City of Nine Stars -- City of Twilight (Inactive)

Game Master therealthom

Zarabeta steps back, if necessary, and flings more acid the Howlers way.

ranged touch attack 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
acid damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

confirming possible crit 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
potential bonus acid damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

The serpentine stream of acid coils around the creatures throat and strikes directly into it's eyes, to painful effect!

The howler screams with blind rage and lunges at Zarabeta, but she is no longer there. It butts into the wall and falls to the ground.

OK. Out of rounds. I thought you guys would steam roll them, but the dice did not fall your way.

So we have basically a triangle of hallways, lined with the high shelves on which there are occasional books. Aside from the door you came in through, there is one set of double doors leading out. On the shelf near the door is a brightly colored tome which contracts sharply with the otherwise drab and dusty books you;ve previously seen.

Waifrin is shaking slightly, as her head clears.

"That...hurt," she mutters. "I'm not sure I can be of much more help..." she closes her eyes and re-focuses her thoughts. "OK, I'll be all right, but I'm tired. I need to save my energy blasts for emergencies now."

I missed on an 18 and then hit on a 15..why?

Wellard, you didn't miss on 18....

Marius takes the chance trusting in his skill to avoid the spines.

Current AC 22

Short sword 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18damage1d6 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

Short sword 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31 damage1d6 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

Critical confirmation Short sword 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13..No Crit

total damage this round 23..running total 32

The beast's quills seem to have a mind of their own. They seem to bend and twist to counter Marius. Even as his blades lance open the howler's flanks, sharp points jab into his flesh, pain sears his outthrust arms and blood of man and outsider mixes on the floor. Throat and heart pierced, the beast wheezes, staggers, but fights on.

....

you just didn't kill it. Came awful close though.

So we have basically a triangle of hallways, lined with the high shelves on which there are occasional books. Aside from the door you came in through, there is one set of double doors leading out. On the shelf near the door is a brightly colored tome which contracts sharply with the otherwise drab and dusty books you've previously seen.

The door appears to be unlocked.

"Well Ladies, do we want that stand out tome or is it a trap?"

Away now till Sunday night my time

Waifrin searches for any signs of a trap:

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Zarabeta scans for magical auras, attempting to assist Waifrin with her searches.

detect magic, Aid Other on Perception check, DC 10 to give Waif a +2 1d20 ⇒ 8

No traps. The book is magical. Can't remember details, but nothing harmful.

Marius can boost one of you up to reach the book.

Cue the 3 Stooges routine.

That will work. But if someone has an awesome idea use that instead.

Fiosa will pick up the book, if someone gives her a boost.

Marius swings Fiosa onto his back. She scrambles onto his shoulders, then steps unto the upraised palms of his hands and he pushes her up to the shelf where she is just able to brush the book toward her until it tips forward and she catches it. Then Marius drops her from his upraised hands and catches her in a cradle of his arms.

The book, Drowned Jabe and His Miserable Brothers and Sisters, looks new. The cover is lavishly illustrated in lurid color.

"It has the faintest aura of necromantic magics about it, which I a subject on which I have but the slightest knowledge..." Zarabeta warns.

"The title alone suggests something to do with the undead doesn't it"

"Don't look at me, I just blast things," Waifrin shrugs helplessly.

Fiosa puts it in her pack.

"Let's keep moving -- we can do some light reading later."

"Aye..lets go"

Let's go indeed.

Book in pack, the party looks at the only way out of this series of halls, a simple door of thick gray wood.

A quick examination reveals no tricks or traps. Opening the door and stepping through puts you on the landing of a remarkable stairwell.

This boggling chamber is a square shaft, a stone stairway spirals up to the left and down to the right. Yet following the stairs with the eye as they wind quite impossibly, brings one right back to the initial landing. There is no floor below or ceiling above, only an endless shaft dropping away into a dimly lit infinity.

