Against the Whispering Tyrant in his own backyard.

Game Master Vrog Skyreaver

I like the kill it option. Baergar isn't too subtle when violence is warranted.

I like the kill it option. Baergar isn't too subtle when violence is warranted.

We noticed! LOL

Bust out the mount, and ride confidently to the north (based on the map). Heal up and just walk. Keep their eyes off the undetectable(s).

We know a lot about how this place works, now. One of us can slip in and take a look. I'd say me. Lorelei is slicker than I am, but she's our divine caster. She's more needed.

Lefty is an elf. From Elfy-landia. He's all elfy, and stuff. He's patient and circumspect. He doesn't want to die scouting.

The casters need to coordinate. Tomorrow will be a very different day. We have to know what we're doing before we do anything.

I agree.

Baergar, resigned to leave the tactics to those with more patience, removes a worn, ivory figurine from an inner pocket.

The king kneels down and reverently sets the statuette on the ground. "Time to stretch your legs Mûmak. The rest of you may want to stand back."

The old dwarf waits a moment for his comrades to move, then says,"Norsunluu tulee lihaksi."

Tiny hairs sprout out of the worn bone until naught but ruddy, brown fur shows. Suddenly, the tuft rapidly resolves into a wide stanced, proud mammoth. Mûmak throws his head back, displaying his scimitar tusks, and blasts a long, loud note from his trunk.

The great elephant trundles forward and it and the dwarf king regard each other for a moment before fiercely headbutting each other. Baergar looses a deep belly laugh and gestures toward the group.

"Mûmak, meet our new friends. We're out to save the world."

Well, since I still don't have internet at the house, I'm gonna give it one more day then I'm going to start chapter 2 tomorrow and just post the fiction from my house when I have interwebs again. No sense in making you guys suffer for my issues.

got another chunk of the fiction posted (which I wrote today) and I will work on some more today, but I dunno if I'll get it finished before I leave work today or not. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Oh, and I talked to my roommate, and it looks like I still don't have internet at home. lovely.

Manisha welcomes any suggestions and chooses to take a back seat and listen to the tactical ideas of others.

Lefty wants to confer with Laurelei and Manisha. We've got to know what magics we have for today, and figure out what to cast tomorrow.

It's sometimes hard to play pbp. We're not playing at a table, so it's hard to talk back and forth, etc. We don't have the luxury of knowing each others' play styles. Starting a 20th level pbp is an ambitious undertaking. I've never played this guy! And he's 20th level! I've played 20th before, but I knew those characters, and the other players.

We're just going to have to think really hard.

Manisha is a mind-blowing wizard. Lefty wants to know what magic she's got on tap. We know what our warrior brutes can do. The next 48 depend on the ladies. Laurelei is just as impressive. She should talk to both of us. Let's pick a language to speak in.

I know that it can be a bit...daunting jumping into high level play with a character you've never played before. I'm fine if you guys wanna take some time to hash out what each other can do. I'm gonna wait a bit to post the next scenario for you guys, unless people are raring to go now, in which case I'll get started.

As an aside, appearantly there's a hardware issue in my area, and they're working to get it fixed asap. or so I was told on the phone last night.

more fiction up: enter Lorelei. Now that everyone is present in the briefing room (in the fiction), I should be able to get into the actual combat (which won't take as long to write as it did to run!) soonish (sooner, if I gets my internet back up). As always, feel free to post questions/comments/concerns and I'll do my best to answer them.

Sorry for the silence. I was rebuilding Star after finding out that you can't take Extra Path Ability more than once. While it probably won't be necessary, with all her buffs up, she can now participate in melee on par with a non-mythic fighter.

After flying over to Mûmak and perching her tiny self on the mammoth's head, Lorelei cracks a giant grin at the idea of scouting.

"Speak in Common, Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, or Sylvan. I know other tongues. Just not too good at them. I can disable traps. All kind of traps. I can see in any darkness. If I don't want to be found, I am not. However, when I do, I conjure blue light."

Star demonstrates by casting Prestidigitation and conjuring up a small dot of blue light at the tip of a small finger.

She pauses and thinks before continuing.

"As for magic, I have options. Hiding from the Undead, Invisibility, Flight, Teleportation. All sorts. Pretty good at Transmutation too. I can also sing. If I do, our foes probably can't attack us. Hmmm... Before we ride Mr. Mammoth through their front door, can Mr. Righty and I go scout?"

Common, Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, or Sylvan are the languages that Rose knows and thus can translate for Star. For all others, Lorelei has to read lips, which is impossible if her scouting buddy is Invisible and Mind Blanked.

Manisha isn't shy about sharing her abilities with the others.

Let's go with Sylvan, then.

Lefty's got Message up, so no problem talking. Let's do up any buffs we've got and take a look inside.

Not trying to dominate the conversation. All input is welcome!

I'm deaf, so I autofail all perception based hearing. I don't know if artifacts can be affected by Message.

Oh, yeah. Well, at this point, I really want to get a look at this guardian Grilka described, and try to understand the magic/psionic suppression: How close and how strong it is, and maybe use a little divination to look ahead, or find out if that would even work at all.

Lefty drops his invisibility so Star can see him. Mr. Righty? Ha ha, very funny!

