When Mike and 42 reach their respective locations, they suddenly find themselves falling... 20ft upwards into the air! Mike thinks he can simply use gravitic forces to move himself of kick off against the nearby wall. 42 on the other hand will need help moving now.
Rhon you still have a move and standard action.
Exiel You can complete your move, having spent none of your movement, and then take your standard action. The spiral staircase is indeed walled off except for the entrance at ground level. To follow the staircase you need to start from ground level.
Aura of Good (Overwhelming) l Aura of Courage (10 ft) l Aura of Resolve (10 ft) | Aura of Faith (10 ft)
LG Male Dwarf Paladin (Stonelord) 16 | HP 182/182 | AC 43 | T 14 | FF 42 | CMB +16 | CMD 34 | Fort: +20 (+2 poison/drugs, +4 alcohol), Ref: +11, Will: +19 (+1 all saves FF/surprise rd) | 8/adamantine | SR 21 | Fortification 75% | Immune to Blood Drain, Charm, Fear, & Petrification | Perception: +25 (+2 unusual stonework)(darkvision 60 ft) | Init: +1 | Move 20' | LoH 11/11 | DS 38/38 |
Rhon lifts off the ground 5 feet, flies forward, and alights back onto the ground. He continues to concentrate hoping to discern if there is more than one evil aura present and how strong the most vile thing he is able to sense is.
Rhon uses his fly speed to move and continues to concentrate on his Detect Evil. (Round 2)
"Hey guys, I think I found him. 10ft in front of me, that-a-way!"
Just to be sure, Exiel sticks his rapier forward to see whether the force is repelling his rapier as well, or just his living flesh. He also keeps exerting pressure against the force to see if the emanation moves.
Mike ducks behind the edge of the transept. As he waits for Rasputin to make a move, he feels himself weakening. This is the same effect that damaged the others earlier when they entered the transept, I just forgot it earlier.
GM:
6d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 3, 3, 2, 1) = 21
Mike takes 21 damage, DC24 will save for half.
Exiel finds what he assumes to be the edge of Rasputin's antilife shell. He tests it with his rapier and does indeed find that his rapier is able to pass the invisible threshold, but not his hand. He spends his time probing the edge of the barrier and it does not seem to be moving anywhere.
Rhon moves closer and continues to sense evil before him.
Pathfinders are up again. This is the third round since you last saw Rasputin. Mike needs a will save. Your readied action did not trigger.
Exiel suddenly realises they have a way to get rid of the cloud.
"42, mate, you still have power to whip up a dispel magic spell? If you can get rid of this fog, and if Rasputin's where I think he is, getting rid of the fog will allow Mike and I to blast him. Since he's hanging out in there willingly, I reckon he's somehow made himself immune to the cloud anyway."
Retcon: Mike falls unconscious as he crosses the threshold, his body wracked by some strange dark magic.[/ooc]
The cloud disappears, revealing the mangled and prone body of Rasputin on the floor. The strange machinery around him crackles with power, some of which are flowing into him.
Spellcraft DC30:
This is the same power that was keeping Rasputin's sanctum suspended between planes, and Rasputin is siphoning that same power into himself. It would apppear therefore that this engine is the apparatus by which Rasputin is drawing Baba Yaga's power into himself. This link can be exploited - if the engine suffers enough damage, or is disabled (full action disable device while adjacent to any part of the engine within the magenta boxes on the map), Rasputin will suffer a debilitating backlash. The machinery was already slightly damaged by 42's fireball earlier.
The dark blue circle is Rasputin's antilife shell
Rasputin appears to be prone and not moving, but his antilife shell seems to be active.
42 is suspended in mid-air, 20ft high. Mike in unconscious once more. Exiel and Rhon are still up.
Exiel heaves a sigh of relief as he sees Mike come to, then turns his attention to the machinery around Rasputin.
spellcraft:1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Unable to work out anything, he decides to see if there is anything up the stairs that might be of interest.
