GM SpiderBeard's Wrath of the Righteous (Inactive)

Game Master Barvo Delancy

"They can't get to us back here ... but then, we can't really get to them, either. I'll squeeze past and make room for someone else, maybe we can distract it long enough for me to find a vulnerable point."

Sarkast drops his pack and watches the creatures, timing what he thinks is the best moment to squeeze past Meriui.

Standard action for total defense (AC 19), then move action at half speed, rolling acrobatics to avoid AoO. Calling "up" north, the path is East (into Meriui), Southeast, South for 15' of movement.

Acrobatics to avoid AoO from Triangle: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
Acrobatics to avoid AoO from Circle, -2 penalty for second creature: 1d20 + 8 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 8 - 2 = 13

If the SE move is legal, then I had room to 5' step forward. I don't think it's a legal move. That's why Meriui didn't move there already.

If not, I'll redo my move. It's not clear how hard that corner is from the map.

Alas, I'd count the square to Meriui's SE as a 'proper' corner. You'll need to go through the darkmantles to get past them.

Well, that's unfortunate. Let's try that again, the hard way. Same standard action to take total defense, then attempt to move through Circle into flanking position.

Acrobatics to move through Circle: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13
That is almost certainly a fail, since it's against CMD+5. Drop the AoO on me, and I am back where I started. At least I have the AC bonus.

To clarify the rule to people less familiar with the system - you can't move diagonally past a corner. An acrobatics check will get you through the darkmantles unless you can fly.

Sarkast tries to slide beneath the darkmantle, but it catches him with its tentacles, trying to wrap him up before Sarkast manages to wrench himself free.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3
Grab: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Sarkast takes 3 damage from the AoO.

Rowena and Anevia both lower their bows and fire off arrows, which simply go too high as they try to snake a shot through the mass of people. Meanwhile, hearing the frustration about the choke point, Aravashnial begins casting a spell.

Rowena: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10
Anevia: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13

Horgus holds his action. Aravashnial's spell will take 1 round to cast. Thora, Ronan, and Jinxx are up!

Ronan aims his crossbow and fires.

Attack: 1d20 + 2 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 1 - 4 = 2

Just as he fires Jinxx lets out a growl

'oops'

Ronan tells him to stay where he is for now

Thora holds her action, axe at the ready.

"And to think I was just going to stay home today!" she laughs.

The two darkmantles hiss noisily. Their attack having failed, one of them suddenly snaps all of its tentacles at Meriui and the area around him goes utterly black.

That's a darkness spell. The map should be obviously darker where it is in effect. If you are in this area and do not have darkvision you are blinded. 20' radius from the source, up and down.

Thora sees the darkmantle that cast darkness fly up into the air away from Meriui. The second darkmantle tries to constrict Meriui again, but is unable to latch on and flies away as well. Both darkmantles are now 15' in the air, but in the cloud of darkness.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

Everyone can take their round two actions, and Sarkast can take his round three action.

Sarkast takes 3 damage from the AoO.

Due to the total defense, Sarkast's AC was 19 for that. Were there penalties I wasn't aware of, or did you just forget the AC bonus?

Totally forgot the AC bonus. You are miraculously healed by the power of God.

Would I have heard any indication that they flew off, or would I think they are still blocking the path in front of me? Makes a difference in how I respond. A minor difference, honestly, but a difference.

Basically, the choices are is swing blindly, and then inch forward, keeping to the wall, or inch forward, keeping to the wall, until he either comes out of the darkness or runs into something.

Absolutely melee is a constant fight, not just the wait between rounds. So you'll know your opponent flew off. Furthermore, because Thora has darkvision you can assume she gives you a rough idea of where they are through running commentary - unless she specifically says otherwise.

'Jinxx get into position to attack when you see an opportunity'

Jinxx moves to the other side of the room and waits

I don't know if the suckers have reach or not, but if they are 15' up, I'm going to assume that there will be no interference with my movement. Half speed so as not to need to Acrobatics checks, but going around the wall to the best of my ability.

Thora darts - as much as a dwarf in splint mail can - under the one with a triangle.

"There's one right above me!" she calls to everyone else. "About fifteen feet up!"

Since Thora doesn't have any ranged weapons, she waits until something comes close to her.

The darkmantles are size small with 5' reach.

Meriui heads southwards to the edge of the darkness. As Thora charges in, shouting out the location of the darkmantle, Rowena and Anevia shrug and aim their bows into the darkness. Their arrows go very wide, missing the

Rowena Attack: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Miss chance, 1 hits: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Anevia Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Miss chance, 1 hits: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 1

Meanwhile, Aravashnial finishes his spell with a flourish. Thora spies a small whirlwind form in the air, which then sprouts arms and legs.

