Revival of the Runelords (Inactive)

Game Master Cellion

”A shield wall it is, then,” says Guiness with a smile. Floating over more quickly than he could have walked, the Dwarven warrior takes up a position beside to Ziva to accept the Wyvern’s attack. Landing and locking himself into place, Guiness lets the strength of the mountain flow into him and prepares to swing the flaming Dragonfist!

Move, enter Defensive Stance (+2 Dodge, +2 Will Save, +4 Str and Con), Ready Hammer Attack.

Dragonfist Attack: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 14 + 2 = 33
Dragonfist Damage: 1d8 + 1d6 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (4) + (2) + 15 + 2 = 23

Colvyn enters the cave and sends a single arrow flying at the middle creature.

Longbow: 1d20 + 15 - 3 ⇒ (17) + 15 - 3 = 29
Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 6 = 11

Gets a twenty for init but roll a 3 for the first attack. ;)

Flint Fort: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (1) + 16 = 17

For all his readiness and conditioning, somehow Guiness finds himself vulnerable to this particular poison. His skin rapidly starts to grow taut against his muscles and a heat begins to radiate from the wound. (2 CON dmg. You can make a new save at the end of each turn. Two consecutive saves to cure.)

On the other side, a wyvern launches itself at Ziva. Though her own attack swipes more at empty air than scaly beast, the wyvern's stinger isn't able to get past her defenses.

|||| INIT ||||
Astrid
Kellek
Ziva
Colvyn
Guiness (5 dmg, 2 CONdmg, active poison)
Wyvern Red
Wyvern Green (34 dmg)
Wyvern Blue

Guiness grimaces at the wyvern's lucky shot and the fire of its venom coursing through his veins. "Ye'll pay for that," he growls, launching into a full attack sequence against the creature.

Dragonfist Primary Attack: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (17) + 16 = 33
Dragonfist Damage: 1d8 + 1d6 + 17 ⇒ (8) + (3) + 17 = 28

Dragonfist Primary Attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13
Dragonfist Damage: 1d8 + 1d6 + 17 ⇒ (5) + (3) + 17 = 25

Defensive Stance Shield Bash Attack: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17
Shield Bash Damage: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Steel Headbutt Attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29
Steel Headbutt Damage: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Steel Headbutt Confirm: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23
Steel Headbutt added Crit Damage: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Her initial attack aborted in order to avoid the wyvern's powerful tail, Ziva takes a moment to size up her adversaries--their weight and size, their movements, their feral bearing that concealed a intellect far greater than a beast's. In contrast to Guiness' flurry of strikes the captain of Lastwall awaits her ideal moment, taking up her blade in both hands for a powerful slash at her adversary's neck.

As a Move Action she will Study both Red & Blue wyverns, then take up a two-handed grip to Vital Strike while still fighting defensively. AC26 now.
Attack #1: 1d20 + 18 - 3 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 18 - 3 + 2 - 2 = 35 Damage: 2d10 + 16 ⇒ (10, 6) + 16 = 32
Confirm?: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17 Crit?: 1d10 + 16 ⇒ (7) + 16 = 23

Ziva's dice are in a mood for extremes, it appears.

Colvyn fires a quick succession of arrows at the same target, but can't quite find a weak spot in the creatures scales.

Longbow: 1d20 + 15 + 1 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 15 + 1 - 3 - 2 = 18
Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 4 + 6 + 1 = 17

Longbow: 1d20 + 15 + 1 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (5) + 15 + 1 - 3 - 2 = 16
Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 4 + 6 + 1 = 13

Longbow: 1d20 + 10 + 1 - 3 - 2 ⇒ (4) + 10 + 1 - 3 - 2 = 10
Damage: 1d6 + 4 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 6 + 1 = 15

While Colvyn's arrows whiz overhead, Guiness lands a powerful blow of his hammer along with a precisely placed headbutt that cracks the wyvern's ribcage. It looks bewildered at the fierceness of the dwarf's assault and it spends a moment hacking and coughing as if to clear the obstruction. Ziva's two-handed smash cleaves a deep cut through the red wyvern.

It looks like the green beast is barely able to stay upright after those attacks. Meanwhile, Guiness endures the venom spreading through him. His hardy fortitude protects him from any further effects for now.

