Ok so initiative is Turion, Duke, Mel, Kazador, Hal-Geoffrey. But Hal has a readied action to grab the Duke's arm or something? I'm not exactly sure, mechanically, what the readied action or trigger is. Turion may go.
Female UC Rogue (Phantom Thief) 8, Warpriest of Ostara 1, HP: 91/91, AC: 24:17:19, CMD: 26 Saves: 10:12:9 (+2 vs enchantment), Init +5 (+3 when bluff/SM involved); Status:
Skills:
Acro +13, Bluff +4, Climb +6, Diplo +12, Disg +21, Escape A +11, Heal +20, Kn(arc, nobles) +13, Kn(loc, planes) +21, Kn(nat) +16, Kn(rel) +17, Kn(others) +12, Ling +7, Perc +20, Sense M +8, Stealth +27, Surv +5, Swim +6
"He is strong-willed," Túrion mutters. He quickly sets down the rod in his hand, pulls another from his supplies, and blasts the Duke with tiny purple shards of force. His robe flashes as the spell takes effect, imbuing the spell with the essence of his fey heritage.
Mechanics (Kazador read!):
Free action to drop the Metamagic Rod of Persistent Spell, flavored as setting it down on something, like maybe a bookshelf or similar.
Move action to pull the Metamagic Rod of Toppling Spell.
And unless the good Duke is immune to mind-affecting effects, he's going to be laughing for one round per the Laughing Touch bloodline power. No save. The ability says: "A laughing creature can only take a move action but can defend itself normally." Since it specifically says "only" a move action, he definitely doesn't get a standard, and I don't think he's allowed a swift action either. I'll be interested to see if he has any way to try and escape a grapple that doesn't involve taking a swift or standard action.
That means that Kazador is very likely to get a chance to maintain the grapple and thus give the Duke the pinned condition. Here is a handy Grapple flowchart. Note that maintaining a grapple is done with a +5 bonus.
I am very sad that Túrion rolled a nat 1 on that toppling magic missile. Being prone would have given Kazador another +4 on an attempt to maintain/pin. Oh well. That's the dice for you.
Placing one foot forward and in front of the nobleman, Kazador yanked him backwards and took him off balance. Taking him to the ground, the dwarf easily got on top of him and pinned him there. Between his strength and weight advantages, it did not seem like getting free would be easy.
HP 52/52| AC 17(16)/FF14/T13(12) | Saves 7(6):10(9):11 | CMD 18 | Init 2 |Perception +11 | FS 2/2 SS 2/2 | Pearl1 3/3 Fund 140/500 Grtr Magic Aura
Hal/Geoff freezes for a moment, then gives a dust-muffled squeak, steps outside and shuts the door.
action:
making sure nothing out here suggests the Duke needs help, cleaning up any dust residue etc. If anyone was tailing the Duke Hal will attempt to redirect them.
It is the Duke before Kazador but we will keep Kazador's turn ready to go as it likely still applies.
The Duke laughs in the silence and draws some kind of potion or elixir from his pocket. Kazador then pins the Duke's arms to his sides and Hal-Geoffrey closes the door and starts getting rid of evidence!
The least combative action there is somehow the most chilling. We did skip Mel's round 1 turn there with Kaz's and Hal's eagerness so she can go now. Technically, she would be going before Kaz establishes the pin and Hal shuts the door.
Female UC Rogue (Phantom Thief) 8, Warpriest of Ostara 1, HP: 91/91, AC: 24:17:19, CMD: 26 Saves: 10:12:9 (+2 vs enchantment), Init +5 (+3 when bluff/SM involved); Status:
Skills:
Acro +13, Bluff +4, Climb +6, Diplo +12, Disg +21, Escape A +11, Heal +20, Kn(arc, nobles) +13, Kn(loc, planes) +21, Kn(nat) +16, Kn(rel) +17, Kn(others) +12, Ling +7, Perc +20, Sense M +8, Stealth +27, Surv +5, Swim +6
I'm actually just going to have Mel delay her round 1 action until after Kazador.
Melia had just started to line up a shot on Duke Beaumont when Kazador lunged into the line of fire. She hesitates a moment. "Yes," she says. "Secure him. I'll help." She helps restrain the struggling Duke.
Mel Mechanics, more info for Kazador:
Swift action: activating the Communal Aid power of the Community blessing on myself. For the next 10 rounds if I use the aid another action the bonus is +4 instead of +2.
CMB check vs DC 10 to aid Kazador's next grapple check:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22
So, just to tally up. The Duke is currently pinned, which denies him his Dex bonus to AC and CMD. It also applies a further -4 penalty to AC, untyped, which also applies to his CMD. So his CMD has been reduced by 4 plus whatever his Dex modifier is. If the Duke fails to free himself, Kazador gets a +5 on the check to maintain, and an additional +4 from Mel's aid.
Since Túrion is at the top of initiative, here are his Round 2 actions.
Túrion spots the potion bottle the Duke drew. He makes no comment, but raises his free hand and casually incants a spell.
Túrion Mechanics:
Casting a targeted Dispel Magic on the potion, and spending an arcane reservoir point to increase the CL of his Dispel Magic by 2 thanks to Potent Magic.
The DC is 11 plus the caster level of the item. For most ordinary potions made at the minimum CL, a 16 is sufficient to suppress their magic. So unless the Duke has splurged on a potion with a higher than usual caster level (which is a real possibility) that should probably do it. Using a targeted dispel on a magic item suppresses its effects for 1d4 rounds:
1d4 ⇒ 2
I opted not to have Túrion say anything about what he's doing, in the hopes that the Duke will not recognize what's going on and waste his standard action drinking an ineffective potion. We're pretty sure the Duke is not a caster, but who knows if he put some ranks in Spellcraft just to be able to figure out what people are casting?
Oh, and I'm going to have him pick his Persistent metamagic rod back up so he can maybe stow it next round. He can always drop it as a free action later if he has to, and he has nothing else useful to do with his move action this turn.
The spell finished, he reaches out and picks up the metamagic rod he set down moments before.
