The Library of Last Resort is your last chance to find the resting place of Dragotha's phylactery. But you aren't the only people looking for it.
Loot Sheet.
GM Notes.
The cunning beast waits until Tanith is directly between it and its ally before striking, but Tanith easily knocks aside its strike. He shreds through the illusion with a single slice, but as it explodes into shadowy wisps, it throws off his second swing, preventing him from hitting the next enemy in the lineup.
Quick update: The Silence aura (pale circle centering Pink) is still up.
Astraden's antimagic (yellow circle centering Astraden) is currently fully suppressing two shades and partially suppressing a fourth--the southern Red one.
The darkness aura is gone.
Yellow has been killed. The rest (Red, Green, Pink, Blue, Orange) are still up and about, along with two un-suppressed Blue shades, one partially suppressed Red shade, and three Orange shades. I think that's right.
One hit, exactly enough damage to kill it. +4 weapons are incredible for just ignoring 80% of DR.
Round 3: Ankous (Red, Green, Pink)
As two of the ankous flit over to attack Astraden, fully eliminating the silence effect, the one that weakened Tanith earlier seems to finally run out of patience and unleash a shower of wild fae colors--fully catching Carina, Tanith, Farrukh, and one of the shades in the twin blasts of color.
Carina:1d8 ⇒ 5 Tanith:1d8 ⇒ 2 Farrukh:1d8 ⇒ 5 Blue Shade:1d8 ⇒ 5 Blue Shade fort save:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24Success.
Carina and Farrukh, give me Fort saves. Tanith, it's Reflex for you.
Red Tail @Astraden (flanking):1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 9 + 2 = 19 Damage:1d8 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11 19 to hit for bleed:2d6 ⇒ (3, 1) = 4
I think Astraden has a 17 AC, but presumably with Farrukh's +4 deflection now thanks to silence and darkness going down? Assuming a 21 AC, 34 total damage plus 2 bleed.
Clunk is taking the +2 to attacks and dodge to AC from blessing of fervour.
Clunk takes a short second to wind up the clockworks in his hips, then runs behind one of the shades in a burst of speed. He reaches out with his open forearm again, contraption whirring.
The real ankous are marked with little bullseye symbols. They're also slightly duller.
Shade AoO Trip:1d20 + 16 ⇒ (11) + 16 = 27Fails.
Clunk springs over a half-suppressed shade's swiping tail to siphon nearly all the life out of another, turning towards the nearest true ankou (blue). "You should go to stand alongside your kindred," he intones, pointing to Cuetzpalli's foe. "The bloodrager cannot defeat both of you side-by-side."
Will vs. Suggestion:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (7) + 13 = 20Succeeds.
Round 3: Tree-Things (Blue, Orange)
Appearing to shrug off the compulsion, Clunk's mental target unleashes its fury upon Farrukh. Its nearby ally joins in the assault, bring a shade to bear as well.
I'm fine running the few shades that remain, but my concession is that I'll let you figure out what hits, if anything. Anything that adds 2d6 damage is inflicting bleed.
I believe Clunk's AC is currently, 32? A base of 26, +2 dodge from the blessing, +4 deflection from Aegis? If that's the case, he only takes two hits, for a total of 20 damage (-10 from DR = 10) and 16 damage (-10 from DR = 6), plus 8 bleed. Unless I'm wrong, he's not immune to bleed. Guess the shade takes those vampiric touched hit points right back.
Round 3: Tanith, Eben and Cuetz are up, followed by Round 4 and Farrukh's turn!
*=temporarily buffed Human Bard 15/Ranger 1 — 151*/119 hp — AC 38*/26*/26* (6 mirror images)—CMB +15, CMD 32*— Fort +14, Ref +*20, Will +12 — Spells 3/3 5th 1/4 4th, 0/5 3rd, 2/6 2nd, 3/6 1st — Panache 3/3— Performance 37/40— Perception +19 — Init +4— Action Points 11/13—
Daily magic item use:
Bracers of falcon's aim 2/3, Lesser rod of quicken spell 1/3, rod of extend spell 2/3, Forzamele 3/3
How does firing into an antimagic field work for me, not in the antimagic field? Obviously I'd lose the enhancement bonus on the arrows and any other effect delivered by the arrow itself. Would Inspire Courage and good hope still grant me a bonus, since the effect is on me, not the arrow?
