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Alden bleeds profusely, but grits his teeth against the pain as he continues to protect 42. Exiel hammers at his next golem, but it is not ready to fall yet. 42 also cuts at his golem, bringing it even closer to destruction, but not just yet either.
The golems keep pounding away mindlessly at their targets.
The luck of our heroes begins to run thin as two of the golems get lucky hits on Exiel and 42. Once again, Alden jumps in the way just in time to protect 42, but takes the hit for his trouble.
Initiative:
Exiel (+3, bleeding 3)
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42 (-42)
Glass Golems (-48,shattered,-50,-)
Alden (-48, bleed 8)
Naala (-13)
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Exiel bleeds a little more before he is able to staunch the flow of blood. He smashes his hammer into golem several times, sending spiderwebs throughout it. It raises is hammer-arm to retaliate, but it is too much for the compromised structure, and causes the action causes the creature to shatter.
42 finds that his blood-loss is making it a little more difficult to focus, and he only manages a single strike on his golem
The golems strike back against 42.
But this time Alden is able to fend off all the attacks.
Initiative:
Exiel (-)
42 (-42)
Glass Golems (shattered,shattered,-61,-)
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Alden (-48, bleed 8)
Naala (-13)
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Alden continues to protect 42, who keeps bashing at his golem. Exiel moves up to heal Alden, stopping his wounds from bleeding further.
The golem that 42 had been attacking looks on the verge of shattering, but it still holds on to be animated, and both golems continue to attack 42 mindlessly and ferociously.
But Alden's protection holds, and the golems are unable to hit 42.
Initiative:
Exiel (-)
42 (-42)
Glass Golems (shattered,shattered,-90,-)
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Alden (-39)
Naala (-13)
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The beatdown continues. Alden continues to make life existence hard for the golems as 42 finally shatters the golem he was fighting, and move on to the next one. Exiel goes for the last golem as well, and the two of them perform a coordinated attack on the final golem.
The golem bats ineffectively at Exiel, dealing no damage to the heavily defended paladin.
Initiative:
Exiel (-)
42 (-42)
Glass Golems (shattered,shattered,shattered,-37)
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Alden (-39)
Naala (-13)
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Exiel and 42 catch the golem between themselves and shatter it into glittering shards on the floor. You take a minute to catch your breath while Exiel scans the room for magic items. He finds none, but instead detects a 15ft by 15ft illusion aura coming from the top of the Western wall. The aura overlays the wall itself.
2 more passages also lead to the North and South respectively from this immense hall.
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"It's all good, Alden! It's just an illusory wall. But...I think I've found where we want to go next," Exiel replies with a grin.
Exiel grimaces as he checks his allies' wounds.
"I don't have much healing left to give. 42, if your wand still has charges, now would be a good time to use them..."
He then passes the last healing potion to 42.
"We'll need to make these count. Seems our gracious host has a love for golems... Frankly, I'm getting REALLY tired of fighting golems... But mindless guards that do not raise alarms serves our infiltration well."
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The illusory wall hides a short corridor and stairway that descends into antechamber even further to the West. A layer of gleaming ice covers every surface of this large circular antechamber. A frosty obelisk of murky ice stands at the center of the chamber, its faceted sides incised with runes and symbols. A short corridor leads West towards a pair of immense metal doors that are currently shut. Two more passages lead from the antechamber Northwards and Southwards respectively. There are no apparent threats in the antechamber.
Knowledge planes to identify.
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Exiel identifies the creature as a greater ice elemental. It has a good fortitude and surprisingly quick reflexes for its size, but is relatively weak will against spells that attack its will. Its strikes are numbingly cold and can leave an opponent staggered.
It continues to stare at you, waiting for your move.
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"It's an elemental. Doesn't have any bones to shatter, but my other spell should work. But first things first."
Exiel casts resist cold on Alden, Naala and 42 (he'd cast it on himself earlier).
"If we're going up against an ice elemental now and then a white dragon afterwards, we want to be resistant to the cold."
