I thought a 19 missed her, i'm aware a 20 is auto-success.
I really need a map update and the time to look at it, i'm constantly posting from phone while travelling and digging up the old one takes forever on a smart-phone.
I need to know where DM put me last round (I declared i'd advance 30 feet to the action).
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But then I hear Nim's voice in my head saying no, we need more damage, and Anton is putting himself forward as a target; take the -4 to hit while prone and do the best that you can. So I can't even agree with myself on what I think you should do? Good luck! :)
Mihai's wave of healing washes over the group healing many of their wounds and stopping corbirus from bleeding to death.
Wic clamps down on mother and by a twist of fate she slips on the muddy ground as she attempted to fend him off bringing her to the ground !
Anton tries to draw her attention but is unsure if it works.
Corbrius awakens with a start, realizing the battle is still going on.
Nim starts to feel the paralysis wear off as his friends struggle with the leader of the Lacedon...
Corbius gasps as the healing energy once again washes over bringing him back from the brink of death.
Realizing quickly that mother is down but still alive he knows that if he does not risk himself it could cost the life of another. Corbius reaches for his rapier all the while watching mother closely ready to avoid her attacks.
AC 18+4-4
HP 3/12
Arcane pool 1/4
Trag step back!
Mother takes a swipe at Wic. which gashes his forepaw and then attempts to get up.
As Mother rises to her feet, Tragershen takes advantage of her posture to try and slip in a strike with his rapier. Startled by the movement at his feet, however, the blade slides wide.
To hit
Damage
When Corbius starts to move, Tragershen fears he may be rising as a ghoul. When he hears his voice, however, he grins broadly and gladly steps away from the monstrous ghould before starting a simple spell.
Step to V25 and cast Disrupt Undead at Mother.
To hit
Damage
Round 8:
Mihai calls upon the guidance of Sinishakti to set his feet to the path before he moves forward to where Wic may make best advantage of his presence.
As Nylithati stands back up, Anton takes advantage of her awkward position to stab her in the chest.
Fighting defensively with trident: 1d20 + 4 - 4 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 4 - 4 + 2 - 2 = 20
...for 1d6 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 1 - 2 = 1 damage.
Crit confirm: 1d20 + 4 - 4 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 - 4 + 2 - 2 = 1 Nope
Wic's muscles freeze as he stops moving...
Mother gets up and takes a small slice from Anton for her efforts. Wic appears to be frozen solid and can no longer move.
Tragershen steps back and then casts a spell at her, just striking through her defenses but doing little damage.
Mihai casts then moves up.
Order of Combat Round 9:
Aedalis 22
Nim 19
Corbrius 19
Anton 19
Mother 15
Mihai 7
Tragershen 7b
Aedalis places his fortune on Anton and then focus' to extend it onto Corbrius yet again.
As the paralysis fades and mobility returns to Nim's limbs he spins to assess the situation. Seeing everyone crowded around 'mother' he yells at Corbious. Move back, let me take your spot!
Nim races up to engage the foul priestess before swinging at her torso with an upward diagonal slash...
...cutting her from hip to shoulder.
[ooc]Hope I don't need those last 2... :)
Hearing Nims shout Corbius attempts to stand and move away while doing his best to fend off mothers attention.
AC 18+4-4=18
HP 3/12
Arcane Pool 1/4
Seeing Corbius begin to stand up right next to the deadly creature, Anton looses a curse that he learned in the Molthuni army, and then stabs at the undead cleric again -- both to no effect. He racks his brain for how to keep her attention.
"Oh hey, guess what I have? Holy dust!" The well-prepared ranger reaches back into his pack and rummages around for the flask, hoping to either distract Nylithati from the heavily-wounded magus, or else get the anti-undead weapon out safely. Either way.
Mother lashes out at Corbrius as he stands.
The blow is a heavy one, raking him down the face. Corbrius collapses in a heap. He still breathes...for the moment.
Foolish mortals!
Nim yells and charges forward, striking mother back with a moderate wound.
Mother then looks at Nim and grins, Time for you to join my pack mortal. I am going to make your transition slow and painful!
