take.
Setting out to the east once more, Our Rulers set about continuing to explore the rolling hills and plains along Restov's southern border, east into the Dunsward then south towards the Tors mountains.
Along the way they recovered an aristocrat's masticated bug-riddled corpse, signs of human vs centaur warfare, signs that another Graul was in the area at some point during the long winter ... and with a 51 Survival check determined that ten brain-eating zombies of great stature had decimated the Nomen centaurs.
Our Rulers also came across the two surviving leaders of the Nomen, and agreed to their request to find their foolish daughter. Where did she go? Where else but the Valley of Death, known to Our Rulers as the Valley of the Dolls.
Working their way southerly, they entered the six mile-wide mouth of the valley, noted its general creepiness and pressed forward. About a mile in they came across the great stairs that wound their way deeper into the mountains. As the stair started, they noted alcoves carved into the sides of the stairs with the barest fragments of terra-cotta "dolls". As they went further along, these alcoves increased in frequency and the intactness of the various fragments also increased.
They made quick work of the 10 dread zombie cyclops that were milling around the base of the stairs, along with the crabby bulette, annihilated the six-pack of ettercaps and charmed quite a few of the pony-sized trapdoor spiders.
The local flora also contributed to the valley's reputation, bedecked with skull-encrusted flowering critters whose sopophoric pollen would result in death by consumption. Of a slightly greater lifespan was a clutch of moonflowers working their way out of the valley that, sadly, did not long survive violent protestations as regards their continued existence.
About 6 miles into their trek the characters with permanent arcane sight noticed an immense sphere that rose into the air, centered upon some point in the distance further along the winding great stairs. It was quickly determined that this barrier represented an enormous anti-life shell.
Rather than take the hint and simply send the five doll cohorts in to figure out the problem, a different tack was taken.
Scrying ahead revealed a stele planted in the ground around the bend from the waterfall just beneath the headwaters of the Little Selene River. In that bend were hundreds of alcoves containing intact "terra-cotta dolls", all watching eternally over the stele in question. The stele was clearly at the very center of the spherical emanation.
An hour later and our six heroes rode forth upon phantom steeds, reaching that apex some minutes later. Borrowing Da Mystic Theurge's strand of prayer beads, Mulder da Cultist proceeded to target the effect with a dispel check of 31. This bought them 10 minutes with which to descend to the stele and figure out a way to shut it down for good.
Needless to say, such a powerful defense was not left unguarded.
Six of the terra-cotta "dolls" were daemonically posessed by "agents" of the Archdaemons of Famine, Pestilence and War. As Our Rulers quickly found out, the terra-cotta dolls were in fact an archaic form of clay golem, highly susceptible to sonic damage.
That all of the terra-cotta "dolls" were modeled on one-eyed horned monsters probably did not endear them to anyone either.
A modest scuffle ensued, seeing the poor golem-doll-clerics smashed into broken shards of pottery. Three summoned Huge air elementals, a couple of blade barriers and two siroccos did not thwart Our Rulers for very long. Mr Straw's initial attempt to commandeer the stele failed by 1. 4 rounds and six broken doll-golems later resulted in a DC 65 disable device check taking care of the problem altogether.
The downside to typing these up on the smell-phone is that I have a hard time catching mis-typed words.
*sighs*
Anyhoo, we are presently slated to resume the exploration of the headwaters of the Little Sellene River in 2 weeks' time.
General Varn performed admirably against the doll-golems with his spiffeh magical adamantine greatsword. The man is a devotee of Gorum, a circumstance that could do very well indeed in Chapter 4. Or not. Despite the doll-golem's DR 10/adamantine and bludgeoning, his Penetrating Strike feat paid immediate dividends by ignoring half of that value. Even against the AC 38 dolls, he was successfully power attacking, single-handedly smashing a doll to shards with two hits.
Zin Serina - at the moment where she threw that 51 Survival check, noticed Lord Starmight has inexplicably gained a great deal of mass. Lord Starmight is Da Mystic Theurge.
Celebrating Starfall's 3rd anniversary saw the completion of Mulder Da Cultist's own Temple. Since this cult creeps out His Majesty, the temple in question, while a magnificent edifice, is located as far from the castle as possible in the capitol's newest, 4th district.
Olegton, sited on Oleg's Trading Post, is Starfall's "Vegas". Brothel, Arena and the kingdom's first Black Market tells all that need be said. Starfall's first winery and hard liqour distillery are also found here.
Erastown, sited in the forested hills of Starfall's western frontier, is built around the refurbished temple of Erastil. A sleepy village built around higher learning, the magical arts and beer.
Plans to found a city on the site of the ancient elven castle in the southwestern reaches of the forested hills are in the works, as is General Varn's (correct) insistence upon reclaiming the whole of Varnhold, including the village proper. Our Rulers enjoy that the roads, bridge, farmland and most of the buildings are largely intact.
Of some concern is that long border with Restov, the latter due north of Varnhold. The Nomen centaurs have agreed to return to Varnhold at the summer equinox to see what the state of affairs is. If Our Rulers play their cards right, they have a potential source of centaur-cavalry at their disposal.
Particularly amusing is expressed intent to uproot the stele and re-attune it to the terrain of Varnhold Pass. Nice!
So, the questions remain: just what happened six months ago to Varnhold? What awaits Our Rulers whence the brain-narfing cyclops zombies shambled forth? Will anyone have their brains masticated?!
One can only hope!
Sir Hamster,
I apologize most profusely for not sicc'ing your most excellent airborn druid centaurs with lancers and mobile archers upon my hapless player characters. Sadly, crunching the XP numbers resulted in an unpleasant revelation: too much XP. The delicate balance of XP is such that these XPs had to be removed from the equation.
As things stand, the PCs will hit 15th "on schedule" - at the conclusion of Chapter 3.
:-(
No worries...we'd hardly want to make the PC's lives easier, eh?
Giant anti-life-shell barrier? Genius!
Months ago when I wrote the "rough" for this particular scenario I wanted the soulbound doll cohorts to have their chance to really shine on their own accord.
The name was a multiple-entendre, in terms of the terra-cotta dolls decorating the length of the great stair, the defenders of the stele and in that the players' own dolls would get to play the lead roles for once.
Sadly, only Her Majesty's player seemed to have caught onto it. She did try to convince the rest of them, but it fell on deaf ears.
Even with a sixth player at the table, one of the PCs could have gone in with the five dolls and taken the stele.
I will post the golem-dolls' stat block later.
No worries...we'd hardly want to make the PC's lives easier, eh?
Giant anti-life-shell barrier? Genius!Months ago when I wrote the "rough" for this particular scenario I wanted the soulbound doll cohorts to have their chance to really shine on their own accord.
The name was a multiple-entendre, in terms of the terra-cotta dolls decorating the length of the great stair, the defenders of the stele and in that the players' own dolls would get to play the lead roles for once.
Sadly, only Her Majesty's player seemed to have caught onto it. She did try to convince the rest of them, but it fell on deaf ears.
Even with a sixth player at the table, one of the PCs could have gone in with the five dolls and taken the stele.
I will post the golem-dolls' stat block later.
I would have been happier if we had some sort of front liner doll. With our last fight, with only a monk, we all suffered greatly. Imagine if we didn't even have the monk in a serious fight like that, I don't think our under equipped cohorts would have much of any chance.
I would have been happier if we had some sort of front liner doll. With our last fight, with only a monk, we all suffered greatly. Imagine if we didn't even have the monk in a serious fight like that, I don't think our under equipped cohorts would have much of any chance.
summon monster VI pulls down celestial or fiendish ankylosaurs and Huge elementals and other nasty "front line" critters. Your dolls are more than capable of holding their own with a little bit of preparation. Which was available in spades, had you (the group) taken the few minutes to do so.
Under-equippage of cohorts is the group's own making. The cavalier attitude displayed as regards the 5,000 gp per player character you guys just picked up, at "loot" value I might add, by the group this past session was most baffling.
I have become very found of the new "Sanctify Corpse" spell in UM. More so because it is permanent. "Rest Eternally" was my only resort before, but an item that can make "Sanctify Corpse" permanent a 4 times to unlimited times per day is something Da Cultist would be looking for. He would not want another incident with the necromantic cyclopes.
I am also looking very closely at the construct armor rules. I have been wanting to play a mech pilot type character in a fantasy setting for a while, the only question is how best to do this with the current rules.
Wait, what - construct armor ? O.o
Da Cultist doesn't strike me as that kind of fellow.
Did you see the archetypes for magus ? Some good stuff I think.
My hardcopy doesn't arrive until later this week, probably very near the end of the week.
Rest Eternal is a curse - it's permanent until broken or the victim is restored and doesn't cost very much.
Sanctify Corpse lasts 24 hours. You need Permanency and 500 gp to make it "stick".
By the by, the spells in this book are not "common" - you will need to *gasp* do some spell research to unlock the UM spells.
Wait, what - construct armor ? O.o
Da Cultist doesn't strike me as that kind of fellow.
Did you see the archetypes for magus ? Some good stuff I think.
My hardcopy doesn't arrive until later this week, probably very near the end of the week.
Rest Eternal is a curse - it's permanent until broken or the victim is restored and doesn't cost very much.
Sanctify Corpse lasts 24 hours. You need Permanency and 500 gp to make it "stick".
By the by, the spells in this book are not "common" - you will need to *gasp* do some spell research to unlock the UM spells.
Nah, construct armor would not be for Da Cultist, but I can think of other characters.
Yeah I saw some archetypes for the magus. Still not sure what I want to make of it. If I were to re-create the original Sir Hexen Ineptus I probably would go with Arcane Duelist bard archetype rather than a magus, even though they can get hexes. Intimidation and social skills were always a side focus, and you can't do that too well when you need to focus on Int for casting, plus the combat stats. I would be happier with the Magus if they could use two handed weapons more regularly, don't mind losing some of their other powers to get that. Still not thrilled about no full base attack bonus in ether case with dealing with these classes. I miss the Duskblade and Hexblade.
WARNING: I post these as a direct copy-paste from my MS Word document on the goll-golem-clerics:
The Valley of the Dolls
The valley of the dolls is known as the valley of death/the dead to the Nomen centaurs residing along the eastern border of Varnhold.
Advanced Lifespark Tiny Variant Clay Golem Cleric 12th Encounter CR 17 (12+5 for 6 CR 12 foes)
• 2 Apollyon (domains: Earth (decay), Weather (storms)) – spiked gauntlets / horseman of famine
• 2 Szuriel (domains: Fire (ash, smoke), War (blood, tactics)) – greatsword / horseman of war
• 2 Trelmarixian (domains: Destruction (catastrophe), Evil (Daemon) – scythe / horseman of pestilence
NE Tiny Construct Space: 2 ½ feet, Reach: 0 feet each stands a foot tall & weighs 6 lbs.
Flavor Text: You see foot-tall terra cotta doll-like figures clad only in tabards of some strange cloth adorned with profane symbols. Their eyes emit a fell light, glimmering with a malevolent intellect.
