Ascension - Mageocracy

Game Master bbangerter

Soliel follows the first man up the stairs. The second story is a series of bed rooms above the common room below, and a small gambling hall above the kitchens on the south end.

A human stands in shabby clothing stands in the doorway to one of the rooms and motions for the man to follow him into the room. He closes the door behind the two of them.

The door opposite the first one opens, and another human, this one better dressed, and also armed with a shortsword, shortbow, and chain armor, steps out. He leans against the door jam and waits.

Soliel stopped at the top of the stairs or as far in as needed to see the two humans who opened the doors and proceeded back down the stairs while drinking an elixir. She then soundlessly exited out the front door, and headed directly for Ian and Edmond's location, drinking more elixirs along the way and poisoning her swords. When she reached them she remained hidden and spoke in a quiet, clipped pace.

The plan has changed. No sign of Anthony or his lot, but Rocosmia and likely collaborators from the Rebels are inside ensorcelling patrons right now and must be stopped. The ifrit b*tch is inside the main door, Dareon is there too, acting as if he is under her spell. He will assist you in neutralizing the main room threat. Upstairs the rebels have two rooms across from each other, she said while noting which rooms specifically, and I saw a shabbily dressed human as well as a human with chain armor, short bow and short sword. I will head there immediately and begin eliminating the enemy. She then darted away, and headed back inside the establishment and upstairs.

If heading out the front door would alert Rocosmia, Soliel will climb down from a second floor window inside the gambling room and return the same way. Climb is currently +15 for her, so presumably would not be an issue.

Short Swords will be poisoned with Drow Poison, elixirs drunk include: Negate Aroma, Reduce Person, Expeditious Retreat, Urban Grace, See Invisible, Shield, Barkskin and Focused Scrutiny.

"So the ifrit is gonna be mostly fine when i burn the place down" Edmond says to Soleil and Ian in a conspiratorially low tone. "Caster too, best to cut her down fast. Soleil, best think up a reason this place goes down in flames that doesnt implicate us. 'Innocents', if any even really exist, are not likely to make it out. Letting them do so only gives the enemy a chance to escape also."

Rather than wait for an opportunity to slip through the door when a new patron enters, Soliel finds a window at the end of the main hall on the second floor and climbs out to gather Edmond and Ian.

Leaving Ian and Edmond just outside the door Soliel re-enters.

I'm assuming you warn Dareon that things are about to happen?

Then heads back up stairs.

The doors to both rooms where Roscomia's friends waited are closed.

Any other preparations from anyone? Otherwise roll init (though we may not need it just yet), and state actions.

Init: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19Just in case

Ian nods wordlessly and starts making his way over there.

init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Edmond pulls out his flute but waits for the first of the violence to start before playing, so as not to tip anyone off.

Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

Dareon tenses up his body, ready to bound towards the bard and try to disable her with a touch of excruciating deformation.

Initiative 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 30

Using her enhanced speed, Soliel darted headed of Ian and Edmond and upstairs. She knew the commotion in the main room would start soon enough, but wanted a chance to get involved upstairs first. Seeing the doors closed, she went to the one the shabbily dressed man was in and opened it, while staying in stealth. Current Stealth=DC37 and she can see invisible things.

Soliel is working on the assumption that Ian, Edmond and Snake-Man will enter the establishment when they arrive at the front door, essentially kicking off the fight with Rocosmia since they've seen each other (at least Ian and her have). That will be Dareon's sign that it's time to act.

If for some reason no one is in the room when Soliel opens the upstairs door, or just a dazed looking patron is, she when then open the other door where the guy in chain mail was.

Need a clarification from Ian and Edmond. Are you going inside? Setting the building ablaze while standing outside? Other?

I'm waiting for Ian to kick in the door before blasting

Oh yeah, sorry about that.

Ian kicks the door in with his sword drawn, and starts yelling. "Everyone stay put, we're with the Tower. Nobody draw steel, nobody run."

"Snakeman, guard the door. Kill any who flee." Edmond says, loud enough for any inside the room to hear.

spending 1 SP to forego the need to concentrate on the spell for 9 rounds

woodwinds DC 24: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (14) + 18 = 32 effect comes out the full CL 9

bright light surrounds the building and spills into the entry room

As Ian kicks in the door, a great glow of light arises outside surrounding the building and pouring into the windows.

