DM Carbide's The Dragon's Demand (Inactive)

Game Master John Woodford

Surprise round (ongoing):

Machi-e
Cora
Gallius
Nezos-acted

Nezos charge (BAB, STR, enlarge penalty, charge bonus, magical bonus, prayer/bless: 1d20 + 6 + 4 - 1 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 6 + 4 - 1 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 29
Nezos damage, including STR, prayer, weapon specialization, magical bonus and bane: 1d10 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 2d6 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 1 + 2 + 4 + (6, 5) = 32

Nezos charges up and swings Wyrmsmite at the dragon, landing a terrifyingly powerful blow. The sword hums in his hand as its magic cleaves through Aeteperax's armor.

Everyone else can take a surprise round action!

Aeteperax: AC 28 T 8 FF 28 HP taken: 52

Machi-e moves as stealthily as he can...

Stealth: 1d20 + 20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 20 + 2 = 36

...and creeps toward the dragon.

Surprise round (ongoing):

Machi-e-acted
Cora
Gallius
Nezos-acted

Machi-e creeps forward, and doesn't think the dragon has noticed him.

Cora to go, and one of you needs to bot Gallius.

Cora holds back, studying the dragon as she prepares to fire. Once Nezos charges she looses her first arrow.

Comp.Longbow+Favored Enemy:Dragon+Bless+Divine Favor+Studied Target+Weapon of Awe+Wrath+Bane arrow: 1d20 + 8 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 8 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 25
Dmg, if any: 1d8 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + (1, 2) = 26

Surprise round so she can't do a full round action, right?

Gallius moves up, not threatening the dragon and trusting his god's blessing to keep the monster from attacking him. Moves up to keep close to Nezos but doesn't attack, under Sanctuary.

Correct; only a single action.

Cora's arrow glances off of the dragon's obdurate scales, while Gallius moves to support.

Round 1:

Initiative order
Machi-e
Aeteperax
Cora
Gallius
Nezos

Machi-e can act! FYI, the dragon has SR, so you'll have to roll a penetration check.

Machi-e touches the dragon lightly.

Overcome SR + Spell Penetration: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 6 + 2 = 25

Dex Penalty: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

DC 17 Fort save to halve and not incur penalty to movement or flight.

Machi-e suddenly turns visible and draws back 5'.

He mutters various things...prayers, no doubt, in Polyglot.

DC 17 Fort save: 1d20 ⇒ 1

oOo. Normally I'd put this behind a spoiler, but in this case I'll make an exception. Machi-e can now die happy, because he's put a major hit on the dragon through its SR (22!) and +12 Fort save.

Also, now would be a good time to mention his name. I'll hold off on his action until I know whether you're going to do that.

"Ah, now that I've come close, I see that you are not Aeteperax, The Great Black Wyrm," says Machi-e.

"By your scales and by my touch, I deem you Szangi, The Impostor. Your ancestors must be ashamed of you; truly, I feel sorry for you. Belhaim already knows of your deception, and of course, you could never hide your craven deceit from Dahak and Tiamat, who no doubt judge you a name-stealing coward," concludes the arcanist.

Nantambu, if I die today, I think of your lovely halls of learning, thinks Machi-e. And of the gaming halls, of course. Just one more game of Yoté, that would be nice...

Round 1 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Machi-e-acted
Aeteperax-acted
Cora
Gallius
Nezos

Aeteperax roars out incoherent maledictions in Draconic, trying to get airborne. The Zenj's spell takes its toll on the dragon's maneuverability, though, and although he's able to get into the air he leaves an opening for Nezos to attack him.

Nezos can take an AoO, and then everyone except Machi-e can act!

Aeteperax: AC 24* T 4* FF 24* HP taken: 52 (-8 DEX)

Nezos AoO (BAB, STR, enlarge penalty, magical bonus, prayer/bless): 1d20 + 6 + 4 - 1 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 6 + 4 - 1 + 4 + 2 = 28
Nezos damage, including STR, prayer, weapon specialization, magical bonus and bane: 1d10 + 4 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 2d6 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 1 + 2 + 4 + (4, 5) = 28

Growling at her bad aim with the first arrow, Cora pulls out the specific dragon-killing arrow and launches it along with another of the bane arrows.

Comp.Longbow Rapid Shot 1+Favored Enemy:Dragon+Bless+Divine Favor+Studied Target+Weapon of Awe+Wrath+Slaying arrow: 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 37
Dmg 1, if any: 1d8 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 23 (DC 20 Fort save or take 50hp dmg)

Comp.Longbow Rapid Shot 2+Favored Enemy:Dragon+Bless+Divine Favor+Studied Target+Weapon of Awe+Wrath+Bane arrow: 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 30
Dmg 1, if any: 1d8 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (7) + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + (5, 2) = 31

Round 1 (ongoing):

I just realized that since he's enlarged, Nezos should be doing 2d8 base damage with his bastard sword.

Blade and arrows take their toll on the dragon, and he's not looking very healthy at the moment.

What will Gallius do?

Gallius waits to see if anyone takes damage, and Nezos watches for an opening (since the dragon is out of range of his hand of the apprentice ability).