*=temporarily buffed Human Bard 15/Ranger 1 — 151*/119 hp — AC 38*/26*/26* (6 mirror images)—CMB +15, CMD 32*— Fort +14, Ref +*20, Will +12 — Spells 3/3 5th 1/4 4th, 0/5 3rd, 2/6 2nd, 3/6 1st — Panache 3/3— Performance 37/40— Perception +19 — Init +4— Action Points 11/13—
Daily magic item use:
Bracers of falcon's aim 2/3, Lesser rod of quicken spell 1/3, rod of extend spell 2/3, Forzamele 3/3
Eben looks around, seeking a new target. And finds one. "Hey!" He shouts at the one creature that hasn't moved into melee combat. "You're hanging back. So... I bet you're real. I have some cold iron I'm willing to wager on that. Let's find out!" And with that, he sends a flurry of arrows at the lone creature.
Targeting Mr. Green, to the north. I have four cold iron arrows, those will be my first four shots, the rest I'll just rely on clustered shots for overcoming DR.
Continue Inspire Courage as a free action, continue Dance of 23 Steps as a free action, activate Arcane Strike as a swift action, five-foot step, full attack.
Eben's cold iron arrows shred the ankou's flesh, puncture deep into it, and it lets out a scream as black bile pours from its jaws. It seems grievously injured.
Farrukh feels his extremities start to turn to stone.
"Shit."
I'm actually not sure if Temporal Body Adjustment works on this one. GM call?
Temporal Body Adjustment wrote:
By reversing the flow of your personal Hourglass, you can turn back time, undoing a harmful event. You can initiate this counter when you would be affected by a negative condition (such as being cursed, dazed, paralyzed, or sickened), or are affected by a negative condition. You ignore the condition that would affect you, or end any one such condition currently affecting you. You cannot negate your death with this counter.
"Stoned" isn't an explicit condition in this system, though neither is "Cursed".
Hm, that's a tough one, because "turned to stone" is kind of a parallel to "dead". "Petrified" is a condition in later editions, though, so I think it's probably best to say it counts and you can negate it.
Cuetzpalli's enchanted blade shreds through the corrupted fey like a hot knife through balloons of black oil, and it collapses in a heap. The second, though, lashes out with its tail and parries his sword. He brings his sword up again, and again, the fey parries. It leers at him. "Can you not hear the Mournful Song? It calls to us. It calls!"
"It calls!" chime the other three surviving ankous. "It calls!
"You will hear it, too," Cuetzpalli's target hisses, "when your head is cut open, perh--"
It is cut off as Tanith's poleaxe slashes clear across its neck. Its shriek is cut short as it clutches at what passes for its windpipe, black oil oozing out. But it is not felled yet, and before the heroes' eyes, the oil seems to thicken and harden. Tanith's blade, though mightily wielded, lacks the divine power of Kelmarchen to cut through the ankous' resistances.
Nearby, Farrukh's body, caught directly in the prismatic beam, begins to calcify. His curse is the last word from his lips before he becomes nothing but stone. Everyone watches in horror as the guardian warrior falls to the ground, as still as stone. The ankous shriek in approval, and the northernmost ankou immediately divses down to smash the statue apart in an act of pure malice. Clunk springs forward to intercept, but the ankou is too swift, and he's just a fraction too...
The world freezes.
The world rewinds.
The world glitches.
Farrukh is fine. It looks like the ray somehow... missed him? Wrong place, wrong time. Clunk stares in disbelief.
Farrukh misses his first strike, utterly and excessively obliterates a shade on his second, and brutally injures the third ankou he strikes, which turns out to be very real.
63 damage to an enemy with 69 HP. That second crit doesn't confirm unless you have some special bonus I don't know about. The good news is, Blue is real (the distant charged-at Orange is just a shade, actually), so you can feel free to redirect your fourth attack onto Blue to finish it off! Does it change your bonus to-hit if you target Blue? If not, you exactly hit it and easily kill it.
It doesn't change my bonus, though I can't charge at an adjacent target. I could swap that to a different Maneuver though, if the base weapon damage is already enough to kill.
Farrukh cuts down one of the true ankous, causing two of its shades to wink out of existence.
Round 4: Green/Red
The ankou that's keeping its distance has been badly injured by Eben's arrows, and as the last one embeds in its neck, it lets out a hoarse shriek and charges to try to grab him in its oil-dripping claws.
Grapple (Charge):1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 16 + 2 = 24Just a standard grapple. Provokes, if you threaten in melee.
Astraden's foe rips and tears at her with wild, desperate ferocity.
