KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

woooooo

Or Astraden can just word of recall relay us back. Takes a few days, is the problem.

Also kinda necessitates ditching Zalamandra.

Do we even know where to look for her? Would a sufficiently high spellcraft check identify where she was randomly banished to?

Astraden should be able to scry on her (Zalamandra can intentionally fail her Will save, if KC rules that she'd be waiting/expecting contact from us), and sending a message through the scry link should be possible (roughly a 50% chance per casting of success). Retrieving her might have to wait until we're back in civilization, depending where she is, since Astraden only has a couple of specific tuning forks for plane shift purposes.

Of course, she might have been popped right into the dimension with nothing but rakshasha-eating shrimp and be already dead, but we can hope for the best!

MOST Planes are instant death. The planes of fire, water, air, earth, positive, and negative energy are all going to kill her immediately. Hell, Abbaddon, and the Abyss she might be able to survive for a bit. Best case she's in one of the Good planes.

Has KC rolled on a random plane table yet?

And that's assuming she didn't get shunted to some other wizard's private demiplane in the meantime...

And in this cosmology, I think it's the Hells, the Abyss, the Grey Wastes, Acheron, Carceri, & Pandemonium that make up the Lower Planes.

EDIT: I left out Gehenna.

Well, yeah, random transportation to the elemental planes is bad news. (Actually, air isn't bad, unless you wind up in a patch of lightning or something. Otherwise you just... fall. A lot. But there's no ground.) But that's six out of a lot of planes, and bear in mind Greyhawk has a lot more planar options on the Great Wheel than Golarion's multiverse does. Seven good planes, seven evil ones, three neutrals (although Limbo is not a pleasant place either), plus Astral, Ethereal, and alternate Prime planes. (She might wind up in Faerun or Eberron! Or things will go really weird and she winds up in Golarion!) I'd say she has a good chance of not insta-dying.

Or she could end up on Krynn or Athas.

If she goes to Athas, SCREW A RESCUE MISSION. I'll storm the demons of the Abyss before I'll deal with those halflings.

If she got sent to Athas I want to play a f*&+ing Thri-Kreen as my next character.

Oh, hey, there's always Ravenloft! ("Hey, Zalamandra, hope this message cantrip finds you. How you doin'?" "Well, the walls are weeping blood and my shadow is making poses completely unrelated to any movements I make, and the clock is about to strike thirteen. But otherwise, it's all hunky-dory!")

Speaking of Athas, anyone here play the old DOS Dark Sun games by SSI?

Damn, Zalamandra's spells and skills do not lend themselves to much versatility in this situation. She truly was meant to be a cohort.

I may dump a few points into UMD next level up so I can buy a wand of Paladin's Sacrifice. I can fix a lot of conditions by taking them onto myself and then curing myself.

Yeah, is there any limit to how often you can negate conditions like that?

Once per encounter, basically. Just like any Maneuver I need a standard or full-round to recover it in combat. Outside of combat, I could do it once every other round.

I'm guessing from the question you would much prefer it if it remained self only?

I'm just thinking about how it basically makes you immune to every long-term condition beyond "death". Is that an accurate reading?

Retrieving her might have to wait until we're back in civilization, depending where she is, since Astraden only has a couple of specific tuning forks for plane shift purposes.

Just one, I think. It's the one we need to get back home, at least.

. . . Maybe I can contact Niniane? That worm naga might have a soul we can sell.

KC, I was thinking about spamming detect undead with Astraden's channel damage slots to find the phylactery if the Harbinger was already dead by the time Astraden channeled. I don't want to retcon it here of course, but if in the future her target is killed by the time Astraden's action is resolved, she won't bother spending any resources on it.

We'll just assume you don't use up the channels. It was just to provide closure to the flavor of the fight.

I'm just thinking about how it basically makes you immune to every long-term condition beyond "death". Is that an accurate reading?

