KC's Age of Worms

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

"Oh, did we mention that the dinosaur is actually a titan? Ta-da..." Eben says, a little sheepishly.

"Yay," Astraden says, feeling great about her current situation.

Reflex (good hope, haste): 1d20 + 12 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 12 + 2 + 1 = 19

Tanith growls in pain as the exploding meteors scourge him. He joins Cuetzpalli's complaints. "Watch it!"

Seeing that only Not-Carina is left standing in the aftermath of the titan's magic, the big man calls out her. "It's over. Stand down."

I guess total defense for now.

The badly-scorched Not-Carina looks up at Tanith. She squints at him, then around him at Carina, and her eyes glitter like dying embers. "Why did you have to follow me?" she hisses. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone?!"

The tiefling turns and takes off into the air, fleeing the scene at top speed.

So, let's hash this out simply, if possible. Not-Carina has enough resources to make pursuit difficult--dispelling bombs, a good fly speed with high maneuverability, and quite a few protective wards (most notably fickle winds, stoneskin and protection from spells). Not all of you are able to commit to chasing her with the problems you still have on the field (Krathanos, a possibly-dead-or-dying Sabir, retrieving the roc feather, and Darl Qethos's departing body), but if you do, you have plenty of tools that might be able to counter her. You're still hasted for a minute, after all. You could potentially catch her.

So speaking outside of initiative for a moment, what's the plan? Chasing and dispatching the displacer beast is easy, since you can fly and it can't. We won't play that whole thing out.

Krathanos and the feather are Astraden's main focused right now.

Getting Darl's body back is important, too, for several reasons. (Hand of Vecna reward for Krekie, 17+th level elite NPC loot for the rest of us, plus I sort of want to make sure there's no resurrection in his future. Zyrxog, too, but Carina's bombs likely took care of much of that for us.)

I'm inclined to focus on recovering the feather. I leave the decision of chasing Not-Carina or not up to Actually-Carina. If she wants to chase her down I'm down.

Cuetzpalli is also more focused on the guy who just meteor swarmed him.

Yeah, I suppose an important question is, 'did the big K just drop that spell to take out the Sinfires and we were just collateral damage in the process because little things like 'allies' mean little to him?' or, 'Has the crazy titan decided it would be fun to wipe everyone out now?'

He seems a little miffed at being snapped at, but isn't immediately following it up with more attacks.

We could split the party, then! If Carina wants to chase down Not!Carina

Honestly, in the moment Carina's terrified of what just happened to Sabir, and is probably going to do something to try to save her. If nothing else, she DID keep Carina's existence a secret from her masters since she was born...

Carina doesn't give the fleeing Rin much of a glance--she instead races over to the smoking body of Sabir and produces her extract of breath of life, injecting it into her.

"Oh please oh please work please work please work..." She whispers to herself, her heart pounding.

Farrukh doesn't really know how to react; he didn't really figure Carina would be this torn up over a mother she'd never really known.

Instead, he decides to focus on the larger issue.

"Why bother to step in now? I thought you weren't interested in the fight? Also I could kind of understand you taking a swing at everyone else, but why us?" he aims at Krathanos.

Are we out of roundtime, or can Eben try shooting at the fleeing displacer?

As Eben rushes to engage the fleeing displacer beast in an exciting and extremely complicated game of cat-and-mouse, Astraden rushes to retrieve the feather from the smoldering minotaur. She finds it smoldering, but is able to quickly extinguish it thanks to her immediate action.

Krathanos tilts his head down at Farrukh, Tanith, Clunk and Cuetzpalli. "Would you have rathered I hurl pillows of soft swan down at them? Would that have offended less your delicate sensibilities?" He throws back his head and laughs. "I won this little battle for you. I'm surprised you're not more grateful. You all survived, didn't you? Just a bit of friendly fire. What's a little meteor swarm to champions in the service of Krathanos the Conqueror?"

Carina's syringe scrapes against Rin's stoneskin extract on the first time, and the second. On the third, she pierces the skin.

