Despite taking several icy boulders to the face, Eden the Troll seems to withstand them much better than Eden the Elf would have. That said, she is left with visibly dented skull and several broken teeth. However, her awful wounds start to heal quite rapidly. The Polymorphed Elf then promptly vanishes from sight.
"Unlikely, Chu'ko!" the Troll Elf growls loudly in her gruff voice as she puts the pieces together. "These are agents of Kostchtchie!"
Salrann grapples one unfortunate soul and starts pumping it full of poison.
The poison overwhelms the giants ability to fend it off.
Alathos opens up the heavens and trains fire upon three of his foes. He easily avoid the flames himself.
Chu'ko sends their artillery into disarray that resembles a slapstick side-alley show in Absolom. The four giants trip and fumble over each other like ducks on ice.
Eden disappears.
Salrann's target tries to escape to no effect.
The others two keep beating in her.
Alathos weathers a downpour of blows and only allows one to really connect.
Salrann continues to squeeze and bite the giant she is grappling after trying to pin him. She also targets one bite at one of the other giants attacking her, hoping to weaken him with poison while she finishes the current one.
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Salrann is really taking a beating. Better call in some help...
Even as Eden feels the swelling around her left eye clearing away, the Polymorphed Elf bites a giant chunk out of her left arm. As Eden casts her next spell, the blood immediately vanishes. A gate opens above the battlefield, and a powerful humanoid floats out into the freezing air on a nimbus of pearly light. He grips a golden starknife in one hand.
"Heal my friends," Eden orders the Star Archon.
The heavenly man nods, and with a wave of his mighty hand, all of Eden's allies feel their wounds vanish.
Aura of Menace (Su) A righteous aura surrounds archons that fight or get angry. Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. The save DC varies with the type of archon, is Charisma-based, and includes a +2 racial bonus. Those who fail take a –2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon's aura for 24 hours.
HP Tracker (in damage taken)
Ranged x4, no damage
Melee:
1:138
2:138
3:69
4:
5:
6:
7:114
Salrann's target is quickly expiring, though the poison seems to be having trouble with the sheer amount of blood it has to effect. As she does, however, she gets pummeled by the other two trying to free ther comrade by killing the snake. (take 104)
Meanwhile, Alathos continuing his giant bbq in the face of a withering hail of attacks. His preternatural defensive abilities keep him safe from all harm, though the same cannot be said for the ground he's standing on. The snow is starting to get downright squishy from all the missed attacks.
Chu-ko keeps a watch on the flanks, though it doesn't seem like any of the lesser foes will be coming out of their trance any time soon.
Before she switches forms, Eden lets her Troll regeneration fix another dent in her skull. From there, her form begins to swell in size. Giant troll hands turn into giant reptilian claws. Golden scales replace rocky skin. Her face lengths and narrows, and her awful underbite vanishes as her upper jaw expands over it. Several spines and spikes erupt from her body as well as a pair of giant bat wings.
Eden the Gold Dragon lets out a fierce roar and unleashes a wave of white hot fire on all the enemies below.
Following his summoner's lead, the Star Archon waves his hand once more and unleashes a massive wave of heavenly fire upon the group's foes. Carefully avoiding attacking Eden and her friends, he manages to catch them all in one fell swoop. The heavenly man then begins to ponder his next move.
HP Tracker (in damage taken, HP 348 total)
Ranged x4, 199 each
Melee (right to left):
1:138
2:257
3:268
4: 199
5: 80
6: 199
7:313
Eden sees Alathos's Divine BBQ and raises him the Fires of Hell. The area starts to smell of seared giant flesh.
|
Eden, feel free to include me in any spells or breath weapons as needed. Iomedae will protect me.
Seeing that the celestial is taking over roasting duties, Alathos happily switches over to melee.
He activates bane, takes a step, and swings at the bottom left giant. If the giant falls before all of his attacks connect, he will continue attacking the next giant.
Salrann grabs the nearest enemy and starts tearing into it.
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In a legendary display of ineptitude, the artillery giants all fail to stand up and every attack fails to penetrate Alathos' defence. Salrann gets smacked again though.
Salrann continues her assault on the giant (or grabs a new one if he's down).
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The giant's eyes go wide and he hits the snow in a loose heap.
Surprised that none of the giants have yet to be dropped, Eden begins to cast Summon Monster VIII for some extra muscle.
Starman the Star Archon carefully waves his hand and then extends it toward the giants. Making sure to avoid his caller's odd allies, he casts his spell. Several massive fiery spheres erupt from palm and violently explode in the cluster of giants.
Meteor swarm is a very powerful and spectacular spell that is similar to fireball in many aspects. When you cast it, four 2-foot-diameter spheres spring from your outstretched hand and streak in straight lines to the spots you select. The meteor spheres leave a fiery trail of sparks.
If you aim a sphere at a specific creature, you may make a ranged touch attack to strike the target with the meteor. Any creature struck by a sphere takes 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage (no save) and takes a -4 penalty on the saving throw against the sphere's fire damage (see below). If a targeted sphere misses its target, it simply explodes at the nearest corner of the target's space. You may aim more than one sphere at the same target.
Once a sphere reaches its destination, it explodes in a 40-foot-radius spread, dealing 6d6 points of fire damage to each creature in the area. If a creature is within the area of more than one sphere, it must save separately against each. Despite stemming from separate spheres, all of the fire damage is added together after the saves have been made, and fire resistance is applied only once.
