Oh, Marzela would love to kill him too--don't get me wrong. I just feel like we are already at a disadvantage, and waiting isn't going to improve it. All it will do is endanger Carrakas, or if he has more friends, we could easily die. He can kill any of us in one full attack, even with his negatives for being way beyond longbow distance from us, and even if he comes back in... we have to get lucky rolls to even touch him.
Love the distraction idea. Would be nice if one person didn't have to sacrifice themselves for us to be able to get away.
With 8 hours, I can cast communal resist energy / protection from energy and negate that extra electricity damage, could use air walk or sky swim to help people reach him--that might give us a chance, but I don't see any really good attack spells that would work against him (and would have to overcome spell resistance first anyway). Lily would likely have better spells for attacking. Feel free to check the cleric spell list (up to level 4 spells) yourselves if you like to see if there is anything in there that would help your character in particular.
... Maybe we should burn the place down? That might be a good enough distraction, and the smoke might help us get away, because it will restrict his ability to watch for us everywhere.
Burning the place down might be a little tough since it's mostly stone, and silk apparently doesn't burn easily.
Ok, let's try being very creative. What if we join together chunks of cloth to create a very large blanket and use that to cover all of us while we run. The garuda will shoot his arrows at us. But as he is shooting blindly through the blanket that should involve some missing chance at DM's criteria. (Now that I have written that, it sounds more stupid than the image I had in my head. But an idea is an idea :)
If we are able to rest for 8 hours we will have more options to fight back. I like the air walk idea. But we don't know if we will be able to rest for that long undisturbed.
I *think* most of us have creative ways of getting away:
Jaed/Millsy - stealth
Finnrick - wild shape
Carrakas - earthmeld hopping (standard action to meld with stone, doesn't cost burn on myself, and free? action to dismiss and leave the stone, so I could move, meld, end turn, repeat ad infinitum, so long as all the buildings are stone and not more than 20ft apart...)
Marzela - natural electrical resistance + healing *might* be enough?
but that leaves us with our kidnapped merchant and Lily's body to deal with, and I have no creativity left for that.
Here's a thought - what if we try to run him out of arrows? I can take a lot of hits with my natural DR + resistance, and if Marzela can keep me healed up as needed, maybe I can try to play pincushion to his arrows?
Well, the looms would burn. We could get some smoke going at least...? If silk doesn't burn well, then even better... more smoke and more distraction, hopefully. But yeah, not ideal.
Could we take the clothes off of one of the fallen minons and maybe get Mahindra out disguised as a not-quite dead worker? ... There is actually one that Carrakas didn't kill as well, isn't there? (Only knocked out?) His clothes might be less bloody. ;)
Or... um, could we give Mahindra something that would ... nevermind. A shield won't do any more than casting shield of faith on him would, which I could do, but I was watching the Garuda's attacks, and not once would those extra AC numbers have made a difference. Freaking Garuda has an impossibly high bonus, so additional AC seems pointless. Might as well be wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
We could just encourage Mahindra to run for it and meet us later--? The Garuda might not attack him, because he is small fry compared to us, so he could scatter along with everyone else trying to go different ways, and hopefully would get away.
... Maybe a modified plan where Carrakas draws his fire out the back entrance and you guys take off out the front, and I heal Carrakas until everyone else is safely away? ... That still leaves Lily's body though. Could you earthmeld with a body, Carrakas, since it is an "object" and not a person?
Nope, afraid not. I can only meld up to 100lbs in addition to myself.
Trying to split up is problematic, because from this high up the garuda can likely see both sides; if he isn't finding luck hitting me, and others are getting away, it would be trivial for him to switch targets.
Depending on how much he knows, Mahindra might be a very large fry indeed. Even dressed as a mill worker, the garuda may target his own folks if it means keeping them quiet.
Speaking of his own folks, we could just go interrogate the mill worker I knocked out. Maybe he knows something helpful to this situation.
Unfortunately, the person you knocked unconscious only had 1 HP and then took lethal falling damage, so he's dead.
Invisibility potion that was found changes things. A lot. My vote now - Marzela takes the potion, skedaddles, and either gets help or a few potions of fly.
There are actually two invisibility potions. I gave one to Lily when I brought her back from the dead, but she never used it. She should still have it on her. I used the other one that I had earlier. So, with two, we could give one to Mahindra as well... or whoever carries the body.
I still think we should all go and then come back later with Lily though... and after specific preparation. This Garuda is a beast. Significant chance of TPK if we don't have some way of hitting it.
Could we put Lily's body in our Bag of Holding I? The max weight limit on the bag is 250lbs. Then Marzela and Mahindra could invisibility away, Jaed, Finnrick, and Millsy could stealth away, and I could earthmeld-hop away.