"Go attack the squid thing that's making the awful hissing sound! Try to get it from the back."

The party members in the hallway feel a strong wind as the air elemental rushes through them, below the darkmantles before it comes up behind the one to the north swiping at it to no avail.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Ayesha and Sarkast are up!

Sarkast moves up to where Thora is pointing. Doing his best to follow her direction, he aims his spear and throws.

Move action to go around past Thora and make more room. Attack into the square she's indicating.

Attack vs unseen target: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
Miss chance, rolling 1d2, 1 is a hit: 1d2 ⇒ 2

His spear drops back down to the ground, having not found its target.

As the magical light she cast was diminished, Ayesha cursed. In the dim light, she could not make out the creatures, or her companions. To throw magic blindly into the dark was no good. Instead, she rushed forward, hands outstretched in the darkness, and tried to position herself on the other side of the combat. Maybe she could be a distraction if nothing else.

Meriui hears a whooshing sound and suddenly cold rubbery tentacles start trying to wrap around his face. However he manages to bat the creature away.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

The second darkmantle, unable to realize the elemental can see in the dark, flies away from it to go for an easy ground target.

Elemental AoO: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

The elemental misses, the the darkmantle spreads out its tentacles, falling onto Sarkast's face! Thora sense the creature come by, and she's ready for it, chopping hard.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Miss chance, 1 hits: 1d2 ⇒ 1
Damage: 1d12 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

The creature manages to still slam into Sarkast with its tentacles, but is unable to cling on thanks to Thora's attack.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 4
Grab: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Ayesha stumbles through the darkness, and emerges on the other side of the spell, her light spell illuminating a bit more of the cavern.

Sarkast takes 4 damage. Both darkmantles are at ground level in melee range. Everyone is up!

Jinxx makes his attack

Claw1: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 3 + 1 = 14
Claw1: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 3 + 1 = 12
Bite: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 3 + 1 = 16

Damage Claw1: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Damage Claw2: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Damage Bite: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

As the creature drops on him, Sarkast narrowly escapes its grasp, but feels the pain as it squeezes his head. Penned in, he pulls out his second spear and as he stabs the beast, he shouts, "Move around them! Try to get them between us so we can keep them distracted!"

When they are level with us, are we in dim light (20% miss) or darkness (50% miss)? I'll roll miss on 1d10, if dim light 1-2 misses, if darkness 1-5 misses.

Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Miss chance, see above: 1d10 ⇒ 5
Damage, whetstone bonus: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Dammit, why do I always roll great damage when I miss? *pout*

You were only seeing by light spells, which are overwhelmed by the darkness spell. So you're in total darkness and can't see a thing.

Well, then I missed for two different reasons then ... :-O

Thora gleefully hacks at the darkmantle.

"Definitely better than staying home," she reaffirms.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

Swinging blindly at the creature so recently trying to eat his face, Meriui finds himself glad nobody else is seeing how incompetent he must look.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
Odd Hits: 1d2 ⇒ 2

The elemental missed with an 11 AND I rolled amiss on the miss chance . . ..

Meriui and Thora are unable to connect, but Jinxx manages to pounce on, and viciously bite one of the darkmantles. The air elemental, still following Aravashnial's command, swoops down on the injured darkmantle and blasts right through it, knocking the foul creature to the ground and out of the fight.

Attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Meanwhile, Rowena charges up through the darkness, looking around wildly before she hears Meriui's fight to the south. With a wince, she fires off an arrow towards what she hopes is the darkmantle. It actually manages to hit, but bounces feebly off of the thing.

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 14
Miss Chance 1 is good: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Ayesha is up! I assume Ronan is holding unless told otherwise.

Ayesha listened carefully and thought she saw a shape floating int he darkness. With gritted teeth, she tossed a small acid drop at it.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
miss chance, high good: 1d2 ⇒ 2
damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

Ayesha sends her blob into the darkness, listens for a moment, and hears a satisfying his of anger.

After recoiling from the acid strike, the darkmantle engaged in battle with Meriui lashes out at the paladin, and with a gurgling shriek of joy it wraps itself around his upper body and neck, its hideous maw pressing into his flesh to begin dining.

Attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 2
Grabulate: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24

Meriui is grappled. Everyone is up!

Holding to see what Meriui says or does

Sarkast hears the sound of the creature next to him hit the ground. "Well done, whoever that was! We're gaining the upper ground. Someone call out to guide us to our next foe! If we can surround it and keep it from moving, so much the better!"