As long as I'm capable of taking actions, yes. I would argue Feeblemind would make me too dumb to do it, things like Flesh to Stone would take my actions, if we're going by the FAQ on Nauseated I would need to use it as the spell takes effect (I can't use an Immediate to remove it after the fact), and things like Ability Damage/Drain that aren't technically conditions like Energy Drained is spelled out to be aren't affected. There's probably more, or some with a common sense interpretation you could rule (Grappled and Entangled are technically conditions but I wouldn't mind you drawing the line at it acting as lesser Freedom of Movement).

A couple questions:

1) Can Tanith summon a Silvanshee Agathion. It's on the summon monster 3 alternative summoning list so I thought I'd ask first.

2) Can a Silvanshee use its spectral mist form to float through the sea of worms to explore without being devoured?

A silvanshee can assume an eerie, mist-like form roughly the size and shape of a cat. This ability has the same effect as a gaseous form spell, except the silvanshee retains its own DR and supernatural abilities and can move at its normal speed. It can remain in mist form up to 5 minutes per day. This duration does not have to be consecutive, but it must be used in 1-minute increments.

By the way, KC, this combat was a lot of fun. Kind of what I want to aim for with high-level combat in my own campaigns. Basically, it feels like we're superheroes now.

So apparently Farrukh's 12th level level-up was one of the casualties of Myth-Weaver's major rollback, so I'm re-doing his skills (the only major thing messed up). If this results in some minor changes in skill bonuses, sorry about that. I had some weird ratios on ones like Stealth (at level 11 I had 5 in Stealth, 3 each in Climb and Swim) so I'm not sure how much I bumped stuff at 12th, particularly since I made the 11th level version something like a year and a half ago since I'd been toying around with retraining to Warder for quite a while.

On the bright side that at least means I have most of the sheet.

It was heart-pounding, I'll definitely give it that.

By the way, KC, this combat was a lot of fun. Kind of what I want to aim for with high-level combat in my own campaigns. Basically, it feels like we're superheroes now.

I agree. It ended just as I was starting to feel the fatigue, which is perfect. I don't usually like long combats but for big climactic battles like this with major twists and turns and changes during, it's fun. Good job.

So apparently Farrukh's 12th level level-up was one of the casualties of Myth-Weaver's major rollback, so I'm re-doing his skills (the only major thing messed up). If this results in some minor changes in skill bonuses, sorry about that. I had some weird ratios on ones like Stealth (at level 11 I had 5 in Stealth, 3 each in Climb and Swim) so I'm not sure how much I bumped stuff at 12th, particularly since I made the 11th level version something like a year and a half ago since I'd been toying around with retraining to Warder for quite a while.

On the bright side that at least means I have most of the sheet.

Argh. And I forgot "Farrukh 2.0" was originally meant to have a lot of Golden Lion and Broken Blade Maneuvers (though man, Bronze Knuckle would have helped against the Harbinger...) so I have to re-do all his Maneuvers too. I think I remember all of them though, I used most of them in this fight.

Okay, think I fixed everything. Though I'm wondering WHY one of these is the case. I have a 1st level Maneuver I've never used, when I could have traded it in for a new 6th level Maneuver instead. There's a lot of cool 6th level Maneuvers. I have no idea why I did this to myself. But I know I did do it.

Would you mind if I changed it KC? I could have been Captain America this whole time, or thrown a cone of weird freaky time that nauseates people.

I'd say hold off until the next level-up (which might not be that far off).

This was a rough combat, and carried a lot of anxiety for me, believe it or not (Gark can attest to this). I was really stressing out worrying that the combat was turning into a slog, or a hopeless grind towards defeat. It's easily the hardest encounter I've ever knowingly stuck you guys into. But you managed to pull off just enough tricks to come out victorious, so nicely done. It's definitely a fitting end to this chapter.

Oh, and sorry, Tanith, I never did answer your question. It's not exactly timely now, but yes, you can summon a silvanshee, and yes, it could have gone into the worms—but as you now know, this wouldn't have helped, since gaseous creatures can't go underwater. :P

You sure you based his L12 sheet off of the L11 one? 'Cause we never did play at level 11.

