DM Bigrin's Second Darkness (Inactive)

Game Master bigrin42

Yikes! That sounds awful...

LEVEL up

HP 7+1+3=11 (not counting magic)
BAB +1
Skills +1 Acrobatics, +1 Climb, +1 Intimidation, +1 Perception, +1 Ride

Feat: Ironwill for +2 to Will saves

Oy I'm so sorry.

Among other problems, we had someone break two ribs in the house.

I'll try to catch up

Ugh! Seriously, man? That's starting to get ridiculous.

I've used my pearls of power to regain the two 1st-level spells I used.

For my 7th-level spells and my new 4th-level slot, I've loaded up on area-spells, which I hope will be useful.

Greater spell penetration should give my damage-dealing magic a better chance of reaching the enemy.

... Like the man said, we need a plan.

+ Our prime target is the Drow matron running the show. We won't be able to surprise her, and she has a boatload of troops and spells. That is something we can't have.
We need to isolate her from support and neutralize her magic as quickly and efficiently as possible.

+ There are pre-battle buffs to consider - keeping in mind that Alvanna is likely to hit us with (Greater) dispel magic and to have some toadies capable of doing the same with her. We definitely need something to keep them too tied up to focus on us.
I plan to hit us all up with four castings of Communal protection from energy, and myself with Mirror image and Extended shield.

+ Once we're in, I offer to cast either Banishment or Prismatic spray on the room, hopefully whittling down the enemy. In the following rounds, I start casting Summon monster and you all start throwing elemental gems. If we fill up the room with troops and tie up the enemy, maybe we'll have a shot at getting near Alvanna.
If we can get within range, I hit her and her inner guard with Black tentacles. It might not be infallible, but it doesn't allow for saves or spell resistance, a grappled spellcaster can't vaporize us so easily, and she also becomes a fetching target for Calla's anti-elf arrows.

How does that sound?

Sounds pretty good. As noted in the level up, I bought Iron Will for Lefrik not just because I feel he has had reason to strengthen it in game (Facing creatures that could break most minds blah blah finding new resolve blah blah) but because I imagine more charm/fear/slaver effects are likely.

One possibility to get within range for those black tentacles might be, well, Anklebiter riding on Lefrik's shoulders to close the distance. With Babarian speed it could cut down travel time? But it might also mean a two for one sale for the bad guys to take advantage of.

Lefrik Olegson wrote:

Oy I'm so sorry.

Among other problems, we had someone break two ribs in the house.

I'll try to catch up

Ugh! Seriously, man? That's starting to get ridiculous.

House mate's mother .. nasty mean old woman we have to let live with us. Despite my dislike of her.. I actually feel sorry with her in this case as she fell in her room on... get this, her birthday.

If I were writing this as fiction folks would declare it foo far fetched.

Ugh, that sounds horrible.

--

Any thoughts on trying to stay out of the room for a bit, guys?

Avoiding the room sounds great, let them come at us, maybe we can get the soldiers and vrocks to cluster. Kel can also put down a moonlight bridge that leads Lefrik and Brue to Allevea in a single charge.

Kel is leveled and ready, added divine interference, terrible remorse, dispel evil, and cold ice strike.

Bruendor? How you doing on leveling up?

I will get that done tonight. Planning on taking rogue this level.

Level taken in rogue, now Rog7/Rgr6.

HP: +10 (now 142)
BAB: +1 (now +11)
Saves: no increases (sad)
Sneak Attack: +1d6 (now +4d6)
Skills: 9 [Acrobatics (1), Bluff (1), Disable Device (1), Perception (1), Sense Motive (4), Stealth (1).
Feat: Toughness (+13 HP, now 155)

Please update your profile.

And when you are ready, kick in that door!

I think we're ready, guys? Do we want to try to lure them out?

Like I said, I plan to break my two elemental gems, though I suppose when exactly I plan to do that depends on our plans. I don't know if it makes sense to send them in if we're not going in with them...

Up for other ideas for tactics. Could summon one and buff them, maybe use a silence spell to stymie the baddies?

Pre-battle prep!

Everyone except Calla, drink your potion of heroism!

Anklebiter will cast four iterations of Communal protection from energy on the party, as well as Communal darkvision and Communal protection from arrows.
Everyone gets Protection from acid, cold, electricity and fire! Everyone gets temporary immunity to projectiles! Everyone can see in the dark!

Anklebiter casts Extended shield and Mirror image on himself.

Kelendra, can you hit us all up with Communal protection from evil, or just cast Protection from evil on Lefrik and Bruendor?

Calla, could you cast Silence on an arrow and then shoot it at Allevrah as soon as we spot her? If nothing else, as an opening gambit it might stop her from getting that first spell off.

Kelendra, as an opening gambit, might you consider firing off a Searing light into the room? Ordinary Drow get dazzled in bright light, so... might be worth a shot.

I have no ability to cast silence.

