GM Endless Forms' Shattered Star (Inactive)

Game Master Mike Tuholski

Unsure how best to defeat the thing of nightmares, Brelar turns the nightmare on itself! Casting phantasmal killer DC 22 Will then Fort or 3d6

Bert would have warned you with his knowledge check earlier (and Brelar probably knows on his own) that the shoggoth is an ooze and thus mindless and immune to phantasms or other mind-affecting effects.

Oh, yeah, I missed that in skimming his various resistances and immunities. Duh. I feel like a heel, but I'll do nothing this round since I don't think anything I've got handy is really going to do much to it.

Bert quickly reloads and shoots at the last moonbeast!

DA pistol, incl. PBS, lingering luck, and good hope: 1d20 + 15 + 1 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 15 + 1 + 3 + 2 = 36
DA pistol damage, incl. PBS, lingering luck, good hope, and arcane strike: 1d6 + 7 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 7 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 19

Will: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26

The moon-beast is apparently used to the babblings of the shoggoth and fights on relentlessly against Argust!

claw: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29
damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

claw: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25
damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

tentacle: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

tentacle: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (20) + 11 = 31
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

tentacle: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

tentacle: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Confirm:
tentacle: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

A dangerous creaking is then heard from the pool as it seems the shoggoth is trying either to climb over the lip or break out of the pool entirely....

Initiative:

1. Beasts!
2. Brelar, Argust, Bert, and Karn

#3: 89 dmg
sh: 61 dmg

You guys are up!

Karn moves to the edge of the pool and swings his hammer at the shoggoth.

Power Attack, GH, BoF: 1d20 + 20 + 2 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (15) + 20 + 2 + 2 - 3 = 36
Vital Strike: 2d12 + 12 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (1, 4) + 12 + 9 + 2 = 28

Argust continues with his current enemy, being only struck once by it so far! For 5, and that was transferred to Karn.

Attack: 1d20 + 30 ⇒ (18) + 30 = 48 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 + 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) + 36 + (2, 6) = 52
Attack: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (2) + 25 = 27 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 + 2d6 ⇒ (3, 3) + 39 + (5, 4) = 54
Attack: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (8) + 20 = 28 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 + 2d6 ⇒ (5, 5) + 39 + (3, 4) = 56

Confirm?: 1d20 + 30 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 30 + 4 = 35 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 + 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) + 36 + (5, 6) = 55
Bleed: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9
DC 24 vs Stagger: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Karn bravely steps up to the pool and swings over the edge at the immense mound of black slime trying to slither out. Meanwhile Argust easily takes care of the moon-beast!

Initiative:

1. Beasts!
2. Brelar, Argust, Bert, and Karn

sh: 79 dmg

Brelar and Bert are up!

"Ah, if it can't get out maybe we should just leave it?" Bert leaves the fighting to the others and looks for some indication of what the moon-beasts were trying to do with their ritual.

Brelar unleashes some magic missiles at the unspeakable horror!

SR Check: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (18) + 16 = 34

5d4 + 5 ⇒ (3, 4, 2, 3, 4) + 5 = 21

Bert recalls that when the moon-beasts were performing the ritual the shoggoth seemed calmed and was not reacting much to its environment but now that the ritual has ended it is certainly perturbed, to say the least.

Brelar hits the monstrosity with a set of missiles as the beast reaches its tentacles over the lip of the pool and strikes at Karn!

slam power attack: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (2) + 30 - 5 = 27
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (5, 2, 4) + 15 + 10 = 36
grab: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (7) + 39 = 46

slam power attack: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 30 - 5 = 35
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (3, 5, 4) + 15 + 10 = 37
grab: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (12) + 39 = 51

slam power attack: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (13) + 30 - 5 = 38
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (5, 6, 3) + 15 + 10 = 39
grab: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (13) + 39 = 52

slam power attack: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (20) + 30 - 5 = 45
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (4, 2, 4) + 15 + 10 = 35
grab: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (6) + 39 = 45

Constrict damage (because I'm pretty sure one of those grapples is good enough....):
constrict: 3d6 + 15 ⇒ (2, 5, 4) + 15 = 26

And a crit confirm. Ouch:
slam power attack: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (15) + 30 - 5 = 40
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (4, 3, 6) + 15 + 10 = 38

Ow. I don't think Karn survived that....

Initiative:

1. Shoggoth
2. Brelar, Argust, Bert, and Karn

sh: 90 dmg

You guys are up!

No, no he didn't survive that.

Can Bert try to restart the ritual?

This is a ritual they have been performing for days (and still have 7 to go) so I'm not sure something so complex could be picked up on the fly, unfortunately....

So, can Argust reach the creature by going into the pool or is the lip of the pool too high?

You just have to be adjacent to the pool to reach it. It's not high enough to block you hitting it and you probably don't want to climb into the pool anyways.

Argust takes a quick 5-foot step adjacent to the vile pool and attacks the creature with a rage! You will die for that! Argust will click his heals to add Haste!