"Rasputin appears down for the count, but then that's what we thought after Mike suffocated him, and we don't know what this machinery here does, but it seems to be doing something for him... Mike and 42, give a holler if Rasputin starts moving again. I'm going to take a look upstairs to see if there's anything that might give us a clue. 42, can you make out anything about those machines?"
Exiel will fly to the stairs at the back of the chapel and see if he can fly upstairs.
Human Magus 14 | HP: 93/93 | Temp HP: 0/0 | 50% miss chance| DR 10/adamantine (140/140) 140 minutes| AC: 28/ FF 22/ T 15| Fort: +14 Ref: +14 Will: +14 | Perception: +10| Init: +5
SpellCraft:1d20 + 21 ⇒ (16) + 21 = 37
42 ponders the world in his new position in it as a bat. Looking at the device Rasputin is prone between, 42 comes to a realization. "Destroy the Machine. It will harm him." 42 raises his arm down to point right at the device. Letting out three beams of pure fire.
Range Touch:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 Scorcing Ray:4d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 5, 3) = 17 Range Touch:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15 Scorcing Ray:4d6 ⇒ (5, 3, 1, 1) = 10 Range Touch:1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21 Scorcing Ray:4d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 1, 1) = 12
Technically not 42's turn yet but I will take that as his action for the new turn.
Rhon revives Mike again, and Exiel flies over to the staircase, and then heads up to the next level.
GM:
1d8 ⇒ 5
As Exiel flies past the golden disc into the innermost part of the chapel, the machinery surges with power and the area is shot through with shimmering, multicolored beams of light. Exiel is struck by one of the beams. A blue one. And he feels his joints stiffening
Exiel, make a DC20 fort save (i.e. don't roll a 1). If you fail, you are turned into a stone statue.
Exiel if you succeed at your save:
You arrive in a bell tower with small, arched openings that are boarded up from the inside. The tang of ozone hangs in the air. The floor of the
tower is covered with dozens of wooden matryoshka dolls each surrounded with tiny, glowing sigils and connected to the others with ropy strands of insulated wiring plugged into the dolls. The dolls are open surrounded by hovering mystical and technological components, and you can see within each one a tiny glowing figure writhing in pain.
Exiel only, DC20 perception check:
One of the matryoshka dolls is different from all the others. This doll, bearing the image of an old crone, remains closed.
42 works out some of the function of the machinery in the inner are and shoots rays of fire at the machinery. He hits easily, but finds that the metal is not very combustible. Perhaps a single powerful strike will be better than multiple weaker ones.
Pathfinders are up again. Rasputin is still not moving. 42 has already acted this round. Exiel don't forget your fort save. You could still roll a '1'.
I still have my khepresh of refuge anyway. fort save roll:1d20 + 23 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 23 + 2 = 38
Exiel catches the ray on the crimson blade of his rose-gold rapier and swats it aside while suppressing its magic with Torag's divine protection.
Deciding that he might as well take a quick look ahead before returning to help his friends destroy the machine, Exiel flies up the stairs to the most unusual sight...
perception:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
"Well now, this looks interesting. I bet I could get into all sorts of trouble up here," he muses to himself as he notices the unique doll.
"I bet I know what this is. If I'm right, Rasputin, you are so screwed," Exiel chuckles as he flies over to the crone doll. Partly by intuition and partly as a precaution, he activates his mantle of the black rider (CHA boost +4 for 1 minute, +2 to all saves) and removes it from the magitech device, and then tries to pop it open.
I still have a few emergency force spheres on standby, and 3 charges on my khepresh of refuge. So... what horrors have I unleashed on myself?
Aura of Good (Overwhelming) l Aura of Courage (10 ft) l Aura of Resolve (10 ft) | Aura of Faith (10 ft)
LG Male Dwarf Paladin (Stonelord) 16 | HP 182/182 | AC 43 | T 14 | FF 42 | CMB +16 | CMD 34 | Fort: +20 (+2 poison/drugs, +4 alcohol), Ref: +11, Will: +19 (+1 all saves FF/surprise rd) | 8/adamantine | SR 21 | Fortification 75% | Immune to Blood Drain, Charm, Fear, & Petrification | Perception: +25 (+2 unusual stonework)(darkvision 60 ft) | Init: +1 | Move 20' | LoH 11/11 | DS 38/38 |
Rhon is staring at the machine knowing that he can't approach it. "Well this is a quandary I had not thought to find myself in. Does anyone see a way that I can get in there and hew that monstrosity apart and still keep myself in mostly one piece?"