5d8 + 14 ⇒ (1, 6, 2, 8, 5) + 14 = 36

Sabir Sinfire's eyelids flutter. She squints up at Carina, and her eyes widen in recognition. She looks around, surveys the scorched remains of the scene, looks around at the unfriendly faces surround her. "Oh. Well. Shoot."

Her eyes settle on Krekie. The tengu is leaning against an old log of driftwood, her breaths labored and uneven, clearly barely still standing. Krekie doesn't look at her, and after a moment, Sabir looks to the ground and doesn't say anything else.

Eben is able to shoot down the displacer beast and retrieve the body--it can't fly, so it's really not getting away from you. It probably does something aggressively inconvenient like jump into the ocean and try to swim away if it somehow makes it to the beach, but the most this would accomplish is forcing Eben to get wet--it's not like the creature has a swim speed. Feel free to narrate how it goes.

"Excuse me? Servants? I think you're confused. I serve Kord." Cuetzpalli looks pretty angry, but doesn't make any threatening moves towards Krathanos.

Krathanos glowers down at Cuetzpalli. "Watch your tone, warrior. The one you speak to bested your little god in every contest they waged."

"No, bad cat! BAD CAT!" Eben yells, chasing after the fleeing displacer. The chase goes on just a bit longer than it logiticallsy should; Eben's advantage in elevation and use of ranged weapon is mitigated by one thing:
"Stop displacing yourself, dammit!" he says, as his third shot in a row goes through an empty patch of air that's supposed to be a tentacled panther. When it dives into the ocean, he prepares to try and make more complicated guesses as to where it actually is based on the movement of the waves around it, but fortunately by this point the beast, focusing on staying afloat, drops Darl's body as it begins doggy paddling away. Eben grumbles as he air walks down into the water before the corpse sinks out of sight, heaving up a waterlogged ex-high priest of Vecna shortly after. "Yeah, and don't come back!" he shouts after the fleeing displacer, before air-trudging back to the beach, sopping wet and tottering under a corpse as he does so, "Hey, guys, got the body back, and Astraden, didn't even have to kill the beast... oh." He notices the active air of tension around the paused battle site. And then hears Krathanos's bellowing voice insult Kord. In front of Cuetzpalli and Tanith. Eben sighs, and as quietly as possible, clangs his bracers together, assuming the worst is about to come.

Activating my bracer's for aspect of the falcon. In case doing it surreptitiously is an issue, he tries to mask the motion and sound as incedental to him dropping Darl's body.
Sleight of hand[/i: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (10) + 17 = 27

Cuetzpalli barks a short, sharp laugh. "I've already died once, dude. You don't scare me."

The Olman starts ignoring the titan, turning to Astraden. "You got the feather, yeah?"

"Yeah. Who knows if it works when the bird is dead."

"Not to be a balanced party, but I have hit you guys with friendly fire before, too. Maybe this is just the start of a wonderful friendship between us and Krathanos."

Krathanos chuckles. "Indeed, Astraden." His gaze glitters at Cuetzpalli's bravado and Eben's spellcasting. "Maybe it is. Tell me, what are your plans now that you have the bird's feather?"

Out of curiosity, what are the party's plans for Krathanos at this time? This is less a "what's the party consensus" and more a "what are a couple of you thinking".

I'm gonna get the lootlist up tomorrow, but "what does Krathanos do" and "what's the loot looking like" have both been big elements of what's been stalling me, so I figure I'll break things up into chunks for now.

Oh, also, I mentioned this indirectly, but Krekie is at 2/107 HP. She's sitting down for a reason.

I know it's gonna disappoint everyone, but I'm gonna handwave the identification montage. It's just too much excitement for me. I'll write up nice descriptions for any permanent items you take interest in.

1925 gp

That is indeed a loot list. Also probably a good time to bring up the fact as I've been trying to find a convenient moment to do for a while that we never actually ID'd the stuff we got from Harrowdroth either.

Among these slain adventurers, several magic items can be found, including a brutally sharp scythe with the word Alacrity carved into the haft, a mace constructed of iron set with silver rivets, a pair of circular prisms, a golden crown, and a pair of fine blue shoes.