Guiness Fort vs. poison: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (17) + 16 = 33

|||| INIT ||||
Astrid
Kellek
Ziva
Colvyn
Guiness (5 dmg, 2 CONdmg, active poison w/ 1 save)
Wyvern Red (32 dmg)
Wyvern Green (80 dmg)
Wyvern Blue

"Bola de fuego!"

fireball v all wyverns (reflex DC 21) (arcane res to DC, +2 damage for mountain-types: 10d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 6, 6, 2) = 38

Astrid hesitates, unsure of just whether her magic is truly needed against the wyverns. Finally, she darts forward with her longspear to make a harassing attack against it from above.

Aid Another for Ziva vs Red: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19 Either for your attack or AC, your choice.

|||| INIT ||||
Astrid
Kellek
Ziva (5 dmg)
Colvyn
Guiness (5 dmg, 2 CONdmg, active poison w/ 1 save)
Wyvern Red (70 dmg)
Wyvern Blue (38 dmg, fleeing)

Grunting at the scratch--more in acknowledgement than in pain--Ziva continues to carefully gauge her opponent, holding her strike until the perfect moment.

Vital Strike: 1d20 + 18 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (12) + 18 + 2 - 3 = 29 Damage: 2d10 + 16 ⇒ (2, 5) + 16 = 23

Red's going to be down and out, and blue is at your mercy - you can decide narratively what you do with it!

New pet?

Once the second wyvern falls, and it becomes apparent that the last one has no fight left in it, Astrid touches down behind Ziva.

"Should we clear it a path, so it has a chance to flee?"

Wyverns are pretty smart, and you haven't done much to get in its good graces (to put it lightly), so "new pet" is not going to fly unless you can charm or dominate it!

The red wyvern goes down in a spray of blood. Its remaining kin continues to try to stay to the back of the cavern, hissing and spitting in the hope you'll leave.

Combat Over Though the fate of the final wyvern is still up to you.

Kellek steps forward and says to the wyvern "Wyrm, hic tot prope gigantes non otiose nidificas?"

intimidate (Influence Opponent, smaller size, though there might be a circumstance bonus): 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (17) + 3 - 4 = 16

Side note: Ziva how do you have 10 ranks in linguistics and only speak Common? ;)

Guiness holds his hammer at the ready should the Wyvern try to escape past him. In the meantime, he steels his resolve against the poison coursing through his veins.

Third round of stance, readied attack, Fortitude Save

Fortitude: 1d20 + 16 - 1 ⇒ (18) + 16 - 1 = 33

Ah, that's a good point. I forgot each Linguistics rank gives a whole language...because that's a silly rule, but so it goes. I'll try to get that fixed shortly.

The wyvern is not particularly intimidated by the skinny wizard, but the sudden use of its native tongue causes a shift in its posture. It raises its head and fixes Kellek with an intense stare. "Domuss nosstra esst. Gigantess noss vissitant, dona ferunt, noss proprie laudant. Toleramuss." Its tone manages a nervous haughtiness.

Meanwhile, Guiness handily overcomes the wyvern toxin.

"Si vitam tuam tribuimus, quid facies? Arcem ingredi quaerimus, cum gigantibus rixa nostra est."

Ziva frowns internally--her statement rings a bit false, even to her, given the two dead wyverns at her feet. She doesn't let her misgivings show on her face, however. Perhaps there was a lesson here about talking before violence broke out.

"Si vitam tuam tribuimus, quid facies? Arcem ingredi quaerimus, cum gigantibus rixa nostra est."

Ziva frowns internally--her statement rings a bit false, even to her, given the two dead wyverns at her feet. She doesn't let her misgivings show on her face, however. Perhaps there was a lesson here about talking before violence broke out.

Was that an 'aid another' attempt. By the way, you can scare people and not speak their language; he says while cracking his knuckles slowly and loudly. ;)

Releasing his stance, Guiness nonetheless maintains his guard at the entryway with his flaming hammer. He looks at the remaining Wyvern with an intent stare, waiting to see what it will do.

Intimidate Aid: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

The wyvern swings its head from side to side, cagey. "Ita esst, ne tibi molesstus ssim. Tu gigantess occidiss, Racchus relinque ssolus."

Kellek translates for the less-cunning linguists in the party.