Ability Scores: 14 Str (+2), 23 Dex (+6), -- Con, 15 Int (+2), 28 Wis (+9), 18 Cha (+4) UMD +31
Hit Points: 94 each, DR 10/adamantine + bludgeoning (68 from 14 total hit dice <11 [2d10] +57 [12d8]> +14 toughness +12 favored class); heals 1 hp per 3 hp of acid damage taken from magical attacks – excess hp become temporary hp
• Apollyon #1: -xx_____________________________________________________________ (famine)
• Apollyon #2: -xx_______________________________________________________________
• Szuriel #1: -xx____________________________________________________________ (war)
• Szuriel #2: _-xx_______________________________________________________________
• Trelmarixian #1: -xx___________________________________________________________ (pestilence)
• Trelmarixian #2: -xx_____________________________________________________________
• +12 temporary hp each from divine power
AC: 34, flat-footed 28 (touch +16 natural armor); haste AC 35 shield of faith = 38 (32ff); 39 hasted
Touch AC: 18, flat-footed 12 (10 +2 size +6 Dex); haste touch AC 19 shield of faith = 22 (16ff); 23 hasted
Speed: 20 feet, cannot run; Stealth +37 Senses: darkvision 60’, low-light vision; Perception +36
Base Attack +11/+6/+1 Feint DC 30 Intimidate DC 34 (10 +14 hit dice +9 Wis +3r -2)
• Melee/Ranged +19/+14/+9 (11 +2 size +6 Dex)
o 2 Apollyon: 2 spiked slams +19 (2d4+2 bludgeoning & piercing plus cursed wounds) [these wounds do not heal naturally; magic must succeed on a DC 26 caster level check for each such spell before taking effect]; haste 3 slams +20 +4 luck divine power = +23 (2d4+6); haste +24
o 2 Szuriel: 1 slam-greatsword +19 (3d4+3 slashing/19-20 plus cursed wounds); haste 2 slams +20 | +4 luck divine power = +23 (3d4+7); haste +24
o 2 Trelmarixian: 1 slam-scythe +19 (2d4+3 slashing/x4 plus cursed wounds); haste 2 slams +20 | +4 luck divine power = +23 (2d4+7); haste +24 <destructive smite = 2d4+9 = 2d4+13 w/ divine power>
• CMB +11 (11 -2 size +2 Str)
• CMD 27 (10 +11 -2 size +2 Str +6 Dex)
• SA: berserk (1% cumulative/round of activity), cursed wounds, haste (1/day, free, after 1st round, CL 12th)
Fort +12 (base 9 +3 resistance), Reflex +14 (base 5 +6 Dex +3 resistance), Will +21 = +19 vs. mind-affecting [-2] (base 9 +9 Wis +3 resistance); Weaknesses: open mind, spirit within, susceptible to shatter, shout and attacks/spells that deal SONIC damage (bypassing the golems’ immunity to spells as regards resolving damage as well as denying them any Fort or Reflex saves); Immune spells / spell-like abilities that allow SR, acid, construct traits
Skills (4x14): Craft (pottery) +26 [14r+3t+9 Wis], Perception +36 [14r+3t+9 Wis +6 skill focus +4 alertness], Stealth +37 [14r+3t+8sz+6 Dex +6 skill focus], Use Magic Device +31 [14r+3t+4 Cha +4 magical aptitude +6 skill focus]; Fly +10
Feats (7): Magical Aptitude, Skill Focus (UMD), Eschew Materials, Toughness, Skill Focus (Stealth), Skill Focus (Perception), Alertness Languages: Cyclops, Daemonic, Hallit
Domain Abilities
• Channel Negative Energy (Su, std, 7/day, Will DC 20 half, 6d6 negative energy to a 30’ radius burst)
• 2 Apollyon (domains: Earth (decay), Weather (storms)) – spiked gauntlet
o 12/day acid dart (Sp) 30’ ranged touch attack, deals 1d6+6 acid damage [cure themselves or another doll for 1/3rd this amount – simplicity = cures 3 points per dart for their fellow clay golems].
o 12/day storm burst (Sp) 30’ ranged touch attack, deals 1d6+6 nonlethal & -2 attack rolls for 1 round.
o 30’ aura of decay (Su, std action to start, 12 rounds/day): living creatures within this aura suffer -1 penalty accumulating every round & 1d6 lethal damage as their flesh decays (plants suffer 2d6 hp/rd); the Strength penalty dissipates 1 point per round outside of the aura – and resumes if re-entering the aura
o 30’ aura of winds (Su, std action to start, 12 rounds/day): creatures in the area cannot take a 5 foot step; enemies treat each square that brings them closer as difficult terrain (they can move normally in any other direction)
• 2 Szuriel (domains: Fire (ash, smoke), War (blood, tactics)) – greatsword
o 12/day cloud of smoke (Su): standard action, 30’ range, 5’ radius cloud of smoke [those inside take a -2 penalty on attack & Perception checks as long as they remain within the cloud and for 1 round after exiting – creatures within the cloud gain concealment against attacks from foes that are not adjacent to them]
o 12/day whenever it and its allies roll for initiative, it can grant one ally within 30’ the ability to roll twice and take either result. (Su, free)
o Wall of Ashes (Su, 100’ range, up to 20’ high & up to 120’ long | 12 minutes/day): the wall blocks line of sight; any creature passing through it must succeed on a DC 25 Fortitude save to not be blinded for (1d4) rounds – invisible creatures adjacent to / within the wall are revealed.
o Wounding Blade (Su, 2/day, lasts 6 rounds/use) – weapon touch gains the wounding property.
• 2 Trelmarixian (domains: Destruction (catastrophe), Evil (Daemon)) – scythe
o 12/day touch of evil (Sp) melee touch to sicken a creature for 6 rounds – such creatures count as “good” for the purpose of spells with the evil descriptor.
o 12/day destructive smite (Su, declared before a melee attack roll) if the attack hits, the attack benefits from a +6 morale bonus on weapon damage rolls.
o 12 rounds/day Deadly Weather (Su, 60’ radius aura): no two of these effects can be used on consecutive rounds (a) call lightning bolt; (b) heavy snow (all terrain = difficult); (c) howling winds (-8 Fly & ranged attack rolls); (d) driving rain (-4 Perception & ranged attack rolls)
o Whispering Evil (Su, std, 12 rds/day [mind-affecting]): each foe with a 30’ emanation that can hear it must succeed on a DC 25 Will save to not become fascinated for as long as the litany is continued.
Prepared Cleric Spells caster level 12th, concentration +21 | Close: 55’, Medium: 220’, Long: 880’ --/3/2/2/2/2/1
• 2 Apollyon (domains: Earth (decay), Weather (storms)) – spiked gauntlet
• 2 Szuriel (domains: Fire (ash, smoke), War (blood, tactics)) – greatsword
• 2 Trelmarixian (domains: Destruction (catastrophe), Evil (Daemon) – scythe
• Orisons (4): bleed, guidance, read magic and resistance
• 1st Level (7): protection from good A1 [x] A2 [x] S1 [x] S2 [x] T1 [x] T2 [x], shield of faith (+4 deflection bonus, 12 minutes) x3 each A1 [x] A2 [x] S1 [x] S2 [x] T1 [x] T2 [x]; domain: Apollyon: obscuring mist [_] [_]; Szuriel: burning hands (6d6x2 fire) [_] [x]; Trelmarixian: true strike [_] [_]
• 2nd Level (6): make whole (6d6x2 <average 42 pts>) x6 each; domain: Apollyon: soften earth and stone [_] [_]; Szuriel: flaming sphere [_] | pyrotechnics [_]; Trelmarixian: gust of wind [_] [_]
• 3rd Level (6): daylight A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_] , invisibility purge (60’ radius, 12 minutes (D), personal) A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_], searing light (medium range ray: 6d8 damage to creatures/6d6 damage to constructs and objects) x4 each A1 [_] [_] [_] [_] A2 [_] [_] [_] [_] S1 [_] [_] [_] [_] S2 [_] [_] [_] [_] T1 [_] [_] [_] [_] T2 [_] [_] [_] [_]; domain: Apollyon: call lightning (1 rd, 3d6 electricity = 3d10 electricity, such as when there is at least one of their summoned air elementals present ^_^, medium range, 12 minutes, up to 12 bolts) [_] [_]; Szuriel: stinking cloud [_] [_]; Trelmarixian: call lightning [_] [_]
• 4th Level (5): dimensional anchor A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_], dismissal A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_], divine power (personal – 12 rounds - +4 luck bonus on attack, weapon damage, Strength checks & Strength-based skill checks plus 12 temporary hp plus extra attack on a full-attack action) A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_]; unholy blight x2 each A1 [x] [_] A2 [x] [_] S1 [x] [_] S2 [x] [_] T1 [x] [_] T2 [x] [_]; domain: Apollyon: sleet storm [_] [_]; Szuriel: wall of fire (medium – ring @ maximum 30’ radius or opaque wall up to 240’ long – either = 20’ high; 2d6+12 fire damage to any creature passing through – concentration +12 rounds) [_] [_]; Trelmarixian: unholy blight (20’ radius spread – medium – 6d8 to good creatures, 12d6 to good outsiders <halved against neutral creatures> - Will save half & negates sickened for 1d4 rounds) [_] [_]
• 5th Level (5): dispel good A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_], flame strike (6d6 fire +6d6 profane) x3 each A1 [_] [_] [_] A2 [_] [_] [_] S1 [_] [_] [_] S2 [_] [_] [_] T1 [_] [_] [_] T2 [_] [_] [_], greater command A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [_] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_]; domain: Apollyon: call lightning storm (1 rd, 5d6 electricity = 5d10 when there is at least one of their summoned air elementals present, long range, 12 minutes, up to 12 bolts) [_] [_]; Szuriel: wall of thorns (medium – 2 hours (D) – 12 10’ cubes (S) – CRB pp 367-368) [_] [_]; Trelmarixian: shout (30’ cone – 5d6 sonic – CRB p343) [_] [_]
• 6th Level (3, DC 25): blade barrier A1 [x] A2 [_] S1 [x] S2 [_] T1 [_] T2 [_], greater dispel magic A1 [_] A2 [_] S1 [x] S2 [_] T1 [x] T2 [x], summon monster VI (1 rd, close – they summon Huge air elementals in whirlwind form) A1 [x] A2 [x] S1 [x] S2 [_] T1 [x] T2 [x]; domain: Apollyon: sirocco [x] [x]; Szuriel: fire seeds [_] [_]; Trelmarixian: harm [_] [_]
GEAR +3 tabard of resistance (ancient symbols representing their respective Horseman are emblazoned upon them, front and back – removing these symbols destroys their magic) – also functions as their divine focus.
Knowledge (arcana)
• DC 20: These tiny things are a variant of clay golem, an automaton empowered by an animating spirit.
• DC 25: Normal golems are mindless. Adamantine weapons and weapons bearing the mightiest of mortal enchantments are efficacious against them.
• DC 30: These particular golems appear to have some “spark of life” in their animating spirits. They are impervious to acid and almost all magic that is resistible.
• DC 35: Their construction, as archaic as it is, would seem to leave them susceptible to thunderous effects (sonic damage).
• DC 40: They are repaired by magical acid in addition to make whole and perhaps even a mundane method – perhaps pottery in a properly equipped laboratory with a sufficient supply of undoubtedly expensive material?
Knowledge (religion)
• DC 30: The ancient symbols adorning their tabards represent three of the Horsemen – Apollyon, the Archdaemon of Pestilence – these doll-golems are the pair with the enormous spiked fists; Szuriel, the Archdaemon of War – these doll-golems are the pair with doll-sized greatswords; Trelmarixian, the Archdaemon of Famine – these doll-golems are the pair with doll-sized scythes. These are the three lesser Archadaemons – be glad they do not bear the crest of Charon, Archdaemon of Death…
• DC 35: Based upon the tabard’s construction, they serve the doll-golems as a sort of divine focus.
Interestingly, Zin Serina "Da Monkette" - and by extension Molly Missy - are not going to be in attendance this next session.
This means the cast of characters are as follows:
General Hirish Varn, Fighter 14th.
Spymaster Starmight, Mystic Theurge 8th (druid cohort is busily herding deadly plants back to the Duchy's western frontier).
"Guru" Mulder "Da Cultist" UA Cloistered Cleric 14th - cohort Mr Straw Rogue 12th (trapfinder extraordinaire).
Her Majesty Eirwen Kirsi Eldritch Knight 6th - cohort Fluff Gugg Cleric 12th (Lamashtu).
"Torsin Tightbutt" Dawnflower something-or-other Wizard 14th (Universalist).
They are just now getting ready to enter the "trench run" (end game) of Chapter 3 of the Varnhold Vanishing scaled up for an APL of 17 - this coming Sunday 22nd May 2011.
Yes, this means that they are getting ready to enter "The Big V's" lair, with attendant obstacles, terrain features and critters. Who knows, they may even retrieve some goodies.
Will Our Rulers prevail, looting the corpses of those that fall before them like so many beggars? Or will they wind up on the receiving end of zombie chow-pounces ?
One can only hope!
Yay for carnage!
I miss my KM game, and wish the weekend after next would hurry up and pass!
Check your email for a nefarious beast, crafted by Altrum/Enrol's player.
I think there may be a spot to place him, in the upcoming VV trench run.
A most excellent and admirable beast. My regards to Enrol's player. :)
This Sunday's session may be in some jeopardy. For certain Zin Serina and Molly Missy, her Mollyzooka in tow, will be absent.
I have yet to hear for certain if General Hirish Varn's player is returning to the table.
Her Majesty Queen Eirwen Kirsi's weekend workload is taking an unaccustomed upswing, which would take both the EK and Fluff Gugg out of the equation as well. At least for the portion of the session that she misses.
This would leave only Mulder da Cultist, Mr Straw, Torsin Tightbutt and Spymaster Starmight as confirmed for attendance.
Granted, the minimum attendance roster is an APL of 16, well within the parameters. Each additional PC adds 1 to the APL for all practical purposes.
Adjusting what was intended will be easy enough to accommodate, thankfully.
