Yes Itzal on attributes and skills the rule is "best of both worlds" -- certain abilities evocative of your hijacker's nature (like Tsao's cold attack, or NS's Swarming ability, cannot be used while in a host. A good rule of thumb is numbers move a lot easier than abilities. Ie, NS is not flying with her goblin, even though the swarm can fly. If you have any questions about what works and what doesn't in a given host, let me know... although since we haven't been hitting a wall with this, asking your party companions might be just as sound advice.
The General feels the strange adrenaline-substitute in the spider's veins coursing through him, making him exhilarated. Dodging around the frog's gaping maw he will strike again!
[dice=Round 3 attack]1d20+2
[dice=Damage]1d6 plus poison
Again undaunted by the poison, the same cannot be said about the grevious wounds. at 3/22, this toad is looking more like a leaking bag of fluid than an apex predator...
Whoops! Thanks for catching that! barely missed again... this time the tounge flies past your body with a force that would surely have killed you or taken your arm off... but pushing your potential to the limit,you avoid the toad's attack, leaving it merely to spray you with dangling ropes of slimy saliva as it belches out and reels back it's tounge...
Can I assume I auto-hit from within the toad? If so, I do
Kuurst fires another arrow at the most-injured Toad.
Can I assume I auto-hit from within the toad? If so, I do 1d6
Sadly not, you must roll to hit, although I will give you a +2 Circ bonus THIS TIME for being inside the toad -- I want to encourage color in the narrative and creative solutions to problems, just don't abuse the priv, by always doing the same stuff on precedent, etc. ;D
Yes Itzal on attributes and skills the rule is "best of both worlds" -- certain abilities evocative of your hijacker's nature (like Tsao's cold attack, or NS's Swarming ability, cannot be used while in a host. A good rule of thumb is numbers move a lot easier than abilities. Ie, NS is not flying with her goblin, even though the swarm can fly. If you have any questions about what works and what doesn't in a given host, let me know... although since we haven't been hitting a wall with this, asking your party companions might be just as sound advice.
The spells work IF the creature can perform the verbal and somatic components, ie, use words, wave arms.
Telepathy works. It's too expensive not to. ;D
Kussts arrow sails to it's target, hitting it in what would seem to be a more ancillary part of the beast... but 'tis enough. With a wild bubbling and shuddering of it's entire body, and almost unnervingly no corresponding noise to speak of, the toad deflates like a rubber ball, expelling the near-dead giant spider onto the beach.
General, you can attack the healthy toad, as your previous target was eliminated before you could act.
This body is weakened! You goblins have the remaining toad under control, you all hear in Zalgan. General Tsao moves out of the effective danger range of the toad and attempts to hide in the shadows.
Inwardly, he seethes. Curse this flimsy body... he growled to himself as he crept off to lick his wounds.
The Abrasax rips what tiny bit of combat knowledge there is out of the Goblin's phyche and shoots arrows at the toads.
I will pick up processing turns again (MUCH TIGHTER) Tomorrow night.
Itzal: In the meantime, Make 2 Attacks, one for the end of round two, and one for round three, if needed.
NS 3.0 = Three attacks.
After I process those attacks, the frogs will either be dead, or will attack a final time, and we'll discuss mop up. Not a bad first run, in my opinion, though I understand how sequence got a bit runny at the end.
Itzal moves to attack the remaining frog.
ROUND 2
ROUND 3
ROUND 1
ROUND 2
Preet attacks the healthy one, yelling at it. "Froggies don hurt Preets fwends!" He then hears what the spider says and begins to freak out. "Spider? Talk? Wat?!? HOW YOU TALK? YOU NEVER TALK BEFOR! PREET DONT UNDERSTAND!!! Fwends! must go get hewp! Dis arent right!
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Round Three
Me. Friggin'. Too. :D
I also love the portrait changes!
The second Horse sized toad, before it could even fully reel it's noisome and disgusting tounge back into it's head, was riddled with arrows and beset by blades.
Flies have already begun to gather from all directions to gather on the blubberous bodies of the toads, and strange little isopods (sand fleas), like so many regiments of soldiers, are starting to form up on the shore to eat the carrion. In a few minutes, this could be quite a scene by scavenging creatures, as you see a couple of bats swoop in to snatch some isopods. This ecosystem is unforgiving, it waits not, and wastes not.
A DC 20 perception check or DC 15 Nature check may reveal a thing or two about them.
I'm trying to keep a good Tally on earned Xp, and will assign points when the party reaches "Old Barracks" -- Going to stick to moderate progression speed, switching to fast only if things bog down.
Would they happen to be...DIRE bats? :D?
Tiduk, the "Real" Goblin, exclaims: "Fing rock must give real power! Fing rock proof! Lammashtu send spider-beast for big goblin power! Horse-size Toads die, especially because they size of horse!"
"WE MUST GET FING ROCK TO GORFEEN! Maybe fing rock important enough we can just go home?"
Would they happen to be...DIRE bats? :D?
Don't tempt me. :D
Well, in any event, Tsao knows how injured he is and how precariously his invasion of Golarion is perched. He honestly isn't sure what would happen if a host were killed while he was controlling it, but he wasn't keen to experience death again. Never again.
