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Faliana reaches up and tries to pull down her sweetie, not wanting to leave him on the front line of the fight if he's going to be practically comatose!
If she can pull him off the mound, the medium then steps up and takes his place before sropping down onto the other side of the barrier, readying her spear.
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Dale continues to try to dodge the ghostly fail trying to smash his head open, using his spoon to heal a little more of the damage as he goes. As he ducks back into the room, the weapon follows relentlessly, but he is able to dodge its swing this time, the weapon smashing against the stone doorframe where his head was only moments before. As he helps Dale with his wounds, Tad brushes off Purpurrups concerns, which earns him a rather withering look from the little grippli fiend keeper.
Brady presses the attack on the halfling that was clawing at him, following him forward and unleashing a litany of blows that quickly drop him to the floor, another foe out of the fight.
Dru and Monty stand there, stunned from the light show, unable to react at all. Faliana uses the opportunity to haul the vanaran away from the remaining hazh'a, tossing him further along the pile of debris, before she steps over it herself. Even as she does so, Monty starts to come to his senses, though not in time to avoid being shoved to the side.
The tiny asura, clinging to the bulging wall, snarls in contempt, as it mutters some more arcane words, and thrusts one hand towards the Pathfinders. A spray of liquid erupts from them, striking Faliana head on, and dousing Monty, Brady, and the still stunned Dru behind her. It calls something in the halfling's language, before scampering along the wall, back towards the ledge it was on earlier in the far right corner... still tantalizingly out of reach, fifteen feet above the floor.
The last halfling snarls in response, then continues tearing at Dru while she is unable to defend herself. Her armor manages to fend off some of the blows, but can only do so much, as he tears at her flesh once more .
- Round 8 ---------
The Party is up!
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Brady, still looking down at the fallen halfing in front of him--perhaps silently castigating the smaller creature for having crossed him--never notices the spray of acid and takes it full to the chest. That's enough to bring him back around and draw his attention, however, and his eyes whip around to the only remaining halfling, now the target of his building ire. He steps over deliberately and swings hard with his fist.
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Seeing the massive wave of acid headed for her head, Faliana ducks out of the way of the worst of it, but still looses some of her hair scarf in the process. "OI! I'm NOT losing my hair to a some demon or devil again!"
She takes a second to think about how this fight is going and decides that she should focus on the annoying spell casting thing. She galnces up at it and realises it's just a little too far to reach readily.
Instead she takes a slower approach and positions herself in a good place to strike at the halfling and hopefully close in on the demon thingy.
Brady ignores the pain from the acid burning his skin, as he moves up to the last halfling fist balled. But try as he might, ignoring it does not make the pain go away, and he pulls back on his blow almost instinctively as red hot pokers jab at his shoulder where muscle tissue screams at the effort. The halfling easily avoids the blow, ready to finish off Drusilla, who still reels from the flash of light, unable to fight back. Before he can dig into her flesh once more though, Faliana raises an objection...
Or, more accurate, she raises the point of her longspear, driving it from a low position, up under the halfling's arm, through his armpit, and deep into his chest! He doesn't even get a chance to react to the blow, a small gurgle of blood burbling up out of mouth, from lungs pierced through, before he drops like a stone, dead to the floor.
Dale continues trying to avoid the spiritual weapon harrying him still. He guzzles down one of his alchemical creations, but even as he does so, the ghostly flail catches up, smashing into him yet again.
Monty quickly snatches up Slitherbane from where it lays amid the debris, though what the weapon says to him for the affront is not readily obvious. Tad seeing him reacquire the weapon, quickly says another prayer to Sarenrae, and reaches out to touch them both, causing the metal of Slitherbane's spiked ball to heat up quickly until it glows almost red.