Nim dodges two strikes from mother but she slashes Nim across his stomach. Nim struggles for a moment before shaking off the paralysis...
Tragershen and Mihai to go. I will get a new map up tonight.
Not wanting to interfere with those more adept at melee than he, Tragershen uses a trick of arcane force to fling his rapier at Mother, just as quickly drawing it back to his waiting hand. Again, concern over inadvertantly skewering an ally causes his strike to go wide, not even scraping the undead's grotesque hide.
Hand of the Apprentice, rapier.
To hit
Damage
Round 9:
Mihai sees his companions beset and knows that time is not with them... this beast is dangerous and must be put down. Building up the holy energy gifted him by Sinishakti in one hand...
Concentration (Defensive Cast):
Touch Attak (with True Strike): for
...before slapping the Mother across her flank and growling "Burn"
Order of Combat Round 10:
Aedalis 22
Corbrius 19a *Unconscious
Nim/Wic 19b *Wic is paralyzed
Anton 19c
Mother 15
Mihai 7
Tragershen 7b
Aedalis extends the Fortune on Corbrius and Anton then tries to hit Mother with a magical effect that will reduce her combat prowess..
Nim grimaces as he is slashed once again. As the blood flows freely from his wounds, he realizes this may be his last actions in this world. He throws his shield to the ground and grips his scimitar in both hands, hoping against hope that his strike helps the others to outlast this abomination of nature...
... and returns her strike in kind, slashing her across the torso.
He then staggers back, hoping to put some distance between the two of them.
Anton! something! Block her!
Glancing at Mihai as he steps back he mumbles, We really could have used some of your luck...
We could really use some of your luck...
Anton nods at Nim's words, and cautiously moves to stand protectively by their unconscious friend. "Trag, get some more distance -- it's too crowded -- and be ready to run, if we all fall???" Then the scared halfling pops the cork from the flask in his hand and pours Desna's holy rose-quartz dust all over the ghoulish momstrosity.
My imagination is that it's like a melee touch attack, except that it's a fluid, so you use Dex to attack instead of Str. And then that makes me question whether to apply Point Blank Shot, or ranged weapon into melee, or both, or neither. So I left them both off, and the sickened penalty to weapon damage too (since I don't see how my physical health would make the holy dust hurt less, and its effect on my aim is in the attack roll). Figured I'd leave those decisions up to you. ;)
Anton throws the dust into "Mothers" face, burning her badly...she screams and grabs at her face but like acid she can't seem to get rid of it. Like a mad creature she falls to the grow thrashing about slashing and clawing at her face, peeling what flesh is left away from it.
You all back away from the thrashing, dragging Corbrius back as you watch the Lacedon in it's last throws of unlife. The room grows quiet. You tend to Corbrius' wound and stabilize him. You have little magic left and quickly go back to the cave entrance and call up to the other castaways. Jask heals you all up to max and several of them accompany you back down there. You find only one other chamber, what seems to be mother's "room".
The walls of this small cave are covered with carvings of snakes and skeletons. A hideous mound of bones and dripping seaweed forms what can only be a nest in the middle of the room.
Her corpse has the following items:
amulet of natural armor +1, ring of swimming
Rooms of Note:
Between Jask, Mihai, and the others you identify that this was once a temple devoted to the serpentfolk god Ydersius. You guess that the heap of bodies to the south is an attempt at creating a new altar in honor of the god.
You find several empty potion vials near the alcove door and Anton notes
they look very similar to vials they saw the Varisian scholar
Ieana carrying once or twice during the Jenivere’s final voyage.
The chamber to the north:
Description: A low stone altar, its sides carved like coiling snakes and its top carved to resemble a yawning viper’s maw, sits in the center of this room. The walls of the chamber are carved with images of anthropomorphic serpents using strange, pointed megaliths of
stone to work great feats of magic—transforming an army of humans into zombies, calling down flaming bolts of lightning from the stars, or parting the waters of the sea to dash human ships upon the exposed rocks of the seabed below. This final image seems to have been recently cleaned of dust, and several lines of text have been made more legible via the application of inks and perhaps blood.