In the middle of the wall to your right, another flight of stairs leads up up and out of the stairwell. Across the way on the left wall, a third flight descends down out of the stairwell.

Zarabeta attempts to divine what sort of magic could be behind this unnatural spatial geometry.

detect magic (Knowledge - arcana, DC 15 + spell level to tell what school of magic is involved)

1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

Wait, no. I meant spoilered to conceal earth-shattering game changing information from the other players.

Wonder tinged with jealousy in her tone, Zarabeta says softly, "No mere illusion, this is a fundamental transfiguration of space itself, to create a space outside of the world, with its own rules and nature."

Nice, Set

As you gaze across the stariwell or up or down the apparently infinite well at the center, you detect a faint breeze blowing down the main stairwell, carrying the odor of -- nothing at all really.

"That makes sense - the entire world within this mirror is that, after all," Waifrin points out. "Let's try one of those other stairwells than that one that makes my head hurt!"

Dungeon Design by M.C Escher

Marius turns to the down ward staircase..."Someone mark this place..just in case the whole place is like those other stairs and brings us back here."

"Weird..." Fiosa looks up, trying to see if she can see the back of her own head somewhere in the space warping room.

Waifrin digs out some chalk and marks the wall by the door they entered through.

Dungeon Design by M.C Escher

Marius turns to the down ward staircase..."Someone mark this place..just in case the whole place is like those other stairs and brings us back here."

Indeed

I'm going to push just a little. And because I drew the map wrong, Marius goes up not down.

Map, reaching B5b

Marius steps up the stairs until he reaches the small landing, really just a triple wide step, midway along the wall. Then he turns into the small stairway and begins to descend. The stairs climb straight ahead through rough grey stone walls until they reach another room.

Here the stone stairs change into a rickety-looking wooden set of curved stairs, supported by creaking ropes above and a lattice of wooden boards below, passes like a bridge through the center of a circular shaft. No floor is visible below, and no ceiling above. An opening in the far wall beckons about 30 feet below the point where the stairs curve. A level passage proceeds from the opening into the rough grey stone.

Standing at the corner where the wooden stairs turn. You can see that when they pass through the wall the tunnel stairway continues to ascend until it reaches another large circular room. The angle prevents you from seeing anything of the other room except that the stairs turn right and continue upward.

"I have a suspicion that this route will double back to the room we came from - still climbing up!" Waifrin remarks. "Do you think we can make that corridor? I cannot see anything a grappling hook could snare."

Zarabeta continues to refresh her ability to see the auras of magic periodically, scanning the area for any other magical auras that might be easy to overlook against the already-magical background.

She will also run her hands along the wall as they reach various landings, as those would be the most likely places for their to be some sort of concealed entrance or illusion overlaying something instructive.

"There may well be an invisible walkway or stairway that leads to seemingly inaccessible goals. The creators of this place surely could have enacted such relatively minor magics..." she mutters aloud, attempting to look in all directions at once, reprimanding herself for squinting to see what she has just clearly stated might be invisible to the human eye...

No new magical auras.

"Fix the hook on the stairs and climb down seems the answer but let us first prove your theory cousin"

Marius continues up the rickety steps cautiously testing each step before putting his weight on it.

The bridge looks rickety, but feels solid. The large room is nearly identical to the one you just left and there is a tunnel mouth in the west wall about 30' below the landing where the stairs turn and continue upward.

You guys all going with Marius or waiting for him to return?

I think we are staying together.

Definitely no splitting up in the extradimensional Escher painting... That way lies never finding each other again!

You guys are like a close family. ( About 4:30 in)

Marius steps onto the landing in the large stairwell in time to see to dark humanoid shapes slide from the little stairs across the well. They slide like shadows across the wall and then quite improbably detach from the wall and drift directly toward him across the gulf.

Initiative:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21 Start with a regular round. Post if you beat their initiative.