Thankfully I am now well into preparing the baddies for Chapter 5, should Our Rulers somehow blitzkreig their way through the entirety of Chapter 3 in a single session. Possible, of course, but doubtful. Although doing so could deprive them of XP. Oopsie!
Today Our Rulers made the "trench run" of Chapter 3: Vordakai's profane tomb.
Electing to rest and recuperate, they encamped atop an impromptu "burial mound" atop the stele they had deactivated. Nothing untoward happened during the night's rest. While breaking fast Molly Missy, Grand Diplomat, received a sending from His Majesty requiring Zin Serina and her to return to Starfall forthwith.
Reconnaisance via prying eyes and magical means of locomotion scoured the black waters here at the head of the Little Selene River. They pillaged the loot from the empty wyverns' nest, noted a large school of dark fish returning to what was speculated as being their spawning ground and the "back door" 60 feet above the chill waters.
The tracks indicated that the zombified cyclopses had shambled forth from within this fell place. The female centaur had entered but not left. 50 or 60 people had similarly entered but not left. And even that a lone man had also entered and left before any of these other tracks had been made.
Our Rulers elected to ascend to the ledge on the "back" side and gain entry into the tomb by that portal instead of the obvious entrance at ground level.
Making their way through sulfurous fumes they entered the tar pit chamber by way of W21. They made their way across to the main ledge leading northerly, during which time General Hirish Varn nat 1'd his save against the toxic air and blew chunks of lung up along with his chow. Torsin was also having a hard time with it, but not too bad.
General Varn decidedly didn't want to risk continuing to hwarf lung, so he made a beeline for the door into W16, the sepulcher. Gulping for air, he gratefully accepted a potion of lesser restoration from Mulder the Cultist.
A spiral of ash, smoke and air only charitably describable as "breathable" accompanied the activation of an eons-quiet binding of some sort. An eldritch spawn exemplar piscodaemon swirled into being and the first laying of smacketh down for the session preceeded apace.
After a dimensional anchor from Spymaster Starmight fizzled against its SR 30, the piscodaemon unleashed the dreaded psionic blast, stunning two or three. A quickened stinking cloud set poor Torsin Tightbutt to once more spewing chunks.
In short order a gust of wind shredded the cloud, heals were distributed and General Varn was graced with a freedom of movement, protecting him from the prospect of having his brains extracted by those fearsome tentacles. A displacement completed the General's gamut of defenses.
While the daemon did proceed to attempt to layeth the smacketh down upon the mighty fighter, only one claw - its critical hit thwarted by the displacement and a single tentacle actually struck the man. The daemon was sent packing back to Abaddon in very short order.
The tentacle poison worked its cruelty nonetheless, although insight-boosted Heal checks made the difference in coaxing General Varn's system in (messily) purging the nasty stuff from his system before too much damage was done.
A charge from their remaining wand of restoration took care of the Con damage suffered from the neurotoxin.
Our Heroes worked through to the blasphemous altar, rescued Xamanthe the centaur, cleared out the basement - sending the centaur outside to hang out with the druid - bypassing the traps as they went - largely due to approaching them from the back side - before returning upstairs to the sepulcher.
There they opened the last door and made their way from W17 into W18. Vordakai himself materialized in front of them.
"A construct, a doll, a half-elf and a woman enter the tomb... this is bad comedy." A horrid wilting of spectacular effectiveness siphoned vast hp from 2 or 3 of the characters before Mulder da Cultist fired off his nefarious heightened reach bestow curse. Since this counts as "interaction", he succeeded on his Will save, too late recognizing the projected image for what it was.
Our Rulers resorted to the simplest tactic of them all and shut the door before beating a hasty retreat back to the buried stele. Her Majesty used her rod of splendor to erect the pavilion, filling pretty much the entire area of the stele. A rope trick from Spymaster Starmight well-concealed in the cliff face above the pavilion housed the others, while Mr Straw kept stealthy watch outside.
Needless to say, Vordakai did not rest on his laurels. Venturing forth under greater invisibility and packing his own +54 Perception and +39 Stealth bonuses without consideration of illumination, magic and circumstantial factors, his arcane sight revealed the extradimensional sleeping space for what it was. His opening gambit was to dispel that effect.
Thanks to a feather fall from Torsin Tightbutt, no one was pummeled by bouncing down the cliff face. Various antics and shenannigans happened before Her Majesty lit him up with a disintegrate following Starmight's searing light. Vordakai nat 1-d his save and ate 180 points of damage. Not thrilled at this prospect, V did ... something (I think) before a quickened dimension door whisked him to safety.
The morning broke over the ever more noisome valley when the PCs returned back to the tar chamber, dropped a wall of stone bridge across to the landing with the bronze door. Winding our way through the complex, Our Heroes turned right through the doors into W23 instead of the doors of W22.
Beholding 33 of the colonists of Varnhold, brains extracted and viscera strewn across the 50' stone table, including Maeger Varn himself at the far end of the table. Vordakai's last quartet of dread zombie cyclopses and Vordakai himself - at full hp - awaited them.
An epic slobberknocker ensued, with several missed high-powered rays - two of which were blown shots with disintegrate that took out the two support columns at the end of the room that the PCs entered through. Vordakai nearly one-shotted General Hirish Varn with his athame - due to 24d6 worth of empowered shocking grasp, raw stabbity damage, life-stealing and channeled lich's touch.
Vordakai did succeed in collecting payback against Eirwen Kirsi due to her failed save against his DC 31 finger of death that, sadly, I bolloxed on not using his flash of insight with. Thus she only went to 6 hp past "dead" instead of 166 hp past dead, returning to life via the determination property of her armor.
The party worked very well together, acting quickly to address afflictions and cure the characters that were gravely wounded in a timely fashion.
Our Rulers ingeniously used the 50 foot stone table to replace the support columns that Her Majesty so unceremoniously disintegrated by-accident-on-purpose thanks to Mulder's very timely nat-20 Knowledge (engineering) check and liberal use of stone shape.
They have only "mopping up" to do before concluding Chapter 3. They stored Vordakai's loot in one of their bags of holding for later examination, have to deal with a certain shade and figure out where the lich's phylactery is...
Stay tuned for the next session!
I present the aforementioned piscodaemon in its stat block nastiness below. Enjoy - and give me due credit if/when the thing obliterates any of your player characters. I like that sort of thing. :P
CR 17
NE Medium Outsider (aquatic, daemon, evil, extraplanar)
SR 30
Senses: darkvision 180’, see invisibility; Perception +27, Sense Motive +23
Initiative +16 (12 Dex +4)
Speed: 40’ swim 60’; Escape Artist +27, Fly +27, Stealth +27, Swim +35
Hit Points: 300, DR 15/good (120 [12d10 racial hit dice] +168 Con +12 Toughness); Immune acid, death effects, disease, poisons; Resist cold 15, electricity 15, fire 15
AC: 38, flat-footed 26 (touch +16 natural armor)
Touch AC: 22, flat-footed 10 (10 +12 Dex)
Fort +22 (base 8 +14 Con), Reflex +16 (base 4 +12 Dex), Will +17, +21 vs. mind-affecting (base 8 +9 Wis) [+4 racial]
Ability Scores: 40 Str (+15), 34 Dex (+12), 38 Con (+14), 36 Int (+13), 35 Wis (+12), 37 Cha (+13)
Languages: Abyssal, Daemonic, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 150’
SQ: amphibious, cannot speak
Intimidate +28, Knowledge (planes) +32, Spellcraft +32
BAB +12
- Melee +27 (12 base attack +15 Strength)
- 2 claws +27 {(2d6+15, 18-20/x3) plus 1d8 bleed plus grab = constrict w/ successful grapple (2d6+22)} and 4 tentacles +27 (1d10+7 plus poison [DC: 30 <10+6+14>, 1/rd for 9 rds; 1d3 CON plus staggered for 1 round; cure = 3 consecutive saves] plus grab = constrict w/ successful grapple (1d10+15); once it establishes a grapple or pin with all 4 tentacles = brain extraction as a free action
- Power Attack +23; 2 claws (2d6+23), 4 tentacles (1d10+15)
- CMB +27 (12 base attack +15 Strength)
- CMB Grab +31 (+35 once it has established a grapple)
- Ranged +24 (12 base attack +12 Dexterity)
- CMD 49 (10 +12 base attack +15 Strength +12 Dexterity)
FEATS: Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack, Toughness (B), Quicken SLA (dispel magic, fly, stinking cloud), Ability Focus (Psionic Blast)
Spell-Like Abilities CL 17th, concentration +30
- Psionic Blast – full-round action, 90’ cone, DC 31
- At Will – stunning blast, Will negates vs. stunned (3d4) rounds
- 13/day – 12d8 sonic damage, Reflex halves
- Sanity Blast - 1/minute – Will negates loss of 1d6 Wisdom for (3d4) minutes
- At Will – charm monster (DC 27), detect thoughts, dispel magic, dream, greater teleport, levitate
- 3/day – ethereal jaunt, suggestion (DC 26), stinking cloud - quickened (DC 26); dispel magic – quickened, fly – quickened
- 1/day – astral projection, plane shift
- 1/week – commune with Yog-Sothoth
Dominate (Su) – 150’ range, command and control via telepathy; daily DC 29 if initially fails DC 29 Will save to negate
Flavor Text: This hideous cross betwixt lobster, octopus and humanoid threatens with two powerful claws and four writhing tentacles. It stands about 8 feet tall.
Knowledge (planes)
- DC 20: This is an aquatic daemon known to delight in drawn-out deaths – such as dismembering a victim to watch them bleed out. They enjoy targeting strong, well-armed foes rather than preying upon the weak. Like all daemons it is immune to acid, disease and poisons while only blessed weapons are efficacious against them. They speak to the minds of creatures that cannot comprehend their blasphemous speech.
- DC 25: These daemons are resistant to magic, cold, electricity and fire.
- DC 30: They are also immune to death magic. As with many things spawned of the metaphysical realms, they are able to teleport at will.
- DC 35: This daemon is an eldritch spawn – a foul creature tainted by the Great Old Ones in a manner best left forgotten. It can extract a man’s brain in but a moment once it latches onto his skull with all four of its tentacles. Unlike a regular daemon of its ilk, this one cannot speak with its mouth. It can only slurp up the brains of those it extracts.
- DC 40: Its most formidable power is the legendary psionic blast – a blast of power that can shatter stone, stun the weak-minded or temporarily sunder the sanity of those who cannot endure the blast.
- DC 45: It is said that creatures tainted in this fashion by the Great Old Ones have great power to dominate and influence the weak-minded that are within range of their telepathic power. The very powerful amongst such creatures are likely to be able to turn your friends, even your most beloved spouse or sibling, against you.
And for thoroughness:
Feint DC 33 (10 +23 Sense Motive)
Intimidate DC 38 (10 +12 HD +12 Wis +4 racial)
Crazy sea bugs from outer space.
That was the idea. General Varn's player was impressed by the poison. He was very glad that he only had to deal with one dose of it - imagine the fun of 4 doses ... :)
Crazy sea bugs from outer space.That was the idea. General Varn's player was impressed by the poison. He was very glad that he only had to deal with one dose of it - imagine the fun of 4 doses ... :)
4 doses of the tentacle poison: DC (+6) 36, duration (+150%) 1/rd for 22 rounds, 1d3 Con damage plus staggered 1 round, cure: 3 consecutive saves against that lovely DC of 36.
Boy did the General get lucky ... stoopid displacement ...
I miss the Duskblade and Hexblade.
Me too :D
As the stars seem to be coming right with the excellent psionichamster's Kingmaker campaign, so too this Sunday 5th June do Our Rulers once more reconvene to engage in acts of mayhem and violence. At the start of the session they are where they left off at the conclusion of the previous session. This means they've cast a command undead on a certain dread zombie wizard, tossed Vordakai's loot into a bag of holding, are still 14th level and are licking their wounds wondering what to do next. My understanding is that they plan to finish out the tomb and locate Vordakai's phylactery before he rejuvenates.