Astraden does her best to raise her shield in time, but each time she thinks she's just about dodged an attack, she remembers that her skin only has the toughness of a recently reincarnated orc, or that the ring of protection's subtle force field won't activate at the last minute, or that her armor is not enchanted to meet the blows of monstrous fey. She staggers, but remains upright, bleeding from multiple wounds.
[33/134]
She steps back from the ankou and intones, "Zborovi za otkaz," ending the antimagic field with a swiping motion with her rapier. She then releases a healing burst.
Selective quick channel:7d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 3, 6, 1, 2, 3) = 22[5/7] [55/134] Excludes the three real ankous and the shade to the south, should heal everyone in the party.
Astraden's AC is back up to 30 from aegis and blessing of fervour.
Carina's bombs tear into the corrupted flesh of the ankous. Her first target collapses before Eben, unholy screams echoing throughout the tainted wood. Her second target dodges one bomb only to careen right into two more, and insects crawl from its half-melted face as it swoops back. It seems badly hurt, but as it screams, its final shade blinks fully back into reality, no longer suppressed by Astraden's spell.
Green down, Red down to about half health.
Round 4: Clunk
Clunk fires off a beam of weakening light at Carina's weakened target.
The beam catches it in the exact same part that Carina's bomb just seared to the 'bone'. Its form shrivels like a grape left out in the sun, and it shrieks in agony.
Red takes 5 negative levels, meaning 25 effective damage and a -5 to all rolls.
*=temporarily buffed Human Bard 15/Ranger 1 — 151*/119 hp — AC 38*/26*/26* (6 mirror images)—CMB +15, CMD 32*— Fort +14, Ref +*20, Will +12 — Spells 3/3 5th 1/4 4th, 0/5 3rd, 2/6 2nd, 3/6 1st — Panache 3/3— Performance 37/40— Perception +19 — Init +4— Action Points 11/13—
Daily magic item use:
Bracers of falcon's aim 2/3, Lesser rod of quicken spell 1/3, rod of extend spell 2/3, Forzamele 3/3
Eben prepares to step back and avoid the onrushing ankou, but then as it approaches it... evaporates under a hail of Carina's exploding vials. "Yes, run into the throwing range of the mad bomber, because that's smart..." he says as the thing falls apart and ceases to be. Of course, this means he has to find a new target to pick om. Out of the two that are closest to him, he has no idea which is real and which is a shade, so he just picks at random.
Odds=north:1d6 ⇒ 2Darn, fake red it is. Clustered shots applies to DR, any shots that hit after the shade dies go to the real red.
Continue Inspire Courage as a free action, continue Dance of 23 Steps as a free action, activate Arcane Strike as a swift action, five-foot step, full attack.
Eben's first double-shot pierces the shade, destroying it instantly. Its master fares little better as three arrows pierce it through the neck. The third comes out the other side, and with a gurgle, it falls to the ground.
I don't think the 2d6 holy damage doubles, which is tragic, because you brought it to 2 hp with that crit. which doesn't matter, thanks to Inspire Courage.
With a single brutal blow, Cuetzpalli cleaves the last true ankou in two. The other two shades vanish with a blink as their creator is slain.
Clunk lowers his sword with a rusty sigh. "The 'Mournful Song' at this forest's center must be... notably hazardous, if even these unusual creatures could be twisted by its corruption."
Carina lands and falls to all fours, gasping for breath.
"...okay..." She pants. "...that took... longer than I thought..."
"Yeah, it's like whoever came up with this forgot to account for the fact that our party has next to no true AoE."
"That was dicier than I was expecting too. Why are creatures this powerful just hanging around in a random clearing? Starting to get a bad feeling about this forest. Well, worse feeling."
"We should continue on," Clunk says after a pause. "The sooner this 'Song' is silenced, the better. My internal directions indicate we are not far from the center now."
Any further prep before you head out for the last encounter of the area?
On Farrukh. Wand of cure light wounds:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7 Wand of cure light wounds:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7 Wand of cure light wounds:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7 Wand of cure light wounds:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6[0/50] and destroyed.
She then snaps an old wand over her knee to get out the last magic, sprinkling it over Farrukh's claw marks. "That's the last of the wand, so I'll have to start using spells to heal now."
If given fifteen minutes, she will also take a short moment to pray for the remainder of her spells.
Confusion as 4th-level domain spell and a second breath of life.
She also evokes Olidammara's prayer of selective listening.
Communal resist energy (sonic).
"Eben, can you toughen me up?" she also asks, pointing to the barkskin wand.
Astraden is also casting bear's endurance on Cuetzpalli and Carina, shield of faith +4 on herself and Eben, owl's wisdom on Cuetzpalli, death ward on herself, invisibility on Farrukh and protection from law on herself.