HP Tracker (in damage taken, HP 348 total)
Ranged x4, 277 each
Melee (right to left):
1: 216
2: 335
3: 346
4: 277
5: 158
6: Sung to death
7: grappled to death
Two giants finally drop. The artillery continues it's relatively ineffective barrage, this time focusing the fire-being. (It takes 26)
Alathos continues weathering the storm of blows all around, but this time he is clipped in the shoulder (for 24).
Salrann grabs and chomps on another giant.
Eden completes her summoning spell, and an instant later, a towering giant with finely chiseled features materializes. Her skin is pale and smooth, and her long wispy hair flutters as if in a breeze. She quickly begins to pummel away at the closest frost giant.
Flying away from her former position, Eden shifts to her troll form and continues to regenerate her wounds.
"The pretty giant is with us!" the wizard's disembodied voice calls out.
Starman is barely phased by the rock that hits him. Between his sturdy form and his own regeneration, barely a mark is left. He casually flies into position to catch as many giants with his next spell. He again waves his heavenly hands and a massive burst of rainbow light barrages all the giants to the north of the gorup.
HP Tracker (in damage taken, HP 348 total)
Ranged 1,3 307, 2,4 327
Melee (right to left):
1: 246
2: eden+salrann KO
3: 346
4: 317
5: Alathos KO
6: Sung to death
7: grappled to death
The giants are severely pressed with most tinkering on the edge of death. Still they fight on in the stubborn manner of their kin.
Your summons take inconsequential damage. And you commence the cleanup. Chu'ko sings the healthiest to death as Salrann grapples another who is immidiately made into a squishy paste by the cloud giant. The angel dispatches the rest in holy fire. Finally, the Ogres come out of their stupor. Even as stupid as they are, the Ogres recognize a death sentence when they see one and instantly start to flee for their lives.
"Let them go. They probably don't even know what they are fighting us for. Let us proceed."
Salrann will cast stoneskin on herself, and prepare to enter the Veil with her allies.
After breaking her invisibility, Eden has her cloud giant chase after and finish off the ogres. She maintains her Troll form to keep her regeneration.
"...Might as well get the most out of the spell," she grumble-growls as her jaw finally snaps back into place. She feels her cracked ribs start to mend.
"Before you depart," the Transmuter says to the Star Archon as she hands over his payment, "would you mind healing our wounds? It should take only a minute or two."
Accepting his payment, the heavenly man nods and begins to cast several healing spells on the party. Despite taking a boulder to the head, he looks barely phased by anything that just happened; no mark remains on his shining skin.
Once finished, the Star Archon gives a nod to the group and then fades away back to Heaven.
Eden shifts back to her much more lovely elf form and pulls a pretty diamond out of her handy haversack.
"I'm happy that you mentioned that subject, my feathered friend. This little guy is what I planned to use to bring us back if necessary," the elf explains as she shows the gem to Chu'ko. "The diamond dust is for other miscellaneous spells or outsider payments."
You make for the jagged break in the ice. You discover a steaming crater of a geyser that has carved a jagged crevasse in the side of the waterfall here, creating a cathedral of dripping ice stalactites above. Barely visible through the steam to the right of the geyser spout is a secondary crevasse in which can dimly be seen a stair, rising upward into the obscuring ice. Seeing no other means of entry, you make for the stair. The air this near the Veil drops to an even more unbelievably cold level (around -25F/-31C). The floor is rough (normal ice movement penalties does not apply), but you know that charging or running will be hazardous (DC 15 acrobatics to run or charge).
About thirty seconds after you arrive near the crater, there is a rumble beneath your feet. That's all the warning you get before an explosion of steam and acidic water burst from the geyser in front of you! Steam immediately washes over the area and reduces visibility to nearly zero. Your only hope is the stair somewhere in front of you!
Salrann is caught directly in the steam, and moves forward to the stairs.
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Reflex save
Chu'ko is from a vast and frozen expanse, neither the ice falling away from his feet nor super heated water coming violently to the surface surprised him in the least. There were many regions in his home that were treacherous as this, or even worse. The terrain was one reason his tribe rarely dealt with men....
"She's gonna blow! Blasted steam I can not see a thing."
For once in her life, Eden actually manages to dodge the worst of the geyser. Regardless, she still takes a good blast to her back. Knowing how fragile her elf form is, the Transmuter quickly begins to contemplate what shape to take to minimize further damage.
Noting the heat and the acidic content, Eden quickly assumes the form of a copper dragon. Almost immediately, the acid on her new scales ceases to hurt. Finally, she quickly casts Resist Energy (Fire) to protect herself against any more burns.
Eden then begins to book it up the stairs.
Eden find the stairs first and shouts to her companions. They all adjust course.
The steam floods even the lower levels of the stairs leading into the Veil. Here another threat shows itself. The steam quickly condenses on the walls and ceiling. Supernaturally chilled drips fall from the ceiling and instantly freeze on anything they touch!
Salrann is dripped on several times and becomes a block of ice. She's also SEVERELY damaged.
Upon detecting the falling icy drips as a threat, Eden quickly shifts forms to a silver dragon. Now immune to the cold, the drip does not even phase her rapid movement. She quickly shifts back to her copper dragon state the instant the drip ceases to be a problem.