[ooc]Ghoul touch is nice. Chill Touch can cause fear in undead. It totally saved us in Thornkeep. If you do it PFS at level 1-3 Spoiler Alert:
Aiming and carefully aiming his shot at the giantess chest Jor released his bolt
Jor seeing how the torso is a good place to shoot pops a shot with his heavy crossbow and it digs into the beast. It is not happy.
While tempted to attack Jor, with Gabriel harrassing the giant's leg it decides that he's a viable target to tear limb from limb first.
Gabriel is able to fend off the claws but the bite rips through Gabriel's armor doing bite damage with its terrible jaws. The creature has a mad look in its eyes and despite the number of serious wounds it looks ready to fight to the death.
Alathea shakes her head at having to slay this creature, a victim of the evil of Malys as much as the afflicted Kender. She does what she must to protect her allies.
Channeling energy from her Deity Alathea cuts the Giantess off from the benefit once again.
Channel Energy
The elf seeing that the creature is on her last legs begins to chant, drawing a piece of rabbit fur and a small copper rod while he moves over 5 feet and unleashes his magic, revealing in the power of the magic coursing through his body until it grows to a crescendo being released in a lightening bolt.
reflex 19
Ast treren rewo pres / tre presn ptes
Athola feels the pain her body is in and sees plenty blood everywhere, she realizes the giant must have hit her brutally hard. Hearing the giant is still up, she quickly looks for the shard and picks it up, yet remains prone near the giant's leg to strike, pretending to be down still.
Round 4
Dropping the crossbow and moving a bit closer to the Giantess, Jor draws his greatsword and does overchopping motion towards its legs.
If it is still alive here is next round.
Gabriel strikes a solid blow across the torso of the giant, opening up a sharp wound in its chest
Elijayss takes another arrow shot on the Giant with a heavy draw on his bow.
The giant takes another arrow into the chest, wounding it further.
Jor fails to penetrate the hide of the giant with his weapon when he rushes into attack.
The bolt of lightning is unleashed from Terevalis strikes the Giant in the chest and flows through her body, causing her to shake violently, scorching her chest and stopping her heart. The giant collapses, losing footing on the ledge, falling 20 feet to the ground and hitting it with a loud thump and lying there motionless.
End of combat.
Alathea steps to Athola and heals her from the grievous wounds she has taken.
Cure Serious Wounds
"You alright Athola? That was brave of you. Very nice shooting Elijayss. Your skills are welcome on this dangerous journey."
Elijayss nods to Gabriel and says, "This is not the first time I have faced these twisted giants. When facing them it is good to know their vulnerable points to pierce their thick hides and make use of distance to stay out of range of their claws and teeth."
Seaching the bodies and the camp you don't find much of value and the cave just has cots, bits of food and some crude tools and wooden clubs. Nothing which could be worth taking or selling.
Still on the female you find a crude necklace with some semi-precious stones around her neck.
The necklace's gems are worth 100 Steel Pieces in total
The male has a pouch with a mix of currency in it along with other junk. Roughly 150 Steel pieces in coin.
As the female giant falls down the ledge, she simple collapses onto the ground in a sitting position, with the pain pouring more intensely through her body once her mind has realized the threat is over.
She smiles when Alathea heals and removes some of the pain.
"That is the worst I ever felt. Taken down in a single attack."
"Look at the size of the Beasts, what can you expect when not encased in 50 pounds of steel like our warriors?" Alathea replies smiling. "Part of me feels pity for the Beasts, no doubt the evil of Malys corrupted them in ways that has affected your people. A terrible blight on the entire continent was that one".
"You are right to feel pity Alathea. These corrupt creatures were in search of a meal. I will pray for whats left of their souls. Elijayss will we reach Kendermore today or should we rest here. It seems this place would be pretty safe as most things wouldn't have messed with these giants. If we are to rest we should burn the bodies to honor and give them a proper rest and to not attract any predators."
The elf will walk into the cave and find a relatively clean place to sit and write.
Elijayss says, "If we continue on we should reach kendermore by morning. It is another six hours of travel away. We could rest here though as within Kendermore there is many dangers, including wraiths and the Forlorn who seek out the living. Perhaps we could rest the night and travel during the day. We will have heat to deal with but the undead hopefully are less active during daylight hours so it would be safer as well."
