GM nightdeath Blood Under Absalom (Tier 1-2) (Inactive)

Game Master nightdeath

Round 2
Celstri Fredricks
Barl Kestad
Aft
Laiashi (Readied)
Art (Colored)
Ast
Azadeh Talat
Act (Colored)
Arikena (1st round)
Bold is up

WIll Saves VS DC 17
Aft 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18
Art 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Act 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Both the burly half orc and nimble man goes crashign down to the floor, overcome by the spray of dazzling colors.
The woman blinks and hefts her greataxe.
"That's all you got?" she sneers

Looking at the woman left standing, the elf hops back slightly and shrieks a little. [b]"Umm, help?"[/ooc]

already posting my next action

"Big Axe, big mouth!" Azadeh puts on her brave face even if she's still reeling from the wound she received by the axe-wielding woman. Trying to put distance between them two, she steps to the side to unleash another volley of earthen energy against their opponent.

Move action to the square next to Celstri

attack with earth blast: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16
damage: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

It seems like the one I hit last round is the one still up. If so I will continue to attack her with my warhammer. If not I will draw my crossbow and shoot at whichever other one is up.

warhammer: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11 -1 if crossbow instead
warhammer damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 -3 if crossbow

Round 2
Celstri Fredricks
Barl Kestad
Aft
Laiashi
Art (Colored)
Ast
Azadeh Talat
Act (Colored)
Arikena (1st round)
Bold is up

It seems that woman is indeed tougher then she looks as she attempts to introduce Barl to her axe!
Attacks Barl! 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 81d12 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
Her footing slips and she misses though it seems that her mistep causes both Barl and Azadeh to miss as well!

The Robed female points hr dainty finger at Celstri and commands
"Burn!", a thin tendril of fire explodes from her finger to strike Celstri!
Elemental Ray (Fire) 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 181d6 ⇒ 1

Ooo, fire! I can play with fire. Lai steps toward the caster and stabs with both hands.

I don't see anything in the rules saying I can't 5-foot step across the corner of the walkway, but if I'm wrong, add +2 to the first attack roll and ignore the second.

Dagger 1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4 plus Str (DC 17 Fort negates): 1d2 ⇒ 2

Dagger 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1 plus Str (DC 17 Fort negates): 1d2 ⇒ 2

Confirm crit 1: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Extra damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Arikena steps up to try to finish off Barl's opponent.

attack roll: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
damage roll: 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14

Fort Save 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Fort Save 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

Arikena dispatches the warrior and with the rest of her team incapacitated, the woman decides enough is enough and flees leaving teh fight in your hands which includes victory!

Assuming you end their lives.
Take this time to heal up as needed.

With the peace and quiet now, obtaining your prize is easy.

Sealed with a wax-coated cork, the vase contains a number of red paper envelopes, each embossed with an elaborate hand-painted print of a jade phoenix. The envelope holds a folded invitation to attend a performance of a traditional opera from Lung Wa entitled Dawn of the Jade Phoenix, to be held at a small theater in the Foreign Quarter.

The way back is uneventful as apparently other contestants have either completed their challenge or given up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

In the crowded common room of the inn, one individual stands out: the man from the Docks tavern with the lacquered eastern armor. The previously stoic samurai is now deep in a bottle of sake in celebration of his latest victory. During the celebration, he flashes his coin purse about openly before the barkeep, who immediately sets to providing a round of drinks for the entire, crowded house. The ronin, completely unaware of what’s going on, only notices when the barkeep grabs his purse and pours the contents onto the bar, counting the debt the ronin now owes her. The ronin glares drunkenly at the barkeep, rises, and puts his hand on the hilt of his sword.

1 Round to decide

Whoever needs taps from the Wand of Infernal Healing, let me know.!

Sense Motive: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

Celstri looks up at the strangely dressed man and frowns. "Hey, you stop causing a ruckus! Can't you see people are trying to enjoy themselves?!" Shaking his head, he calls out, "It's a shame. They'll let the foreigners get away with anything." Remembering who this man was, the elf brings out a scroll of Shocking Grasp, in case something goes wrong.

Lai sheaths her wrist daggers as they make their way back to the tavern.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

It looks like what we have here is a failure to communicate... Hoping to get a drink out of this, she skips over to the samurai. "So you're the one who just bought the next round? Wonderful! I just love a man who spends his gold on his friends..." She touches him on the upper arm above his sword hand.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

Laiashi calms the man down and discovers quickly that though the Man now knows the meaning behind his action, he is unwillling to part with so much of his hard earned gold which would likely leave him destitute.
His pride obvioulsy prevents him from asking for help but perhaps the party could do something?