Then, turning to the wyvern he says "Quid scis de extensione loci hujus? Num usquam ex istis rupibus cuniculos ducunt?"

While she can't follow its words exactly (outside of Kellek's translations), Astrid watches the wyvern intently, trying to interpret its tone and body language.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (19) + 23 = 42 good lord

As soon as the poison passes, Guiness relaxes from his defensive stance and rests a bit, though he keeps his hammer at the ready just in case.

The wyvern hisses "Ite per lacum aranea. Ducunt loca alta ssub, ssubter nigra, per viass antiquass. Forssitan gigantibuss fortasse non."

Astrid gets a very clear picture of the wyvern from its body language, getting the sense that its very nervous and trying its best to satisfy you so you'll go away. Though it doesn't seem to be lying, its body language when you asked about the wyvern-giant relationship was more guarded - there might be more that it omitted saying. It's comment about the passages in the spider caves seems to be truthful.

Colvyn tries to patiently wait for the conversation to be over. He doesn't understand any words spoken and would rather just finish the creature or move on. With nothing to do and no visible other exist, he peek at the different alcoves.

After a quick, quiet conference in Common (so I'm not stepping on any toes if anyone has more info or suggestions to provide) Ziva turns back to the wyvern, sword leveled in a clear signal of menace.

"Hunc locum fuge. Noli revertere, aut praecide caput tuum ab scapulis tuis, et araneae pascam cadaver tuum. Si coneris nos prodere et gigantes monere, maledictio venefici nostri te inveniet. Morieris, vomitu tua ossa tua. Nunc ite." Then she lowers the blade and steps aside, allowing it to depart.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24

The wyvern eyes your group carefully, weighing the potential truth or lies behind Ziva's words. Eventually it seems to decide that there's little to be gained by staying any longer. It hisses once to express its indignation at the treatment, but it dutifully flaps and crawls its way out, leaping over your heads in the process. It dives out of the cave entrance, spreads its wings and lifts off, flying toward the south and freedom.

Once the wyvern is gone, you're able to peek around the nest at your leisure. A low mound of sand in one corner is topped with a glittering fire opal (worth 200 gp). In the deep south-western spur of the cave, you find a more substantial trove of treasure - possibly from past kills or offerings from the giants. Buried under a collection of favorite skulls, horse and elk thighbones, and well-gnawed bits of hide is a hoard of most mundane equipment intermingled with a varies of coins (In total 1435 gp and 2987 sp). You also locate a wand and a rod, which Kellek is able to identify as a wand of fly (28 charges) and a lesser rod of silent spell. (The mundane equipment includes some suits of armor and weapons that are not masterwork, adding up to a total of 1844 gp, but weighing 240 lbs)

Astrid lets out the breath of air she'd been holding as the wyvern flees, and she finally settles to the ground of the cave. Muninn, for his part, scrambles out of his protective cage and darts for the mound of gold.

"Treasure!" he squawks, struggling to hold a trio of gold coins in his beak. Astrid covers half her face in embarrassment.

Ziva nods gravely to the bird. "Indeed, but a great deal of weight as well. I won't tell you your business, Muninn, but perhaps we leave this here for now, and take only the magic?" As she speaks, the knight moves to the very lip of the wyverns' cave, peering towards the smaller opening further along the cliff face.

"Spiders," she mutters with a shake of her head. "Let us press on, while the flight spells last."

Dumping the coins in his Handy Haversack for easy transport as he catches his breath after the fight, Guiness says, ”Good enough. Where to from here—spiders you say?”

Floating up to make sure the flight spell is still active, Guiness prepares to move on to another location which may yield a better path into the city.

With Ziva leading the way into the other cave entrance, you fly around and peer inside. This cave crawls with life. Countless bloated, many-legged insects trample one another as they carpet the floor and climb the walls, creating a susurrus of a million clicking bug legs. The deepest part of the cave seems to be unnaturally thick with darkness and fallen webs. Faceted eyes glitter from the light shining in from the cave entrance, however the dense webs makes it difficult to make out what exactly lies in the depths even for those of you with darkvision.

Moved you all on the map.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

The only sign of Ziva's disgust is a tightening around her jaw. Raising her glowing blade to get a better look, she evidently decides she doesn't like what she sees.