Actually, he's grateful for any comedic relief, right now. This stuff can get nasty.

OK. You won't hear me, but I can hear you as long as you're within 300 feet of me. Just whisper. If I lose you, I'll use a tiny light like you did, so you know where I am. Let's get a look at the guardian, and if we can, get closer to the tower itself. I want to see how many fellow freaks Tar Baphon has managed to drum up. Would you like a Greater Darkvision spell? I've got another one prepped. We might go inside something.

I say we try not to split the party as much as possible. I agree you lot must scout, but Hiram, Troy, and I should stalk along at the back. Hiram and I are crazy fast at least. I speak Sylvan too :)

If someone could magic up Hiram, we might be OK. I'm thinking of a very short peek, just to see what's in there before we walk in. The casters might need to prep other spells, first. We still haven't figured out a way to get in, and just killing the guardian might not do it. I don't want to be away any longer than needed. Mûmak's just too cute. lol

I can provide free movement and protection from evil, and invisibility for Hiram.

just dropping a message here that I do finally have internet back at my house, but I'm currently battling being sick. I just woke up after breaking a 102 degree fever. Will definitely post tomorrow.

Yipes! Take care.

Just for future reference, Lorelei goes to extreme lengths to pretend that she isn't deaf. Unless she really trusts them, she would never openly tell anyone what she perceives as her greatest weakness. I probably should have been more forward about that fact. For her conversation with Lefty, I am just going to her say that her Source Severance blocked Lefty's spell from taking root, and that's why Lefty says that she can't hear him.

"Oh. Your spell never hit me, Mr. Lefty," nonchalantly says Lorelei as she gestures to the glowing wispy sphere surrounding her small form. "This protects me from arcane magic. All forms sadly. Necessary sacrifice when facing the Whispering Tyrant."

After Lefty explains that he could still hear her if she is within a certain distance, Lorelei perks up, grins, and promptly flies over to her fellow Trickster.

"I have something better. Telepathic Bond. I cast it. It works over any distance. We can talk regardless of tongues."

She turns to the rest of the group.

"Gather, friends. Everyone can receive the spell. Mr. Mammoth too."

Casting Telepathic Bond on everyone. Star gets Telepathic Bond from her Eldritch Heritage feat chain. It really compliments her build. She can cast it on all her allies, go invisible, and still talk to everyone important.

There we go. Even better! That will do nicely.

Lefty will cast Greater Darkvision on Hiram. No reason not to. He may not need it now, but it won't hurt to have it later.

Hiram already has some goggles for that.

Waiting for the two to finish comparing notes and deciding a game plan before offering his opinion, Hiram speaks up.

"If you two take point, Baergar and I can follow behind. The two of us are pretty quick on our feet when we need to be."

OK. Anyone else without 120' darkvision? It's free!

All right. We'll get way ahead, and try some divinations, or at least have an idea where to go and what we're facing.

He activates his ring, again, casts another Greater Invisibility for redundancy, and pulls out his medium Rod of Silent Spell. Hopefully, I won't need this. We'll see.

Ready, Star? Let's go ruin some evil plans!

"Remember, if you need me, look for the blue light," Lorelei reminds the party.

Figuring that it would be useful to have up, Lorelei quickly casts Freedom of Movement on herself. With a giggle, she too activates her ring and vanishes completely from sight. While no one can actually see it, an assortment of runes begin to glow on Rose, blocking out all senses and magic that could hope to find Star.

"Let's go!" Lorelei chirps mentally to Lefty.

I'm back and feeling much better.

So if I understand this correctly, Lorelei and Lefty want to scout out Gallowspire by themselves, with Hiram and Baergar following behind. how far behind are they going to be (instead of using distances, let's just put it in combat rounds; I know that you guys are super fast, but there might be some things going on that you might not know about, and you probably wanna give room to the scouts to do their thing.

I move 320 feet per round as a double move. I can run 640 feet per round. I can also teleport up to 21 miles at will. I'll be as far back as they want me to be :)

Hence why I asked for rounds of delay, as opposed to distance.

I got a good chunk of fiction posted today. Almost up to the first encounter. Should have the rest posted soonish (which will keep me on par with my original schedule, I realized). feel free to start give me a marching order with how many rounds back the rest of the party is going to be from the scouts and I'll get the next scenario posted.

Two rounds? 1200 feet ish?

I have no opinion either way. You guys could be 10' behind them or 100 miles. It's really just a matter of how much you like the two of them, I guess =P

I'm asking the group :)

3 rounds sounds good. I'll be flying 40'/round. I think Star's a little faster. We'll be plenty close that way. We'll just move ahead and see what we see.

I vote for three rounds.

well, as an update for this evening, instead of getting the rest of the fiction done (as I had planned), I got guilted into helping a RL friend move. I will get fiction posted, but it'll probably be late this evening. I'm sorry that it's been a week of delays. I'll definitely do my best to insure that these things don't impact the game again.

Lefty will move 120' in, towards the tower. He'll take 10 (41) perception each round. He's 5' off the ground, so far, unless he perceives a reason to change that.

My light will be green, but don't look for it. Look for Star.

Manisha will also be flying just off the ground, and behind the other scouts.

I need a miracle.

"Halt!" Lorelei orders the rest of the party. "We found him. The guardian. Currently investigating."