Altai Iscarni's page

"Are we in Mechanus, perhaps? Where else could maniacal order like this be imagined, much less maintained?"

"No wonder the rabbitiod was nervous about being late. The axiomites do not appreciate deviations from the norm."

"Yeah, let's go. I could use a cup of tea."

"I could go either way. It could be interesting even though the man-hare seemed more than a little... off."

"It is, theoretically, possible to momentarily halt the passage of time. It is not, however, possible to very much while time stands still." Altai almosts starts on a weighty metaphysical explanation, but catches himself. "Also, being a little late for tea is no big deal."

"When, precisely, is teatime? And why do you need time to stop?" Altai looks dubiously at the anthromorphic rabbit.

Damn. Two weeks since the last post? Very unlike this campaign.

"Maybe we need to question Svipdag again about this. We have done so before, but he was not able or interested in giving us any information then. If you will excuse us, we will repair back to our ship and gather our wits. It has been a busy few weeks. We will of course inform you of any knowledge we manage to uncover."

"That is a point I had not considered. Perhaps our pursuers are looking for Svipdag's sword - you know, the one you are carrying."

"The demon Ixaxtli is a half-dragon... Maybe her mother wants to, ah, spawn again and needs a prospective mate?"

"Yes, I can see how summoning and binding such a prominent demon here would be fraught with political problems. However, I am tired of being attacked by powerful outsiders seeking to take possession of Svipdag. Do you know where we could safely dispose of him?"

"Well, now that I know her name, I could summon her and make her explain herself. It could actually be rather interesting. A lot of preparatio is necessary first, though."

"Tell me.....why this demoness attacked your cohort, if you know.

This is distressing, that demons should run amok in this plane, even if it is in Jotunheim."

"Certainly, ma'am." Altai makes a gesture towards Claw, who lifts up a cage holding Svipdag the turtle. "This here is the ex-dragon Svipdag. He is currently in the form of a snapping turtle, but can be restored to his previous shape and capabilities. For the record, I have no intention of ever doing this. Now, we have been attacked several times by creatures desiring to capture Svipdag. Previous assailants have stated that they were acting as representatives of, uh..." Altai ivoluntarily grows pale and twitchy. "Ah, Iggwilv, the Witch-Queen of Flanaess and the mother of Iuz the Old."

"Needless to say, this is a unpleasant situation to be in. The best way to stop the attacks is obviously to get rid of the turtle dragon. But how? I'm considering flying to the Mountain of Celestia and entrusting him to the archons there."

How does this look?

Fair enough. Is is sail powered, or does the vampiric thing in the sarcophagus drovide forward propulsion as well as flight?

Windjammers ugly?! I... *sputter*

Or are you thinking of spelljammer?

If we can take some time here (after talking to the head eladrin, obviously), I'd like to get the boat a refit. What does it look like, apart from being black? Is it a "normal" sailing ship, or does it look more like this? Also, it needs a name. Any suggestions? Personally, I find the Dimensional Shambler amusing, the way we bounce around the multiverse.

"It is good to be the queen." Altai holds back a bit, assumng that their eladrin guides or the party's elven members will do the introductions.

"Take the ship in, Xaaara. And make the landing smooth - we don't want to look like amateurs in front of an entire city."

Altai wanders over to the refugees from Leng. "Well, folks, I think it might be time to realise that you are never going home. Not only do I have no idea where any of you are from, it also seems likely that at least some of you have crossed barriers of time as well as space. As such, you need to make some ecisions about what to do with yourselves, and you are now in the quite literally best possible place to restart your lives. Do any of ou have any skills that would be useful here? Walk arund a bit, and see what you think of this place."

Diplomacy 12+18=30, if applicable.

"Well, that wasn't so bad. Then again, I grew up in Rauxes." Altai's face splits into a huge smile as he contemplates the forests and fields. "Looks great, doesn't it?"

"She'll hold together, o my captain!" one of the eladrin says. His eyes seem to say "we're all mad here." The ship gains speeds heretofore unimagined as it plummets down the wind tunnel.

"You'd better be right. I killed a lot of moonbeasts to get ahold of this ship. If it is wrenched apart by these winds, I will be most displeased."

Save the wand charges. We're flying to a friendly destination. Also, the ghaeles are high-level clerics and can cast healing spells.