Yes. I made him a little after we hit 10, and Kc said I could retrain at next level. So I made him 11th, and tweaked after we skipped to 12.

Ah, alright.

As an aside, I just realized I could've used an ethereal filcher to grab the phylactery. Though it still needed to make its Will save, it wouldn't have gotten eaten by the Overworm before.

Obligatory Obituary!

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

PC Name: Eben MacTeague

Class: Human Bard 11/Ranger 1
Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Location: The Fountain of Green Temptation
Catalyst: A really bad day

Eben had already annoyed the three wormcallers by dispelling their buffs. The next round, they singled in on him, firing three ribbons of maximized shadow. All three hit him, and the third did almost max damage.

He took a total of 118 damage and was killed instantly. The next round, the alchemist stabbed him with a breath of life syringe, and he was immediately compelled to drink from the fountain.

PC Name: Astraden Limhaare (You might remember her)

Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Location: The Hall of Knowledge
Catalyst: Invocation of the Worm and a bad Reflex save.

Poor Astraden can't catch a break. The group opened the door and all but one of them lost initiative. The Swords of Kyuss stepped up (one took a readied Shield Slam from the one PC who won initiative, but kept coming) and loosed their Invocations. Astraden only has a +3 Reflex save, and it's DC 22. She needed to make one save to survive, and blew three Action points to do so. She got a 21 on her second save. Close, but no cigar.

Actually, this death was retconned shortly after by the bard's moment of greatness, but it did still technically happen for all of 15 minutes. You can see it here.

Still waiting on one potential death from the invocations, so more entries might be up soon when more saves are posted. Ugly stuff.

PC Name: Astraden Limhaare, half-orc cleric of Olidammara

Adventure: The Spire of Long Shadows
Location: The Writhing Chamber (Mak'ar fight)
Catalyst: Paralysis, a worm naga, and an oversharing partymember.

I just want to remind you all that Astraden's player has now effectively died five times in this AP. This time, it was in a heavily modified bossfight with the Harbinger of Worms. The party had taken their time preparing to face the lich after their first meeting, and the preparation was mutual. Moreover, this party is exceptionally strong for its level, so there had been...adjustments. You can read the full battle here, but be warned—it's nearly seven pages of posts long.

After a long and brutal battle with the Overworm, the last wormcaller in the Spire, Mak'ar, and three worm nagas, the Harbinger of Worms was running out of tricks. Fortunately, its enemies seemed even worse off. A time stop from the Harbinger had resulted in only one melee fighter—Farrukh the warder—stranded in melee with the Harbinger, the rest blocked off by worm nagas and a repulsion field. Farrukh couldn't bypass Mak'ar's damage reduction, Eben the bard had already been feebleminded by a naga's gaze, and perhaps worst of all, Astraden the cleric had been paralyzed by a naga's bite.

Actually, the worst part was that Eben, right before getting feebleminded, had said aloud that Astraden had a scroll of remove paralysis in her pack. This made her a lingering threat that the worm nagas couldn't afford to ignore. So that round, as Astraden's cohort readied to use the scroll, a worm naga leaned in and ripped out Astraden's throat.

The next round, Carina the alchemist hit her with a syringe of breath of life, reviving her once more. And back into the breach.

Wow, really?

I wonder if Astraden'll qualify for a free sundae the next time she dies...

Oh, neat! Eben's big mouth was the justification for the coup de grace? (I suppose this would depend upon one's definition of the term 'neat'.) And here all I was thinking when I wrote that was giving the same 'hope spot' text that Astraden gave right before she got paralyzed. I thought it could be a fun running gag!

I actually didn't think of the coup de grace, for the record. Gark brought it up to me after reading your post. Once he had, I found it just didn't make sense for the worm naga to do anything else. ;D

I was considering doing a Whole Thing here, but I actually don't think I'll have time. So I'm just going to streamline things. Sorry if Farrukh was excited to solo a beholder.