Our Rulers, APL 20-21 (depending upon how one does the math):
- Duchess nee Queen Eirwen Kirsi, advanced female human EK 7th (Ftr 1, Sorc 7 <water>)
- Duke nee King Maximilian from Varisia, male human Magus (bladebound hexcrafter) - NPC <-- not a party member
- Councilor Zin Serina, advanced female human Monk 15th
- General Hirish Varn, advanced male human Fighter 15th
- Grand Diplomat Molly Missy, advanced soulbound doll Bard 13th cohort of the Councilor
- Guru (High Priest) Mulder "Da Cultist", advanced male reincarnated half-elf that was originally human UA Cloistered Cleric 15th
- Magister Draggy the Dragon, retired cohort of the equally-retired Warden, advanced soulbound doll Cleric 12th <-- not a party member
- Marshal Mr Straw, advanced soulbound doll Rogue 13th cohort of the Guru
- Royal Assassin Fluff Gugg, advanced soulbound doll Cleric of Lamashtu 13th, cohort of Eirwen Kirsi
- Spymaster 'Lord' Starmight, 'advanced elf' male Mystic Theurge 9th of Abadar
- Treasurer Mistah Mwangi, advanced soulbound doll cohort to the Duke <-- not a party member
- Warden Dawnflower, Palizard 14th <-- not a party member
Torsin Tighbutt is Wizard (universalist) 15th but as of yet has not taken a position on the ruling council. It is my suggestion that Mistah Mwangi step down from the position of Treasurer so that Torsin takes this position on the ruling council. Her Intelligence bonus is ... substantially higher than Mistah Mwangi's after all.
I miss the Duskblade and Hexblade.Me too :D
Curious; why do you miss them?
Curious; why do you miss them?I miss the Duskblade and Hexblade.Me too :D
I believe that is because they died like flies. :0
I believe that is because they died like flies. :0Curious; why do you miss them?I miss the Duskblade and Hexblade.Me too :D
Perhaps. Alone the Duskblade might not do to well by following by the rules properly by following the template RAI, the Arcane Disciple: Shapeshift Domain feat was very powerful, combined with the discontinuance of the arcane strike glitch would about nuder the effectiveness of the character I played. Being able to turn into a 12 headed hydra with all arcane bonus damages staking and applying equally to all the heads was in the end too much for even me.
P.S. Yeah the Hexblade dropped like a fly. However playing power is not always my goal.
Today Our Rulers continued in clearing Vordakai's tomb. Having tossed his loot into a bag of holding, they turned towards the doors into W22. Therein lay the corpse of one Willas Gundarson.
And his exemplar dread spectre Ranger 13th unquiet self. Rising from his miserable carcass with a +21 initiative bonus, he welcomed Zin Serina's previously absent player back to the table with a confirmed critical Improved Vital Strike incorporeal touch attack against his flat-footed incorporeal touch AC, bestowing 8 negative levels and a decent amount of aging damage to go with it.
A surprising slobberknocker ensued, with Gundarson's 4 negative levels per touch and 3 such touches per round on a full-round attack putting first da Monkette down 12 of 14 levels (and a hasty retreat into her own portable hole with Molly Missy in tow. Then General Hirish Varn enjoyed his own brace of 12 negative levels before 'Lord' Starmight pulled him via Travel domain through a solid stone wall. Gundarson dropped another 4 negative levels on Queen Eirwen Kirsi (before a death ward put paid to that idea) on top of the temporary negative level from her armor's breath of life the past session. A last-minute death ward on himself by Mulder "da Cultist" saved him from 4 negative levels of his own to deal with.
Starmight came out into the hallway behind him, a true strike on his lips. Unable to see invisible, that spelled the difference in the General's not spawning into a dread spectre in his own right.
With but 10 or 15 remaining hit points, Starmight literally lit Gundarson up with a maximized searing light, doubled due to Gundarson's +100% damage vulnerability to sunlight-based effects put him many many hit points into "once more at rest".
At this point Our Rulers beat a hasty retreat and encamped outside for 24 hours. Sadly, I had previously determined that Vordakai's body would not rejuvenate for 2 days, so he was still in his phylactery. Before returning to the tomb, properly timed death wards and a spiffeh bonus providing brace of spells permitted Zin Serina and Eirwen Kirsi to throw off all of their negative levels while the General shrugged off all but 3. As a result their one wand of restoration they've not exhausted since the Council of Thieves is now down to 4 remaining charges. Yay!
As it turned out, Mulder "da Cultist" fired off a discern location in an attempt to locate the lich's new body. The answer was "on this planet, in this region, in the Tors of the Levines, in an extra-dimensional space". Ut-oh'ing at the realization that one of those items of loot was the phylactery, Starmight preceeded to remove the loot one item at a time. When he grabbed Vordakai's athame, he threw a 37 Will save to thwart the DC 35 Ego check to not be dominated by the lich. Flinging it aside, the weapon hovered in the air.
Initiative checks flew and Starmight blasted the phylactery-weapon with a searing light, getting 6 points past the 28 hardness. Vordakai fired off his quickened displacement and then converted a power word stun into a horrid wilting that slurped 60 or 30 hp each from Zin Serina, Eirwen Kirsi, Mulder and Hirish Varn. Starmight and the three dolls were unaffected.
Unfortunately for Vordakai, Her Majesty had quite had enough of the necromancer, fired off a quickened true strike and lit him up with a disintegrate against which he failed his Fort save. 110-odd damage later dusted the phylactery and thereby the lich permanently.
Once that was over, they liberated the pissants of Varnhold, hauled the 33 meat popsicles out and set about both releasing the jar-entrapped ones once they were safely ensconsed back in Varnhold. Zin Serina, having attained 15th level during the past rest period (along with the rest of them) set about ressurrecting the 33 meat popsicles. Our Rulers even arranged to return (most) of their belongings that had been looted some months back.
Starfall properly became an actual Kingdom with the peaceful annexation of Varnhold. Over subsequent months they would expand to cover east around the Dunsward, secure a pledge of support from the Nomen centaurs with the safe return of their now much less recalcatrant daughter and worked with the lizard men to continue that relationship into a more mutual form.
legend lore on the Occulous of Abaddon and some clever deduction resulted in locating the hawt blind village girl amongst the citizens of Varnhold. A plane shift to the heavenly realms and an agreement to destroy the artifact without payment saw the receipt of a "boon" to be determined later. Thus biteth the evil artifact.
The session concluded with the exlporation of their eastern frontier, plans to not only expand the cities of Starfall, Erastown, Olegton and Varnhold but to also site new cities: one just south of Lake Silverstep (to capitolize on the iron mine, gemstone vein and dragonblooms as well as facilitate easier fishing on the lake itself); a second around the ancient elven castle at the southwestern edge of the forest on their western border near the Slough; and a third at the fork of the rivers just above the northern set of rapids (to control that approach into Starfall from Brevoy).
They also resurrected and healed the nymph that the Grauls had so hideously "tortured" to death (taking a liking to Starmight); 'Amy' the adult silver dragon (who took a liking to Hirish Varn) and as time permits everyone else that Zin Serina can persuade to return to life - including the dread zombie 7th level wizard dude from inside Vordakai's tomb. They didn't bother with Gundarson, if for no other reason than he was too stupid to return him to life.
Our Rulers made mention of concerns regarding "Pappy" Graul and the two dragon brothers-at-arms and their bevy of brides. (The group's APL places them at the "can do it" range of the dragons' encounter CR.) They plan to lure the dragons into a false sense of security by attending to ensuring their many wives' lives when they arrive just before the annual festivals celebrating Starfall's founding anniversary for the next few years' time before springing some hideously nasty ambush on them.
Shortly after completing their "trench run" at Vordakai's tomb they also remarked that cleansing the tomb's taint and refurbishing the place properly would add another resource to the kingdom: tar, and lots of it. A brilliant plan.
At this time tales reached their ears about a battle of mutual annihilation on the southern border of the River Kingdoms. General Tarne got his much-needed river transportation in order, rounded up his 500 troops and a couple of siege engines. Disembarking at several points under the cover of darkness, 'knight' Achille Parsoll and his 50 5th level paladins fought a battle of mutual annihilation against the larger force, decimating Tarne's army, wiping out the defenders of Liberthane (not to mention laying waste to the place in the process) to a man. Tarne and Parsoll died - Tarne decapitated by Parsoll's last sword stroke after he pulled himself up Tarne's longspear. The shell-shocked remnants of Tarne's troops were the only ones to return. Some say a fell presence gloated at the slaughter. Others that Milani wept for one of her champions, so rare along the bloody border with Galt.
Two affairs are in order for the next session on the 19th: a three-eyed hillbilly mutant has surfaced, terrorizing the settlers along the Dunsward. And a little help to go to Ustalav to find an overdue Oleg Leveton has been requested by his wife of six of Our Ruler's 5th level followers ...
I'm really enjoying this journal and your super-powered modifications to it. :)
Just curious, how much time do you spend upgrading the NPCs?
I'm really enjoying this journal and your super-powered modifications to it. :)
Just curious, how much time do you spend upgrading the NPCs?
I'm glad that you're enjoying the journal, Leonal! The "super villains" are a blast to stat up, although there are moments of frustration when something gets finished only to find that it was way underpowered in play. Or overpowered. I have a decent 'feel" for the kinds of horror the player characters can dish out right up until they hit a major level up point - such as 15th level (a major milestone for them).
Generally it is getting faster, both because I have to do less work retooling to the group's APL the further they advance in the AP and the sheer volume of hand-crafted baddies I've waded through. Practice makes perfect! :)
What really helps a lot are some of the third-party templates. The piscodaemon above went from a too-wuss-too-live CR to something respectable as a solo critter encounter at a final CR of 17. Had the PCs access to (or used) certain spells based purely on HD relative to CL, that critter would've been kibble even faster. holy word is rather unpleasant that way. Of course, that is not a spell that Mulder can easily use without blasting half of his own party...
Chapter 4 is the last of the KM chapters to require major overhauls of the significant encounters. Chapter 5 I made liberal use of the "mighty simple" template (revised as appropriate for the critter - smilodons don't need weaksauce SR, so they got a bump on their save bonuses instead.) This saved a great deal of time for Chapter 5's workload.
Chapter 6 has a page of notes regarding the "roughs" slated for the particulars at this point. I won't be doing much with those until at least a month from now, perhaps longer.
It will go relatively fast though, as 75% or so of the stuff either will remain as-is or get that aforementioned template to bring the CR closer to APL. It's interesting what it does for giant slugs ... <evil grin>
A few tidbits regarding some of the NPC's:
King Maximilian recently completed the replacement of his black blade, a storied weapon known to some as Blackrazor.
"Amy" is the adult silver dragon the brother-dragons slew a century ago, her bones found in the abandoned lair high in the Tors. She took Mistah Mwangi's place as the Treasurer of Starfall. I am going to award a +2 circumstance bonus to the bonus that she provides as Treasurer due to the completely appropriate selection. What better than a dragon to serve this role?
Svetlana Leveton is the wife of the better-known (if much less pleasant to get along with) Oleg Leveton. Oleg heard about a strange purplish construction material sourced from a small town in Ustalav a month or so back and set off with a few chums to investigate the suitability of it for the rather garish nature that is his namesake city. Since Our Rulers have more pressing concerns regarding very urgent nastiness menacing their newly annexed eastern territory, Svetlana sought out the more competent of Our Rulers' numerous followers: an elf barbarian, an elf fighter, a wizard, a cleric of Desna, a rogue and an alchemist.
This crew are one of each player character's 5th level followers, already statted up on 15-point buy with level-appropriate gear. Their destination: a quaint burg in Ustalav known by the name of Carrion Hill. The players will get these character sheets printed out and handed to them when they're ready to tackle Oleg's disappearance.
In the meanwhile, a certain three-eyed hillbilly mutant has to be "dealt with" before he butchers the entire population in a literal sense...
Cool, thanks for the info. :)
I'm currently running two groups in KM, and while one is rather inexperienced, the players of my long time group are quite clever (particularly the one player who is also my GM and GM-mentor^^). They bypassed the piscodaemon by correctly guessing the password and bringing Xamanthe safely back out by stuffing her in a bag of holding walking by the daemon. :)
Cool, thanks for the info. :)
I'm currently running two groups in KM, and while one is rather inexperienced, the players of my long time group are quite clever (particularly the one player who is also my GM and GM-mentor^^). They bypassed the piscodaemon by correctly guessing the password and bringing Xamanthe safely back out by stuffing her in a bag of holding walking by the daemon. :)
Good going for them. Guess that means old squid-face is still "on call" for when your group runs into V, eh? ^_^
Good going for them. Guess that means old squid-face is still "on call" for when your group runs into V, eh? ^_^Cool, thanks for the info. :)
I'm currently running two groups in KM, and while one is rather inexperienced, the players of my long time group are quite clever (particularly the one player who is also my GM and GM-mentor^^). They bypassed the piscodaemon by correctly guessing the password and bringing Xamanthe safely back out by stuffing her in a bag of holding walking by the daemon. :)
Had I thought of it at the time, yes. But V is long gone (raging barbarian with ring of freedom and good use of pit spells hurt when listed with only dimension door and no fly spell) and
They're lvl 11 (Out there NE wizard, NE cleric w/ summoner cohort, NG sorcerer and NG barbarian) and will begin KM4 shortly after they take back their kingdom.* I plan to upgrade it somewhat, but not too much since they're more or less the correct level even though they got the gear and wits to increase APL by at least 1.