"You are our guide in this place. We will act however you feel is safest for the group. Thank you Elijayss. Let us get some rest my friends. Is anyone but Athola hurt?"
Elijayss says, "If you are all in good health I would rather that we go now rather than wait. Who knows what might happen to the Kender if we delay further in our travels."
"We are well enough to travel on. Lead on then friend."
With that Elijayss leads on and after a long treck you hit some and see in the morning light Kendermore, or what's left of it.
The Outskirts are full of blackened stumps and dead trees that probably was a great forest at one time. Only a few shrubs and sickly looking trees bear any form of green. The land much like the rest of the Desolation is scorched and barren.
Once this was the capital of the Kender people and the largest of their cities. The walls of the city though look different from the rest of the archtecture hinting that they were probably built long after the city was founded. Nonetheless the walls have long been breached and no longer provides an efficient defense for the city against the dangers of the world. Althoa knows that Kendermore once was an open city with no walls but they were built later in War of the Lance and reinforced during the Chaos War.
Any form of wooden structure has likely burned away and any windows that exist are smashed. Only the stone buildings survived the wrath of Malys and the many invasions to come and even these are in various states of destruction, some look sturdy but damaged, others have long collapsed into themselves. As one might expect, most of the buildings here are Kender Sized but still the stone structural design hints there was some dwarven influence in their construction considering how well they have endured the ages. Most of the buildings have a hazy look to them, probably from years of volcanic ash falling on the city from the nearby Peak of Malystrix.
Indeed, looking at the Peak, it is probably the tallest mountain you've seen in your lives. Thousands of feet high this massive volcano casts a wide shadow that stretches over Kendermore, extending its hours of darkness by its sheer bulk. Terevalis does recall in his studies however that this mountain once was the home of the Tower of High Sorcery of Losarcum. It was destroyed in the third age on purpose by the wizards there to prevent the forces of the Kingpriest from getting their hands on it. As a side effect the city of Losarcum was also destroyed in the process. Scaling such a volcano would be a daunting task as far as you can tell.
From your direction it appears you can enter the city by many points, the closest being the west entrance. It appears to be fairly simple to enter the city proper considering there are numerous breaches in the walls and the gates appears to have long been destroyed and whatever barriers that exist have been pushed aside.
Elijayss gives a sad look to the ruins but then composes himself and says, "Our first stop should be to the City Hall center of the city. Another location we could check out is the Palace, but it will be a longer trip as its remains are further to the northeast. Both places tend to be a rallying point for many occupants and if information can be gleaned on the events occurring in the city at the moment they would be places to go. They also would be the safest places to make camp."
know arcana to see if there is anything left of the Tower.
Probably not much remains of Losarcum. It was the center of a magical explosion after all. Maybe the foundations survived but one also has to consider that the place is now a volcano. It may be possible that some magical items survived but if they did they probably were captured by the Red Marauder when she made the peak her lair.
He is very excited to go to the remains of a Tower of High Sorcery, especially one that was used by his Order.
Upon seeing Kendermore again, tears begin to form going down her face, "Does not look much has changed since I left Kendermore on my quest to free the kender of this blighted curse."
The elf smiles behind his cowl.
"Some things I must tell you of Kendermore before we go in. The greatest threat to us and even the kender are the forlorn. Firstly must avoid the bites of these undead, else be inflicted with the Cackling Madness. Worst those inflicted by the Crackling Madness that have died, rise to join the ranks of the forlorn, increasing their number."
She gives a small smile, "Well the Gully Dwarves made their home in the City Hall. But beware the kender resistance have maintained many traps and built additional ones randomly around the ruined city. There are tunnels underneath that the kender have used to sneak about, but do come with goblins though."
"Most kender alive and free are most likely hidden in cellars, and other locations that offer protection, for harder accessible by gnolls, ogres, beasts, and the forlorn.."
"I sure the Gully Dwarves will have latest knowledge of the situation here."
I will be interested in studying these undead kender. replies the wizard.
Alathea nods at Athola, "If we are pressed I can call upon the power of Zivilyn to aid us. Still, we should certainly be careful".