Attack: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (19) + 31 = 50 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 + 2d6 ⇒ (4, 3) + 36 + (5, 4) = 52
Attack: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (20) + 31 = 51 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 + 2d6 ⇒ (2, 4) + 39 + (1, 5) = 51
Attack: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (3) + 26 = 29 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 + 2d6 ⇒ (3, 6) + 39 + (5, 5) = 58
Attack: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (6) + 21 = 27 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 + 2d6 ⇒ (1, 6) + 39 + (5, 1) = 52

Confirm 1st?: 1d20 + 31 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 31 + 4 = 48 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 + 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) + 36 + (1, 2) = 47
Confirm 2nd: 1d20 + 31 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 31 + 4 = 44 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 + 2d6 ⇒ (6, 3) + 36 + (6, 3) = 54
Bleed: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 6) = 12
Stagger DC 24: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Stagger DC 24, if he has to save twice: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Hopefully all of those hit.

Fort: 2d20 ⇒ (13, 3) = 16

Argust's furious attacks slice into the shoggoth, filling the pool with a sickly dark fluid and staggering the shoggoth back in shock!

Initiative:

1. Shoggoth
2. Brelar, Argust, and Bert

sh: 286 dmg, bleed 2d6, staggered 5 rnds

Brelar and Bert are up!

Bert lines up and shoots the blob! "We have to get Karn out of there!"

DA Bullet to blob, deadeye, incl. luck, range penalty, and good hope: 1d20 + 15 + 3 - 2 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 15 + 3 - 2 + 2 = 28
DA bullet damage, incl. luck and good hope: 1d6 + 7 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 3 + 2 = 18

Brelar double moves to get closer to his fallen comrade.

Bert puts a bullet in the shoggoth but it still laziliy swings a tentacle out of the pool at Argust!

slam: 1d20 + 30 - 5 ⇒ (10) + 30 - 5 = 35
damage: 3d6 + 15 + 10 ⇒ (2, 4, 1) + 15 + 10 = 32
grab: 1d20 + 39 ⇒ (10) + 39 = 49

I think that hits and grapples Argust so:
constrict damage: 3d6 + 15 ⇒ (6, 6, 5) + 15 = 32

Initiative:

1. Shoggoth
2. Brelar, Argust, and Bert

sh: 294 dmg, bleed 2d6, staggered 4 rnds

You guys are up!

Brelar moves up to Karn's fallen form, puts his hand on his kinsmen and cast dimension door.

Cast defensively: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (5) + 22 = 27 vs. DC 21.

Bert reloads and fires again! "Hey! Drop our dwarf, you cacaphonous clot!"

DA bullet to blob, deadeye, incl. range penalty, lingering luck, & good hope: 1d20 + 15 - 2 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 15 - 2 + 3 + 2 = 32
DA bullet damage, incl. lingering luck, good hope, grit, and arcane strike: 1d6 + 7 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 3 = 24

Because of Haste and the BoF bonuses, that misses by one.

I said to die!

Attack: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (13) + 31 = 44 for Damage: 2d6 + 36 ⇒ (4, 3) + 36 = 43
Attack: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (3) + 31 = 34 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 ⇒ (4, 5) + 39 = 48
Attack: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (13) + 26 = 39 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 ⇒ (3, 4) + 39 = 46
Attack: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (11) + 21 = 32 for Damage: 2d6 + 39 ⇒ (3, 2) + 39 = 44

Argust and Bert put their ingenuity together to destroy utterly the monstrous shoggoth!

Thoughts on getting Karn back up on his feet? I've got a wish blade. Maybe we could sneak in a breath of life? :)

Brelar! Do something! Can't you save him??

Looks like breath of life needs to be cast within one round of death to work, and I'm not sure what else we could do from here. What's a wish blade?

A blade with 1-3 wishes, I think. Like a luck blade?

Sorry wish blade was a typo, I meant luck blade :) I guess I could use it for resurrection?

That should work. How many wishes are in the blade, one?

Yup, just one.

Brelar pulls forth the luck blade and rests it on Karn's shoulders, calling forth the arcane words necessary to invoke the wish and bring Karn back to life....

Good thinking Brelar! I wasn't sure how else to do it because you would have had to leave this plane and come back, which would have been tricky. Ok! So where to now? Onwards to the dragon?

Karn! I'm so glad you ain't dead! Heal me!

I'm down 24 HP.

Bert pokes around the area, looking for anything interesting.

As Brelar makes his wish, Karn's eyes suddenly pop and his mouth flies open as he takes a loud gasping breath. Jumping up, he looks around in fear, then sees his companions. When Argust greets him, he loks confused for a second, then remembers the hulking beast. "Er, thanks, I think."

Realizing there is no rest for the weary, or the newly brought back to life for that matter, Karn falls back into his traditional role, digging into his pack and pulling out a wand, then heals Argust.

