Dalamus has no ability to flee before he lands, he will take his attack and flee to the west.
Attack
Damage
Nowzai casts and hurls two more sonic orbs at the dragon, expending what little remains of his prepared offensive magic.
;
;
The invisible stalker attacks, using its flank with Epik to best effect.
;
;
Sam will cast warding weapon on a dagger and move up to attack
Sam will enchant Mord'ael to be Keen, Holy and Vorpal and move up to attack
To Hit -
Damage -
Dalamus gets a ripping strike in as he lands, trying to take advantage of the flank, but while the strike is true and buries in the dragon's scales, it doesn't quite get to the flesh, before the half-elf rips it out and takes off to the east with the oracle moving right behind him.
Epik moves in and executes a series of vicious and powerful strikes, the fire of Iomedae empowering him to carve more grievous wounds into the monstrous dragon which nearly dodges out of the way of the first blow.
Nowzai follows with a pair of orbs that hammer into the lumbering beast, one misses wide because of the smoke.
The stalker gets a blow through as well and the effects of the multiple blows are apparent. Sam sneaks in finally to tentatively swipe at the dragon his blade barely penetrating the stone hardened skin, and it snaps angrily at him as he approaches.
The dragon roars in anger and lashes out with everything it has. Biting and clawing at Sam and Epik, wings whipping around to strike the tiefling again and clip Nowzai and its tail hammering down hard crushing the stalker into non existence.
; HIT!;
; miss
; HIT!;
; miss
; HIT!;
; ; CRIT!;
As the dragon attacks Sam his Caustic Blood spurts back at the dragon
Bite AoO -
Claw Attack -
Ref save DC - 22 for half, no SR
The dragon is also affected by his Call of the Void
Spell Pen -
Damage -
Ref Save DC 21 for half damage
Sam will recall and cast Sundered Serpent Coil (No need to defensive cast since he cast Warding Weapon, unless the dragon has the Disruptive feat)
Flanking with Tlanextic? If so that is the additional +2, the first is for heroism
Tentacle
To Hit CMD -
Damage -
Attack
To Hit -
Damage -
Hasted Attack
To Hit -
Damage -
2nd Attack
To Hit -
Damage -
On round 7 (if allowed) Jenya will cast Remove Fear before Dalamus and Ma'puande run away
She will Channel in round 8, excluding the dragon -
Nowzai uses his pearl of power to regain the use of a minor spell, then hurls one last sound orb at the dragon.
;
Gritting his teeth, Epik attacks the dragon with righteous fury.
; smoke
; high is good
; high is good
; high is good
; high is good
A geyser of acidic blood fountains out of Sam unnaturally, covering the dragon's face and neck. It roars unexpectedly and then there is a flash. For a moment it appears that time slows just for a split second, but in that moment, you see a portion of the dragon's wounds heal and the majestic beast disappears, a small scale or something similar near its neck disintegrating into dust.
Immediately after, from far above you, you hear the dragon's booming voice penetrate the thick smoke.
"WORTHY PREY, TODAY IS YOUR VICTORY, BUT WHEN NEXT WE MEET, I SHALL BE PREPARED!"
Wings beat and you feel the pressure of the dragon's presence recede.
Dalamus stops running and hears the booming dragon.....He drops to his knees and wipes his head, completely rattled from the experience.
Nowzai frowns wearily at the retreating dragon but wastes no time on it. "We need to leave," he states the obvious.
My friend, can you see a safe path through the smoke and fire from above? he asks Tlanextic telepathically.
Yes, the dragon has fled back toward the mountains and if you move north away from the cracks in the city, you can get out fairly easily. It appears that you are the only ones left in the city
He becomes aware that some time during the dragon fight, someone started the final test in Occipitus. The Test of the Smoking Eye.
As he watches the last wisps of smoke drift from his eye, he realizes that someone has also succeeded
Assuming Nowzai tells us what Tlanexitc says, Sam will agree that we should get a move on it.
Was the cool extra-dimensional vault we got something that is portable in some way? If so, Sam will go gather that up before we leave.
Epik surveys the wreckage of the city and leads the way out through what appears to be the safest passage.
Ma'puande shakes off the remanence of the fear and wearily starts walking out with the rest.
Nowzai stumbles as his smoking eye dissipates and returns to normal. "Someone... someone has passed the tests and usurped control of Occipitus." He coughs from the smoke and shakes his head. "We will deal with that at a later point. For now, we must depart before the volcano consumes us. Tlanextic sees a path to safety." He relays directions to the rest of the group.
Epik starts leading the way out as the city streets continue to break apart. Bubbling lave begins to roil out in places, rolling down the street. Parts of the southern outer wall begin to collapse as the cracks in the foundation get worse.
Yes Sam will go get it
Dalamus will follow the rest out of the city, unless Sam needs his help. If he does, he will head there to help with the chest.
The party quickly moves to the northern gates as the city rumbles and spits around them, holes of gas and lava bubbles appearing more frequently and the forming portal above the city gets more ominous. Dodging demodands left and right, and seeing no more citizens on the street, they make it to the gate to follow the long line of refugees out.
Sam is able to get to the Inn and get the chest out quickly, he darts up into the air just as the southern wall of the city cracks open and a torrent of lava explodes out from the southern edge of Crater Lake and flows south running through the streets and collapsing buildings into quickly melted slag. Even from several 100 feet away, the tiefling can feel the heat as he alone watches a quarter of the city disappear under a torrential lava flow. With nothing to do about it, he joins the party as Cauldron is abandoned, a sense of defeat heavy in the air.