The room is in quite a jolly mood after all and there is still the matter with the barkeep who ay have being too hasty.

Barl watches the scene unfold. He says to the barkeep, "It's best not to assume people are generous. They rarely are." He looks around at the raucous crowd. "I think you should be buying the house a round, not this good fellow. Look how busy you are! If you buy a round, they will all be back here tomorrow night, guaranteed."

diplomacy: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

Barl's words manages to convince the barkeep that he was indeed a little too hasty. He however offers to halve the gold required to pay from 40gp to 20 gp.
The Ronin as well offers to put up his share of the gold needed to pay, the amount comes up to 10gp.

You can either convince the crowd to pay the remainder or pay it yourself.

"What say you, people? These good men need a mere 10 more gold to cover the cost of this round. Who can pony up?"

diplomacy: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Laiashi sighs. She's opposed, almost on a moral level, to spending her own gold on essentially nothing-- she'd get a drink out of it, but ten gold is a hefty price for one drink. Not above taking one for the team, though. Least there are a lot of men in here. She picks one at random and goes to his side. "Hi," she says, leaning over a bit. "So, long story short, ten gold pieces buys the next round of drinks. And if you have the gold, I might be able to make it worth your while... You have a room here?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10
Sheesh.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Barl's attempts gets him no response as the crowd once again seems to be getting into the spirit of things.

Laiashi tries to flirt but gets friendzoned as her target blows her a kiss and saunters off with another buxom beauty.

Rolling for the Rest
Celstri 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (15) - 2 = 13
Arikena 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Azadeh 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Other then Celstri, the others don't fare too well either.

It seems that the party might have to fork out the remaining 10 GP then.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once that is done, the party retires to their room to rest.
Position yourself as per lide 6

Azadeh didn't care too much about the quarrel between the ronin and the barkeep. The events of the last few hours have given her a lot to think about and she still feels the sword cutting her flesh. Still when it seems that that's the only solution, she puts 5 gold pieces to the table, because the only other thing on her mind now is to get some sleep as soon as possible.

Barl sighs and drops the remaining 5 gold onto the bar.

*******************
OVERSEER ANNOUNCEMENT]
*******************

There is a loud banging at the door! Moments later the door flies open revealing a dozen armed tengu behind it. They quickly storm into the room, blades drawn.

Got caught up in a thing. Celstri has been placed!

Before retiring
Cstri watches everything going on before sighing and giving the ronin five pieces of gold. "While not friends, I understand your plight. Hopefully this will help."

After retiring
The loud noises caused by the armed tengu stir the elf from his deep meditation. Sitting cross-legged, be looks at the armed birdmen with a raised eyebrow. "Might I ask as to why you are interrupting my rest cycle?"

The lead Tengu answers.
"There's being a series of attacks on some of the guests in this Inn, I brought reinforcments though it seems for you and your friends, there was no need to..."

Pease prepare spells, heal as needed

***OVERSEER ANNOUCEMENT***

Overseer thread

The first rays of light creep into the inn’s window, accompanied by a loud knocking at the door. Someone in the hall screeches, “The sun is up! Time to gather your tickets and head to The Opera!”

***

Arriving at the opera, you are greeted by a trio of actors dressed in the garb and makeup of a traditional opera from Lung Wa. They seat you in the first few rows. Looking around you see a few others also in attendance. Strangely, there are no sets and the unlit stage is empty except for three plain wooden chairs. Then Kiang Zhen strides onto the stage and addresses the audience.

“Today I am treating myself to a display of opera, which all of you shall perform for me! Backstage, you shall find traditional costumes that will determine the roles you will portray. You may choose these roles yourself, but be forewarned - you must act within the limits of your role. Your objective is to perform an epic combat against a rival group. However, there must be no bloodshed. Any shows of lethal force will result in your immediate disqualification from the event. The troupe able to force its opponents to yield is the victor. Now go and prepare yourselves for the evening’s performance. It starts in 10 minutes!”

Azadeh doesn't know too much about Lung Wa and it's culture, so she finds it hard to determine what role exactly is portrayed by any given costume.

Instead she goes for one that seems to be the most comfortable while also not hindering her from doing any moves.

"Ooo, a mock combat! This could be fun."

What are our costume options?

-Posted with Wayfinder

There is only one of each costume though they are gender specific, with the skill of the Assimars assigned to apply your makeup, they assure you that they can make you look the part!

Leading Females (Dan) There are two leading female roles, the Warrior Woman and the Wizened Crone. The Warrior Woman wears full armor (treat as splint mail) and peacock feathers, and fights with a dulled, bladed polearm (1d8 nonlethal).
The Wizened Crone wears long robes and walks with a cane. She is permitted to cast spells.