The black ichor hangs thicker the deeper the party treks. The steady drip-drip-drip becomes a steady trickle as narrow streams creep from the forest's center. As the party draws near what can only be their destination, a haunting melody that has heretofore only been a ringing in their ears steadily rises until it consumes the soundscape.
When you're about 1,000 feet away from the site of the encounter, everyone make a Will save vs enchantment/compulsion/emotion/mind-affecting.
After Rolling:
Intense waves of grief wash over you as the song reaches your ears. Moments of terrible, brutal loss from your own life spring to the front of your mind, and as hard as you try, you can't get them out of your head. It's too much. The music is too grim, too sorrowful, and yet you feel sure that if you just keep moving closer to the source of the song, something might make sense, and the pain might lessen.
If you rolled a 28 or higher, you shrug off the effect.
If you rolled a 27 or lower, you are affected as if by a crushing despair spell and must seek out the source of your sorrow. Luckily for you, that's where you're heading anyways.
*=temporarily buffed Human Bard 15/Ranger 1 — 151*/119 hp — AC 38*/26*/26* (6 mirror images)—CMB +15, CMD 32*— Fort +14, Ref +*20, Will +12 — Spells 3/3 5th 1/4 4th, 0/5 3rd, 2/6 2nd, 3/6 1st — Panache 3/3— Performance 37/40— Perception +19 — Init +4— Action Points 11/13—
Daily magic item use:
Bracers of falcon's aim 2/3, Lesser rod of quicken spell 1/3, rod of extend spell 2/3, Forzamele 3/3
will+good hope:1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 2 = 30
Eben grits his teeth against the emotional swell, and says as facetiously as possible, [b]"I dunno, pick up the beat a little and you could dance to it...[/dice] He does a half-hearted little shuffle of his feet to assert the case.
Anyone who rolls poorly, feel free to use that instead. I have 33 rounds of Performance remaining for the day, so we should be able to make those last thousand feet easy.
The voices of her comrades fades out as Astraden listens, fascinated, to the ghostly music. She hears the rumble of a mine collapse in that song, and the twangs of bows. She stares, transfixed, at Eben's shoes, and the conversation comes slowly rolling back in.
"- you should show your little dance to whoever's doing the singing," she tells Eben.
The black ichor hangs thicker the deeper the party treks. The steady *drip-drip-drip* becomes a steady trickle as narrow streams creep from the forest's center. As the party draws near what can only be their destination, they begin to hear a metallic clanking join the sorrowful song.
It is only as Spiny's Six arrives at the clearing that they understand the true, full nature of the Mournful Song, and the seed at the center of the Doomshroud's ruin.
This tree was a sapling when the world was young. It sang its foul lullabies to the first dragons in their first eggs, to gods being born, to the storms and tempests that would one day become the Wind Dukes and their bitterest enemies. The Mournful Song once sang every evening, filling the world with a song of cruel grief to draw the unwary into its clutches. But in a place like this, with no day and no night, its song can only stretch on, and on, and on. Its song poisoned the world.
No other tree grows near this menace, which rises a full fifty feet from its dark hill. It is a black, leafless tree characterized by unnatural and unsettling shapes. It radiates gloomy twilight, sways hypnotically against a windless night, its many black branches undulating like serpents, dancing to the incessant tune. Five massive chains extend from it to nearby trees, as if to bind it in place.
There is something beneath the tree, nestled beneath its gnarled roots. You initially mistook it for a mossy knoll, the only place of greenery in the whole black clearing. But it's something else. You can see leaf-like scales, the curvature of muscles, the sharp spines of a reptilian tail.
There is a dragon lurking beneath the tree.
Farrukh and Carina can roll heal, DC 25, to unlock the below spoiler.
Eben and Cuetzpalli:
The dragon is not lurking beneath the roots, not nestled in like an animal in a burrow. The tree appears to be... growing out of the dragon, like a hideous orchid. Those roots sink into the creature's flesh, but it does not appear to be dead. Indeed, it seems to be stirring.
For now, consider this a "first hostile/preparatory act triggers rolling Initiative" situation. What do you do?
"Eben, look! It's catching on!" Astraden does her best to mimic Eben's shuffle in time with the tree's undulations, but catches the toe of her boot on a rock jutting out from the rot-slick grass and stumbles. Giving up the attempt, she asks the group in a graver tone, "Do y'all think this is the real Mournful Song? Could it be an illusion?"