Trust me, the "whole thing" would have been Farrukh fleeing from the Beholder and his allies at roughly 40 miles per hour.

I did want to PM you about writing the post to make it seem like Farrukh was dead except he was pranking them, but I didn't have time.

With the exception of a natural 1 what does Farrukh have to fear from a stock beholder? Does his Path of War stuff not work on supernatural stuff?

I'm not sure, I actually don't know what all a Beholder can do. I know it can make an anti-magic cone which is bad enough in itself. IIRC Riven Hourglass is one of the Disciplines where a lot of the Maneuvers are Supernatural and those are most of my get out of jail free cards. And all Farrukh knows is it's mean, strong, and apparently has lots of allies. That last part is the worrying one.

Beholders aren't that dangerous as melee combatants. If they're keeping you under the antimagic cone just about any melee character will turn them into paste - something a juiced up melee character with Path of War material can do easily. Antimagic may shut down your 'get out of jail' cards but it also eliminates the need for them in the first place. Their minions are dominated or charmed most likely which is also shut down by the antimagic cone.

Beholders are at their best when they're keeping casters under the antimagic cone while pelting the melee with disintegration, scorching ray, inflict wounds, etc.

Farrukh would turn a stock beholder into dog food. Now a beholder with Path of War tricks would be scary...

A Beholder gets, like, ten eye rays per round, including flesh to stone, disintegrate and lots and lots of damaging effects. They can also fly. Against a lone, injured, mostly buffless Farrukh? Good f*&#ing luck. :P

...good lord, really? O_O

Beholders are basically Rocket Tag Elementals.

They get 10 but only 6 of which are actually save or die and all of which are DC 17.

That said I suppose when you're forcing 10 saves a round that natural 1 will come up sooner or later.

Worth noting that it wouldn't take a Natural 1. Farrukh's base saves are: Fort +14, Ref +12. :P

Look, clearly the only way to settle this debate is a cage match.

"New to the Dantares City Arena: The Honorless Cheat Farrukh Al-Khatel Faces Off Against a Many-Eyed Horror from the Amedio Jungle! Spectators are advised to sit above the marked splash zone."

Whew. Exhausting day. I went to the capital and lobbied some congresspersons for the first time in my life. I'll post an update tonight, but feel free to state anything you want your PCs to do. Aside from resolving Zalamandra, we're basically back into the last period of extended downtime the PCs are going to get.

I want to meet up with Zalamandra, obviously. See if she can set up a teleport bullet train to Greyhawk for Tanith and Eben (don't know if she's levelled at all since our last meeting, of course).

Scrying on Spiny, Carina's mom, and anyone else we want to check on.

Finish identifying loot and sell it. (I can swing the loot sheet if Feral's too busy.)

Want to say hi to Eligos too. Find out how his research is going.

Visit Lambere to see how the reconstruction is going, and maybe to check on Marinn. Back to Diamond Lake to visit Rillikandren and see how reconstruction's going there, too (kind of a theme here). Visiting Svenser in the bandit camp would probably be a whole Thing since she haven't seen him since the game began, but maybe I could just narrate it? Simple summaries of what I learn when I visit would be fine too - it doesn't have to be dialogue.

Spell research: The one I'm working on for Eben, plus fluff for finding out about these Olidammara spells.

Crafting: Bunch of scrolls; I'll figure out the list once we have loot nailed down.

The most important task is killing the lich, obviously.

Astraden doesn't have to be the one to do it, but it'd be nice to catch up with Clunk.

Astraden will want to identify the lich's loot, probably craft some scrolls to replenish her stash, and scry on Spiny again to get another data point. If we get Zalamandra back and she and Cuetzpalli have some spare time, we might go back to Diamond Lake for a few days and help out some more with reconstruction.

Guys, is there anything we learned in the Harbinger fight that we want to research in the Magepoint library while we're here?

Yeah, I'd like to learn more about the tidbits we picked up. Particularly this "Malgarius" who is apparently a Demon tree.