Painted Faces (Jing) The Jing role represents a strong and forceful male. The two choices for this performance are the Noble Warrior and the Cruel Bandit. Noble Warrior wears red face paint and full armor (treat as splint mail), and wields a large club (1d10 nonlethal).
The Cruel Bandit wears blue face paint and wields a long wooden knife (1d4 nonlethal), specially balanced to allow a capable individual to make nonlethal sneak attacks with it.

Clowns (Chou) These humorous characters are allowed to speak with the audience in order to make jokes at their opponents’ expense. Chou are also permitted to cast spells. Male Chou identify their characters by painting wide white circles around their eyes. Female Chou paint their faces red with black circles about the eyes. Clown costumes do not include weapons; however, Chou can carry and wield a broom or stick (treat as an improvised weapon dealing 1d6 nonlethal damage), claiming it to be whatever weapon they desire for the sake of performance and comedic value.

Both armors are heavy?

Barl looks over the options and says, "I suppose I could dress as a warrior but this armor will impede my ability to attack."

Does this mean that our costume's armor, if any, is the only armor we're allowed to wear?

"I guess they don't believe in female bandits," Lai says, picking up a clown costume. "Well I won't be winning any battles with this, but maybe I can hold the crowd."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Hm, I guess that's the best I can do." Azadeh talks more to herself when she chooses the costume of the Wizened Crone.

"I already feel old.At least I've a cane to lean on."

Yes Only costume attire.
Armor is heavy.
I'm missing Celestri and Arikena?

Laiashi and Azedeh quickly picks out their costume and are more then ready to try their hand.

Barl on the other hand is torn between the Warrior Woman and Noble Warrior.

Meanwhile, you can hear the other side getting ready.

"Tsk, I guess I could be a clown. I'm not that humorous though..." the elf mentions as he grabs a costume and begins to change. Humiliating. What is wrong with the society?

The polearm has reach, I assume?

Barl shrugs and sighs and dons the costume of the Warrior Woman. Not proficient in heavy armor but maybe I can do some tanking since no one else gets armor.

When the match is about to begin, he drinks his shield and heightened awareness extracts.

The sparsely set stage contains only a four chairs, a stick, a broom, and a small table.
One again you are reminded that lethal damage is prohibited though the help does an admirable job on all of you, you make a very strange combination.

Round 1
Azadeh Talat
AF2
Barl Kestad
Celstri Fredricks
Arikena
AC
AS
AF
Laiashi
AR
Bold is up.
Placed tokens on map

No one is bolded?

"Ah, look what we have here, uninvited guests" Azadeh tries to tsound as raspy and old as possible. "After you, my young friends"." She says to the others while pointing at their opponents.

Delay Action, until Laiashi's count

Round 1
Azadeh Talat (Delays)
AF2 (Delays)
Barl Kestad
Celstri Fredricks
Arikena
AC
AS
AF
Laiashi
AR
Bold is up.
Placed tokens on map

The warrior Lady looks unsure of herself as she too looks back and decides she'd rather fight with her friends as well.

Barl says, "Try to stay behind me and use your spells to put them to sleep or whatever you people do."

He moves forward and readies his polearm clumsily due to the bulky armor.

Ready attack in case any enemies come into range.

polearm-armor penalty: 1d20 + 3 - 7 ⇒ (18) + 3 - 7 = 14
nonlethal damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Sighing, the elf steps onto the stage in his clown costume. "Ah, but mistress! Why have you come to fight these, these ACHOO!" Sneezing, and slapping the back of Laishi, the elf winks towards the audience while staying where he is. A mark as large as a symbol on the woman's back appears of an elf sticking his tongue out!

Round 1
Azadeh Talat (Delays)
AF2 (Delays)
Barl Kestad
Celstri Fredricks
Arikena
AC
AS
AF
Laiashi
AR
Bold is up.
Placed tokens on map

Celstri attempts to play up to the crowd and does some rather impressive magiks but it seems response is lukewarm.

Barl prepares to shove his weapon into any of the Aspis Agents in a rather uncomfortable way if they try to close in................

***Overseer post***

"CURTAINS!"

Kiang Zhen holds up a coin, catching all of the particpant's attention.
“Unless you can end a battle decisively, the winds of chance may ever shift against you.”

Flipping a coin high in the air before deftly catching it.
"Call it and let this coin toss decide the winner!"
Call even or odds.

"Odds!"