An investigation of the carvings and is enough to confirm that the images presented depict scenes here on the island of Smuggler’s
Shiv. The carvings are ancient indeed, likely contemporary with
ancient Azlant. The creatures depicted are ancient serpentfolk.
Numerous Aklo carvings remain on the walls, but only those near the carving of the receding tides are legible. Inscription:
To Command the Very Tides to Rise Up and Eschew What Lies Below:
Empower the Four Sentinel Runes with the Blood of a Thinking
Creature Tempered by the Kiss of a Serpent’s Tongue.
Anoint the Tide Stone with Waters Brought from the Sea in a Vessel of
Purest Metal.
Invoke the Lord’s Sacred Name to Wrap His Coils around the Sea Itself
that He Might Lay Bare What Lies Below and Cast Down Your Enemies
on the Waves above.
Smaller carvings nearby depict serpentfolk splashing blood on curved runes carved on upright stones before a red mountain, and then holding venomous snakes against the blood that they might lick the stones, pouring water onto a pyramid-shaped block of red stone from a bowl, and standing before the pyramid of stone with arms upraised and mouths
agape as if shouting to the heavens as a bolt of lightning arcs up
from the stones into the sky.
I am Captain Alizandru Kovack, betrayer of my crew and destroyer of the good ship Jenivere. Hell would be a welcome escape from what
hideous unlife looms before me, but it is no less a punishment
than I deserve. That I was enslaved mind and body to a
serpentine demon who wore a Varisian’s skin does not pardon
me. It is my weakness that led the Jenivere, her crew, and
her passengers to their doom.
That Ieana has abandoned me here is nothing more than the fate I deserve. I do not beg forgiveness, but I despair that she lives still, and that she seeks something dire on this forsaken isle—she seemed
particularly interested in Red Mountain. If you read this and you be a kind soul, seek out what I have become and destroy me, and then seek out
Ieana and slay her as well. And to those whose lives I have helped destroy, I can only apologize from this, my dark cradle and darker grave.
Discovering the carvings and temple takes about a day.
Correct....
Correct....
When Nylithati grows still, Anton ceases his trident-readied vigil and slumps to the ground, sobbing with relief. He wipes away tears from his cheeks. "I thought we were all gonna die. I was saving that, since I can't get more -- and now it's gone. And we're alive. Thank Desna!" The passionate halfling's expression ranges from relief to grief and back again, as he considers what he has -- his life and his friends -- and the reminder of what he's lost: a connection to his church, and civilization in general.
At one point, Tragershen will pull Jask aside and let him know the nature of the undead that were faced below. "I am concerned any of us, even I, could be infected with some of the diseases that undead bear. Please keep a close watch on us for any warning signs. If it is needed, I have a potion that may be helpful in combatting any illness."
After 'mother' had fallen, Nim yelled exaltedly in victory. I did not think that we would survive either. We are fortunate to have done so. We will need to do better in the future... Internally, Nim cursed himself for not realizing the true nature of the ambush before it had been sprung. The end run flank was precisely the kind of thing that he and Wicewakan themselves used. He should have known better, and it almost proved very costly for him and his companions.
When Corbious had regained consciousness, Nim helped him to his feet, patting him on the back as he rose. You accounted yourself well today... you put a world of hurt on her before you fell to her touch. I thought for a moment there that we might put her down early... but she was a dangerous foe. This island is a better place without her.
Nim then turned and hacked 'mother's' head from her body and flung it as far as he could into the surf. Not knowledgeable in the subject and uneasy about the remains, he asked if the bodies should be burned to ensure that they did not rise again.
When they returned to the caverns the next day, Nim again left the investigations to those more qualified, satisfied to stand guard over the group.
Anton responds to Nim's query. "For once, I actually don't care what the lore says. Let's just burn them; better safe than sorry. Heck, I almost wish you didn't throw that head away; hopefully some poor fish or crab will eat it."