So the party steps forward into the ruins of Kendermore, passing through the west gate into the city. The streets are a confusing maze of ruined cobblestone streets and back alleyways. Still you do appear to be on a main road through the city, what Athola knows as "Tornado Alley", a road runs through 3/4ths of the city although the road would involve either some detours or climbing over rubble as some buildings collapsed onto the road blocking off the direct route. The most distinguishable landmark you can see from where you are is a water-tower that stretches high enough to be a point of reference in this very haphazard looking city.
Random Encounter
As you are getting your bearings you hear the sound of flapping wings and look up and hear a horrible screech in the air. Above you lies a pair of Wyverns who seem to think you're easy prey and they start swooping down towards you. You could fight them or you could make a break for the alleyways which are quite skinny and would be difficult for the Wyverns to follow you into.
"Let us stand and face them else Kender more vulnerable will be their prey"
Crossbow Shot
Damage
Ok lets Theater of the Mind this fight as its just a random encounter.
Wow! Elijayss got a natural 20. He gets a surprise round on these beasts.
Elijayss already having his bow out takes aim with his bow and tries to pluck one Wyvern with an arrow as it dives towards the party.
The arrow strikes the Wyvern, penetrating its hide and doing damage.
On his actual turn he takes another shot and then moves to a nearby street corner in order to limit the angles that the Wyverns can get at him.
A second arrow strikes the Wyvern, sticking once again into its hide. While painful, the beast is not daunted by Elijayss's attack.
iniative
Round 1
Sighing as there happens to be a fight once again and seemingly the place being desolate Jor graps his crossbow and aims at one of the wyverns "Could we just leave it for once? There is plenty of space to hide ourself plus the kender here are most likely not going to die from a pair of wyvern like that. Too big to simply move along these narrow alleyways, which seem to be just typcial here"
The crossbow bolt strikes the Wyvern again sticking yet another shaft into its body. Still the Wyvern are large and tough creatures and it will take more than that to take the beast down.
Round I Iniative 16
The wizard will draw upon his magical abilities and cast a snowball at the creature that is already hurt.
Ast fee rerst ore
RTA
damage
You conjure a ball of packed ice and snow that you can throw at a single target as a ranged touch attack. The snowball deals 1d6 points of cold damage per caster level (maximum 5d6) on a successful hit, and the target must make a successful Fortitude saving throw or be staggered for 1 round.
We are wasting precious resources that could be used to deal with real threats, cleric.
The blast of ice and snow narrowly misses the flying Wyvern.
As for the Wyverns they attack one lands next to Jor and tries to wack him with its tail.
Fortunately it his armor helps deflect a potentially lethal blow. However he takes damage and must make a Fortitude save versus the potent venom of the beast.
The second Wyvern sees Terevalis and tries to attack him.
Fortunately the protective energies of the Staff of Magus help ward off the blow.
She quickly moves to side alley to prevent easy snatching of her by the wyverns. As she moves she notches an arrow and fires it at the wyvern with the most arrows already.
I'm back.
Not a whole lot I can do with a surprise round. Assuming I'm walking around with sword out anyway.
With his quick reaction Gabriel moves to help protect the elf as the wyvern comes at him.
Round 1
Round 2
Gabriel presses the attack and full attacks the beast.
Jor is able to fight off the poison from the Wyvern although it is quite potent, he's made of stronger stuff.
Gabriel hits with his first attack cutting further wounds into the Wyvern.
Athola fires an arrow at the descending Wyverns as it comes in, sticking another arrow into the creature.
Elijayss unleashes a flurry of arrows at the injured Wyvern. Three arrows fly in succession directly at the creature.
Two arrows stick in, not as precise as his previous shots but still wounding the beast.
Gabriel tries to strike the beast but is warded off by its lashing about and tough hide.
Seeing that the wveryn is attacking him the wizard will attack it with the Staff of Magius
The hit does not do much damage in and of itself but it does trigger the stored shocking grasp in the staff.
Terevalis strikes the Wyvern with his staff, bruising it a little bit but then shocking it badly. The creature's blood vessels fry and it collapses to the ground dead and twitching from the electrical energy escaping its body.