At the first sign of danger, Tsao will exit the spider's broken form and take his chances as a spirit. Otherwise, use his take 10 values for Perception (for noting interesting landmarks/side tunnels), Stealth (to not be detected by the real goblin) and Survival (to track them well enough to follow.)
Stealth(spider skill): 17
Perception(spider skill): 14
Survival: 14
Itzal took a look around but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. "Found Boom Rocks! 'Ere!" He gestured to the dud bombs he had found, going to pass them off. He would keep the true working ones in his possession. It was a nice backup weapon if needed.
Preet looks at Tiduk. "Tiduk, wez cood keeps it. WE COOD HAV DA POWERZ! We keep we get good stuffs! We kill real horses! Real dogs! Not just horse sized spiders! Fink bout it guys!"
Preet jumps up and down excitedly when made aware of the bombs. "BOOM BOOM!! See! Good fings! We keep rock wiff shiny stuffs!"
"Boom rocks! What they be doos?" Kuust takes the proffered bomb curiously.
The Abrasax squeals in agreement with Tiduk, Rock of Powerz! Rick of Firez! Rock gives victoreez!!
Nature 21:
Giant Toads do not return to the river except to mate and spawn. Upon closer examination of where the second toad emerged, your hunch is confirmed. Right beneath the surface of a river-eddy is a large clutch of eggs -- Like black pearls the size of tangerines, threaded together in slimy ropes of mucus.
Tiduk can barely contain his excitement, producing two burlap sacks normally used to transport garbage. "We takey Babe-Toads back to the warband! Babe-toads! Babe-toads! No tack and rats tonight!" He growls, his tounge probing from between his dagger-teeth like a snake. "Fink! We was just talking about eating babies at the dump... now we be jussabout EATING TOAD BABIES EVERYONE!" he attempts to pass off the bags to recruit the groups help in retrieving as many as you can to bring back to "Old Barracks."
Alternatively, you could simply destroy the eggs, or ignore them, or present an entirely different option.
Perception 20:
You notice that a small percentage of the flies swarming the corpses die on contact with the toad's flesh. It is likely that even though the flies have a specific resistance, some are succumbing to poison on the toads skin. Inventive use of certain skills might enable one to utilize this poison. It may be specifically applied to weapons/arrows - Though you would need an appropriate container to transport it otherwise.
+5 - After passing the battlefield of fallen orcs, it's barely worth mentioning the odd skeleton laying here or there. But you could have SWORN there was a particular skeleton propped against a rock on the opposite bank, but now it's gone. You are confidant this is not a trick of the eye.
(either way, if the party destroys or utilizes the eggs in some way, there is a 100 xp bonus)
Doesn't matter anyway. The unfamiliar and almost-forgotten sensation of physical pain distracts Tsao from his surroundings.
After passing off the dud bombs to some of the others, Itzal moved to assist the gathering of the eggs. "Toad Babies! Yum!" He assumed his new body must have to eat, so why not.
Kuust will help gather eggs.
[dice=Perception]1d20+4
Doesn't matter anyway. The unfamiliar and almost-forgotten sensation of physical pain distracts Tsao from his surroundings.
Yes -- I will use passive parameters only for instances where I feel your character would want to act, or should act, and you have given me these instructions to use.
The membranes on the eggs are surprisingly thick and flexible. You are surprised, but it looks like the vast majority of them will survive transport, especially since there is not very far left to go. It is likely when you arrive at the goblin camp, you may be very welcome...
(this may serve as a reminder to ask for circumstance bonuses in interactions, because "I'm the guy that brought the toad-eggs, remember?")
The Abrasax assists in gathering the eggs, eagre to do anything to help his chances at a coup. He asks in the voice of Mustadook, Anyones got bottle or somefing to keeps froggie slimes? Mustadook think makes good food tastier, maybe?
And if I can convince my enemies of that, I may have found a way to remove trouble makers without nasty bloodshed, he thinks to himself.
The Fire Stone Mustadook is holding shifts color subtly, the effect rendering Zalgan to the party: Beware the skin of the toads. They are poison, and may prove useful. Also, the bones of the dead move here. They may prove useful as subjects, if they posess life. Keep an eye out.
A quick rundown of odds and ends reveals that Preet has a Canteen-skin of sorts, and it's empty. One canteen for a unit, and it isn't full? Welcome to the goblin infantry. (The goblins would simply assert that the river is right there, but that's beside the point)...
General Tsao already feels uncomfortable in this spider husk. The fact that one or two of his legs feel like they may be broken doesn't help matters much. As quietly as he can, he's going to try and sneak around the goblins near the river, staying to the shadowy corners of the wall and ceiling where possible, like a spider would. Then he'll make for the barracks where the goblins have encamped and see what he can see there.
+11 if in webs
You quickly cut a piece of rope from your belt (your loincloth was sagging anyway) and tie the ends around two oblong rocks. By combing the rope over slices of the toads skin, you absorb as much of the sticky slime into the cord before twisting the rocks over the canteen -- wringing out the poison quite efficiently, and in fact, concentrating it slightly. You can get three uses before you encounter diminishing return on effort. If you want to see if you can get more than 3 uses, it may take hours of labor harvesting and milking the poison glands. Make sure either the your compatriots are on board, you are willing to stay behind, or decide to quit while you're ahead.