Round 2:

Machi-e is up!

Wow, I didn't see the notification, sorry!

Machi-e flings a glob of spittle at the dragon and moves back yet again.

Adhesive Spittle. With its Dex down, it should glue Fakeptereax to the floor!

He's currently airborne, and quite a ways away from Machi-e at the moment.

Oh, he did get airborne! My bad.

Machi-e summons a small air elemental to aid the war party.

That was why Nezos only got an AoO on him last round.

Round 2 (ongoing):

Machi-e begins a summoning spell.

Aeteperax flees out of sight across the pond in the south of the cavern
bumping into walls on his way.

Nezos, Cora, and Gallius can act!

Can I ready an attack action for the dragon becoming visible again?

"Call out when you spot it!" Cora scanned the cavern for the dragon, ready to fire off another deadly arrow.

Comp.Longbow Deadly Aim+Favored Enemy:Dragon+Bless+Divine Favor+Studied Target+Weapon of Awe+Wrath+Bane arrow: 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 35
Dmg, if any: 1d8 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2d6 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + (6, 2) = 37

Sure.

Is anyone going to try to follow the dragon?

I don't think any of us can keep up on foot with a flying anything, much less an adult dragon. Can Cora see the entrance to that southern passageway?

Yes, Cora can see it. Incidentally, there's a pond blocking access,
too .

I don't think any of these PCs would go chasing after the dragon, then, to be honest. None of us can fly and none of us can hope to keep up on the ground. Even if Nezos could move fast enough he wouldn't be able to hit the dragon from the ground.

What do you think, Machi-e?

DM, is there a visible hoard? Maybe if we start messing with its stuff it will come back to smite the thieves.

There is no visible treasure here.

With the dragon out of sight, the druid emerges, looking panicked. "You must have hurt him badly--he's gone after his hoard, and my wife is back there unless Maffei got her out. Look--I can cast air walk on one of you if you go in after him. I'm afraid he's going to kill my wife otherwise."

Cora gestured at Nezos. "Cast it on him, he has the best chance of hurting the dragon up close."

It takes two rounds for Nezos to sprint back to meet the druid, and from there the half-elf takes another five rounds to run to where the dragon disappeared around a corner.

While he's moving, Cora, you can move around on the ledge to get line of sight on him--if Aeteperax comes out after him, you can tag the dragon. Machi-e, do you want to continue your summoning?

Round 9:

Nezos advances a little more carefully as he approaches the other side of the pool of water. As a result, he has an action left when the dragon comes into view, surrounded by illusory duplicates, and he hurls his blade at the wyrm.

1d20 ⇒ 11

The sword hits one of the duplicates, dispelling it. Now only three remain.

Round 10:

Initiative order
Machi-e
Aeteperax
Cora
Gallius
Nezos

Machi-e can act! Note that at this point, Nezos is the only one who can see Aeteperax.

Aeteperax: AC 24* T 4* FF 24* HP taken: 134 (-8 DEX)

Machi-e spends a round moving towards Aeteperax, heading doggedly towards the flying beast.

The air elemental whizzes towards the dragon We can assume that Machi-e summoned it closer to the dragon and 100' gets it to the dragon in this round, yeah? and gives the green wyrm a good whack.

Slam: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23
for: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

The air elemental is damnably hard to see or touch. Air Mastery means Aeteperax is -1 to hit and damage the elemental while he's airborne...

Round 10 (ongoing):

Initiative order
Machi-e/Elemental-acted
Aeteperax-acted
Cora
Gallius
Nezos

The elemental's attack fails to get through the dragon's armor, but pops another duplicate. Aeteperax ignores the pesky creature, lunging forward and biting at Nezos. If Nezos' AC is 23 or less, he takes 36 HP.

Cora, Gallius, and Nezos can act! Cora, if you moved you can attack the dragon, but it has cover (+4 AC) and two illusory duplicates. One hit will take him down, though. Go for it.

Aeteperax: AC 24* T 4* FF 24* HP taken: 134 (-8 DEX); 2 mirror images

Can I just use those rolls I had up there for the held attack? That's a 35, which would hit. Want me to roll 1d4 to see if she hits the dragon or a dupe?

1d4 ⇒ 2

Cora follows the others, hanging back but ready to take a shot as soon as she can see the dragon.

Sure. Though since there are two duplicates you'd roll a d3 with a 1 hitting the real dragon.

1d3 ⇒ 3

Another duplicate pops.

Are you just able to take the one shot?

Since Rapid Shot is a full attack, she can't use it if she has to move closer to see the dragon. Unless we all moved up a few rounds ago and the dragon just appeared when it popped out to take a bite at Nezos, in which case she could take a second shot.

I'll go ahead and roll just in case.

Comp.Longbow Rapid Shot+Favored Enemy:Dragon+Bless+Divine Favor+Studied Target+Weapon of Awe+Wrath+Bane arrow: 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 8 - 2 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 26
Randomness: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Dmg, if any: 1d8 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 26

Cora had plenty of time to move while Nezos was advancing, so a second shot is fine.