Soliel pushes open the door as soon as she hears the noise downstairs and sees the light coming in through a window at the end of the hall.

Soliel may take her actions.

Ian may also act.

One of the patrons sitting at the tables vanishes from sight. Since none other than Rocosmia stand out to Ian, there isn't much reason for me to wait for this "patrons" action, but Ian will need to act as though this hasn't happened yet.

Edmond and Dareon may also now act. Both of you saw the man vanish and may act on that knowledge.

Rocosmia looks at Ian, recognition slow to come to her eyes as she ends her dancing.

move action Edmond commands the light to spill in through the windows and light up the tables and stools especially focusing on the area the man disappeared from.

can i make a spellcraft to determine how he disappeared?

standard action Edmond casts a brief spell on Ian to aid in his defense. the Flicker one again where you can move twice and determine which one is real when you are attacked

Spell Recollection: 1d100 ⇒ 1

With comrades busting in the doors to get into battle, Dareon decides that Ian and Edmond could probably handle the bard on the bottom floor, and any other hostiles are likely to be random criminals simply hostile to Tower interests. He decides that Soliel, upstairs with several defined enemies, is likely in more danger than Ian and Edmond, so he dashes up the stairs to reach her.

SwA: Spell Recollection -> Can't cast spells this round

Double move: Go towards Soleil

@GM: Soliel had actually dashed ahead of Ian and Edmond to be able to get to the 2nd floor and maybe get a round or two of actions underway before they came in the front door. Her current move rate is 70' versus Ian/Edmond's 20', so maybe say she is able to open the door, move in and get a surprise action off before initiatives kick off?

@Dareon: Would Dareon know what is going on upstairs? Soliel never really said what was up there nor exactly what she was doing. Your call.

Pretty sure Soliel goes first in the initiative, will post that after GM rules if I can get Soliel's initial surprise actions in first.

Sorry Soliel, misunderstood your intent. We can run a couple rounds of whatever you do upstairs. No surprise round though other than moving into the room, attacking from range, or taking a 5' step and applying your attack to the patron (closest to the door) as the door opening alerts them something is up.

I'm fine with Dareon knowing something is going on upstairs.

Alrighty then, I'll post a few actions in sequence below to move things along.

when Edmond's turn actually does come up, note that the light he shines does 9 untyped damage and 9 fire damage.

HERE is the list of hardness (still applies) and hit points per inch of common materials. for instance, wood (such as a table or chair) has harness 5 and 10hp/inch of thickness. The light envelops the entire square so the outer inch of the entire object would be subject to damage. 9 of the damage is fire, and energy attacks are halved against objects unless the DM says otherwise (such as for parchment and other flammables). so a typical 2in thick wooden table would take (9/2)+9=13 damage per turn, leaving it with only 2hp (13-5=8) and next turn it would definitely be destroyed. Glass, paper, cloth, rope, ice, leather, and hide would be destroyed entirely on the first turn. Stone would take 3 rounds per inch of thickness. Iron and steel would take 10 rounds per inch of thickness. Mithral and adamantine would not be damaged. This damage also applies to any supports, pillars/rafters that are in the affected area. I don't see a map but once we get one i can allocate my squares.

@GM: One clarification for Soliel's action. When she 1st does more movement than a 5 ft step she will put herself on the opposite side of her target from the door.

Soliel slips into the room and closes the door. The shabbily dressed human draws a dagger and stands up, looking around, trying to figure out what is going on. The other man frowns, but remains sitting. The horned creature remains motionless.

The man lets out a cry when Soliel stabs him, Fort Save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12 then slumps down unconscious.

The horned creatures leaps into action, shoving open the window, then grabbing the unconscious man and pulling him towards it. Provoking an AoO from Soliel

Still need an action from Ian for the first full round.

Sorry about that, I misunderstood Soliel taking several actions ahead of us and thought I was waiting for that.

Ian recognizes the bard immediately, running up and swinging at her with his greatsword.