With that preparation done, Exiel initiates the festivities by casting siphon might on the ice elemental.
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Finally happy with something he can hit, 42 charges forward and casts vampiric touch. Using an arcana point to charge his sword with keen, he attacks.
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42 goes first, charging in to attack the greater ice elemental head-on. Unfortunately for him, the ice elemental is not flat-footed - he has been watching your group the whole time, but had not acted as he is bound to only attack when the room is trespassed upon. He takes a swing at 42 before the magus is able to close in.
42 is struck a ringing blow, but fortunately Exiel's ward fends off the numbing cold that would normally accompany such a strike. He presses on and strikes at the elemental, but the elemental shows remarkable speed for its size and bats the scimitar aside.
Exiel is next, channeling his necromantic energy to draw strength from his enemy.
But the ice elemental is tough, and partially resists the necromantic siphon.
Finally, Alden moves up to protect his ally... but which one?
Initiative order:
42 (18)
Exiel (-, +5str)
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Alden (-16)
Naala (-)
Ice elemental (-5str)
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The ice elemental displays remarkably quick reflexes as it strikes at Alden as well when he moves to cover 42.
Fortunately, Exiel's spell drains the elemental's strength enough to slow it down a little, and Naala is able to shift aside in time to help Alden block the blow.
With two targets before it, the elemental goes for Alden again.
Alden is struck once, but a combination of sheer luck and the elemental being weakened by Exiel's spell makes it just a glancing blow.
Initiative order:
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42 (holding charge on 18 damage vampiric touch)
Exiel (-, +5str)
Alden (-25)
Naala (-)
Ice elemental (-5str)
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The ice elemental raises a fist to strike 42, then sees what Alden is doing. Unlike golems, this creature is able to understand what is going on, that unless Alden is taken down first, it has little to no chance of striking his allies. It reaches over to Alden, seeking to clobber him first.
But its sudden decision to change targets throws it off balance, and its fist slam down on either side of the halfling knight.
Initiative order:
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42 (holding charge on 18 damage vampiric touch, haste)
Exiel (-, +5str,haste)
Alden (-25, haste)
Naala (-, haste)
Ice elemental (-5str)
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With the creature focusing on him, Alden will take some precautions for himself. He will five-foot step to get adjacent to Exiel, then use his Swift action to add AC to Naala, then take a full defensive action, giving him a +6 for himself. He will also command Naala to aid his own AC, giving him another +6. His adjacent allies will still get a +16 on up to 4 attacks, and he and Naala can still help each other in the same way.
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42's manages to get a single successful hit with his scimitar, and through his scimitar simply bounces off, the spell it carries discharges with critical effect.
Exiel's stabs all hit home, but he also finds that the lance head has some trouble penetrating, but at least he is able to punch through a little with each strike.
It appears that this elemental is quite resistant to physical damage!
It responds by swinging at 42, who he currently sees as the biggest threat!
Between the life-steal by 42 and strength-steal by Exiel, the elemental is feeling quite ill at the moment, and fails to deal any meaning strikes at 42.
Initiative order:
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42 (+36 temp, holding charge on 18 damage vampiric touch, haste)
Exiel (-, +5str,haste)
Alden (-25, haste)
Naala (-, haste)
Ice elemental (-51, -5str)
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Smiling as the elemental tries to attack him, 42 uses his gloves to help him deliver a lightning bolt through his scimitar.
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42's blade strikes the elemental, and although the blade itself leaves no mark on the elemental, the electricity that he has charged it with courses through the elemental, and causes it to melt in several places. It bellows in significant pain.
Alden continues to guard his allies and Exiel casts yet another spell to augment his fighting abilities. But it is determined to perform its assigned task, and keeps swinging at Alden.
He does not even come close. When Alden is determined not to be hit in combat, few are able to penetrate his defences.
Initiative order:
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42 (+36 temp, holding charge on 18 damage vampiric touch, haste)
Exiel (-, +5str,haste, divine favor)
Alden (-25, haste)
Naala (-, haste)
Ice elemental (-83, -5str)