I just remembered that Jaed also has an invisibility potion that never used. So Carrakas could take one of the potions and carry Lily's body if the bag of holding thing does not work.
Would me carrying Lily's body while invisible cause us both to be invisible?
While dead, I'm an object, so if I'm carried, I should also be invisible.
Lily is skinny and somewhat frail, a mere 121 lbs. with about an additional 20 lbs. of gear.
DM call on whether we can put her body in the bag, but if it would help Carrakas be more mobile, sounds like a good idea.
So, we have a plan I think... run, with me, Mahindra, and Carrakas invisible, and Lily either carried by Carrakas or in the bag of holding so that someone else can carry it? Are we leaving through different exits? Should I make a new exit?
Sounds like a plan. Do we have to wait for night for the sneaks to make it safely out, or can they stealth well enough now?
Yeah, you could probably fit Lily's body in the bag of holding. Just make sure the other things in it don't cause it to go over its weight limit.
So is the plan to put Lily in the bag, Marzela, Mahindra, and Carrakas drink invisibility potions to stealth away, and Jaed, Finnrick, and Millsy regular stealth away (possibly with Finnrick wildshaping)? The invisible people and a tiny wildshaped Finnrick could probably get away during the day. If you want Jaed and Millsy to also leave during the day, you're going to have to come up with some plausible strategy to explain why the garuda doesn't see them moving through the open area.
Also, everyone alive and with hands should carry a healing potion. There are 4 Cure Mods and 2 Cure Lights that we just picked up. Carrakas, Jaed, and Finnrick should take a Cure Mod at least, and then we can let Mahindra hold one just in case (hopefully he won't have to use it).
I'll heal everyone up to full before we leave, but tell me how much you are down. Looks like Jaed is down by 6 and Carrakas by 20? Anyone else? (besides Lily) :(
Sorry if this has been said already, but a quick skim didn't reveal it - what time of day is it right now?
It's around 10-11 am
One option would be that the people that can leave using the invisibility potions come back later and create a distraction so Jaed and Millsy can escape undetected. Could be bringing back the guards (Mahindra should know if there is a post nearby) or something else. We just need the garuda to focus on something else that is not the mill. And it should be faster than waiting until the night.
If you're OK with waiting here, I could Earthmeld just you and Millsy with the burn-costing version, which would last until tomorrow morning OR you decide to end it. That way, if the Garuda decides to lose patience and attack while we are gone, you will be guaranteed hidden from him, no stealthing required.
Millsy could potentially not even need to stay here - she probably has a fast enough run speed to get away before the Garuda could really effectively respond.
Sounds good to me. So the plan is to stay put until you revive Lilly, resupply yourselves and come back to fight the garuda if he is still there.
Pretty much. I think, with the evidence I found in the garuda's bedroom, we could probably get a lot of help from the guards / dude that hired us. We'll come back with an army if needs be.
I don't want to come back and fight this Garuda anytime soon. I need to wait until tomorrow, soonest, because I need new spells. How long are you going to wait? Also, we have no idea if the guy that hired us got kidnapped or not. Remember, his name was in that note. I'll come with you if that is what you guys want to do, of course, but I think leaving people behind is not the best idea, and if there isn't anything else here, why walk right back into this situation? If you stay, I would just wait until the Garuda gets tired of waiting, and then sneak away.
If Jaed stays, we need to come back today. As soon as I recover burn (e.g. rest for the night) he would be ejected from the stone, into any potential situation in this building. Bad bad things.
If we don't want to leave Jaed here, then we have to wait some 7-10 hours for it to be dark. That leaves us still with our original concerns - that is more than enough time for the garuda to go get reinforcements if he wants. We can do that, but it is a significant risk.
Alternatively, Jaed could go invisible instead of me, and I could just make an Earthmeld-hopping run for it. Each round I could free action end my previous earthmeld, move action move 20ft to new stone, standard action new earthmeld, repeat ad infinitum. Should keep him from ever being able to full attack me, worst he could do is ready an action to fire a single shot, and my various reductions should help keep me alive from that.
GM, how far are we from shelter / a more populated region? Are the buildings around here mostly stone and relatively close together?
That sounds better. If we have to come back tonight, then we are just walking back into a bad situation.
Ok, that is also fine with me.
Once you tell him roughly where he is (he was knocked out while in the Commerce District), Mahindra can tell you that the Harbor District is the closest populated area during the day.