Marching order: "Marius will lead..then Waif, Zara and Fiosa at the rear. "

From B5a you've looped back to B3. Marius is on the landing in the middle of the northeast wall. The rest of you are stacked up in the narrow stairway north of him.

Knowledge check as a free action to recognize these creatures, +8 if dungeoneering, nature, the planes or religion, +10 if arcana 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

Initiative 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

Zarabeta mutters an incantation that starts slow and increases in speed and pitch until it is an undecipherable whine, like the sound of an approaching mosquito.

haste on us for 5 rounds, +1 to AC, attack rolls, +30 ft. movement and +1 attack as part of a full attack action

Init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Initiative1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Marius waits for the shades to approach..

Waifrin 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Initiative:

Waifrin
Dark Shadows
Zarabeta
Fiosa
Marius

Dabbler's up!

Waifrin digs deep and releases her surge blast at the nearest shadow.

Ranged Touch: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6 Force

Then she falls back five feet if she can to allow whoever is behind her to move past and engage.

"Fiosa I think you are going to be most effective against these" Marius comments as the shadows close.

Waifrin's energy pops past Marius' ear. Then she drops back, leaving him as the shadows sole target.

The shadows fly in fast, dark arms extended for a deadly embrace.

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16 v. touch
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12 v. touch

Instinctively anticipating death in their grasp Marius tries to dodge, but one of them manages to graze his arm.

Strength damage 1d6 ⇒ 5 DC 15 Fort save for half.

Zara, Fiosa, Marius. Then Waifrin starts round 2.

Fiosa tries to blast the shadows with a burst of purifying energy. "Iomedae bless us!"

channel energy for damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 2) + 4 = 7, DC 17 for 1/2, ignores channel resistance

Fort save1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23

Marius feels the cold from beyond the grave seeping into his muscles and lashes out at one of the creatures with both weapons

STR now 15

Prime hand 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16 Damage1d6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Off hand 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23 Damage1d6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Half damage if they are incorporeal so that would be 4 and 5 respectively.

Zarabeta?

Marius' swords slice through the shadows without resistance, as if they weren't there at all. But as the blades slice the shadow, Marius can feel the chill of death through the metal.

Incorporeal indeed.

Unsure if she can harm these shades, or strike them while they are engaged with her allies, Zarabeta turns her ability to conjure matter into the forces of un-creation, tossing one of her signature golden-green energy serpents hissing through the air at one of the creatures.

acid dart, ranged touch attack, -4 for firing into melee 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

acid damage 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

As to be expected, the serpentine rivulet of acid curls and swoops in the direction of the creatures, but finds no easy path to them past the broad shoulders of Marius, and Zarabeta is forced to disperse it into a faint green mist that leaves behind only a bitter smell before it impacts on his back.

"I do not recognize these beasts. Only that they seem to be quite real, and not illusions..."

Waifrin's up to start Round 2.

This being Westcrown you all know you're facing shadows of one sort or another. Sorry, Set. I missed the question and knowledge check while arranging combat.

Zarabeta's acidic serpent flies wide of its mark and silently impacts on the far wall.

Waifrin's up to start Round 2.

Waifrin gathers herself and directs a ray of fire at one of the shadows - preferably one not engaged in combat.

Surging for +2 augmentation, spending one power point, for 3d6.

Enervation chance (15%): 1d100 ⇒ 41%

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 Damage: 3d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 1, 1) + 3 = 7 Fire

If Marius would just die you could have your preference. Unfortunately he won't, so I'll have to subtract 4 from your to hit roll.

1d4 ⇒ 4

Initiative: Round 2

Waifrin
Dark Shadows
Zarabeta
Fiosa
Marius

Waifrin's fire blazes away one of the shadows. It dissociates into smokey wisps.

Undeterred the remaining shadow continues to grasp at Marius.

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 v. touch AC ...Strength damage 1d6 ⇒ 3 DC 15 Fort save for half.

Zara, Fiosa, and Marius to finish this round. Then Waifrin for the top of round 3.