In the tight quarters, Cora's second arrow can only pop the last image.

Nezos can take a 5' step and attack twice, since he's enlarged and 15' away from the dragon. Don't forget that this is Round 10, so some of the buffs may have expired.

Nezos: 1d20 ⇒ 18 That's gonna hit regardless, I think.
2d8 ⇒ (3, 8) = 11 Dragon down, DM?

Nezos powers through the pain of the dragon's bite, stepping forward and swinging Wyrmsmite at the obligingly outstretched neck. The half-elf's skill and strength combine with the blade's arcane might to cleave through the scales--not enough to sever the dragon's neck, but enough to open one of the great blood vessels. A steaming torrent pours forth from the terrible wound into the water below. Somewhere Lady Tula surely smiles to see what the party has accomplished with their skill and her gifts, as Aeteperax falls.

Out of combat! I'll have a wrapup post at some point when I'm working from a computer instead of my phone; it may be a day or two, as I have a pile of holiday prep to do at home. For now I'll just say thank you for sticking with it until the end.

Machi-e dismisses the air elemental.

"I really cannot believe we did that," he says. "I would have never wanted to face the real Aeteperax."

He scans the room for various magics.

Spellcraft if need be: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26
Spellcraft if need be: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20
Spellcraft if need be: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26
Spellcraft if need be: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25

The cavern contains a few things: a pile of furs, one of which (a fine chimera pelt that looks like it's worth quite a lot) is spread out on the floor with two smaller chests set in its center. It looks like Aeteperax was trying to gather as much of his hoard as possible in preparation for an escape attempt. Three other small chests are piled up near it, along with a half-dozen five-foot-wide wooden lockers.

The lockers contain books...hundreds of books, with titles like Codex of the Ebon Depths, Grimoire of Impossible Secrets, Kargeth's Blackest Encyclopaedia, and so on. The five smaller chests hold thousands of coins (roughly 9000 copper pieces, 5000 silver pieces, 2000 gold pieces, and a small pouch containing 93 platinum pieces), a small silver cauldron with carvings of wolverines on the side worth 120 gp, a gold scarab engraved with the symbol of Nethys worth 75 gp, a silver hand mirror with a darkwood frame worth 120 gp, a silver bowl worth 75 gp with six tiny jade statuettes of panthers inside (each statuette is worth 20 gp), a platinum holy symbol of Abadar worth 500 gp, a masterwork darkwood flute worth 300 gp, a painting of Queen Abrogail II on black velvet worth 1,500 gp, a pouch of a dozen flawed garnets worth 20 gp each, a 6-pound lump of voidglass worth 600 gp, a masterwork rapier, and a suit of masterwork leather armor.

The rest of the treasure is magic items, and although it takes Machi-e some time he's able to identify them all: a staff of illusion with one charge remaining, a potion of good hope, a potion of water breathing, a scroll of chaos hammer, a +1 light fortification buckler, a +1 returning starknife, a +1 flaming burst hand crossbow, a +2 light mace, a pouch containing six screaming bolts, a wand of longstrider (44 charges), a wand of remove paralysis (38 charges), a ring of animal friendship, a belt of physical might +2 (Strength and Constitution), a cape of the mountebank, a pair of winged boots, and a circlet of persuasion.

Machi-e approaches the druid. "Can you guard all this? We'll need wagons to bring it out," he says.

"...and a library. I could spend years reading these," he says in wonderment.

Maffei, the shae rogue rescued by the party, appears along the narrow path to the east of the pond along with a very pregnant human woman. At the sight of the human the druid cries out, "Rima!" and runs to meet her. She gasps out, "Azmur!" and slowly makes her way to him.

A tearful reunion ensues in the background as the party gathers up the treasure and makes sure the dragon is really dead (he is). Once everything has been gathered up, everyone returns to Belhaim.

The celebration lasts for days, with the druid and his wife mobbed on their return by their friends and relations in the town and surrounding lands. Lady Origena knights the four party members, raising them to the aristocracy of Taldor. They are now allowed to call style themselves as Sir or Dame.

The only thing that interrupts the grand revel is when Rima goes into labor and delivers healthy twins, a boy and a girl. Azmur (the druid) and Rima name them Nezos Machi-e and Cora Gallia, "So that they'll always remember the names of the people who saved their lives before they were even born," as Azmur puts it.

Finally, after the last of the partygoers has given up and gone home, the party returns to Lady Tula's tomb to give back what was borrowed. None of the traps appear to be active...at least for the party. In the Lady's crypt, they find one new feature: a mosaic on one wall showing the four party members standing over a fallen green dragon, with a caption reading:

A legacy reborn
Nezos, Cora, Machi-e, and Gallius
DRAGONSLAYERS

And with that, we are done! Thank you again for playing through to the end--Axolotl, for being here from start to finish; and karlprosek, for stepping in when the other initial players vanished. I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I did. Let me know if you want PFS chronicle sheets and I'll get them put together.

Thanks DM! I had a lot of fun. I don't play PFS much anymore but I'll take a chronicle sheet. 135580-1.

I shall take the chronicle sheet! Whewww! Yay! Merry Dragonmas everyone!