Holding until someone makes a sound Sarkast can follow.

Ronan moves slowly in to the room, not wanting to hit anyone with a bolt he waits.

"Jinxx says that one of the things is wrapped around Meriui. He has gone to help Meriui."

'Thing wrapped around big panted face man, I go help him'

Claw1: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 3 + 1 = 15
Claw2: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 3 + 1 = 23
Bite: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 3 + 1 = 21

Damage Claw1: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Damage Claw2: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Damage Bite: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

As Jinxx moves past him, Sarkast follows, using the sound of the eidolon's attack to guide his own.

Move action following Jinxx. Do I need a perception roll to figure out what square to attack? I'll drop one and you decide if it is necessary. Assuming I can find the right square, attack roll follows.

Perception, if needed: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20
Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Miss chance, 2 hits: 1d2 ⇒ 2
Damage, whetstone bonus: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

As Meriui begins trying to claw the bizarre squid-thinig from his face, Jixx and Sarkast charge in. Jinxx swipes out with powerful paw, ripping the darkmantle off of Meriui before biting it and shaking it viciously. As it falls to the ground, Sarkast chagres in, almost tripping over the darkmantle before he finds it, and stabs down with authority. Its lets out a squeal, and then is no more.

End of Combat

The party stumble out of the darkness to take a look at the room. The spell winks out of existence a short while after the fight. Stone figures cover the walls of this cavern. Each figure depicts a different crusader clad in armor and wielding weapons, but their carved stone features contain expressions of sadness.

Horgus grimaces as he pokes the darkmantles with his toe.

"Nobody's face was eaten off. I guess we can count our blessings or something."

As the darkmantle wraps around hi torso and neck, Meriui lets out a quick, short squeak, and then goes silent as he starts clawing at the squid-like tentacle cutting off his air supply. When Jinxx rips it off of him, Meriui collapses to the floor, coughing.

"Thank you, Jinxx. That could have ended very badly very easily."

In reply to Horugs' almost supportive comment, "We can count our blessings! We can still move, we are not starving or dying of thirst, and these statues provide even more hope that we can find a way out of these caverns."

"What statues? Can somebody describe them to me?" Aravashnial's elemental swirls about him as he slowly makes his way towards the group.

"My apologies. I will try." Meriui describes how the warriors are standing, armed and armored to the best of his ability.

As the light returns, Sarkast moves around the room, retrieving his spears and looking for other dangers. His head and shoulders are bruised, and he bleeds from several open wounds on his face.

Aravashnial keeps a hand on Ayesha's shoulder as Meriui describes the statues. He smiles excitedly.

"Fascinating! There's an old legend about the First Crusade. Apparently a group of crusaders had become infected with Abyssal energies and fled below the city to raise their deformed children without fear of persecution. I think this confirms my expectation that we may meet the mole people down here, why - I believe these statues were carved by the descendants of those crusaders! Why else would they be here?"

Rowena winces at Sarkast's wounds and stands between Meriui and Sarkast. Grasping her symbol, she reaches out to touch Sarkast's wound and white healing magic closes it up.

Cure Light Wounds: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Rowena burns deathwatch. 0/3 channel energies and 1/3 spells left. She still has protection from evil memorized.

Horgus snorts derisively.

"We saw that magnificent shrine back there, I bet this was built by the same dwarf. They live a long time, perhaps honouring crusaders or something. I doubt that some deformed tunnel rats could carve statues like this. You're making things up again Aravashnial. I won't fault you for your imagination. Your mind, behaviour, associates, theories, and smell; but not your imagination."

"Interesting choice, Horgus. Right now, YOU are his associate, after all."

Sarkast quietly thanks Rowena for her healing, then steps up to Gwerm.

"Is there some reason you feel the need to belittle Aravashnial at every opportunity? Have his theories caused you bodily harm, and you now must take revenge? Or are you just a pompous, arrogant, mountain-pig who can't be part of civilized company?"

Without waiting for an answer, the Kellid hefts his last sharpened spear and goes to the end of the cavern to see what lies ahead.

"Gentlemen, please. There is no reason for us to turn on each other like this. Not when we have so far to go to return to the surface. These statues are exquisite, to be sure, but there is no need to attribute their creation to dwarves, or mutants, or even gods. May we not simply gaze upon them and ... my apologies master Aravashnial, for the choice of words. May we not be in their presence and appreciate them for what they are, and not what we want them to be?"

'Jinxx go and sniff around the statues.'

Ronan wanders down by where Sarkast is to wait and see if Jinxx turns up anything interesting.