As the vanaran races across the room, to join Faliana looking up towards the little golden asura on the ledge above, the tiny fiend again begins to chant arcane words, its hands cupped as if balling something up. It then spreads its hands, pushing them away from itself as it does so. Even as it finishes its spell, a globe of sour-smelling fluid starts to form around Tad. Almost five feet across, it roils and bubbles with acid, threatening to envelop the little grippli! Already, the broken debris of the barricade on which he stands starts to dissolve under his feet, the acidic fluids quickly eating away at the softer materials.
The creature then scampers along the wall towards Dale and Tad, rounding the corner, still fifteen feet above the floor.
On the back wall, the few remaining runes still active start to flare up, one of them exploding in a shower of sparks before going dark like so many of the others destroyed by Tad's fireball. Purpurrup gives a little cry of distress, as she clambers over the barricade, moving towards the back wall.
- Round 9 ---------
The Party is up!
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Brady's eyes find and follow the asura as it moves along the carvings in the wall. He keeps his eyes on the little creature as his hands dig into his pouch as he searches for the Ekujae's gift: that delightful cake. His hand finds it, and quickly retrieves it, unwrapping as he goes such that by the time his hand reaches his mouth, he can devour the healing blend of seeds, nuts, and grains that they always leave for him.
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Faliana clambers up over both barriers, huffing and puffing slightly at the difficulty that scrabbling over the idols brings! She camps out beneath the idol, ready to lash out with her longspear.
Alright, so a reach weapon doesn't just threaten on the x and y axis only, she can attack up too! Also a medium character should, to simplify, occupy a five foot high cube, her reach weapon should then be able to reach 15' high. But my question is can she reach a character 15 feet above her if she isn't standing directly below it (i.e. is her threat range a 3x3x3 cube)? From what I have read I want to say yes, but this is never clearly defined in the rules.
If she does threaten, then Fali will single move closer to the little thing and try an attack.
If she doesn't, then she will double move to beneath the thing and wait on an AoO.
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Tad is engulfed by the acidic ball, his skin starting to boil and bubble beneath the caustic fluids. He manages to call forth a small ball of flame in his hand, but the pain from the acid makes his concentrating on his aim extremely difficult. As he tosses it, it merely hits the wall, some ways below the tripurasura, doing little more than scorching the hard stone.
Dale doesn't have the same distraction, as he lobs one of his bombs up at the asura... hoping he doesn't miss, as it would fall right down at his feet if he did! Fortunately, his aim is deadly accurate, and the small vial crashes against the tiny golden creature, sending its heat-consuming chemicals splashing across it and the nearby wall. Everything it strikes, creature and wall alike, are quickly covered in ice crystals, as the endothermic reaction draws the heat from the entire area! Despite the frost forming around it, the Asura manages to avoid getting his limbs completely frozen, but is clearly heavily damaged from the explosion!
It snarls, glaring at him for a moment, until the giant ball of acid suddenly rolls away from Tad, across the floor, and right over the alchemist!
Brady backs away from everything, digging out the healing potion gifted to you days before by the Ekujae... but the concoction's effectiveness appears to have faded during your trip here, and it only a few of his more minor scratches heal over.
Faliana, realizing she can't reach the thing while it remains up on the wall, drops her spear, and pulls out a crossbow, quickly loading a bolt.
Monty has different ideas, as he bounds forward, leaping first onto the barricade, before bounding towards the wall to his left, then trying to propel himself off of that one towards the far wall, hoping to gain enough height to reach the elusive enemy. But despite his best efforts, trying to gain enough elevation to swing Slitherbane proves beyond even his skill, and can't quite grab a purchase to get any higher without both hands free. He ends up on the ground below, the effort wasted.
The golden asura once again, starts to chant arcane words, as it backs up a small distance along the wall. Once again, greenish energy coalesces around it, until it points one tiny finger at the vanaran below him. The energy runs down its arm and a deep green ray shoots out from his hand, striking Monty. The arcane energy quickly washes over his body and he starts to feel the years weighing even more heavily, as the strength suddenly saps from his limbs and he can barely hold Slitherbane up any more.
Dru finally manages to come back to her senses from the earlier onslaught of color, finding the battlefield below and above her quite different from when she got hit.
