As you enter the Ziggurat of Infinity, your world is transformed. You are enveloped by a featureless fog and time seems meaningless. Whether you wander the fog or remain still, in some measure of heartbeats it lift, revealing the scene now before you.
In front of you lies a vast and immeasurably ancient cemetery. Sixty-five-foot tall menhirs mark the entries to the cemetery, except to the east where one has fallen, blocking the egress. Shattered remains of what must have once been a stone statue rising hundreds of feet in the air lie scattered throughout the site, each measuring over sixty feet themselves, and easily twice the width and breadth of the menhirs. Two mausoleums remain untouched by the ages, one aglow with pure white and the other swallowed by the deepest blackness. The base of the shattered statue also remains, a solid pillar rising some seventy feet high.
A voice rings out, echoing across the cemetery and into the core of your very being.
The test is rather simple. You must enter one of the mausoleums and defeat its guardians. These crypts may only be opened with the proper key, held by the Keeper, one below and one within. But the Keeper has guardians of its own.
As the voice ends its speech, the first of these guardians appears; an ape of tremendous size, its arms covered with immense adamantine spiked gauntlets.
Edit: oh, geeze. That's a long time. All the minutes/level stuff won't be up, so not even gonna worry about that. But the 10 minutes/level last 160 minutes for me, which gives me another 117 minutes for that stuff. I'll get to work on the list now!
The ape is colossal, and is standing in front of the only part of the statue of the keeper, its legs. (filling the green space SE of the crossroads.) You are at the western entry.
Upon seeing his foe emerge, the Searing Pharoah leaps into action, flying straight at the monstrous ape. His massive limbs and roaring maw extended, a few arcane words escape his mouth before he collided with the mountain of ape.
Casting a quickened Divine Power (giving him a +6 on attack/damage rolls, 16 temporary hit points, and an extra attack in a full-attack), raging, and then pouncing the giant ape. Using Slow Exhalation to add his breath weapon to his bite damage.
Edit: yeah, I'm here. I just had to work some of that out. Now that I have the formulas out, it should be both easier and quicker. He has a lot of math to fine-tune.
Edit #2: auto-confirm critical hit (thanks to Unstoppable).
The ape ashes out as you approach (combat reflexes, 30 ft reach).
1d20 + 34 ⇒ (5) + 34 = 39 for 2d10 + 19 ⇒ (1, 5) + 19 = 25 He misses with the blow.
As you savagely tear into him, the ape roars in pain, lashing out at you in return, slapping at you with his giant adamantine-covered paws and bites at you.
The third claw (the critical hit one) and the bite both hit, but the bite isn't adamantine, and has to deal with Stoneskin. The critical hit is not confirmed, as Unstoppable (from Destined bloodrager bloodline) requires a natural 20 on the confirm roll. Assuming his claw attacks at least count as adamantine, but what about magic?
Also forgot to say which spell I chose for Greater Bloodrage, do you have an issue with me choosing Mirror Image, with the condition that this round from the ape doesn't count?
Ovkkrah'gaan roars once more as the ape slams into him with claw and bite, and he feels the sting of pain.
Assuming magic on the claw, he has taken 61 points of damage. Tis but a scratch!
Yes, magical. Bite is magical but not adamantine, so yes, reduce for stoneskin. And nice one on the Unstoppable denying the crit. I don't mind if we include the mirror image even on these hits. I know it's a lot to keep track of. You can roll a die (self+#of images) and it only hits you on a one.
I'm willing to take it as a given that you'll destroy the ape on your next series of attacks, given he only has 24 HP remaining at his full raging stats.
As expected, we didn't get through this trial this time around.
As I mentioned, you have the option to continue this one next go around. If you choose to do this, you may continue to post in this thread and I will occasionally stop in and post responses between this game and the next.
Hopefully, some of the math challenges can be worked out. I can see pbp is going to be extra challenging in this format. But in reality, of the two others who have played, one got this far and one got slightly farther, so the math/character stuff in FG and FG has a bit of a learning curve too. Hope you've had some fun in any case. What a mighty beast you are!
Having endured the beasts' violent attacks, the huge red dragon slams down into the body of the ape with a flurry of strikes, aiming to destroy the thing.
No spell this time, but using Power Attack with a full-attack, and using a Mythic Point for Fleet Charge to throw another bite into the routine. If any hit, he will be using Cornugon Smash, in conjunction with Signature Skill (Intimidate).
I didn't even realize what time it was! Seeing as how I have my attack routine numbers up now, I should be more than ready to continue this particular trial.
I did have a question, though. If I do move on to another challenge, does this one count as an Ascension? Or do I auto-fail it?
Edit: man, did I have fun with even this small taste of power! It was amazing, and I want to thank you for even running this small portion of a game this crazy.
If you move on to another, you don't get an Ascension for this one, since you haven't completed it. There's no penalty for "failure" except not advancing.