Just for grins - and it being 3:30-ish in the morning my time - my fevered brain decided that it MUST know what an "army of cats" would be in the Kingmaker Mass Combat system.
Militia-Slaying Horde of Kittehs - CR 4
Gargantuan Army of 1,000 War-Trained Cats
hp: 12; DV 14; OM +4
Tactic: False Retreat
Speed: 3; Consumption 2; Morale +2
Special Ability: always treats opposing armies composed of NPC classed creatures as having been successfully ambushed.
Leader depends, although a(n) (Anti-)Paladin of Kittehs or a feline-obsessed Bard would be awfully appropriate. The more Charismatic, the better. :)
Preferred Strategy: executes false retreat on the ranged phase, taking advantage of their lack of ranged weapons. During the first melee phase, they shift either to an Aggressive strategy from Standard or immediately to a Reckless strategy depending upon their leader's capacity to rapidly signal the assault in combination with the false retreat.
- Aggressive Strategy, first melee phase = total OM +12 (damage bonus +3), DV 18
- Reckless Strategy, first melee phase = total OM +14 (damage bonus +6), DV 16
Having crunched the numbers, here's the latest statistical relevances as regards why the bad guys get so severely overhauled:
APL runs at character level +6 1/2. I round this down to +6, as there is a 4th cohort that is so unpredicatable in being present that it isn't worth factoring in the other 1/2 APL.
The factors for APL go as follows: +1 for 25 pt buy, +1 1/2 for advanced simple templates, +1 for a 6th PC, +1 1/2 for 3 primary cohorts, +1 1/2 for averaged WBL of 3 over character level. The range on a given character's gear value ranges from 2 over to 4 1/2 over with the median at a bit better than 3 over. If the 4th cohort is actively participating, she bumps the APL up another point.
As a 15th level group for encounter design purposes they're classified as a 21st level group - thus, encounter CR can go as high as 24 "by the book". I've not slated anything over an encounter CR higher than 23 any time before Chapter 6.
Level advancement - factoring in that there is to be factored in - will be as follows:
16th level after the successful conclusion of "The Way of the Warriors Three" in Part Four of Chapter 4 "Blood for Blood". +6 = APL 22.
17th level after the successful conclusion of "Whiterose" in Part 3 of Chapter 5 "War of the River Kings". +6 = APL 23.
18th level after the entirety of Chapter 5 "War of the River Kings" is concluded. +6 = APL 24.
Don't ask about Chapter 6 yet ... they've got a ways to go to get there after all. :)
The campaign began in 4707 A.R., with Our Rulers assuming the throne in May 4709 A.R. The big anniversary is celebrated in early July when the castle's construction was completed, the rulers were married and Starfall made 'official'. It is May 4713 A.R. when they cleared Vordakai's Tomb and thus peacably annexed Varnhold and its holdings, becoming a bona-fide kingdom.
July 4713 sees the 4th annual celebration, the request for the followers to find Oleg Leveton in Ustalav and the "three eyed stalker" terrorizes the eastern villages.
I expect Chapter 4 to begin in earnest some time in 4717-4718, with Chapter 5 slated for during the 4720s ...
Since matters concerning military capacity loom large on the minds of rulers and those in power, I've spent several days dreaming up various possibilities for "unconventional" armies. Besides the "common folk devouring horde of war-kittehs" posted above.
While conventional armies are highly desirable - if nothing else due to cost-effectiveness for the striking power - there will inevitably arise those desiring unusual armies. Whether armies comprised of golems, rust monsters, giant eagles or the like.
A few that I've pondered in some detail are as follows:
Rust Monster Army - discussed on a different thread.
Hound Archon Army - the consumption costs would devastate even Cheliax's treasuries in a month or less for a Gargantuan army. At best a Large army would be "affordable" (at a staggering cost of 600 BP per month plus equipage costs beyond the initial masterwork weapon they wield in melee for such a Large army for a 14th level cleric of compatible alignment, less at the GM's extreme discretion). One must take care to scribe in advance sufficient plane shift and teleport scrolls to rapidly transit them from Heaven to the Material plane - after giving them a good and proper description of their bivouac area - as well as sufficient offerings (as per lesser planar ally) to appease the hound archon's lord.
Construct Army - best one I've come up with that won't utterly bankrupt a nation in short order just to create it are glorified animated objects. Surprisingly effective, even at a Medium CR 4 or Large CR 6 army with respectable equipage, the only limitation is the time required for capable parties to construct them. A plethora of 5th level Wizard followers with the proper feats to craft constructs can greatly accelerate the construction time - my test write up only uses 2 able bodies, so it takes a while (but is affordable on the cheap) to get this army up and running.
Followers = Army - the cheapest, and least effective, but they're already available, especially to a larger group. With all 5 of my players' troops combined, they'd field a fairly respectable CR 4 Large army. Proper equipage and a siege engine to four would result in a fairly respectable force in terms of OM and DV, moreso than the CR 3 or 4 would normally indicate. If you keep their equipage reasonable, the consumption costs are also low if they don't have to spend too much time marching hither and yon.
Simulacrum army - probably the best of both worlds in terms of cost, morale and effectiveness. Lead-up time is considerable, but all you need is a caster's tower and that gem mine in the SE of their kingdom. Even with "only" 6 HD simulacrums of 13th level characters [at the start of Chapter 5 and the minimum level to gain access to simulacrum] that's a minimum CR 5 for just 100 of them (Medium army), with significant bonuses potentially garnered from making "fighter man" army (mixed in with the other non-caster character simulacrums) the main force with "cleric" army and "wizard" army as one size smaller auxiliary units providing devastating firepower. 3rd level spell casting adds +3 OM and DV for free - and ranged capability without requiring ranged weapons be provided them (although its a good idea any way, since there could be spell resistant armies out there). Increase the simulacrum's base CR if those they are fashioned of have significantly nasty base ability score arrays (+1 for 25 pt by, +2 if combined with the advanced simple template, and so on) or are made from higher HD characters and/or critters. A medium army of 100 6 HD simulacrums costs 75 BP to create (and 125 days' time), a large army 150 BP and 250 days, a huge army costs 375 BP and takes 625 days' time. Rulership duties extending this production schedule further by 25% (due to the weekly time requirement out of every 4 weeks) have been factored in.
Repairing them is expensive as well - invest in "healing potions" (make whole instead of cure wounds) and prepare to bleed BP to repair them back in a city with a caster's tower. Don't EVER permit a simulacrum army greater than Huge. Repairing armies is expensive and either fast (24 hours/3 days' work) or slow (300 days' work for the medium army = 600 for the large = 1,500 for the huge!), depending on how one interprets the description. Given the costs, I would go with the former interpretation. Medium 6 HD army repair costs 2.5 BP per army hp (Large costs 5 BP per army hp, Huge costs 12.5 BP per army hp).
July 4713
Starfall holds a festival every month. At this one they receieved Galen Starmight's resignation as Spymaster of Starfall. In his stead Torsin Tightbutt was appointed.
Once a day at breakfast they gather to chow down on a heroes' feast recovering from their hangovers. Having just finished off breakfast, His Majesty and Mwangi were tending to the royal heir to the throne, "Amy" the Treasurer was swimming in the kingdom's treasury, Dawnflower and Draggy were doing "stuff" in one of the other cities.
Out of the blue a half-dozen advanced solaric dark stalker monk 13th (weapon adept) would-be assassins teleported about the throne. Four of them surrounded Her Majesty, so they skewered her with their swords of subtlety coated with their infamous poison. The smack down was on - but not in the bad guy's favor.
When all was said and done, Our Rulers outright slaughtered five of the six and captured the sixth. It took some time and liberal use of sovereign glue, but they ferreted out that the remnants of the dark folk sought to exterminate the responsible parties that decimated their ranks in the vicinity of Westcrown six years ago. They sent their mightiest champions, who got their butts handed to them. Payback was brutal and thorough - Westcrown won't have to worry about any "dark folk problem" any time soon.
August 4713
Silas Graul, the next-to-last of the infamous Graul ogrekin in these parts, posessed a literal mystical third eye, granting him constant true seeing. He was a Wizard 20 (metal elementalist, scrollmaster) with Greater Eldritch Bloodline (undead) and, among other things, had taken the True Name arcane discovery. Most of his gear was a triple-advanced flesh golem shield guardian and the accompanying amulet. His "pet" was an exemplar Shemhazian demon, an immense engine of destruction that gleefully slaughtered any one it came across within the temple and set about desecrating the place by copping a squat in various corners.
Our Rulers came into this fight at the front doors of the temple buffed to the gills. Openin the door they couldn't help but see the Gargantuan demon copping a squat over a pile of shredded books. They were not immediately aware that Silas Graul and his flesh golem lurked further inside the bowels of the temple.
As the hostilities heated up Our Rulers were nicely bunched up at the doors. The demon hopped atop the wall over the temple's doors and riffed off a blasphemy that weakened many of them and temporarily paralyzed many. Spells bounced off of the demon's 32 SR, then it got ugly.
Sending the flesh golem out ahead, Silas was already benefiting from the shield other/i] that the golem was providing him. Silas' opening salvo was a [i]disjunction that ripped that lovely mountain of buff spells down, followed by a quickened lightning bolt right through the golem, Molly Missy, Torsin and Eirwen. The golem likes electrical damage a lot, and would never be seriously damaged during the fight.
Galen Starmight delivered a blindess spell on Silas that was quickly followed by a quickened fireball that proceeded an 80' deep hungry pit beneath his feet that Silas expectedly plummeted into, rolling a nat 1 and losing the scroll he held in his off-hand in the process.
The rest of the group either fired off replacement buffs or ineffectual spells against the demon. One crucially blown concentration check was for a holy aura from Mulder da Cultist, the only one of those that he had prepared for the day,
The demon's paralyzing gaze definitely put the hurtin on a few of Our Rulers during the fight, with freedom of movement spells being deployed to deal with that particular nuisance. The Shemhazian was tasked to try and kill da Cultist, nearly slaying him at least once to be thwarted by a heal spell.
Spells flew thick and fast against the demon, almost universally repelled by that 32 SR. Once Zin Serina got into melee range, however, the demon's time on this world was measured in two rounds.
Torsin Tighbutt, recovering from another bout of gaze-induced paralysis, apparently saw an opportunity she couldn't pass up - all three foes were within the 60' cone of her newly-learned cold ice strike spell. She overlooked the "minor" detail that Zin Serina, Molly Missy, Eirwen Kirsi and Fluff Gugg were also in that cone. While the monk evaded the blast easily enough, the rest were not so fortunate. While the demon and Silas both failed their saves (and the spell punched right through its SR), this single spell would end up spelling the doom of many.
While the flesh golem sent the one fiendish ankylosaur packing with a mighty blow, Silas cut loose having used his incorporeal bloodline ability to escape the hungry pit and use a quickened dispel magic to rid himself of the blindness, he was plenty happy to reciprocate via chain lightning followed by another quickened lightning bolt, dispelling that annoying slow from his shield guardian while dropping da Cultist into enough negative hp to trigger his armor's determmination property that left him stabilized at -11 hp and outright killing the Queen. Fluff Gugg was able to return her to life via breath of life. Torsin was down and unconscious between these two spells as well, and Molly Missy was in rough shape.
At this point the demon had been violently returned to the Abyss, one of Fluff Gugg's trio of fiendish ankylosaurs had similarly been sent packing and Silas's golem had belted Zin Serina a good one. Eager to finish off as many of Our Rulers as he could, he moved to proximity of the wounded Queen, not-so-wounded Zin Serina and in-dire-straights Molly Missy and Fluff Gugg. His swift action was a shrapnel burst, followed by the "grasp of the dead" courtesy of his undead bloodline feats. These two finished off Molly Missy, killed the Queen again and ensured both Mulder da Cultist and Torsin Tightbutt were thoroughly deceased. Fluff Gugg absconded with Her Royal Corpse, Zin Serina and Molly Missy's soul focus.
Galen Starmight delivered a feeblemind that rendered Silas into an imbecile while triggering his contingent transformation spell. It was a matter of the inevitable at this point, since His Majesty arrived via quickened dimension door moments after Fluff Gugg's departure. While Silas and his golem easily dispatched the ankylosaurs, they couldn't withstand Starmight's fire support and Maximilain's Blackrazor plus seriously nasty freezing spheres.