Loot! The jacks-in-irons had 70.000 gold, the dead drow 10.000 and Jarl Kavli just gave us another 55.000. That is 135.000 gold. We're just for now, so we get 135000/4=33.750 gold each.

"We might as well get going. Xaaara, please take the ship out."

Before leaving, Altai collects Beldan and Evindra. "Some elf magicks will do both of you good."

We've kinda forgotten about the guys we saved from the mothman tower - we have about 15 civilians from alternative Oerths. We can bring them along too - presumably they will be more comfly in an elven forest city than in a giant village?

We'll leave Satari-san with the giants for now. He can establish a giant dojo and teach the giants the way of the exploding fist. Or he can head off to sit and meditate on top of a mountain somewhere.

Janosz leaves the eladrins with the other party members and heads over to Snøfrisk's hall. Claw drops off the drow carcasses at the ship and follows, carrying the dragon head. Once he sees the giant chieftain, he gives the him a quick summary of the fight and its outcome. "There is the carcass of a great linnorm in the pool; we left the decapitated, very dead giants outside in the sun. If you use the pool or its headwaters for anything, it needs to be cleaned up. As a token of our gratitude, I'd like to present you with the dragon's head - its skull will look suitably imposing behind your throne or over your hall's entrance."

"I'm confident we'll be back soonish after our trip to the court of Lady Lagertha. If not, I'll take the opportunity to thank you for your hospitality."

"Claw is my bodyguard. And he might technically not be alive, he is cetainly not rotten. He's a golem, not some sort of zombie."

If these toffee-nosed twits don't like my golem, they can go to Hades. As golems go, Claw is top of the line. Also, he saved my precious, precious skin in this fight. So, in conclusion: f%*& them.

"Claw, bring the dead drow. I can talk to them much in the same manner I could ressurect the giant Mysvær. It can wait a bit, though - we'll put them in the icebox for now."

OK. I was hoping for a signed contract or something like that. Oh well.

"Um. That sounds lovely."

"Oh well. Airsickness does not bother us. Talk to our helmswoman when we get to Snøfrisk's steading, and we will be on our way."

"I have a transportation spell that can bring us to Vanirheim prepared, but it is somewhat inaccurate and might involve some walking. Let us bring the linnorm head back to Jarl Snøfrisk and tell him that the sheep-rustling murderers that have plagued him are dead; after that, I can planeshift us there."

"However, I have a better idea. I happen to have a flying boat. If you would accompany us and be our guides, we could fly to Lady Lagertha's court."

"It is a long story." Altai sighs. "Do you have an hour or so? If not, I will be happy to call upon your liege and explain myself. It is the least I can do after you saved us from a very difficult situation - the dragon-fiend had us cornered."

Claw the Golem wrote:

...cobra-demons ... I hate them sooooo much.

If it makes you feel better, I didn't cherry pick them; I was looking for a reptile/demon motif.

Hey, no problem - they make fantastic sidekicks. Kudos to you and your encounter planning!

Bummer. That would've been cool as hell.

Okay, I modded back positions, and moved Altai back five feet. However, she does get an aoo on him; she does hit, for 19 hp damage.

So Altai has to beat a conc check of 10+19+spell level to get the spell off.

OK. The spell is Empowered Enervation, a 6th level spell, making the DC 35, which is hard. The good news is that Altai has an outlandish INT score and the Combat Casting feat. So - concentration check 12+31=43. The spell goes off as planned.

As an aside, I'm really badly hurt now. I have 27 hit points left, and Claw has used his healing spell on Emrael (of course, without Claw, I would have been at -47 hit points. So, thanks!)

Altai takes a step back from the draconic demon and casts a spell.

5' step away from the marillith to avoid having to make a Concentrtion check . The spell is an old standby - my empowered Enervation. Attack roll 12+12=touch AC 24, SR check 11+17+4=32. Damage 1d4=3x1.5=5 HD drained.

The marilith teleports and appears right in front of Altai and Pip. The repel metal spell repels her into them, and pushes them both back into Claw and Emrael.

Claw is a stump and stops the force of the repulsion.

Not quite - the spell is unidirectional, so the emanation only goes in the direction Elgan originally set. As the marillith is now behind the casting point, nobody gets moved.

"Ouch. That hurt a bit. CLAW - fix her up a bit!"