CMW: 4d8 + 6 ⇒ (1, 7, 4, 8) + 6 = 26

Feel free to retcon buffs.

Using the other shards to focus, you can feel that the Shard of Sloth is very close by and, finding nothing interesting or of use in this cathedral, you head down the rough tunnel to the northeast....

A twenty-foot-wide cavern opens onto a high mountain ledge here. The air is unnaturally still and cool, and a mound of rubble into which an immense nest of sorts has been built sits against the cliff side to the south. But the view to the north is far more overwhelming, for here, a ragged black mountain range extends to the horizon. In the distance, brooding upon the range's highest peak, is an unsettling and impossibly tall castle, its towers rising up as if a hand were reaching skyward toward the gibbous moon.

The blue wyrm Cadrilkasta slumbers here, rousing herself as you enter. She raises a sleepy head off the ground to regard you with a lazy eye as she clutches the Shard of Sloth possessively in one talon. "And you would be those I have dreamed about. I can smell the other shards on you. Thank you for bringing them to me, apes. Leave them here with me, and I will not contest your immediate and silent departure."

Bert will cast his usual good hope on the approach. Brelar, do you have that communal resist energy prepped?

Umm, Brelar? Aren't we gettin' that shard that from it instead? What's this thing talkin' about? Oh, should I be guzzlin' this potion, too? Argust taps the Potion of Resist Electricity. He also casts Haste using the Shard of Greed.

Yeah, I will cast communal resist energy (electricity) and I will also put a firebrand on Argust, Bert and Karn.

Brelar takes out his metamagic rod of fire and calls down a crackling bolt of flame on the gigantic, blue dragon!

Cast chain lightning with the metamagic rod to change it to fire damage.

SR check: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 14 + 2 = 34
Damage: 14d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 3, 3, 5, 3, 2, 1, 4, 6, 2, 1, 2, 4) = 45

Karn would have cast protection from evil on everyone, and bull's strength on Argust.

Karn makes a face as Bert starts out with warming the dragon up, then casts a spell, granting the party a blessing of fervor.

blessing of fervor

Cadrilkasta takes another weary half-yawn at Brelar's suggestion.

Before the sleepy dragon can react, Brelar raises his magic staff and blasts the dragon with a bout of fire! Cadrilkasta responds by remaining in place on her heap of treasure and billowing out a dark crackling storm cloud above the party, from which flies a bolt of lightning at Brelar!

electricity damage: 22d8 ⇒ (7, 7, 8, 8, 5, 7, 7, 8, 7, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 5, 3, 5, 4, 5, 2, 4, 1) = 121
DC 30 Ref for half

Karn then blesses the party's movements.

Initiative:

1. Brelar
2. Cadrilkasta
3. Bert, Karn, and Argust

Brelar, Bert, and Argust are up!

45 dmg

OK, so I have cast Haste from one of the shards, I have PfEvil and PfEnergy (120 HP worth IIRC), Bull' Strength, BoF and this Firebrand. Whew, did I get it all?

Dammit, ran out of time. I'll finish my turn after dinner tonight.

Bert calls on his luck and steps a little closer before shooting the dragon!

DA bullet to dragon, deadeye, incl. luck and good hope: 1d20 + 15 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 15 + 3 + 2 = 29
Bullet damage, incl. luck and good hope: 1d6 + 7 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 7 + 3 + 2 = 14

I do have SR 18, but I am guessing she'll blow right past that without a second thought...

Ref Save: 1d20 + 11 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 11 + 2 + 2 = 19 *nope*

Brelar, despite his magic is nearly incinerated by the dragon's lightning strike!

hp 914/100

EDIT: Good point Bert, thanks! :)

Don't forget that Karn will take 5 HP and you'll be at 14. Every little bit helps, right?

Argust charges! As its the only way to get there this turn.

Charge!: 1d20 + 34 ⇒ (15) + 34 = 49 for Damage: 2d6 + 37 + 2d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (1, 4) + 37 + (2, 1) + (2) = 47

@Brelar: supernatural ability :) Also, I first read your HP as 914/100 and thought what shenanigans is he up to?

Bert's bullet puts the tiniest wound in the great dragon. Cadrilkasta swipes at Argust as he charges in, careful not to use the claw holding her shard.

claw AoO: 1d20 + 38 ⇒ (2) + 38 = 40
damage: 2d8 + 16 ⇒ (3, 5) + 16 = 24

Argust's sword cuts deep into the dragon's side!

Initiative:

1. Brelar
2. Cadrilkasta (61 dmg)
3. Bert, Karn, and Argust

Brelar is up!

Shouldn't Cadrilkasta be at 106 damage? (45+14+47)

Brelar drinks a potion of cure serious wounds and moves back. He looks at the drow and says, "A little help ladies?"

3d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 5, 1) + 5 = 18

hp: 32/100

If the dragon has DR 15, that might explain it; Bert's gun is magic, though, as is Argust's sword.