Our Rulers have a lengthly period of relative quiet to look forward too before one final kingdom event - then Chapter 4 begins in earnest.
Some feedback already received, which is a nice change of pace.
I am unsure of what method was used to remove the three permanent negative levels accrued by the messily deceased, so for the moment the presumption is that they used some of their massive haul from the gear looted off of the half-dozen monk assassins to pay for the component costs for the needed restoration spells rather than reduce their wand to its last charge (instead of 4).
All in all it seems that the two fights were nicely balanced for them. Had Eirwen's player's percentiles and d20 cooperated with her I suspect the second encounter may not have yielded so many deaths. There were some tactical blunders on both sides of the screen, which evened out in the end.
Zin Serina and Eirwen Kirsi's players are the primaries documenting the details of Starfall's expansion and numerous cities' development. I hope that if the other players have any requests that they communicate them in short order. Erastown is where I believe Torsin, Dawnflower and Draggy spend most of their downtime. Zin Serina wishes to establish a monastary of Tae Kwon Leep in the yet-to-be-established SE city to capitolize on the iron, gems, dragonblooms and even the fishing to be had on Lake Silverstep. I believe that Mulder "da Cultist" spends most of his time in his temple within the capitol of Starfall. Galen Starmight usually only visits during the monthly festivals these days. Eirwen and Fluff Gugg also spend most of their time in the capitol for obvious reasons. General Varn attends to Varnhold and the eastern reaches directly during his down time.
"Amy" lairs beneath the castle in the actual treasury. His Majesty and Mwangi split time between the castle, the caster's tower in the capitol and attending to field exercises for the followers. Combined these followers currently represent Starfall's only body of troops.
I am going to encourage the PCs to arrange for headbands of intellect "programmed" with Profession (soldier) so that during times of war each player can lead their own army. Right now that's a hodgepodge of CR 1 and 2 Small and Medium armies. With able leadership these small skirmish groups could buy some time in a pinch, although they would have to take care against larger armies lest they get annihilated.
His Majesty has requested an entire district on the capitol's western or northern perimeter be set aside for a long-term project. This district would only cost 30 BP or less and take 2 or 3 months to construct. Comprised of 3 city walls, 4 watchtowers, 4 jails in the center and 28 dumps, this district has a single purpose. Breeding deathgorger "air wings". Each such district will permit 50 deathgorger beetles to be raised and trained over the course of 5 years once the district has been completed. His Majesty does not trust the sparse population of wyverns in the Tors of the Levines to niether be disciplined enough nor in sufficient numbers to comprise a worthwhile expenditure of effort.
His Majesty's side project is, working with Mistah Mwangi, to begin construction of a small force of constructs - bronze men astride stone horses, with a few siege engines to be attached at a later date should the need arise. His passive income stream won't hit its apex until spring of 4714, at which point the twosome can begin construction. The first 100 of these will take 32 months to construct. The second "century" will be constructed after that. It is Max's hope that these forces can provide a sufficient "home guard" so as to deter opportunists from Brevoy and Mivon from attempting to take advantage of any absence of Starfall's major forces when they are away engaged on campaign. With the Brevic / Brevan civil war simmering on their northern frontier - currently not "hot" but something the consensus of opinion believes to be merely a matter of "when" - their long northern and southern borders are of strategic concern.
Presently their northern city of Olegton, eastern city of Varnhold and northwestern city of Erastown are only minimally defensible. Starfall's strategic resources include only a silver mine, although it is fully expected that they will incorporate the iron and gemstone mines as soon as is practicable. I suspect that the various "lairs" scattered about the kingdom with see fortifications developed there to enhance border awareness and general security of the kingdom.
The dragon-owned gold mine and its owners are of considerable concern as well. Given sufficient brides and time, the pair could breed a respectable force of young feral dragons in short order. At least so goes da Cultist's thinking, although this does coincide with General Varn's as well. It is presently anticipated that Our Rulers will get them to be comfortable in attending to the births of their young each year during the November festival for several years in order to lull the pair into a false sense of security before springing a vicious ambush upon them. How they plan to do so witthout endangering the brides' lives is a matter of concern that they will have to address during their planning.
If successful, they will reclaim the gold mine and eliminate a "hole" from within their kingdom. They'll likely have to eradicate the kobold miners though, as the Sootscales rather resent their enslavement.
On the upside, they have the options to levy centaur medium cavalry from the eastern plains as well as lizard men from their own back yard. The Hooktongue Slough to the west is the lizard men's ancient grounds, ones they greatly covet and would stop at almost nothing to reclaim as rightfully theirs if the nastier inhabitants were to be cleared out permanently. Doing so would cement the lizard mens' loyalty to Starfall and provide an excellent source of amphibious troops to supplement their centaur and conventional forces.
Besides, lizard men are simply cooler than boggards.
Simply wonderful Turin. I have yet to telephone and personally congratulate you on laying the lumber to your lamenting players, but I will do so shortly. I and all other readers on this thread certainly hope to see some more of this from you in the future. Those 'tears of joy' from your players, after you ass-surf'ed their characters royally, show you just how much they really care about the wonderful game session you treated them to!
Simply wonderful Turin. I have yet to telephone and personally congratulate you on laying the lumber to your lamenting players, but I will do so shortly. I and all other readers on this thread certainly hope to see some more of this from you in the future. Those 'tears of joy' from your players, after you ass-surf'ed their characters royally, show you just how much they really care about the wonderful game session you treated them to!
I only wish that I had been able to recall the chain of events during the 2nd battle with more clarity. Silas Graul did layeth the smacketh down most satisfactorily, despite his ultimate (and permanent) defeat. Pappy won't be able to return his last son to the living by any means available to him.
I will note that Silas' rolls to penetrate the SR of several characters failed several times, including his own crucially failed check to send Galen Starmight packing with a maze spell.
Ah well, all is well that ends well. Mulder 'da Cultist' got to try out his spiffy new and improved 'greater reincarnate' and the dice graced him with a shiny new half-elven body to replace the gruesome mess that became of his still-pink-and-squeaky former half-elven body.
A comment that I wasn't expecting was that some of the group wanted to see Max in his fully glory. That is something that I don't need them to see. More importantly, that is something that I don't need the bad guys to see.
Being more than a little concerned about Her Majesty's penchant for getting killed, His Majesty has taken steps to ensure his son's safety with layered defensive spells and a few choice magic items among them - combined with a 17th level Juju Oracle as primary body guard in the form of Mistah Mwangi. He has their wedding bands routinely charged with that neat trick detailed in one of the Pathfinder Companions. In a nut shell, when either Max dies or the Queen dies, a round later the band worn by the other dissolves. An enchanted hand mirror he keeps in his own haversack permits Max to discern location on his wife's band when his wedding band dissolves. Imagine his surprise and fury when he is looking out from the castle across the city to da Cultist's temple.
Silas was most likely glad to die fighting thanks to the combination of feeblemind and transformation, although it was a very short and one-sided fight. Silas' AC of roughly 30 wouldn't slow down the king even on his worst iterative attack. Not that it would have stopped many of the PCs attack rolls either. Silas' strength lay primarily in the opening gambit with the disjunction followed by using a few choice abjurations and a vast amount of electricity damage spells. His series of Eldritch Bloodline feats, four Spell Mastery feats and the feats to be able to craft his own shield guardian flesh golem ate up a fair bit of the rest of his feats.
Silas Graul, his Shemhazian demon and flesh golem, the dark stalker monk-assassins and the stat blocks for the dread spectre ranger, Vordakai and his champion lurk, waiting to be posted for others to pilfer and slaughter their own tables of player characters.
Speaking of which, let us peruse a certain cretinous Willas Gundarson, he who brought doom to Varnhold.
CR 17 Exemplar Dread Spectre Ranger 13th (guide, skirmisher)
NE Medium Undead (augmented human, incorporeal)
Initiative +21 (17+4)
Aura: (a)frightful presence 90’ – only effective against creatures with 12 or fewer HD; Will DC 30 negates frightened for 7d6 rounds; (b)unnatural 45’ – animals and augmented animals automatically become panicked, remaining at least 50’ distant from Gundarson at all times – most will seek to flee the tomb entirely; (c) strong evil
Speed: fly 80’ (perfect); Fly +49, Acrobatics +33, Stealth +51
Senses: darkvision 90’; Perception +34, Sense Motive +28
Touch AC: 41, flat-footed 24 (10 +14 deflection +17 Dex)
Hit Points: 318 (104 [13d8 undead hit dice] +182 Cha +26 tomb); Daylight Vulnerability: -8 penalty on all checks in natural sunlight; +100% damage from sunlight spells such as sunbeam, sunburst and searing light
Fort +26 (base 8 +14 Cha +2 profane +2 resistance), Reflex +29 (base 8 +17 Dex +2 profane +2 resistance), Will +16, +29 vs. positive channeled energy (base 4 +8 Wis +2 profane +2 resistance) [+9 channel resistance +4 tomb]
Ability Scores: -- Str, 44 Dex (+17), -- Con, 26 Int (+8), 27 Wis (+8), 38 Cha (+14)
Base Attack +13
- Incorporeal Touch +32/+27/+22 (2d6+2 aging plus energy drain 4 levels – gaining 5 temporary hit points per negative level inflicted); Fortitude DC to recover from the energy drain is 30 (10+6+14 Cha); create spawn: creatures slain by him that have Cha 16+ arise as a dread spectre under Gundarson’s command after 1d4 rounds – less Charismatic creatures spawn as regular specters in 1d4 rounds.
- Improved Vital Strike deals 6d6+2 aging plus energy drain 4 levels
- CMD 54; incorporeal (10 +13 base attack +17 Dex +14 deflection)
FEATS (8): Alertness, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth), Stealthy, Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Flyby Attack
Perception DC 25: Based upon the description of the man and your last meeting with him some months ago, this is none other than Willas Gundarson.
Knowledge (religion)
- DC 17: This is a spectre of the man from whose corpse it arose. Such creatures generally seek to draw the living into the abyss of undeath with them that they may know some temporary comfort.
- DC 22: Such creatures hate sunlight, being quite susceptible to it, including searing light. Their very presence drives off animals, often sending them into a panicked retreat.
- DC 27: You suddenly recognize that this is no ordinary spectre, but a particularly dreadful spawning of such blasphemous creatures. They do not have the usual powerlessness that spectres have in sunlight, although they remain vulnerable to resurrection magic. (The use of such spells in this fashion does not require the usual diamonds to fuel the spell.) Their touch ages and drains vital energies while simultaneously invigorating the creature. Those slain by this creature’s touch rapidly spawn into undead abominations in a matter of tens of seconds.