Later, Anton thanks Aedalis, remembering how when it came down to do or die, he saw overlapping realities: one in which he maybe kinda hit Nylithati with the holy dust, and another in which he got her full in the face. "We all made a difference, but your contribution was harder to see than most. Just wanted you to know that I saw it."
Anton examines the drawings and hears the translations with growing trepidation. "Oh no. When we first read the captain's journal, I thought Ieana was going to see Chupe, and I couldn't imagine them getting along at all. This is much worse! I don't even know if the megaliths still exist, but my boots do. We must stop her before she finds those stones and figures out how to activate them!"
The small man sighs deeply. "But we got lucky last time, and you know who I'd say is responsible for that. I'm starting to think that maybe we should be more cautious -- and if anything, I'm the worst." The audacious halfling makes a sour face at the admission. "We can't lean on Desna for everything, since she frowns as easily as she smiles."
He looks around at the others seriously. "We could've sent for help, as soon as we got hit with the opposite of what Mihai does." Anton gestures vaguely, not really understanding all of that magic stuff. "We chose not to. That's on us. Maybe we should take a minute or three to make a plan, this time?"
An examination of this log reveals that the Jenivere’s captain seemed to be suffering from some sort of madness that grew over the course of the ship’s final voyage.
Earlier entries from previous voyages are precise in recording progress and events along the way, as are entries from the first two-thirds of this last trip. Yet as one reads further, the more recent the entries get, the less common they become—in some cases, several days are missing entries. What entries do appear are strangely short, focusing more and more on one of the passengers—the Varisian scholar Ieana, with whom the captain seems to have become obsessed. Several entries are nothing more than poorly written love poems to Ieana, while others
bemoan Captain Kovack’s inability to please her or catch her attention. Near the end, the entries begin to take on a more ominous tone with the captain starting to complain that other members of the crew are eyeing “his Ieana.” In particular, he suspects his first mate is in love with her, and writes several times about how he wishes Alton would just “have an accident.”
The final entry is perhaps the most disturbing, for in it the captain writes of how he’s changed course for Smuggler’s Shiv at Ieana’s request. He hopes that the two of them can make a home on the remote island, but also notes that the crew are growing increasingly agitated at the ship’s new course. The captain muses that “something may need to be done about the crew” if their suspicions get any worse.
You sit around the fire the next night looking over the Journal and discussing what you have discovered from the temple and the things you have pieced together.
We should kill the b~+*~! She sent us here, let's find her and kill her!
Maybe we should avoid her and just focus on getting more allies like the wood witch and the Chupa and then getting off the island?
A much better feeling Ishirou, I tend to agree with Gelik. We should focus on what we know, she is an unknown enemy, with unknown powers. We have the Red Mountain Devil to deal with, I care little for why we ended up here, we need to focus on getting off.
I agree with Sasha. Let's kill them all, the Devil, the crazed wood b~*&%, and Ieana or whatever she is.
Jask shakes his head, Making enemies of all of them would be foolish. We must decide on a course of action that would be most likely to succeed.
We should pick a side and live with our choice. The Red Mountain Devil and Aycenia have both offered us information in exhange for our cooperation. Which one do we trust more and has the ability to give us what we want? Either may.
Pezcock speaks up, From what I have heard, Aycenia can not be trusted. Then again I am not sure that the Red Mountain Devil can be either. I know it seems strange but I fear Aycenia more than the Devil. At least I know what he is capable of...
Corbius sits momentarily after regaining consciousness, his body aching from the numerous wounds he has received.
Looking up at Nim he accepts the offered hand and rises to his feet. Thank you Nim. If only I had not hesitated when she entered the water mayhaps she would have been vanauished quickly. Instead my indecision risked the others safety. A mistake I will not make again.
Nodding to Nim he helps the others investigate the caverns and follows them to the surface.
Sitting around the fire with the others Corbius listens to the others discussing the issues at hand. Even if we wanted to deal with this Ieana, whatever she is, where do we even start to look? Do we even have an idea where he might be? Let us focus on one issue at a time. The devil seems to be continually causing problems. We need to deal with him first. Whether that means helping or eliminating him, he is our most immediate threat.