Once over the tree the party is able to see a little deeper into the complex. The temple’s central sanctum rises from this wide courtyard. Bas relief carvings cover every inch of its curved surface—winsome apsaras, vanara heroes, and avatars of the monkey lord himself all seem frozen in the bone-chilling cold. In stark contrast with the celestial beings carved on the sanctum’s outer walls, a carved throng of evil covers the walls of the courtyard itself—fiendish asuras, great black nagas, and goblinoid hordes are frozen in stone as they besiege the mountain rising from the temple’s center. The path splits north and south.
Grym leads the way to the south. As they move south he takes note of a faint burning smell of smoke the further south they move. Grym gives the sign to hold up as he picks up the sound of voices. Peering around the corner he observes a female tiefling and male human chatting over a fire. It doesn't take much effort to tell that they are flirting with each other and making obvious advances toward each other.
Taking a look around the room he observes it is stuffy and hot. This shrine has been transformed into a guardhouse and barracks for the Consortium’s henchmen. The smell of cooking food fills the air, and the poorly vented fire, burning in the shrine’s southwest corner, leaves a smoky haze in the room. Everywhere there are signs of a hurried collection of artifacts—the walls are covered in an elaborate relief sculpture, its surface marred with deep gouges where parts of its face were haphazardly carved from the larger whole, and a number of niches in the wall now lie empty, their icons and relics absent. The fire consumes a huge sheaf of palm-frond pages, upon which Vudran calligraphy may be discerned as the flames devour it.
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Cid peers over the ledge. Normally I'd try and talk them into setting themselves on fire..but those relics should belong to the Pathfinders!
Cid stands up and looses an arrow at Tiefling. He winces as in pain as the arrow flies way off the mark and directly into the fire.
definitely should have tried talking them into the fire
Cid shoutsThat was a warning shot! We have you surrounded, lay down your arms or die!
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Saphera reaches up and embraces her holy symbol, then whispers a few words to Ragathiel. Shortly after her words trail off, a light blue shimmer forms around her.
"We are here to retrieve that which belongs to the society. I do not wish bloodshed over these mundane items, but we will do what is necessary to secure this place. You have this single opportunity to lay down your weapons and allow us to recover that which you have stolen. If you do not comply, the next round of arrows wont miss."
The tone in Saphera's voice seems to lack the same conviction the young Inquisitor has put forth in previous encounters. It’s obvious she has extended the standard courtesy of an alternative path, but seems unusually anxious to engage in combat.
Distracted by the fire, Grym's shot misses. Saphera and Cid's warnings echo through the stone room but are not met with an audible response. The female tiefling speaks up, "Stolen? Who are you to suggest we've stolen anything? Are you not invading our fortress presently?"
Missy's bolt flies past the armored man as his intent is clearly ill in nature.
Nym's ice blast misses the heavily armored man in front of him, though it came quite close.
The man adjacent to Troyst shouts, "Drabbin!" As he attempts to swing his lonsgword at Troyst, Saphera's sword come slashing towards him but misses. The man buries his sword into Troyst's midsection with a sickening tearing sound.
The tiefling shouts, "I surely hope you are better than that or I do think you'll be laying on your back quite soon pretty one. So quick to throw out words human!" The tiefling steps up and intends to jab Saphera with a short sword, but misses as well.
Grym had a good view of the hallway and as someone appears his shot would have been accurate, but Saphera and Troyst had stepped in front of him and blocked his path. He adjusts his shot to avoid his companions and misses.
From out of the hallway steps a large man wielding a battle axe. He turns towards Troyst and buries the large object into his back.
Troyst's attempt to cleave through the heavily armored man to his south fails as he is unable to pierce the chainmail.
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Fighting off the overwhelming desire to engage the half-devil, Saphera acknowledges her companions tactical disadvantage and attempts to engage Troyst’s flanking opponent. After delivering a powerful backhanded sword-swing, the young inquisitor terns her attention towards the red bordered assailant. With a glair she attempts to draw the man's attention. “You feeble excuse of a man. You swing that blade like a girl!
As Grym misses, Middy and Saphera combine to take down the large human to the north.
The tiefling skitters but catchers her balance on the slippery area under her feet and remains standing. The man in chainmail doesn't seem to be affected by the slick surface either.
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Sometimes a combatant in a melee lets her guard down or takes a reckless action. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity. See the Attacks of Opportunity diagram for an example of how they work.
Threatened Squares: You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your turn. Generally, that means everything in all squares adjacent to your space (including diagonally). An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If you're unarmed, you don't normally threaten any squares and thus can't make attacks of opportunity.
Reach Weapons: Most creatures of Medium or smaller size have a reach of only 5 feet. This means that they can make melee attacks only against creatures up to 5 feet (1 square) away. However, Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons threaten more squares than a typical creature. In addition, most creatures larger than Medium have a natural reach of 10 feet or more.
Provoking an Attack of Opportunity: Two kinds of actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square and performing certain actions within a threatened square.
Moving: Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening opponents. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack—the 5-foot step and the withdraw action.
Performing a Distracting Act: Some actions, when performed in a threatened square, provoke attacks of opportunity as you divert your attention from the battle. Table: Actions in Combat notes many of the actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.
Remember that even actions that normally provoke attacks of opportunity may have exceptions to this rule.
Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and most characters can only make one per round. You don't have to make an attack of opportunity if you don't want to. You make your attack of opportunity at your normal attack bonus, even if you've already attacked in the round.
An attack of opportunity “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character's turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character's turn).
Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity: If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can add your Dexterity bonus to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn't count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.