PAtkVStrk: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (6) + 17 = 23
Dmg: 4d6 + 22 ⇒ (5, 2, 1, 2) + 22 = 32

@GM: Couple questions. 1st, how big is the room? 2nd, isn't that a few too many actions for the horned creature? You said it was in a "far corner", which I'm assuming means it would have to use a move action (or at least a 5ft step) to get to the window. Then opening the window would be, presumably, another move action. By that logic the horned creature's turn would end with it right next to the open window, but without enough actions to actually move up to the shabbily-dressed man or, especially, to begin dragging him anywhere. Does that all make sense, or am I missing something?

EDIT: Actually, it may not matter for Soliel's next action. I don't think there is any way the horned creature could drag the unconscious man more than 5ft away from Soliel in any event. Her next action (full round) will be to Coup de Grace the unconscious shabbily-dressed man. This is an auto-hit and auto-crit, with sneak attack damage added in. So....2d4 + 18 ⇒ (4, 3) + 18 = 25+5d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 4, 4, 3) = 21 in damage. If he survives that damage, along with the bleed and prior damage he already took, then he needs to make a Fortitude save of DC=Damage Dealt or die. He'd likely need to roll a 20 on the save.

One other thing...shot in the dark:

Room is 15'x10'. So far corner is simply the far side of the room from the door - and really a 5' step to be in range of both. However, I had forgotten that about Eidelons, it does indeed vanish instead of taking the listed actions.

Ian slashes the irfit bard, giving her a serious injury.

The building immediately begins to smolder and smoke as Edmond's spell takes effect around the base of the building while Dareon runs upstairs, seeing only closed doors on both sides of the hall and no sign of Soliel.

Rocosmia immediately steps back from Ian and invokes a spell, 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6 copies of her spring forth, swirling around her, making it difficult to pick out the real one from the fakes.

Outside in the street there is a pop sound not far from Edmond. Three figures appear, a male half-orc with a horrific looking mask. A human male in a breastplate and light shield, and wielding a tonfa. The third is a male half-orc in full plate.

The plate wearing half-orc holds forth a holy symbol and casting a spell. The a short sword of pure force energy materializes next to Edmond and attacks.

The human charges.
Charge Attack: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25
Damage: 1d6 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20

The tavern patron in the room with Soliel looks about in confusion, a look of fear coming upon him, standing up and drawing a short sword.

Soliel and Ian are up

Ian steps after her and begins swinging at the images he thinks are the real ones. "Been awhile, Roscomia," he growls coldly.

PAtk: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (17) + 17 = 34
Dmg: 2d6 + 18 ⇒ (4, 6) + 18 = 28
PAtk2: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Dmg: 2d6 + 22 ⇒ (3, 6) + 22 = 31

Soliel slowly drew her curved blade back out of the man's rib cage. Unconscious, effectively cutting his heart in half while it still beat in his chest had been relatively easy for someone with her level of, some would say morbid, fascination with anatomy. The man's eye flickered with the last vestiges of life as she whispered to him, still unseen: this was for Master Torenest….may your soul rot in the Hells.

Soilel remained hidden, unconcerned by the patron whom she assumed was unwittingly caught up in this affair. In any event he seemed hardly the main threat. Instead she ghosted to the door of the room and opened it, eyeing the hallway for any other open doors or other occupants.

Move to the door of the room and move action to open the door

1 is the actual target.
Mirror Image: 1d7 ⇒ 1
Mirror Image: 1d7 ⇒ 4

Ian connects on the first hit, the second causes on image to vanish. Regardless the ifrit collapses unconscious.

Dareon sees the door on the left at the top of the stairs open.

Edmond and Dareon are up.

"Snakeman, help them out inside." Edmond says.

Snake man will move in and attempt to get in flank with Ian his speed is only 20 so i assume he cant this turn since we dont have a map but since he can't get close enough yet, lobs a shot of dark energy at Rocosmia from his crossbow.