I obviously failed that save, but Claw's Shield master ability saved my ass. I'm 5' stepping to AM 21 before casting Summon monster IX, which I do through converting Gate.

Yeah, it matters if you enter the blade storm or if you were initially targeted by it.

Altai is thrown out of the wall of whirling blades and lands gracelessly next to it. "Bah. That was rather unpleasant. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again..."

I'm down 24 hp (Claw eats the rest of the damage). I move to AN 22 before casting Feeblemind on the marillith. Will 25 or have all mental stats dropped to 1 - it takes a -4 penalty to the save as it has spell-like abilities. SR check 13+17+4(Greater Spell Penetration)=34.

Claw does nothing beyond starting to regenerate. And with that, I think it is their turn.

I was thinking this bad boy, but Huge gold dragon has its upsides too. Both forms let you cast spells, and the shapechange spell lets you change forms freely.

Specifically, I was thinking of assuming troll form, then casting Repel metal or stone to keep the marillith out of the way while we deal with the nysrock demons. After that, it's rendin' time.

Move to AO 20 before dropping Horrid wilting on the demon and her snake buddies. Damage 17d6=62 untyped damage; a successful Fort 28 save halves the damage. SR checks 14+17+4=35 vs the demon, 11+17+4=32 versus Cobra 1, 10+17+4=31 versus Cobra 2.That oughta put a crimp in their chanting.

"Oh well. Let there be... light!"

I'm casting Sunburst in the AO-AP 34-35 intersection. The spell has 80' blast radius - everybody in it takes 6d6=20 damage and, more importantly, are blinded. A successful Reflex 28 save halves damage and negates the blindness. SR check 13+17+4(Greater Spell Penetration)=34. Finally, the burst of light dispels all dakness effects it touches.

That is, unless Snake Girl is undead. Then, all bets are off.

"Ahem."

"HEY! DISPEL THE DAMNED DAKNESS NOW, OR I'LL DO IT FOR YOU!"

AFK for a few hours.

"Wait! Waitwaitwait... Don't touch the darkness, at least not yet. I have a spell that should make short of any magical darkness..."

Any ideawhat might cause the darkness? Know (arcana)11+30=41. After I ID it, I think I'll blast it away with a Sunburst spell.

I don't think so. To make things easier, should we say he came along after we killed the jotuns?

Well, it was worth a try. ;P I'll try True seeing instead. If this is an illusion, I'll see it as such.

"Hmmm.... This usually works. Pull back a bit, just in case."

As a start, I can't see through it with my Goggles of night?

Well, the summoned beasts are gone. So - Gjetost, Emrael, Elgan, Pip, me?

Bag up the giant heads, pick up the dragon head and lug the lot back to Jarl Snøfrisk and tell him mission accomplished? The cave looks kinda fascinating - I wouldn't mind going back later to take a closer look at it.

Hmmm... At a glance, CR 17 seems a bit high. However, the dazing blow ability is just nasty - going one-on-one with one in melee is a death sentence.

Altai is clearly relieved when the last giant finally goes quiet. "OK. The pit ceases to exist after about five minutes; the dead guy will reappear then. Let's make sure he is really dead. And, after that, let's search the place."

What were these guys, anyway? Mythic giant giant hill giants?

Edit: W00t! Just topped a million xp!

Where are your troll tricks now, eh?

"An unpleasant spell, that one." Altai gets a bit queasy as the screaming giant takes a long time to die. "Not a good way to go."

"Apparently, a jotun dies with his mouth full of empty words, ineffectually scratching the ground. As for your vaunted toughness, that's empty, too - all you did was steal sheep and kill a poor shepherd. Any child could do that."

I'm casting Hungry pit underneath him. Reflex 26 or take a tumble - it is 90' deep and then chews on him for 4d6 for 28 rounds. He can climb out, though, with a DC 35 Climb check, which is not impossible for someone this big and strong.

"Oh, f%&# this s@$*. Life is too short to argue with sociopathic meatheads." Altai motions the water elemental back before firing a fiery mote into the shrub-filled metal box containing the jotun.

Elemental 2 moves to AI-AK 5-7, and Elgan moves to AI-AJ 8-9. I then fire a Fireball in through the "door" in the metal box. It goes off in the AO-AP 6-8 intersection; it only hits the giant. Damage 10d6=32 fire, Reflex 23 for half damage.