Aubrey's Eberron campaign. (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

I'll cast Gravity bow as we consider the situation.

"So, Ez can immobilise a bunch of them with his tentacle spell while we bomb away with bows. Do you have any damaging follow-ups? If so, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel."

"Hmm. I might be able to seize control of Gelb's body from here. Targeting is difficult. I could certainly take someone in his entourage but I will not be able to distinguish between him and his entourage unless Gelb is significantly more powerful than his muscle."

"However, while my soul is traveling my body will appear to be dead. I should be able to cast from a host. Did any of you get a look at how armored they are?"

"Certainly. As a follow up, I could rip through them with a fiery explosion."

What is the range to the leader? To his thugs? How widely dispersed is the congregation?

"I could certainly sow some additional chaos among the followers. The more thugs I can catch, the better."

She eyes the distance from where they hide to the group below.

Map.

The cavern is somewhat irregular, with passages leading off. At the far end is Croke and his buddies, standing underneath the statue, with the congregation a bit further off. You are at the bottom of the map, south of the darker band and peering through the 10' gap in the wall. The darker band is the slope, 40' high with you at the top and the temple at the bottom. The Climb DC is 10.

Croke has no visible weapons and is dressed in his robe. His heavies are either not armoured or weaing leather jack and carrying clubs and daggers. The congregation have no visible weapons.

Place yourselves and let me know your plan of action.

I'll take Q29.

Do we want to do this?

Tempted to Mind Fog the leaders and then drop a Confusion on them. Maybe they'll beat the tar out of each other...

heh heh. I can put up a bunch of fog.

"Leave them be Shadow Marcher," Rolund cautions. "Our mission is the dragonshards."

"So you want to try to follow the changeling to the shards and let the congregation be? Might be hard to get past the dregs of society here to follow Gelb or whichever one he is. Unless we fly invisible or teleport of something of that sort..."

"We're not following anybody." Rolund struggles to keep calm. "We came for the goblin and we have him. Now let us leave and properly interrogate him to find Ranticar."

bu.....Aubrey.....drew a map,.....I almost feel obligated to frag......plus, Croke's such a peckerwood. I yearn to slay him.

"Glad to see I'm such a hit with the locals." Rodergo seems oddly touched and proud of their hatred. The attention whore within his psyche is feeling soooooooooo much love.

"Did Jeeboo strike you as a particularly reliable or coherent source of information?"

"Technically I could keep an eye on Gelb and teleport us in to strike him down at another time, but..." Ezreal pauses trying to put his thoughts together, "the cultists are pathetic dregs who made their choice, sure. But that kid they just dragged off? Some war orphan who hasn't known anything but a short life full of misery I'd bet. Whatever they are about to do, I'm certain it isn't good." The Karrn sighs, "And at the same timeout is no different than any other day in the dregs of Sharn, but I do not like turning our backs and leaving them to it."

"what course of action best suits our true goal here? free from emotions."

As the adventurers debate, the congregation begins to dissipate and head away through the tunnels with most of the thuggish acolytes. Croke, or Gelb, or whoever it is, leaves through another tunnel with a smaller contingent of a couple bodyguards.

"Jeeboo's going to be about as informative as a bowl of pudding. I read his mind when he collapsed. It was a very quick read. That one said he serves the same master. Our best bet is to find out what he knows. He's going to be hard to find if we let him get away."

"Agreed. Grab my hand."

Assuming everyone is in, dimension door after Gelb.

What, climbing is too "low level" for you these days?

Might scrape my knuckles. Can't chance it.
Eh- maybe it is overkill. I had the idea that getting within striking distance before he can call back all the muscle might be the way to go. I guess it depends on how far away he is and if this entire ramp down is difficult terrain.

Well, it depends how long you wait. He's walking away so I guess he's doing 60' a round. It'll take maybe a minute or so for the chamber to clear of worshippers. But you won't know the layout of the tunnels so you could end up Dimension Door-ing into solid stone. Up to you. The climb is DC 10, but lower if you use ropes and stuff.