"Well, the initial plan was, prior to our deciding to team up and take out Darl's group, to negotiate with you over the use of your belt, alongside the feather, to unlock the library. I would hope we can get it back- I'm not sure what that will result in- if the stuff gets 'used up' or permanently given to the undead druids, but since we can't guarantee that, would you be willing to discuss the purchase? Maybe a 'purchase with partial refund attached' if the druids don't destroy or take off with it? "

Oh, yeah, sure.

Krathanos looks over the winnings with an appraising eye. His eyes dart towards Cuetzpalli. "Offer me something of my belt's value," he declares with a smile, "and my belt is yours. Or perhaps you'd rather offer me a piece of... collateral?"

Anyone who wants to try to get a hunch on Krathanos:

Dammit, I coulda used them winged boots in this last fight! So much smoother than air walking. Ah, well.

sense motive+good hope: 1d20 + 24 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 24 + 2 = 27

I was prepared to ask if Eben might conveniently be making this check while trying on Darl's bracelet, but, well, wouldn't help...

"It's a nice belt, to be sure. What's it worth?"

Krathanos folds his arms and raises an eyebrow. "And what do you think my belt is worth, little bard?"

Carina focuses more on making sure Sabir isn't going to die before looking over at Krekie.

Noting the kenku's grievous injuries, she starts brewing an extract to heal some of the worst ones.

Using this time to brew an extract of cure serious wounds.

I know his ass ain't eyeing my blade...

Cuetzpalli crosses his arms over his chest and frowns like an upset toddler.

Eben, of course, has zero ranks in Appraise. So, if you can't do something well, you can at least fail in a spectacular fashion.

Eben considers, taking into account the fact that it really wouldn't be fair to lead off by offering up his freind's posessions. Then it occurs to him:"Oh... do I have the item for you, Krathanos. Now, this might seem like a stupid trade at first, but a Titan of distinction and no uncommon taste like yourself should surely see the real value on offer. Honestly, it's a prized possession and dear friend of mine. How would you like... a talking dragon head on a stick!" Eben produces Mr. Jabber-Talky from his quiver with a theatrical flourish, proffering it headfirst to the titan with a bow.

"Krathanos... stupid... titan...no...taste," the dessicated black dragon's head chimes in as though advertising it's own remarkable capabilities.

Sense Motive (bracelet of bargaining): 1d20 + 12 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 12 + 4 = 34
Appraise on belt: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14

Astraden finishes sawing through a particularly tough elbow sinew and slips Darl's bracelet onto her wrist. Her eyes widen as she appraises the situation, taking in the available information and sorting it in a way she's been hitherto incapable of. Or so she thinks, at least.

"Eben. He's clearly got something in mind. Spiny's Six, we need to talk."

She picks up Vecna's/Darl's hand inconspicuously and walks down to the beach.

Bluff to act normal: 10 + 15 + 5 = 30

Eben follows Astraden down to the beach, his feet a little unsteady on the wet sand. "Yeah, I'm not good with that. Krekie betrayed her allies, did the heavy lifting on killing Zyrxog, and nearly died on our behalf. Krathanos was useful for maybe three seconds before standing there drooling, then tried to pretend he was essential all along by murdering four angels and dropping them on our heads when we'd already won. Not screwing over Krekie for that guy."

"Then we're fighting him, right? Cause we're not putting Cuetzpalli's godsword in the hands of a titan. Unless it's pointy end-first."

Cuetzpalli nods vigorously. "He can probably totally hear us, but yeah, what she said!"

Carina finishes her extract of cure serious wounds and hands it off to Krekie.

CSW: 3d8 + 15 ⇒ (8, 4, 5) + 15 = 32

Then she joins the others on the beach.

"...I second Eben. Krekie doesn't deserve that kind of fate."

"Though he is pretty powerful... and it doesn't look like he exerted himself that much in the fight. If we do this, we do this hard and fast."

"Well, we're still negotiating. He hasn't said if he take Mr. Jabber-Talky or not yet, for instance. If he doesn't want to play ball... well, I don't know if we should attack, that's kinda muggery. Maybe we could just sneak back and steal the belt later, when he takes it off to bathe or whatever..."

"You think he bathes? Maybe we could challenge him to a content for the belt. Best dice thrower wins."