And yes, I totally forgot to include his ranger class abilities, including those from his archetypes. Feel free to add in your own as you deem fit! ^_^
Exemplar Male Cyclops Lich Wizard 16 (necromancer) = CR 18
NE Large Undead (augmented humanoid [giant])
continuous freedom of movement
Aura: fear (Su), 60’ radius upon sight: Will DC 31 negates being shaken for 26 rounds (4 or less HD are frightened); overwhelming aura of evil
Initiative: +14 (Dex +4 +4e)
Speed: 40’
Space: 10’ / Reach: 10’
resist acid 30, fire 30
Senses: darkvision [90’] 180’, low-light vision; life sight (blindsight 45’, 16 rounds/day, does not perceive constructs and other creatures that are neither living or dead, differentiates between the living and the undead); arcane sight, see invisibility, true seeing 180’; Perception +54, Sense Motive +46
AC: 32, flat-footed AC: 26 (incorporeal touch +7 natural armor)
Feint DC: 58 (10 +Sense Motive +2)
Incorporeal Touch AC: 25, flat-footed incorporeal touch: 19 (touch +4 mage armor +4 shield)
Touch AC: 17, flat-footed touch: 11 (10 -1 size +6 Dex +2 deflection)
HP: (384) 488 plus 20 false life, DR 20/bludgeoning and magic (10d8 racial [80] +16d6 wizard [96] +208 Cha +26 toughness +26 temporary bolster +52 profane); Immune to ability damage to Str and Dex, ability drain, cold, death effects, disease, electricity, energy drain, exhaustion/fatigue, mind-affecting, non-lethal damage, paralysis, poison, sleep, stunning; any effect requiring a Fort save that does not also affect objects or Is harmless; not at risk of destruction from massive trauma; does not breathe, drink/eat or sleep; destroyed at 0 hp; unaffected by reincarnate, raise dead, resurrection & true resurrection)
Fort +25 = +29 total (base 12 {7 racial +5 class} +7 +8 Cha +2 great fortitude +3 resistance) (+4 profane: tomb/bolster)
Reflex +19 = +23 total (base 8 {3 racial +5 class} +6 Dex +2 lightning reflexes +3 resistance) (+4 profane: tomb/bolster)
Will +25 = +29 total (base 13 {3 racial +10 class} +9 Wis +3 resistance) (+4 profane: tomb/bolster) = +34 channel resistance = +40 total (+4 profane +11 channel resistance)
Ability Scores: 31 Str (+10), 22 Dex (+6), -- Con, 32 Int (+11), 29 Wis (+9), 24 Cha (+7); gear = 34 Int (+12), 26 Cha (+8)
Languages: Cyclops, Giant (native); Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Daemonic, Ignan, Infernal, Terran (8 Int bonus); comprehend languages, tongues
SQ:
- flash of insight (Su, 1/day, immediate or swift = select one die roll for an action he will make before he makes the die roll)
- perfect health (max hp)
- enhanced caster (+5 CL)
- enhanced durability
- ferocity
- enhanced senses (+50%)
- enhanced special abilities (+50%)
- opposition schools: evocation, transmutation
- channel resistance +9
- rejuvenation (1d10 days)
- arcane bond (phylactery athame, see gear)
- bolster (Sp, standard, touch, lasts 8 rounds) {+2 bonus to channel resistance, +26 temporary hp, +4 profane bonus on attack rolls and saving throws}
- tomb of the four horsemen (permanently does the following: +2 hp per HD for all undead created within the tomb; undead gain a +2 profane bonus on all attack rolls, saving throws and damage rolls within the tomb; non-evil creatures cannot be called nor summoned into the tomb – summoned creatures cannot go past W5; renders his own bolster ability continuous; evil creatures within the tomb gain a +2 resistance bonus on all saves and a +2 deflection bonus to AC; evil creatures within the tomb gain a +2 morale bonus on all saves made to resist any effects establishing mental control or to possess them unless Vordekai is the source of these effects; +10 DC increase for channeled negative energy; DC to resist positive channeled energy reduced by 4; worshippers of the Four Horsemen – such as Vordekai – benefit from continuous freedom of movement within the tomb})
- tomb-persistent mage armor, shield, resist energy (acid, fire) 30, see invisibility, true seeing, arcane sight; tomb-persistent screen & veil on the Grauls & the village of Varnhold itself - effectively, the tomb itself maintains these spells as permanent for him.
Base Attack: +15 (7 racial +8 wizard)
- Melee +24 = +28 (base attack 15 -1 size +10 Str) (+4 profane tomb)
- Lich Touch +24 = +28 (1d8+13, 20) ( = 1d8+15, 20 negative energy plus paralysis curse, DC 30 31 to negate <10 +13 +7 +8 Cha> [FRA to heal himself with this @ 2d8+30]) (+2 damage – profane tomb)
- improved vital strike Lich Touch +28 (3d8+41 plus paralysis curse)
- Athame +32/+27/+22 (1d6+16, 15-20 plus bestows 2 negative levels, gains 5 temporary hp [crit 2d6+32 plus bestows 4 negative levels, gains 10 temporary hp], including +4/+2 profane attack/weapon damage bonus from his profane tomb: +4 (1d6, 15-20)
- 1st athame hit that deals damage discharges an empowered shocking grasp: 6d6x4 electricity, nat 20 = 6d6x8 electricity) [__]
- 1st athame hit each round delivers lich touch: 1d8+15 negative energy + paralysis curse DC 31 negates
- Improved Vital Strike (first melee attack, backed up by flash of insight as a swift action to natural 20 the attack roll): automatic critical: 4d6+32 slashing plus (6d6x8) electricity plus (4d8+30) negative energy plus DC 31 paralysis curse plus bestows 4 negative levels plus gains 10 temporary hit points
- Improved Vital Strike +32 (3d6+16 slashing, 15-20 plus lich touch plus bestows 2 negative levels, gains 5 temporary hp) | crit = 4d6+32 slashing plus lich touch (2d8+30 negative energy) plus bestows 4 negative levels, gains 10 temporary hp
- Ranged +20 = +24 (base attack 15 -1 size +6 Dex) (+4 profane tomb)
- CMB +26 = +30 (base attack 15 +1 size +10 Str) (+4 profane tomb)
- CMD 55 (10 +26 hit dice [DCT] +1 size +10 Str +6 Dex +2 deflection)
- CMD 59 vs. sunder
- CMD 61 vs. disarm
Feats (13): Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Shields Proficiency, Simple Weapons Proficiency. Martial Weapon Proficiency (athame <kukri>) Cyclops, variant; Combat Casting (11), Craft Magic Arms and Armor (Wiz 5), Craft Wondrous Item (Wiz 10), Defensive Combat Training (13), Great Fortitude (1), Improved Critical (athame) (15), Improved Initiative (3), Lightning Reflexes (5), Quicken Spell (Wiz 15), Scribe Scroll (Wiz 1), Spell Focus (enchantment) (17), Toughness (7), Vital Strike (9), Improved Vital Strike (19), Craft Rod (21), Spell Focus (necromancy) (23), Spell Penetration (25), Command Undead (B Necromancer 1st, 14/day channel energy to command undead, save DC 25 = 35 w/ profane tomb)
Skills: Appraise +27, Climb +39, Craft – alchemy, armor, jewelry, weapons +25 = +27 w/ mwk tools, Disguise +27, Fly +21; fly spell or equivalent = +25 plus ½ CL, Intimidate +37, Knowledge – arcana +31, Knowledge – engineering, geography, local, nature +25, Knowledge – planes +41, Knowledge – religion +27, Perception +54, Sense Motive +46, Spellcraft +31, Stealth +39, Use Magic Device +37
Prepared Arcane Spellcasting: concentration +33, +37 defensive casting (21st CL +12 Int), +23 vs. SR, DC 22 +SL (23 +SL for enchantment & necromancy); 1/day use arcane bond to cast any one spell that he is able to cast; convert prepared spells into necromancy spells w/ athame
- Cantrips (4+1n/day, DC 22/23*): arcane mark, bleed (n*), detect magic, read magic, touch of fatigue (n*)
- 1st Level (7+1n/day [4+3], DC 23/24*): grease, mage armor, shield, chill touch x5 (n*) | athame conversion: chill touch (n*), ray of enfeeblement (n*) (1d6+10 penalty to Strength for 21 rounds)
- 2nd Level (7+1n/day [4+3], DC 24/25*): glitterdust x2 (DC 23), touch of idiocy x5 (e* DC 25), spectral hand (n*) | athame conversion: blindness/deafness (n*), false life (n*), ghoul touch (n*), spectral hand (n*)[/i]
- 3rd Level (7+1n/day [4+3], DC 25/26*): dispel magic x3, displacement, suggestion x3 (e*) | athame conversion: vampiric touch (n* - no save, 8d6), ray of exhaustion (n*)
- 4th Level (7+1n/day [4+3], DC 26/27*): crushing despair (e*), dimension door x2, phantasmal killer x2 (DC 26), greater invisibility, enervation x2 (n* - no save) | athema conversion: bestow curse (n*), enervation (n*), animate dead (n*)
- 5th Level (6+1n/day [4+2], DC 27/28*): quicken true strike x5, feeblemind (e*), quicken ray of enfeeblement (n* - no save) | athame conversion: waves of fatigue (n*), quicken chill touch (n* DC 24), quicken ray of enfeeblement (n – no save, 1d6+10 penalty to Strength for 21 rounds)
- 6th Level (5+1n/day [3+2], DC 28/29*): greater dispel magic, shadow walk, quicken touch of idiocy x2 (e – no save), quicken ghoul touch (n* - DC 24), quicken glitterdust (DC 23) | athame conversion: quicken blindness/deafness (n* DC 24), quicken ghoul touch (n* DC 24), quicken spectral hand (n*), create undead (n* - M)
- 7th Level (5+1n/day [3+2], DC 29/30*): quicken displacement, power word blind x4 (e – no save), project image, waves of exhaustion (n – no save) | athame conversion: finger of death (n*: 210 hp/3d6+21 hp, close range ray)
- 8th Level (4+1n/day [2+2], DC 30/31*): horrid wilting (n*), power word stun x2 (e – no save), quickened displacement x2 | athame conversion: horrid wilting (n* ½ of 7d6x3 {7d8x3 to plants & water elementals}, no two living targets more than 60’ apart), quicken bestow curse (n* DC 26), quicken enervation (n – no save), trap the soul (n* - DC 30, if he knows the target’s name, ignores any SR and the DC is 32 – uses his last soul jar as a material component to slurp a PC)
- arcane bond 1/day [_] is generally used for PW stun, trap the soul or horrid wilting, although finger of death is certainly a viable alternative!
Spellbook:
- Note that the time required to decipher this spell book is 327 minutes (5+11+22+33+36+40+36+42+48+54) with the use of read magic in succession – basically, 5 ½ hours for each reader to peruse the book front to back. CRB page 219 details the time required to acquire new spells from Vordakai’s spell book: 1 hour of study per each spell, plus 1 hour per spell level for each spell copied over into their own spell book. Vordakai’s entire spell book is 327 pages, weighing a hefty 50 pounds – it is made of bronze plates and sheets - totaling a sale value of 9,500 gp (25 +110 +440 +990 +1,440 +2,000 +2,160 +2,940 +3,840 +4,860 – halved for being sold)
- Cantrips: arcane mark, bleed, detect magic, read magic, touch of fatigue
- 1st Level: charm person, chill touch, comprehend languages, grease, mage armor, ray of enfeeblement, alarm, shield, true strike, hypnotism, shocking grasp
- 2nd Level: blindness/deafness, detect thoughts, false life, ghoul touch, resist energy, spectral hand, arcane lock, glitterdust, see invisibility, touch of idiocy
- 3rd Level: dispel magic, displacement, suggestion, tongues, vampiric touch, ray of exhaustion, deep slumber, hold person, arcane sight, clairaudience/clairvoyance, explosive runes
- 4th Level: bestow curse, dimension door, phantasmal killer, charm monster, crushing despair, greater invisibility, animate dead, enervation, illusory wall
- 5th Level: dominate person, waves of fatigue, cloudkill, lesser planar binding, teleport, wall of stone, feeblemind, prying eyes
- 6th Level: greater dispel magic, shadow walk, veil, create undead, true seeing, planar binding
- 7th Level: mass hold person, power word blind, project image, finger of death, waves of exhaustion, limited wish
- 8th Level: power word stun, mass charm monster, trap the soul, greater planar binding, screen, horrid wilting
- 9th Level: dominate monster, mass hold monster, power word kill, weird, energy drain, wail of the banshee
Gear:
- Occulus of Abaddon; phylactery Necromancer’s Athema (kukri), CL 16th Large kukri (4 lbs, 1d6 slashing, 18-20)), +4 conductive dueling spell storing life-drinker: (a) 1/round channel lich’s touch; (b) deals 2 negative levels with each strike; (c) gains 5 temporary hp with each strike; (d) counts as aligned, cold iron, magic and silver for bypassing DR and regeneration; (e) +4 enhancement bonus on Initiative checks; (f) +2 CMD to resist disarm; (g) +2 Feint DC) Aura: strong evocation, necromancy and transmutation; ; Price: 144,325 +120,000 phylactery | Hardness 28, 80 hp -6 | when Vordakai animates the athame, it has a Touch AC of 23 [10+1 size +11 Int) and Fly 40 feet (perfect – Fly +40) – when resorting to attacking other creatures by touch or stab, his attack bonus is +31/+26/+21 (1d6+4, 18-20 plus deals 2 negative levels with each strike; +15 Initiative bonus; +21 bonus on all item saving throws (2+8+11 Int). If he instead elects to stab via Improved Vital Strike, this is a +31 attack (3d6+4, 18-20 plus 2 negative levels). IF he should somehow deal enough negative levels to replenish his body’s normal hit point total, his body rejuvenates on the spot, athame in hand. Note that this means (385/5=) 77 negative levels have to be dealt, which would kill all five of the characters that are normally susceptible to them plus two from some unfortunate living slob – the centaur or druid awaiting their emergence from the tomb perhaps? In order to do so, presuming that he is not able to dominate someone and facilitate escape in this fashion, he would have to resort to slashing on a full-attack basis. In other words, this would have to be an epic 30 to 50 round fight!!
o Vordakai inside: Ego 35 – this is the Will saving throw DC to not be dominated by Vordakai until his body rejuvenates 2 days from his destruction (27 mental ability scores +8 base value not counting the 120k gp of the athame being made his phylactery) – while bound within the athame, Vordakai may choose to cast spells, with the athame dancing on its own accord, uttering verbal components and suffering no need for arcane foci nor non-costly material components. Ironically, while within the athame he can see 60 feet – when his body reforms, should he not possess the Oculus, his original eye reforms. Depending upon what comments he is able to perceive, he may remain quiescent, waiting to be sold. He will then be able to reacquire most of his possessions easily enough, once they are sold.
o Spellcraft DC to identify the mundane properties (as a weapon and necromancer’s athema) is 31. The DC to identify that it is his phylactery by this method is much harder at a 58 (31 +27 from his mental ability score modifiers). - +3 cloak of resistance
- +2 ring of protection
- dueling gloves
- +2 headband of mental prowess {Int <ranks Knowledge (planes)>, Cha}
- 16,000 gp soul jar [can slurp a 16th level or lower character, DC 22 or user’s trap the soul DC, whichever Is higher = 31]
- 4,000 gp of onyx [to create undead from any corpses of aspiring rulers from – dread zombies, in this case] (800 per PC) – or, preferably, to create an undead from the 15 HD corpse of the crag linnorm in the foothills to the north as a dread skeleton by way of create undead. I doubt any one will ever know this tidbit, but it is entertaining nonetheless.