Plus "Please DO NOT post a combat action or buffs beyond what you have already posted until everyone is leveled and ready!"

So I think we probably shouldn't be doing any of that stuff. I think the big question is do we go in and try to take the fight to them -- or see if we can lure some out and see what happens.

I'll be casting lead blades on my rapier and longsword, so I've got it on whichever one I want to use at any given moment.

Lefrik's mindset might be to take the battle to them, but that does give us a risk of running into rune traps or fun things... trying to pull them out to face us might reduce their numbers but at the risk of some hellofalot of buffing on THEIR side

FWIW starting Tuesday afternoon my days are going to be filled with PaizoCon games. I may not be able to post regularly again until Friday night.

That's fair. I'm the same.

I think at that point, though, let's throw open the door and get his started. Or finished. I think it's hard to see we've got tactics if we don't technically know what kind of s~&#storm we're about to walk into.

Um. I could try to fly around and get a peek...?

Recruitment!

Finally got the numbers into the sheet that I dedicated earlier. Here's a few thoughts I have:

So, Lef and I need to start cutting our way to the dias. Calla and AB probably should start out on taking down some vrocks, because we can't get to them easily and I think they're going to dance of ruin us if we don't deal with them fast. Kel, I doubt any of us would argue with a blessing of fervor to start things off.

Kel can put a moonlight bridge leading Lefrik and Brue directly to the big targets, like Alleva or the vrocks, but the big question is still are we rushing them, or waiting for them to attack us?

I like the idea of drawing them out while we get allies and enhance, then dropping a bridge for smooth approach (with extra speed) to the big targets.

I'm rather surprised that the only demonic allies we've seen are vrocks. I suspect we might be in for a nasty surprise.

I also vote for waiting outside and hoping at least some come for us. Brue, you could be right, but the one we just fought might've been that big surprise.

He was big all right.

I'm letting you guys slow-roll this since I am caught up in PaizoCon, but please solidify your plans by this weekend.

Okay, let's lead them in.

I am back and ready to go now. I will open the door and start things off tonight unless someone has something else they want to discuss.

Sounds good. I may be a little slow to post this weekend, since it's still the Con, but will try to get something in ASAP.

Thoughts on what spell I cast here, everyone?

I could do hunter's blessing, which would give everyone +2 sacred bonus on Bluff, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against the elves, and a +2 sacred bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls made against the elves. That'll last hours

Alternatively, I could cast greater lend judgment on Lefrik, which would give him a general +3/+5 to attack/damage, but for only 13 rounds. It would also be lost if I need to change my judgments (along those lines, I could also give us both fast healing or a +3 to AC/saves instead, but I only can pick two of them and we'd both have to have them).

Start off with Hunter's blessing, I'd say. Save Greater lend judgment for when we're shift of demons and can focus on the drow.

I only get one of them unfortunately. Already went with greater lend judgment.

Very sorry, will try to post later tonight

Man, the amount of ones to hit I've been rolling.

Man, you guys deal out damage so fast, I've forgotten how effective DR:5/- can be. Poor drow now fishing for crits :)

I suspect that stone skin is about to get a work out

I'm glad I took the opportunity to cast it! ^^;

Actually, the spell ignores the stoneskin, so you've got all of it left :)

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July this weekend

(Or First earlier if you're Canadian!)

I hope you guys had fun.

I did, but I am happy to get back and see how you guys handle Allevrah, who just cast a spell that would have outright killed Lefrik if he had failed that save.

Whew, THANK YOU, Kel!

Also, that's going to be killer if Allevrah keeps diving in and out of her own blade barrier without taking any damage. We'll need to do something about that as well.

I am rolling 5s and lower all over the place.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how she did that. Kel, do you want to try dispelling it? I think that's more effective if you manage and I can keep shooting. If you don't succeed, I'll try.

Let's just say what while you guys were playing around entering the place, she was busy casting a LOT of protective enchantments on herself.

She used that casting of Spell immunity to protect herself from her traps.
It's fine, though; right now she's no longer adjacent to her precious glyph. Which means I can head over there and use Antimagic area to choke it out, disrupt the asteroid-calling. If she wants to do something about it, she'll have to come to me -- right into the antimagic.
And what do you call a Cleric in an antimagic field...?

She used that casting of Spell immunity to protect herself from her traps.

It's fine, though; right now she's no longer adjacent to her precious glyph. Which means I can head over there and use Antimagic area to choke it out, disrupt the asteroid-calling. If she wants to do something about it, she'll have to come to me -- right into the antimagic.
And what do you call a Cleric in an antimagic field...?

Barbarian Chow!

I'm sorry, that was my outside voice. :) Sounds great to me, AB

Oh, you're probably right. That's clever. I'm going to have to remember that if I play some higher-level 1st Edition again.

Sorry for delay there, but was hoping that dispel would go off on that blade barrier and work which it did. Once again, the oracle save the barbarian's hide!