I'll leave that one to the GM :)

***

Your Tengu liaison rushes up “Time for your costume change" she caws as she hands over a stack of black funerary robes. “Once you get suited up, throw these over your clothes; you’ll need them to enter the next event. Then head to the Petal District. You’ll know the way once you get there.”

***

***OVERSEER ANNOUCEMENT***

Overseer thread

A crowd of black-robed mourners gathers in a small, grassy square near the edge of the cemetery. The assembly forms a procession, which winds through the cemetery to one of the oldest and most opulent plots. There, the entrances to an entire row of aging marble mausoleums stand open. Before each rests a coffin.

The procession stops, and a woman in the robes of a Pharasmin cleric steps forward. She approaches the various groups of mourners and, speaking in a solemn tone, requests each of them to hoist a casket and carry it into one of the mausoleums. Then she adds the following instructions: “This next competition is the final one of the qualifier. The Emissary lies somewhere in the catacombs below. All you must do now is seek him out and touch his robes. Good luck.” Then the woman nods and leaves, without further explanation.

The coin is tossed.

Coin Toss 1d2 ⇒ 1
Kiang Zhen looks at the coin and without a word turns his back on all of you, leaving his taunting words behind.
"Luck has favored you this time. May it always favor you..........since you obviously need it."

Meanwhile your Tengu liasion has you all dressed in a hurry before leaving you to complete your next task.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------

The stairs empty into a long hall of cool gray stone. On both sides of the smooth, polished walls open deep, narrow arches that recede into straight, dark hallways. A gold-skinned humanoid sits in a trancelike state in the middle of the room like a great silent statue. Across his lap is a massive spiked club. Behind the creature, on the far side of the hall, a small brass gong hangs still upon a lacquered wooden frame. Beside the gong rests a large mallet, its beater wrapped in cloth.

“Greetings, esteemed competitors. Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Heng—the Sifu’s Judge. Within this room you see eight arches; however, only one leads to the final competition. While I can show you the correct path, you must first prove yourselves worthy before I reveal the answer.”

The oni nods and without warning, all eight entrances erupt into impassible whirlwinds of lashing sword shards and colored smoke. Calmly, he continues. “Beyond me hangs a small gong. In order to pass freely, you must properly sound the gong using the nearby mallet. While this task sounds easy, I assure you it is not, for it must be struck perfectly in order to get it to sound. Hit it too softly and it will fail to echo, too hard and it will crack. Furthermore, I shall do my best to prevent anyone from sounding it.”

The judge bows, his heavy gaze relentless. Then slowly his body coils into a combat stance as he signals the start of the fight with a simple nod.

Round 1
Laiashi
Celstri
Arikena
Azadeh
Judge Heng
Barl
Bold is up

With a snap of his wrist and a glow of his eyes, a wand shoots into the elf's hand and sends a bolt of energy at the man standing in front of him. "I grow weary of the games being played, but I will not falter!"

Prescience: Holding for later use: 1d20 ⇒ 9 7 left

Magic Missile: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Lai springs one of her wrist-sheaths, a dagger falling into her waiting hand.

Which slide are we on?

Slide 8.
Ringing the Gong: To properly sound the gong, a creature must first stand in an adjacent square. Then, as a full-round action, the creature must rub the gong with the mallet to warm it up and then softly strike it with a successful Perform (percussion) skill check. DC = 14
Striking the gong with anything that deals lethal damage causes it to crack. If the gong cracks, the PCs cannot sound it and must keep fighting until Judge Heng surrenders or the time runs out (see Special, below). Once the gong is struck properly, the illusions fade from the arches and anyone behind them is freed. The gong’s mallet functions as a +1 sap, and as a magic item, it cannot be manipulated with mage hand.

Round 1
Laiashi
Celstri
Arikena
Azadeh
Judge Heng
Barl
Bold is up

Celstri must have being flat out of patience as the magic used flies towards Judge Heng........
Caster Level check 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Knowledge (planes) to Identify
....................and disipates into the air upon striking him, leaving no visible damage.

Taken back, the elf looks at the judge with his mouth agape. "Ho... How is that possible!"

Using Celstri's magical dart as a distraction, Lai rushes up for a quick jab with her dagger.

Dagger vs judge (flat-footed): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Damage: 1d4 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + (3) = 4 plus Strength: 1d2 ⇒ 1 DC 17 Fort negates-- also he gets a +2 on the save from my Lasting Poison trick (which enemies should've been getting the whole time, though I don't think it would've mattered; my bad)

Azadeh also rushes forward, but without any intention of attacking the Oni, in th ehope, that he might ignore her just for the moment. In her mind, the faster she gets to the mallet, the faster all this sharade will be over.

double move action