- Round 10 ---------
The Party is up!
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Dale knows what's coming, he's seen this stuff before hanging down in the depths of the Dark Archive's vaults. He ducks and skips out of the way, back towards the room's exit as he tosses another frost bomb at the creature. "We've got it now! Shoot it Dru!"
ENDURING SCHOLAR (2+ goals): Your exposure to dangerous magic has conditioned you to resist spells. Once per adventure before rolling a saving throw against a spell, you can apply a bonus equal to 1 + half the number of goals you have completed.
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Dale manages to avoid the rolling ball of acid, quickly scrambling across the room, before tossing another bomb. Unfortunately, he hurries the throw, and the little golden asura is remarkably nimble in its own right, and it dodges aside, as the bomb tinks off the wall, tumbling towards the ground, before crashing apart right between Tad and Monty! Both of them flinch as the chemicals spill out, but unexpectedly, they seem to congeal right where they strike, none of them splashing out as they usually do.
Faliana fires her crossbow, and Dru her bow, up at the creature, but neither has any luck hitting such a small, fast-moving, target as it scampers on the wall. Brady, remembering what Dale said earlier, grabs a cold iron javelin, but has little better luck hitting the quickly moving fiend than the girls.
Tad though, without the acid burning his skin, fares far better. He lobs another small ball of fire from his hand, that strikes the asura across the side, burning its golden skin with his holy flame. It howls in anger as the flame immediately reforms in the grippli's palm.
Monty, his strength suddenly sapped, follows Brady's previous lead, pulling out his gift from the Ekujae, and quickly drinking it down. Fortunately, his has not deteriorated as much as the half-orcs, and Monty's wounds mostly heal up.
The little creature waves one hand, and the giant ball of acid rolls across the floor again trying to roll over Dale!
It then say some more arcane words, and fans out its hands, and a deluge of acidic spray shoots out, covering Dru, Dale, and Brady in its caustic substances, before it steps back towards the corner.
- Round 11 ---------
The Party is up!
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Dale's eyes go wide as his bomb misses And I thought I had that angle calculated nearly perfectly!
He does his best to recall some snazzy dance moves he learned while studying the Azlanti empire to try to avoid the acidic onslaught. While the sight is confusing, the series of sideways dance steps and ritual hops work perfectly.
He draws out yet another frost bomb, tries making some adjustments to its aerodynamic shape and launches...
Trying to keep his carbon footprint low, Monty decides to recycle Brady's javelin, picking it up from where it fell, and hurling it himself. His throw is good, striking the asura, despite its tiny size.
Over by the door, Dale shows an unbelievable amount of nimbleness, dodging the incoming rolling ball of acid completely, before diving beneath the follow up cone, only an upper epidermal layer for his efforts. He moves closer to the asura, recalculating trajectories and arcs in his head, before throwing a third bomb up towards the asura. This time, it strikes the little gold creature square in the chest. As the mix of chemicals spill out, again the frost crystals and ice start to form, freezing the asura solidly to the wall overhead, its entire form nearly encased in rime.
The tripurasura hangs there a moment, until Tad flings another fiery missile from below. The flames instantly melt the thin layer of ice, as they burn the fiend beneath and remains of Dale's chemicals holding it aloft. Its body slowly tumbles off the wall, falling to the hard stone floor below with a meaty thunk. Even as it strikes the floor, the roiling ball of acid loses its cohesion, the entire thing collapsing to the floor, leaving it pitted and pocked with acid burns.
Again, a feeling of unfettered rage washes across the room, and the few remaining wards flare up, a couple more of them flashing brightly and burning out completely, until only a small handful remain, glowing brightly.
At the base of the wall, little Purpurrup kneels, her head bowed, chanting furiously, her face strained.
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After a graceful bow Dale quickly assesses the seriousness of the situation, translating Purpurrup's words for the group before tossing out orders to streamline things.
"Tad, can you heal us with your channels?"
"Someone take some cold iron and squash that thing's skull just in case it regenerates!"