The area that you're in, where there are buildings, they tend to be clustered relatively close to each other, but there are also decent sized open areas. You could probably eventually find a path, but would need to make a survival check to see how round-about your route was. Mahindra would not be able to help as he's never been in the Low-Caste District before (and looks vaguely horrified at any suggestion to the contrary).
I've added an arrow to the Niswan map of roughly where you are.
Then we are leaving all together with Carrakas hopping from building until the garuda gives up. Then I suppose we are taking Mahindra to the palace (or other safe place) where we can also rest and have Lily revived.
Are the survival checks needed for all of us or just for Carrakas?
Only Carrakas would need to make a survival check because he needs a path that meets very specific requirements.
Would the rest of you head directly towards the Harbor District or following Carrakas? Keep in mind that Carrakas will be moving relatively slowly (~20 ft/round) and will not be able to take as-direct a route as the rest of you. Also, is the plan for Millsy to just make a run for it and hope she's faster than the garuda/that the garuda chooses to try to kill Carrakas instead of her? Or was she going to hide in the mill?
Let's take Mahindra to our inn/hotel place for now. I am still worried that they got to the guy that hired us because of that note.
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Unless I hear otherwise, I'll proceed with the above plan tomorrow (Carrakas building hopping, the invisible people + tiny Finnrick heading to the inn, and me picking an arbitrary course of action for Millsy).
Sounds good to me.
Sounds good to me. I'd say have Millsy run in a different direction than me, and give me a head start, so that the garuda will be good and distracted by me. Someone else should carry the bag of holding with Lily in it, though.
Also, Marzela please heal me up to full before I run for it.
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I am now a bag lady.
Lily, you are hilarious. :)
I was going to take Lily's corpse out of the bag but you seem so happy that I may leave you there :)
Regarding reincarnate.
Lily is already psychologically fragile, as she is something of an outcast among elves. Despite that she tries to be a sunny, good-natured, positive person, partly because doing so helps her to reject the crawling thought that maybe she's good at necromancy because she's supposed to be a bad person. (This is not rational thinking, but people's feelings rarely are.)
Reincarnate would make her even further alienated from her identity and has a good chance of causing a significant break or swing in her personality.
I'll play it if you guys think it would be fun to go that way, but you might wind up with a crazy bugbear necromancer in a dress or something.
Ha ha. That could be hilarious. I'm game if you want to play it, but let's wait until Raheem responds, at least. DM said there was a plan.
Also, if you don't want to do that, character wise... don't. I'd rather you keep having fun with the character than do something that saves us silly digital money. I am just as greedy as the next dungeon crawler, but totally not worth it if it turns your play experience negative.
I get raise dead next level, but that is two permanent negative levels and we would have to level within the next week, in terms of game time, for Lily to make the cut on its use, which sort of seems unlikely, but ?.
Meta-fact: Had you not investigated the mill yesterday, this morning you would have found Mahindra's immolated body in front of your inn. So congrats on saving his life. :-)
Yay. :)
... Still in the process of moving. Might not be able to post again till Thursday. Sorry. Please bot me as needed.
Good to hear that all the fighting and almost getting all killed was for something good :-)
By the way, I'll be on job trip until the weekend so it is possible that I cannot post until then.
Not sure what the total cost is, but I have just over 4k gold in cash that I can use for restoring levels due to the resurrection.
Restoration is 1000g per level negative level removed.
Just a heads up, I'm going to be traveling next week, so I might be too busy to post both Tuesday and Wednesday. Possibly also Thursday but by then I should hopefully have internet access once more.
I've knocked the cost of restoration off my own gold.
Happy Holidays everyone!
I'm going to be on vacation with my family from Sunday through Thursday followed by flying back home on Monday the 7th. It's unclear how much time/energy I'll have to post during that period. My hope is to start round 3 of combat on Saturday (or earlier if Lily and Carrakas post their actions before then) and start round 4 sometime between the 3rd and the 7th. Once I'm back home my posting rate should go back to normal, and with the holiday season over, hopefully things will move along a bit more quickly.
Wow, glad we made it through that night. :) Just posting to say that I need to update my spells, but am exhausted, so I am going to do it in the morning.
Yeah! What's our next move?
Well, we still need to find the cult and take them out... honestly the villagers have to know about whether there is a tiger man around, right? My only worry is that they worship the same creepy deity, so maybe we say that we saw a tiger man on the way in, and ask if they know where to find him?
Ideas on how my character can help you guys, other than healing? We are almost certainly going to have to face tigerman again, so what spells do you need? Clerics don't get Haste, and the closest thing to fly I have is Air Walk. Also, doesn't look like Clerics get any other sort of shelter, although if we can find rock I can always use stone shape. Other thoughts?
Clerics have blessing of fervor instead of haste.