Jenya takes a moment to wipe a soot-stained brow, glancing fearfully off in the distance at the far set of volcanic mountains where you see the retreating dragon's near imperceptible form fly around the tallest peak and then disappear straight down into the throat of its crater. She shivers and states, "I hope he stays gone for another century"
Turning to you, she says, "Let's get to the Knowles estate in Hollowsky. Lady Ophelia should be able to help us if she escaped the city."
Moving forward, you find a ton of refugees hurt along the way, and Jenya stops to tend to everyone of them, moving them along and encouraging them to proceed to Hollowsky.
Other members of the various churches have set up way stations to pass out food and water as folks move by, and an exhausted Town Guard patrol up and down, squashing fights and helping stuck wagons and separated families.
Epik looks at the refugees with concern. "We shouldn't leave these people until temporary shelter can be constructed or they can be safely relocated."
He looks around for the ranking guard member in command.
"Ahh, yes Hollowsky. I don't get back home too often, but this many refugees will overrun the village. We will have to figure something out when we get there, tents or something."
Dalamus will move to the front of the group, pressing ahead, eager to get out of Cauldron and into Hollowsky.
Sam notes as he takes stock that the smaller portals have stopped raining demodands on the area and now it's simply the churn of the larger portal above as it continues to coalesce merging towards an eventual final form, the effects of which are unknown, but likely catastrophic.
Epik talks with the Town Guard as Jenya works with the priests. It appears that the combination of the two are putting folks to work helping construct their own temporary refugee camp near Hollowsky.
Sheepishly the Town Guard Lieutenant that Epik talks to mentions having just got back from the siege of Redgorge. Following the Blue Duke's death, the Cauldronite Guardsmen overthrew the half-orc mercenaries and ran most of them off. He bemoans that if they hadn't essentially razed the town, there might have been a good opportunity to leverage that city as well, but instead you now have refugees from both Cauldron AND Redgorge flowing to Hollowsky.
"If only we'd had some brave folks like you all to stand up to the Blue Duke and his cronies earlier. Ah well, lava under the bridge, no?"
Epik hangs near the back with the guardsmen sweeping people away from the burning city and towards shelter and food.
Dalamus forges ahead. Unsurprising to the assassin, his home's half-elves and halflings have turned out en masse to support as best they can. Fetching water and emptying their stores, slaughtering livestock etc. The other high priests and the Guard leadership lead the effort in the refugee camp outside the village outskirts.
You quickly find out that many of the notable nobles have holed up with Lady Knowles as well. You discover Vortimax Weer along the way who queries Nowzai about transportation spells, informing the wizard that his own teleports have failed due to some disturbance with the portal. Apparently an epicly large dimensional anchor-like effect has settled on the area.
Nowzai notes Vortimax's findings, testing his own dimensional steps to verify the problem.
"Friends, I am exhausted, both physically and of prepared spells. We will be more effective in helping the refugees with some rest."
After resting, Nowzai looks for more of their allies among the refugee train, specifically Magma, and any of the other city leaders.
Ma'puande says, in an exhausted voice"Yes Rest, Rest would be good. While most folks are not mortally wounded, the Life Oracle will wander through the crowd emptying her spells reserves, giving aid where she can. Once she is completely spent, she will find the group and suggest that we try to stay close in case of trouble.
Epik will rest briefly and will then continue to assisting the refugees with healing, shelter and food.
Sam will also continue to assist with the refugees
Sam and Nowzai discover that their telepoetation spells and abilities no longer work. Something is interfering with the ability to move into that extradimensional space.
Is there anyway to find out what the portal above Calderon is happening? Can Nowzai or I sense any magic anywhere?
Sam, there is magic everywhere. You don't really need to have detect magic to figure it out, but it's overwhelming conjuration magic. The portal appears to be about a mile in diameter and from Hollowsky it's a blight in the sky over the caldera of Cauldron that radiates a reddish/purple light all throughout the night.
You discover that Lady Ophelia has set up a haphazard library in her estate as the Acadamae and the temples all saved most of their books and documents in fleeing the city. Your access to research any of these items would be unimpededed.
Dalamus will watch the others running about to help the wounded, and find a quite place to rest.
Exhausted by the previous day's efforts, Nowzai oversleeps uncharacteristically. When h finally gets out of his bedroll, he is sore, groggy and grumpy. After a half-moment of self-pity -- realizing the plight of thousands around him -- and a weak cup of tea, he gets to work.
His first priority is the disposition of the refugees. He locates Magma and the other city leaders, if possible, and offers whatever help he can in organizing their movement and protection. If leaders are unable or unwilling to do their job, Nowzai will take the lead himself. He will charge Magma and the remnants of the city guard to establish and enforce the peace, uphold laws where it makes sense, and protect the most vulnerable refugees. If Jenya and the other divines can help produce food and water, Nowzai will organize supply depots and distribution protocols.
To this task, he will apply all of his applicable knowledge .
If these things are in hand, Nowzai will take some time to research the massive portal and investigate the status of Occipitus. He will ask Tlanextic if the couatl has any insight to the problems.
Dalamus will snoop around the refugees and his contacts in Hollowsky to see if there is any information on what is going on, anything that we may not already know.
Sam will assist Nowzia with his research into the portal