He then asks Purpurrup in her language if he can help in any way. Or maybe Tad can help? "How can we fix those wards? Anything?" He taps himself with his spoon to fix some of that acid damage.
"MMM SOUP!" Giggle!
*Edit:
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Brady barely dodges out of the way of the last acid spray, then watches the asura fall from the ledge. "Cold iron, check" Brady nods at Dale, retrieving another of his javelins as he moves to stand over the body. He peppers it with a litany of downward strikes, poking hole after hole in the creature's body until he's satisfied that it will never rise again.
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Fali gives the wall an apprehensive look and then starts picking up some of the broken idols and seeing if she can't get some of them back together. "I know this has almost no chance of working, but I don't want to just wait around with nothing to do! Unless there's something better I could be doing."
As Brady makes sure the asura will not bother anyone again, Dale tries to determine the nature of the runes on the wall, and what is going on, Purpurrup a little distracted to explain them herself.
Faliana will realize the totems, both those destroyed and piled into the baricade, and those still out of reach on the walls, are all far more recent. Likely put here by the grippli keeping the fiend in check. She looks at the pieces helplessly, not even sure where to start trying to piece them back together. She will get a strong sense of spiritual energy from all of them, though on the broken totems, it is just an echo of something already gone.
Dale can not get a good look at the still active runes and glyphs, all of those way over his head. The ones lower down have all been destroyed, most of them by Tad's spell earlier. They appear to be all parts of an intricate binding spell, though not one that resembles any has seen before, this far more powerful and complicated than even that powerful magic. Something is definitely bound on the other side of the wall, and probably has been for a long long time.
In fact, the glyphs that he can examine in the short time he has, seem to bear many of the signature characteristics of the work of ancient Mwangi folks hero known as Old Mage Jatembe and his Ten Magic Warriors. He will also find some references to the creature trapped beyond, but the language used is so ancient that all he can determine is that it is a creature known as an asurendra... and its name... Parveen.
When Tad tries to ask how to help, Purpurrup's response is harsh, strained, and short.
You're not sure what she is doing exactly, though note a small wooden totem that she is gripping tightly in her hands as she chants.
A little taken aback by her retort, Tad brandishes his own symbol, that of his goddess, and lowers his head to add his prayer to her chanting.
The response is almost instantaneous, and not good. The hatred and rage radiating throughout the room from whatever is bound there, hits you like a physical force. Sending a few of you down to your knees from its intensity.
Purpurrup gasps in pain, looking up in alarm, as the remaining wards flare even bright, and a couple more flash and burn out.
Seeing Tad, she starts to yell at him desperately, one hand waving his way as if she'd smack him if he were within her reach.
"Stop!" She yells desperately, this time in common. "Only hate for your god! Your words make it strong! Stop him!"
Confused, and a little hurt, Tad will be convinced to stop his prayer, and Purpurrup continues to chant. The nearly physical hatred washing the room dies down along with it, though the runes flare no less brightly.
Purpurrup points one hand back towards the walls, up towards the ceiling. "Bring this one those! The ones still whole." She cries, before going back to her desperate chanting. Her skin glistens with moisture, and her voice trembles with stress.
It takes a moment to realize she means the totems that have not yet been destroyed... though those are all high up the walls, in small niches and on makeshift shelves, where the halflings had not been able to reach them yet.
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Brady looks up at the totems that Purpurrup points out, and sighs. They were a long ways up, and even though Monty and Tad could surely get them quickly, there were more totems than that. They would need his help, surely.
He pulls out his traveler's any-tool, and fashions it into a marlinspike. He retrieves a coil of rope, and using the two together, begins climbing up the wall to bring down one of the idols.
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Monty reacts quickly, bounding up the craigs and niches in the wall to snag one of the totems and bring it to Purpurrup, setting it down, and the fetching another, working quickly, methodically, and oddly quietly. He looks... nervous. That wave of hate has put even the wild monkey man in a no-nonsense set of mind.