+2 Light Crossbow: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
piercing: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
plus negative energy: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 3) = 10 Gloom Blast: FORT DC 14 or sickened. UNDEAD blinded on fail, bypass undead's immunity to blind

With Ian and Snakeman inside, Edmond turns to face his foes.

standard action channel energy, move action to reallocate my squares of flame to take up the area around those fighting on the street and some distance away. They will take 9 fire plus 9 untyped in addition to the damage of the channel. Since you said "not far from Edmond" and we don't have a map, i'll assume theyre close enough to catch with a channel (5ft stepping if needed). Edmond has Channel Energy 4d6 and will select negative. He will spend an extra use via Grand Channel to make that 4d10. He will spend an extra use via Channel Mastery to gain the use of the Siphon Channel feat. He will spend 1 SP to increase the damage to one die per class level (9d10) and it will change to fire damage that damages both living and dead.

-1 SP, -3 channel uses
fire damage: 9d10 ⇒ (10, 9, 9, 6, 10, 9, 10, 9, 5) = 77
+38 temp HP, +1 per enemy that failed their save (Will DC 20 halves)

Flame as bright as the noon sun erupts from his body in a 30ft wash. As the smoke from the flesh of the enemies on the street rises into the once-again-dark air, it swirls towards Edmond, forming a sort of armor about him as he continues to play his flute.

Hahaha holy shit, did not expect that. I am a lucky SOB. OK when Ian's turn is up again:

Ian will apply manacles to her unconscious form, preferably restraining her to a support pillar. Hearing the fire, explosions and flute-playing outside, Ian will run out to see what the hells is going on with Edmond.

yeah that was a ridiculously powerful roll. Only 2 of the dice weren't 9 or 10. Oh yeah and Snake Man wouldn't have shot Rocosmia if Ian was trying her up. I didnt even read what was going on inside since I was worried about my own battle outside and assumed Rocosmia wouldn't die so soon.

Dareon steps through the door on the left, looking for Soliel and other foes. If he sees someone threatening Soliel with a weapon, he focuses his mental powers upon the foe, sending a sliver of wriggling thought into the foe's mind. When it gets deep enough, Dareon causes the thread of thought to explode in a hail of painful splinters, filling the foe's mind with pain, regret, confusion, and inflicting a nasty, bleeding headache along the way.

Dareon continues up the stairs. If he sees an enemy he casts mind thrust III. It is a DC 20 Will save for half damage.

Damage (typeless): 7d8 ⇒ (3, 3, 7, 2, 8, 3, 6) = 32

Eh I realized after I posted that Ian probably wouldn't stop to restrain her if he could hear/see active battle going on outside.

So I'd like to change his action to just running outside and supporting Edmond.

well it wasnt much noise until I did my thing. Haha

I think you nuked them

hope so, used a quarter of my channel uses plus a spell point. i figured if any time were to go all out it would be with three baddies against just me

I'm pretty sure Ian's 2nd hit (which was awesome in itself...1 in 7 chance...he could have been there a while dealing with images) killed Rocosmia outright. When Roland knocked her out in the last fight she had around 45 hit points. She took 60 total from Ian...ifrit bards aren't known for their constitution...

On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if the scarred witch doctor and maybe the guy with the breastplate and tonfa are still up. Both are likely high-CON types.

Especially if their saves succeed!

Yes Ian, you can move back to the door of the tavern after the first hit takes Rocosmia down. You will need to make a will save vs the channel damage, unless Edmond has a way to exclude you as a target. I didn't see selective channeling in his feats, but didn't look to see if he had any other means of doing so.

Edmond, remind me, is there a reflex save for half against the 18 damage from your flame cubes?

Dareon sees no ones, just a bewildered looking tavern patron, the first who had gone upstairs. The man shys away as Dareon appears in the doorway.

Will Save (Masked Half-orc): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11
Plate wearing half-orc: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30
Human: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Masked Half-orc rerolls his save: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

The human's eyes glaze over and he falls to the ground unconscious.

Ian recognizes the masked half-orc from the gnomes house - I can't recall if Edmond was in that fight, or if that was your previous character. Ian likewise recognizes Sicvicious, the priest from Anthony's gang.
The eyes of the mask glow a malignent red, and Edmond feels the power of the witches hex seeking to snare him. Edmond needs to make a DC 19 will save or suffer from misfortune. The half-orc then rises into the air 15', hovering above the ground.