Rhon is delaying as at the moment he doesn't have a way to get at the machine without risking death.
You detach the crone doll from the machine. Suddenly, the room is shot through with crackling bolts of multicolored lightning, and you are struck by a green arc of energy. You feel something virulent trying to invade your body, and also feel your joints stiffening.
Make 2 DC20 fort saves vs poison. If you fail the first, you DIE. If you fail the second, you remain poisoned and take 1 CON damage at the end of you next turn.
Make another DC20 fort save vs petrification. If you fail this one you are turned to stone.
When the lightning subsides, the sigils are no longer glowing and there is no more energy crackling about. The tiny glowing figures in the other dolls are no longer writhing, and slowly wink out one by one.
You pick up the doll and try to open it, but it resists your efforts. You pull it, twist it, and nothing works. You feel a twinge of approval when you pick up the doll, and then a sense of chiding when you try to open it, as if someone was trying to communicate that you are being stupid for even thinking the doll could be opened that way.
Rhon + 42 + Mike:
Shortly after Exiel flies up the stairs, the entire hall behind the golden circle on the floor is shot through with crackling bolts of multicolored lightning. Fortunately none of you are in that area.
When the lightning subsides, the machinery is no longer coursing with energy. No lights or sounds from the machinery at all.
DC25 perception: Rhon + 42 + Mike ONLY:
A few seconds after the multicolored lightning subsides, you notice all of Rasputin's wounds suddenly close, and his body shudders just a little bit. However, he does not move at all.
Human Magus 14 | HP: 93/93 | Temp HP: 0/0 | 50% miss chance| DR 10/adamantine (140/140) 140 minutes| AC: 28/ FF 22/ T 15| Fort: +14 Ref: +14 Will: +14 | Perception: +10| Init: +5
perception:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28
Our Area:
Seeing what jus happened, 42 curses. ”That thing is healing him.
42 uses his three remaining pool points and casts Dispel Magic on Rasputin’s body.
magic check:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33
fort save:1d20 + 27 ⇒ (8) + 27 = 35 fort save:1d20 + 27 ⇒ (2) + 27 = 29Bahahahaha! I live! fort save:1d20 + 27 ⇒ (12) + 27 = 39
Upstairs:
Exiel gives a low whistle as he is suddenly assaulted by different types of death-dealing magics. But one does not simply take out a paladin with save-or-dies, and he tanks each attack with ease, suppressing Rasputin's traps with Torag's mighty protection.
He is however a little disappointed when he finds that one also does not simply free a mythic-tier legendary witch-queen. Satisfied however that he has what they came here for, and a little perturbed by the thought of who is most likely sending him empathic messages, he slips the doll into his pocket and flies back down to his allies.
Exiel flies back downstairs, a triumphant grin on his face.
"I think I have what we came for. Looks like taking it knocked out the machinery too, which is a nice bonus. How's the Mad Monk?"
He raises an eyebrow when he sees Mike blasting Rasputin's body.
Exiel comes back downstairs to see Mike blasting Rasputin's body.
DC25 perception check (mainly for Exiel):
You notice that Rasputin's wounds have closed, but only the ones that had been inflicted on him before Mike's most recent attack. The wounds from Mike's most recent attack do not close.
Rasputin's body continues to remain where it is, rocked slightly by Mike's blast. Fresh blood flows out from the new wounds inflicted by the blast.
42 dispelled one of the spells on Rasputin's body but you do not know which one. When moving, remember his antilife shell might still be on.
Rasputin's body twitches, and then he slowly rises to his feet.