Krathanos's face goes blank and hard-to-read as Eben offers the gift. He eyes it from afar as the party confers.

I'll give Tanith and Farrukh a chance to get their two eggs in, but then things may be about to happen. This is a bit of a peek behind the curtain, but Krathanos isn't a very patient guy.

Tanith nods in agreement with Astraden's thinking.

"I'm sure we've got enough magical doodads among us to trade for that belt but I don't get the impression he really cares about how much these things are worth. I think he's more interested in protecting his pride. Maybe some kind of challenge for the belt that threatens that pride would pique his interest."

"Then we're agreed? Eben, you got any weighted dice?"

"I have a deck of marked cards... but he's still unlikely to wager his belt for kicks. You always give a mark something to tempt him."

Eben's mentioning of needing to tempt a mark causes Carina to blush a little and shift from foot to foot, looking at the sand.

"...did you have something in mind?"

"This titan says he defeated Kord in every game of skill." Clunk tilts his head. "Perhaps he will feel motivated to maintain his streak if one of our Kordian members challenge him? That is... thin, though."

Krekie nods appreciatively to Carina as she downs the extract, easing some of her gruesome burns. In the background, as the group discusses the possibility of betraying her, she goes and hefts Sabir's limp body and begins dragging it out of meteor swarm radius. She strikes up an exceedingly conversation with Krathanos about the weather on the Isle of Tilagos.

"Whaddaya say, Tanith, you want to play cards with him?"

"Oh yeah, sorry to leave y'all hanging . . ."

Astraden taps the scuffed wooden wand of healing on Tanith's and Cuetzpalli's chests.

Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Wand of cure light wounds, Tanith healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
In total 24 healing to Tanith. Woof. [14/50]
Wand of cure light wounds, Cuetzpalli healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Wand of cure light wounds, Cuetzpalli healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Wand of cure light wounds, Cuetzpalli healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Wand of cure light wounds, Cuetzpalli healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Wand of cure light wounds, Cuetzpalli healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
In total 33 healing to Cuetzpalli. [9/50]
Wand of cure light wounds, Astraden healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Wand of cure light wounds, Astraden healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Wand of cure light wounds, Astraden healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Wand of cure light wounds, Astraden healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Wand of cure light wounds, Astraden healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
In total 28 healing to Astraden. [84/123] [4/50]

"Put me in the 'Krathanos is useless to us' camp too. We gave him a shot and he basically did nothing. If we want to kick his ass, sounds good to me. He basically started it with those big flaming rocks anyway. Or Tanith and Cuetz could try to beat him at dice I guess?" Farrukh looks pretty doubtful at that last bit.

"If he isn't up for a contest and just tries to murder us because crazy, think you can start by hitting him with whatever you did to Harrowdroth?" Eben asks as he does a quick shuffle step and makes the beach around the huddled group start glowing.

Casting greater path of glory, using my extend rod starting off with me, Tanith, Cuetz, and Astraden, next round extending it four squares to fit in Farrukh, Carina, Clunk, Krekie and whoever else is near, (I'll be nice and not kick Sabir or Rin out if they approach.) and keep doing that until we're actively in combat and I need to do something else with my swift actions or until the spell expires 28 rounds from now. (Which means we should start tracking rounds, but apparently Astraden just took 15 rounds of wand-poking.) Fast healing 5 to anyone standing in a glowing square.

In total 24 healing to Tanith. Woof. [14/50]

Better than a poke in the eye. Burning a couple fervor to top myself off.

Fervor #1: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 2, 5) = 11
Fervor #2: 4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 4, 4) = 12

Tanith sits up a bit straighter after his burns are mended.

"Whaddaya say, Tanith, you want to play cards with him?"

"Uh, maybe? We could play cards with him but I don't imagine Kord guided two of his champions to this time and place to play a hand of cards with the big bastard. A wrestling match or just an unarmed brawl would be something closer to what the Brawler would approve of."

Edit: Missed that Eben was healing as well.

"I'm just a junior Kordling. There's no way I could wrestle a titan! You probably could though, Tanith, if you want to try. If things go south we can always join in..."

"I mean, you did wrestle a dragon..."