Toad Skin—contact poison; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Wisdom damage; cure 1 save.
The Abrasax decides three doses is enough. With the eggs, his own divine presence, and the assumed assistance of his Firstborn compatriots, he shouldn't need more than three.
He makes sure to help finishing up the egg harvesting before lifting his Gem self on high and continuing the march toward the goblin camp.
Laden with copious amounts of toad-eggs, and fortified by their overall success, unwitting goblin and extra-dimensional horror alike had reason to be proud. Of the five brought fourth from the Cathexis, all were anointed by hazard and pain and their foes were found wanting. To look from outward it would seem an equally grand coup for the goblins -- by Tiduk's reckoning, this was the first patrol yet that had gone without a casualty -- not even a dog. Tiduk chattered to the puppeted husks of his former friends, bragging about how if the dogs were'nt all tied up with Gorfeen's endless tracking and they could have brought their animals... there truly would have been no stopping them that were coming to the goblins camp. He likely would never know how prophetic those words sounded at the time... The party crossed to the middle of the river on a fallen spire of stone, stepping off onto a sandbar of sorts, where the water was only inches deep. From there, Tiduk was already running -- showing the ford that might otherwise have been missed by his dark cohorts. The river much beyond this point seems to stop at a sheer cliff where cold meltwater roared down from above. The subtle incline of the riverbed heading upstream might have deceptively taken the group considerably closer to the surface... Tiduk yelled over his shoulder as he beckoned his "friends" to a great wooden door, slightly ajar at the top of a rough-hewn stair leading into the living rock, and away from the river.
"And another good news!" No more skeletons around here! Wonder who clean up?! Maybe we have old-marrow soup with toad-babes! Yes-yes!"
General Tsao, his spider host being pushed to the limits of it's battered frame, began to sense that if he did not find a way to repair this vessel soon, that it might fall away from him. The pain was not a concern -- he could turn that on and off as he wished... but he could tell, as the spider scaled upside down along the ceiling... this husk was being taxed. Still, he made good time -- following the river upstream until he arrived at the sheer cliff that, from the smell of it, perhaps an instinct of the animal he wielded -- separated the underground river from a mountain stream somewhere above. Backtracking on the ceiling on the other side of the river, he saw the wooden double-doors that bore the crude and recent hand-painting of the goblin warband's camp. He would have to decide if he would wait for his comrades to proceed and follow them, or to infiltrate the compound himself.
(if you do wish to go in, throw perception first, and stealth in you plan on remaining concealed!)
Tsao clings to the sloping stone walls, his 8 claws easily finding purchase in the rock as he considers his angle of attack. Throughout his planning, his mind buzzes with another unfamiliar emotion in this most unfamiliar of days - excitement. Ah, to be back on the mortal plane... If the spider had the capacity to smile, it would.
His eight eyes take in the scene, and he listens carefully for noisy goblins.
Stealth: 17
From outside the thresh-hold, you gain excellent lines of sight into the area beyond the door. Hidden above the door is a crude observation hole -- Drawing a bit nearer to it and opening up the senses of your host, you hear a steady bubbling noise, accompanied by two different types of snoring. Below, you see the door is being guarded by a vigilant goblin, but your peculiar avenue of approach (From above the door onto the ceiling) puts you at an advantage to enter. Pick an avenue of approach -- you have don't have much lead on your allies...
Creeping cautiously over the rocks, Tsao will attempt to harness what is left of his spider form's stealthiness to his advantage.
Can I use my stealth check from before to attempt to get within possession range or close to it to the awake goblin, without it noticing me? If so, Tsao will abandon his spider host and attempt a sneak attack:
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Itzal followed quickly, smiling in his mind. 'Yes. Let us go home.' These goblins seemed wonderful mischief makers. And from the sounds of things, there were going to be even more extra opportunities. When he got some time to himself, he would inspect that scroll. Now was not the time. 'Don't trust Abrasax.'
You feel the strain on the spiders physical form reaching a breaking point -- one you could maintain if you liked, but you can feel the body now needs you more than it is of facility to you. You are confident if you slid free of your host (full round action) you would have to re-initiate your stealth, and you would be short a circumstance bonus for your peculiar angle of entry. Still, These goblins are not the most perceptive lot, so perhaps sloughing off your host will not deter you...
You hear a wheezing snort through the aperture above followed by a cowed whimper. you can deduct with your perception that your disturbing presence has shaken a goblin dog from it's sound sleep -- but barely. You risk exposure if you do not either fall back, or make your move...
(Itzal): Only a turn or two behind Tsao who has gone point - you are reaching the last legs of your journey upriver. Here and there you see discarded bits of rusted weapons and armor, but nothing to reveal the dispositions of any bodies... Tiduk is running even ahead of group now, so if you maintain pace you will arrive with comrades, or if you move your fastest you can forage ahead...
I will attempt one full-round action to escape the spider and another full-round to possess the goblin.