"Nyet... NYET!!! What Have you DONE?! Years of planning, of preparation, to come to THIS!? To end LIKE THIS!?"
As he raves, Exiel and Mike strike him with their dark magic. His body is crushed and bloodied and mangled to a pulp, and as you watch, a spectral form floats out from his broken corporeal body. It seems tied to his body by numerous ghostly threads, but many of them are already broken, and some force continues to pull insistently at the spectral form, snapping the remaining threads one by one.
"I was so close. So CLOSE! One more day, no even half a day would have been enough. I would have been a god on this world. I would have made myself a god on other worlds even. Robbers! Infidels! BASTARDS! I spit on you all! I curse you all! May my mother turn on you and butcher you all! The beasts devour you and the devils take your souls!"
The last of the threads tying Rasputin's soul to his body finally snaps, and it is sucked into the ether with a rapidly fading scream.
And then all is silent.
Rasputin had an ability called stitched soul, which resurrects him 1d4 rounds after he is killed the first time, and then raises him 1d6 rounds after the second time. It just so happened that the first time he was killed by suffocation and spell, I rolled a 1 for his resurrection, so it looked like he did not die. The second time he was raised just as Exiel pulled Baba Yaga's prison out from the machine, and since it was the power source for the machine pulling it out had the same effect as destroying the machine, which stuns Rasputin for 1d3 rounds and staggers him for 1d6 rounds. I rolled a 2 and a 4, so he would started acting again next round if you had not killed him.
Congratulations on defeating a level 18 occult oracle!
"This thing was hooked up with some other dolls upstairs, though everything shut down when I removed it. Judging from the crone depicted on it, and the fact that it doesn't seem openable, and the empathic impressions I'm getting from it, I'm gonna guess that Baba Yaga's inside."
"If we're sure Rasputin's down for the count, we should probably do something about those vampires we saw earlier... I don't suppose anyone knows how to put them down permanently?"
Deciding that it is probably safe now to call out Lauriel, Exiel calls forth his familiar for her opinion.
Do we need to go through the formalities of searching each and every room in here and scanning the place with detect magic/evil, or can that be hand-waved?
Exiel and Lauriel both know that if reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a nosferatu assumes its swarm form and must reach its coffin within 1 hour or be utterly destroyed. Once at rest, the nosferatu is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round. Reducing a nosferatu’s hit points to 0 incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it. However, certain attacks can slay nosferatu. Exposing any nosferatu to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Each round of immersion in running water deals an amount of damage to a nosferatu equal to one-third of its full normal hit points—a nosferatu reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless nosferatu’s heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless its head is also severed and anointed with holy water.
You find residual magic auras lingering throughout the monastery and many more on Rasputin himself. Due to the antilife shell, you are unable to search Rasputin's body. (This will not affect your loot)
You find the coffins of the nosferatu in the other bell towers. The sun is still up outside and just by breaking the boards on the boarded-up windows, you are able to expose the nosferatu to fresh sunlight, causing the bodies to shrivel up rapidly, and then disintegrate into dust.
From the windows, you can see that the soldiers are slowly dispersing and wandering off. Some of the appear to be in something of a stupor. None of them appear to be taking any particular interest in the monastery any more.
Exiel tears down the boards on the windows and finishes off the vampires.
"They won't be terrorising this place any more. Looks like the soldiers outside are just about done too, though I'd prefer not to take my chances. Let's all go to the bell tower. I'll dimension-door us up into the air far out of range of their attacks. I can carry Rhon and Mike can carry 42, and we can all fly back to the hut and get out of here. Ralph will probably have a better idea of what to do with Baba Yaga's prison than any of us."
Human Magus 14 | HP: 93/93 | Temp HP: 0/0 | 50% miss chance| DR 10/adamantine (140/140) 140 minutes| AC: 28/ FF 22/ T 15| Fort: +14 Ref: +14 Will: +14 | Perception: +10| Init: +5
hearing everyone talk, 42 has to nod his head. "That's all good and great... but there is something more important that we have to do first.." he says this while hanging in the air. "Can someone get me the heck down from here?"