The spiritual weapon continues to slash at Edmond.
Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

The priest then shouts a stream of profanities at Ian and Edmond, "You will both suffer and die for what you did to Kleona."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (5) + 23 = 28

Both Ian and Edmond are shaken by the verbal barrage. And flames temporarily engulf both of them.
Fire damage: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Ian is shaken for 2 rounds, Edmond for 3. This will give a -2 to attacks, saves, skill checks, and ability checks. This penalty applies to the reflex save below.
Both Ian and Edmond need to make a DC 16 reflex save or catch fire. Edmond will need to roll twice if he failed against the misfortune hex.

Sic then retreats 20', disappearing around the corner of a nearby building.

Soliel and Ian are up

no save for the cubes, you're in or out

will vs misfortune dc19: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
ref DC 16: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

and Ian dont jump out there. I wouldn't have done the blast if you were out there and we'd be getting into a lot of retcon. Unless you delayed until after the blast. I can Selective Channel if I spend an extra use to get the feat (and I believe I can only add one feat at a time).

@GM: Does Soliel hear the blast outside? If so, does she suspect everyone upstairs likely did?

Stepping across the hallway to the door she saw the man in chain mail at, Soliel stayed hidden but whispered to Dareon. Afterward, she opened the door to the room and peered inside.

If Soliel heard the blast, she whispers to Dareon: Go downstairs and assist! I have only one target left up here.

If Soliel did NOT hear the blast, she whispers to Dareon: If you see a man in chainmail with a short sword and bow, eliminate him.

Running with Ian still standing over Rocosmia to avoid retconning Edmonds (or Ian can delay, then move, your choice Ian), and then the NPC's actions.

Soliel, you can see through the windows that there are some kind of pyrotechnics going on outside. But do not pick up any of the noise of combat outside above the shouting of people downstairs. Do you want to react to the pyrotechnics in the same fashion as though you'd heard?

Regardless, as you are opening the next door anyway...
Soliel opens the door to the room across the hall giving herself and Dareon a good view of the interior. The chain mail wearing human Soliel mentioned is standing with his short sword drawn. One of the tavern patrons is also in the room, and armed with a longsword of his own.

Soliel would recommend to Dareon, before opening the door, to head downstairs

just realized i am CL 11 for Light sphere stuff so it should be 22 not 18. Doesn't affect my big blast last turn though as that doesn't benefit from my +2 staff.

I guess I'll run back downstairs. Are there any other enemies downstairs?

Outside the front door are at least a couple. Dareon should be able to see them, or at least realize there is something outside that Edmond is fighting, when he gets down there.

From the stairs, a single move action will put you more or less at the front door to use a standard action for any kind of ranged attack against the flying half-orc.

Yeah I don't want to mess anything up or cause any retconning. Let's say he sees Edmond start to glow and takes cover before running out?

Shaken for 2 rounds: -2 to attacks, saves, skill checks, and ability checks.

DC16 Reflex: 1d20 + 6 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 6 - 2 = 21

Ian runs straight for the priest, recognizing him and instantly enraged. He thrusts with the greatsword, yelling, trying to pierce the platemail and impale his hated foe.

PAtkVStrike: 1d20 + 17 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 17 - 2 = 32
Dmg: 4d6 + 22 ⇒ (3, 6, 3, 2) + 22 = 36

It will take you a double move to reach him, and put you around a corner from everyone else? Giving chase?

A man with one hand appears next to Edmond, wielding a wakizashi. Three images of the man swirl around him making it hard to pinpoint where he actually is.
Attack vs Flatfooted: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21
Damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6 + Sneak Attack: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 4) = 14
"The mages will pay for what they have done." he says with a smirk.

Edmond needs to make a DC 14 fort save or take 1d4 ⇒ 2 dex damage and be confused for 1 round.

Edmond is up. Dareon has a standard action remaining.

fort: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (9) + 7 - 2 = 14

so no allies within line of sight currently?

Daeron would be in the doorway and in line of sight. Assuming Ian went around the corner after Sic then he is out of sight.