Now comes the "hit squad":
LE Medium Humanoid (Dark Folk)
SR 23
Initiative +12 (+10)
Speed: 70 ft = 80 ft within the primary radius of daylight as well as when in sunlight; slow fall 60 feet; fly 60 feet (average) on bat winged cloak @ Fly +15 = +17; Acrobatics +34 = +54 jumping, Climb +27, Escape Artist +34, Stealth +44
Senses: see in darkness, Greater Blind-Fight; Perception +32
AC: 34, 24 flat-footed (touch +2 natural armor)
Feint DC: 41
Touch AC: 32, 22 flat-footed (10 +4 monk +8 Wis +10 Dex)
Intimidate DC: 37
CMD: 48 (10 +13 base attack +3 Str +10 Dex +8 Wis +4 monk)
Bluff +32 to feint in combat (move action/greater feint)
Fort +15 = +17 (base 10 +5 Con), Reflex +23 = +25, evasion (base 13 +10 Dex), Will +18 = +20 (10 +8 Wis); Immune to poisons & light-based effects and spells, such as searing light, flare, sunbeam & sunburst as well as the negative effects of bright light; Resist fire 20; Still Mind = +20 = +22 Will vs. enchantments
Hit Points: 178 each (21 {6d6 racial HD} +62 {13d8 monk HD} +95 Con) (19 total HD)
16 Str (+3), 30 Dex (+10), 20 Con (+5), 15 Int (+2), 26 Wis (+8), 24 Cha (+7)
When within sunlight or the primary radius of daylight they enjoy a 10 ft bonus to speed and a +2 morale bonus on all attack rolls, checks and saving throws.
Spell-like Abilities: CL 13th, concentration +20 = +22, +13 = +15 to penetrate SR
- At Will – light
- 3/day – daylight, flare
- 2/day – searing light
- 1/day – continual flame, flame blade , flame strike , greater teleport , heat metal (close range – CRB pages 294-295), scorching ray
Base Attack +13/+8/+3; Perfect Strike = 14/day, declared 1/round, short sword only – rolls 3d20 – highest die is the attack roll, second-highest die is the confirmation roll; unarmed strike & short sword damage = 2d8
• Flurry Base Attack +15/+15/+10/+10/+5 (unarmed strikes and short swords only)
o Weapon Finesse Flurry +25/+25/+20/+20/+15 +2 morale = +27/+27/+22/+22/+17 (2d8+3)
2 swords of subtlety +29/+29/+24/+24/+19 (2d8+6, 17-20)
2 swords of subtlety when sneak attacking +32/+32/+27/+27/+22 (2d8+9, 17-20 plus 3d6 sneak attack)
• +36/+36/+31/+31/+26 when flanking – and thus sneak attacking – a foe (2d8+9, 17-20 plus 3d6 sneak attack plus 1d6 precision); confirmed critical hits against flanked foes provoke AoO from other dark stalkers that are also flanking.
• Finesse & Ranged Attack +23/+18/+13 +2 morale = +25/+20/+15
• CMB +20 +2 morale = +22
• SA: Sneak Attack +3d6; poison use – black smear (1 dose/blade) = Fort DC 18 +2 per additional dose; frequency 1/rd for 6 rds +3 rds per additional dose; effect 1d2 Str; cure 1 save.
• Death Throes (su): when slain they explode as per a 3d6 fireball, Reflex 18 half
• Gang Up – they are considered to be flanking a foe if at least two of their allies are threatening that foe, regardless of actual positioning – this means that they prefer to literally gang up 3 or more on a single foe!
• Outflank – whenever any of these dark stalkers are flanking the same creature, their flanking bonus on attack rolls increases to +4 – whenever they score a critical hit against the flanked creature, that creature provokes an AoO from their allies.
• Precise Strike – whenever any of these dark stalkers are flanking the same creature, they deal an additional 1d6 precision damage with each successful melee attack. This stacks with their sneak attack.
• Ki Pool (12; magic, lawful)
o 1 additional attack at highest bonus on a flurry of blows (swift, 1 pt)
o +20 feet to speed (total of 100’) for 1 round (swift, 1 pt)
o +4 dodge bonus to armor class for 1 round (swift, 1 pt)
o Cure 13 hit points (personal, standard, 2 pts)
o 920’ dimension door (personal, move, 2 pts)
GEAR
• 1 monk’s robe – moderate transmutation, CL 10th
• 1 chameleon power ring – faint illusion, CL 3rd; +10 competence Stealth; disguise self at will
• 1 traveler’s outfit
• 1 sustaining spoon – (not visible); 1 spyglass (carried by one of them on behalf of the entire team)
• 1 wings of flying – moderate transmutation, CL 10th
• 2 swords of subtlety –+1 short sword – provides a +4 bonus when making sneak attacks; moderate illusion, CL 7th – hardness 12, 12 hp each (touch AC 33 to target them directly; Sunder CMD 48)
• 4 spare doses of black smear [no market value – the stuff is derived from their living bodies]
Languages: Dark Folk, Undercommon (native); Common, Elven (INT bonus)
FEATS: Proficient with short swords; Perfect Strike – short sword (B), Blind-Fight, Improved Blind-Fight, Greater Blind-Fight, Shadow Strike, Weapon Focus & Weapon Specialization (short sword) (B x2); Improved Critical (short sword), Combat Expertise (B) [-4 melee attack = +4 dodge bonus to armor class]; Greater Feint (B x2), Weapon Finesse; Combat Reflexes (11 AoO/round), Gang Up, Outflank (teamwork), Precise Strike (teamwork)
SKILLS:
• Acrobatics +32 (19 ranks +3 trained +10 Dex)
o +48 or +52 when jumping (+16 @ 70’ speed, +20 @ 80’ speed)
• Bluff +30 (19 ranks +3 trained +1 trait +7 Cha)
• Climb +25 (19 ranks +3 trained +3 Str)
• Craft (alchemy, weapons) +11 (6 ranks each +3 trained +2 Int)
• Escape Artist +32 (19 ranks +3 trained +10 Dex)
• Intimidate +30 (19 ranks +3 trained +1 trait +7 Cha)
• Perception +30 (19 ranks +3 trained +8 Wis)
• Ride +14 (1 rank +3 trained +10 Dex)
• Stealth +32 (19 ranks +3 trained +10 Dex) +10 competence = +42
Silas Graul
Here's the Cliff Notes version:
Advanced Ravenous Human Ogrekin Wizard 20 (metal elementalist, scrollmaster)
Permanent Spells: arcane sight, see invisibility, resistance; +5 greater magic fang for his unarmed strike and bite
Contingency - transformation when feebleminded
Ability Scores: 38 Str (+14), 22 Dex (+6), 32 Con (+11), 31 Int (+10), 20 Wis (+5), 17 Cha (+3); transformation = 42 Str (+16), 26 Dex (+8), 36 Con (+13)
HP: 290, DR 5/--, fast healing, cannibal healing
Class Features: scroll blade, scroll shield, the blood is the life 6/day, improved scroll casting, metal magic, grasp of the dead 3/day, shrapnel burst 5/day, incorporeal form 20 rounds/day, true name 1/day (exemplar shemhazian demon)
Feats: Defensive Combat Training, Skill Focus – Knowledge (religion), Scribe Scroll, Eldritch Heritage – Undead (Sanguine) bloodline: “The Blood is the Life” (UM p.72), Arcane Builder – Scrolls (arcane discovery – UM p. 86), Fast Study (arcane discovery, UM p. 86), Eschew Materials, Heighten Spell, Quicken Spell, Improved Eldritch Heritage – Undead bloodline: “Grasp of the Dead” (CRB p. 77), Spell Mastery x4 (41 spells total), True Name (arcane discovery – UM p. 87), Greater Eldritch Heritage – Undead bloodline: “Incorporeal Form” (CRB p. 77), Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Blind-Fight
Skills: • Acrobatics +37 (20 ranks +3 trained +8 racial +6 Dex)
• Bluff +26 (20 ranks +3 trained +3 Cha)
o Bluff humanoids +30 (+4 favored enemy)
• Climb +45 (20 ranks +3 trained +8 racial +14 Str)
• Escape Artist +34 (20 ranks +3 trained +4 racial +6 Dex)
• Intimidate +30 (20 ranks +3 trained +4 racial +3 Cha)
• Knowledge (arcana, local, planes) +33 (20 ranks each +3 trained +10 Int)
o Knowledge (local – humanoids) +37 (+4 favored enemy)
• Perception +36 (20 ranks +3 trained +8 racial +5 Wis)
o Perception – humanoids +40 (+4 favored enemy)
• Sense Motive +28 (20 ranks +3 trained +5 Wis)
o Sense Motive – humanoids +32 (+4 favored enemy)
• Spellcraft +33 (20 ranks +3 trained +10 Int)
• Stealth +33 (20 ranks +3 trained +4 racial +6 Dex)
• Survival +36 (20 ranks +3 trained +8 racial +5 Wis)
o Survival – humanoids +40 (+4 favored enemy)
Mastered Spells: arcane mark, mending, read magic, gravity bow, magic weapon, shocking grasp, defensive shock, glitterdust, make whole, shatter, silk to steel, chill metal, dispel magic, heat metal, lightning bolt, keen edge, magic weapon – greater, malfunction, shout, stoneskin, lightning arc, major creation, rapid repair, rusting grasp, soothe construct, unbreakable construct, chain lightning, disintegrate, wall of iron, control construct, ethereal jaunt, statue, call construct, iron body, shout – greater, stormbolts, disjunction, meteor swarm, ride the lightning
Spell Book: detect magic, prestidigitation, resistance, true strike, bull’s strength, see invisibility, animate dead, arcane sight, calcific touch, permanency, contingency, geas/quest, transformation, limited wish, mind blank
Gear:
- 5,000 gp sapphire x2 {1 w/ call construct}
- 1 contingent transformation – triggers when he is feebleminded – CL 20th – for 2 minutes he cannot cast spells nor use spell completion & spell trigger items; base attack increases to +20; +5 competence bonus on Fortitude saves; +4 enhancement bonuses to Strength, Dex and Con
- 1 feather fall ring of sustenance
- 1 shield guardian amulet
- 2 scrolls of iron body – CL 15th
- 1 scroll of disjunction – CL 20th
- 1 scroll of heightened malfunction (9th level – DC 29 Fort negates) – CL 20th
- 4 pounds of gold dust – 1 pound per wall of iron [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
- 1,000 gp value of diamond dust – 250 gp per stoneskin [x] [ ] [ ] [ ]
- arcane foci in component pouch: 1 clear crystal prism [read magic], 1 iron horn [greater shout], 1 bit of fur, a crystal rod with 20 silver pins [chain lightning], 1 miniature statuette of himself [contingency] not visible unless he uses the focus in question – the statuette wouldn’t be found until it was looted or pick-pocketed. The iron horn is clearly visible.
- 1 heavy crossbow
- 1 case of 10 whetstone-sharpened adamantine bolts
- 1 blank silk scroll (for use with silk to steel – formerly inscribed with mind blank)
His shield guardian is a 19 HD large flesh golem with the advanced simple template applied three times and the shield guardian "package". its stored spell that triggered with its first blow is calcific touch at Silas' DC.
The Shemhazian demon has the exemplar template applied.
:)