Climb if we do that (with ropes, seeing as I suck at it)...."well, at least there's no wyverns,......"

"I'm for going after them. Croke is such a douchey bloke."

So, like, metagamey,.....or not;

"Uh, since Croke turned into a medusa and DIDN'T make a crowd of statues,.......he's not a medusa, right?......"

"He's not Croke, either. No more than I am. Speaking of which, you need to be someone else."

Is Seeming the only way to disguise someone else? Or I could make Rod invisible... But I'm thinking to make us all look like beggars and supplicants.

"Interesting.....the possibilities......I do marvel at your ability to become another."

OK, the congregation is filing out, filled with hate for Rod. Croke has disappeared down a tunnel. What's the plan?

Gil knows Invisibility sphere. Why don't we all go invisible before Ezreal pops us down by the tunnel Croke took? I can the track him and his buddies; once we catch them, all hell breaks loose.

Gil also knows the amusing spell Incite riot. Too late now, unfortunately...

That sounds good.

Right, then

"Grab hands, then. Farlowe will be invisible, stay close to him."

Okay....

Ready

*BAMF*

Where are you BAMFing to?

The mouth of the tunnel Croke left through. As you pointed out, it makes to sense to risk entombment.

The party teleport to stand at the entrance to the tunnel through which Croke left. The statue of Khyber looms above, its twisted form writhing amid the flickering shadows. The temple is now deserted. Voices can be heard from the passage up ahead, though how far away is hard to tell through the echoes.

Janosz shudders visibly as he walks under the gargantuan tentacled monstrosity. "Runzyl and I take the lead. Until we spot them, speed is more important than stealth, within limits, obviously. Let's get going before they get too far ahead."

Stealth checks please from Runzyl and Janosz.

Stealth 11+26=37. Perception 10+23=33.

Stealth: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (8) + 18 = 26

The Valenar warrior follows in the ranger's shadow, returning Falla Caesenri to its sheath to suppress its light and drawing his bow.

OK, are you trying to catch up, or are you just tailing him. Also, what are the others doing?

sticking with the group and to the plan. Nevharath isn't a "party leader" kinda guy, and he sees that Ezreal and Gil have the planning part down, while Rolund and Rodergo have the "face" part down, and the other two have the "beatdown" part down.

OK, are you trying to catch up, or are you just tailing him. Also, what are the others doing?

I'd say it depends on the situation once we spot him. If he's just with his bodyguard and it looks like we can stop him from escaping, we should go for it. If we can't seem to corner him, we might as well let him go; he can't possibly know that we know about the falseness of "Croke", so it shouldn't be hard to just sweep him up later. Additionally, we can put surveillance on him and possibly discover his network.

Janosz and Runzyl creep after the changeling. The walls seem to be of worked stone, with low steps heading down every few yards. As they do so, Janosz notices a glyph scratched into the passage ceiling.

"Gotta be a trap. Hold on until Gil takes care of it."

"Let's have a look, then."

Disable Device vs. traps: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (17) + 22 = 39

hmmm....

Gil identifies the sigil as a glyph of warding, a relatively common spell used to create a magical single-use booby-trap and alarm by causing a powerful blast of sonic energy to fire at anyone passing. She disarms it with consummate skill. But by the time she has finished, the voices ahead have faded away.

175xp each.

"Nice." Janosz nods in approval as Gil disarms the trap. "Let's go on. Again, it's no disaster if we lose him, but it would be better if we could catch him before he can work more mischief."

Back on the trail! Stealth 9+26=35, Perception 11+23=34.

The tunnel continues in a straight line. After a few minutes, it abruptly ends at a blockage of ancient solidified lava. Another passage, this one roughly hacked rather than well-finsihed, leads off to one side.

Nature check, DC 25:

History, DC 15:

Survival 10+18=28.

"We're heading east-ish. I had no idea Sharn was built on top of a volcano." Janosz looks long and hard at the passage. "Stay alert. This is a natural choke-point, perfect for guardposts and ambushes."

How long has it been? Has the invisibility sphere worn off? It would last 10 minutes.