"Master Zaderan," she call back softly. "Have you another burst of flame at your command? It may flush out the mothers of these teeming hordes."

Fireball, pretty please?

Amid the dark, webs, and unholy numbers of vermin, Ziva sees the light from her sword glinting off several eye clusters... one, two, three... its hard to tell where one ends and the next begins, but they're clearly massive spiders. They watch but don't leave their webs.

The only sign of Ziva's disgust is a tightening around her jaw. Raising her glowing blade to get a better look, she evidently decides she doesn't like what she sees.

"Master Zaderan," she call back softly. "Have you another burst of flame at your command? It may flush out the mothers of these teeming hordes."

Fireball, pretty please?

"So much for the element of surprise." mutters the wizard.

He casts detect magic and looks about first--in particular into the darkness of the webs. Taking 10 on any knowledge checks.

Kellek detects a few auras within the webs. Though he doesn't actually see the items that are emitting those auras, he can sense the presence of the characteristic auras of evocation associates with enhanced weapons (+1 and +2 bonuses) as well as a transmutation aura that seems to be from a spellstaff spell.

So, do we want to possibly blow up magical items with a possible 13d6 fireball?

The wizard is right! Let's lure them away from the loot, and then blow them up!

Muninn makes an affronted sound but sees the wisdom in Ziva's suggestion. He does his best to help Guinness, carefully depositing coins into the haversack one by one. With a snap of her fingers, Astrid calls him back to her shoulder as they leave for the other cave.

Half damage before hardness probably doesn't put much besides scrolls or possibly potions at risk, but Ziva can be persuaded.

Ziva glances at Astrd. "The townsfolk spoke of you summoning great beasts to battle the giants--could you call down something a bit smaller, to lure the spiders out?"

Colvyn silently pulls out a vial of acid and look at Kellek with a raised eyebrow, as if asking if it is a good idea.

Astrid nods. "I can. I could summon a number of protector dogs to hold the spiders back for us, and they have nothing to fear from the spiders' venom."

Guiness watches the webs warily, his blazing hammer in hand and ready to leap into action should he be needed.

Colvyn silently pulls out a vial of acid and look at Kellek with a raised eyebrow, as if asking if it is a good idea.

Kellek looks at the small glass vial of acid in Colyn's hand and then back up at the approximately 8,000 cubic feet of knotted webbing that he can see, sighs, and shakes his head.

Just checking in to say I'm watching for when you guys settle on a course of action.

Ziva glances at Astrd. "The townsfolk spoke of you summoning great beasts to battle the giants--could you call down something a bit smaller, to lure the spiders out?"

Astrid nods. "I can. I could summon a number of protector dogs to hold the spiders back for us, and they have nothing to fear from the spiders' venom."

Kellek's jaw muscles flex as the discussion continues, until...

"FINE!" Kellek pulls a scroll of fireball roughly from his handy peddler's pack and reads it aloud.

fireball! : 6d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 5, 1, 3, 6) = 19

"Happy?" he snarls through his teeth.

Depending on what may come rushing from the web he might move back 30'. ;)

900th Post!

Ziva gives Astrid a shrug. "Too slow! And yes Master Zaderan, I am satisfied." She twirls the bastard sword once to limber up her arm, and takes a ready stance.

Let's do this!

The massive spiders thrash about, shaking loose burning strands of web and what looks to be some kind of black goo. They're clearly none too happy about the damage done to their home.

|||| INIT ||||
Ziva (5 dmg)
Astrid
??? Spider Blue (19 dmg)
??? Spider Red (19 dmg)
??? Spider Yellow (9 dmg)
Kellek
Colvyn
Guiness (5 dmg, 2 CONdmg)

"These are no ordinary spiders. I'm not certain they are even still alive. Be cautious," Ziva warns the others, pushing forward in the wake of Kellek's spell. Darting past the closest spider in an effort to hem them in, the knights attempts to drive her blade through ones of its glassy compound eyes.

Defensive Stance + Crane Wing Style combo, Vital Strike, Power Attack all applied. AC27 vs ranged attacks; AC31 vs melee
Attack: 1d20 + 18 - 2 - 3 ⇒ (8) + 18 - 2 - 3 = 21 Damage: 2d10 + 13 ⇒ (7, 2) + 13 = 22
Holy Damage (If Evil): 2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11