Cid moves up to get line of sight into the room and finds that the area is quite crowded. He continues to sing and draws his bow.
The two remaining enemies attack. Taking advantage of the fact that Troyst is already injured he grabs a hold of his should and buries his longsword into his gut. As it burst out the other side Troyst lets outs a silence gasp and collapses to the ground.
The lovely tiefling looks at the fallen Pathfinder and mutters, "He's still breathing you know, you need to finish it."
While staring at Saphera she thrust her blade into Troyst's chest near his heart. As she withdraws the blade she stares at Saphera and says, "His death. That's on YOU. This is YOUR fault. YOU should not be here. Leave now before the same fate falls on the rest of you."
She raises her voice loudly and says, "DO YOU HEAR ME OUT THERE? LEAVE NOW OR DIE!"
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Saphera squares off with the half-devil and sizes her up. After a brief moment contemplating the she-devil’s combat style Saphera attempts to deliver a powerful overhead swing. “That man is a warrior of the society. He embraced death long ago. When he passes from this world, he will stand tall before Pharasma. It is very likely he will be chosen to fight the endless battle alongside my father. You on the other hand. Keep wasting your attacks on the dead guy and you two will stand before Pharasma. When you are sent to whatever level of hell you come from, I have no doubt you will be held accountable for your failure. I’m sure your eternity will be spent in joyful agony.”
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Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It's like line of sight for ranged weapons, except that it's not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.
You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell you cast.
A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only an area, creature, or object to which it has line of effect from its origin (a spherical burst's center point, a cone-shaped burst's starting point, a cylinder's circle, or an emanation's point of origin).
An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell's line of effect. Such an opening means that the 5-foot length of wall containing the hole is no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell's line of effect.
To determine whether your target has cover from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target's square passes through a square or border that blocks line of effect or provides cover, or through a square occupied by a creature, the target has cover (+4 to AC).
When making a melee attack against an adjacent target, your target has cover if any line from any corner of your square to the target's square goes through a wall (including a low wall). When making a melee attack against a target that isn't adjacent to you (such as with a reach weapon), use the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks.
Low Obstacles and Cover: A low obstacle (such as a wall no higher than half your height) provides cover, but only to creatures within 30 feet (6 squares) of it. The attacker can ignore the cover if he's closer to the obstacle than his target.
Cover and Attacks of Opportunity: You can't execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with cover relative to you.
Cover and Reflex Saves: Cover grants you a +2 bonus on Reflex saves against attacks that originate or burst out from a point on the other side of the cover from you. Note that spread effects can extend around corners and thus negate this cover bonus.
Cover and Stealth Checks: You can use cover to make a Stealth check. Without cover, you usually need concealment (see below) to make a Stealth check.
Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Stealth check.
Big Creatures and Cover: Any creature with a space larger than 5 feet (1 square) determines cover against melee attacks slightly differently than smaller creatures do. Such a creature can choose any square that it occupies to determine if an opponent has cover against its melee attacks. Similarly, when making a melee attack against such a creature, you can pick any of the squares it occupies to determine if it has cover against you.
Partial Cover: If a creature has cover, but more than half the creature is visible, its cover bonus is reduced to a +2 to AC and a +1 bonus on Reflex saving throws. This partial cover is subject to the GM's discretion.
Total Cover: If you don't have line of effect to your target (that is, you cannot draw any line from your square to your target's square without crossing a solid barrier), he is considered to have total cover from you. You can't make an attack against a target that has total cover.
Improved Cover: In some cases, such as attacking a target hiding behind an arrow slit, cover may provide a greater bonus to AC and Reflex saves. In such situations, the normal cover bonuses to AC and Reflex saves can be doubled (to +8 and +4, respectively). A creature with this improved cover effectively gains improved evasion against any attack to which the Reflex save bonus applies. Furthermore, improved cover provides a +10 bonus on Stealth checks.
To determine whether your target has concealment from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target's square passes through a square or border that provides concealment, the target has concealment.
When making a melee attack against an adjacent target, your target has concealment if his space is entirely within an effect that grants concealment. When making a melee attack against a target that isn't adjacent to you, use the rules for determining concealment from ranged attacks.
In addition, some magical effects provide concealment against all attacks, regardless of whether any intervening concealment exists.
Concealment Miss Chance: Concealment gives the subject of a successful attack a 20% chance that the attacker missed because of the concealment. Make the attack normally—if the attacker hits, the defender must make a miss chance d% roll to avoid being struck. Multiple concealment conditions do not stack.
Concealment and Stealth Checks: You can use concealment to make a Stealth check. Without concealment, you usually need cover to make a Stealth check.
Total Concealment: If you have line of effect to a target but not line of sight, he is considered to have total concealment from you. You can't attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think he occupies. A successful attack into a square occupied by an enemy with total concealment has a 50% miss chance (instead of the normal 20% miss chance for an opponent with concealment).
You can't execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with total concealment, even if you know what square or squares the opponent occupies.
Ignoring Concealment: Concealment isn't always effective. An area of dim lighting or darkness doesn't provide any concealment against an opponent with darkvision. Characters with low-light vision can see clearly for a greater distance than other characters with the same light source. Although invisibility provides total concealment, sighted opponents may still make Perception checks to notice the location of an invisible character. An invisible character gains a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if moving, or a +40 bonus on Stealth checks when not moving (even though opponents can't see you, they might be able to figure out where you are from other visual or auditory clues).
Varying Degrees of Concealment: Certain situations may provide more or less than typical concealment, and modify the miss chance accordingly.
The tiefling collapses onto the pile of grease and the man next to her becomes enraged. He screams,