No longer fatigued, and confident the fiend hasn't fled beyond his reach, Hurgah begins to cast enlarge person, using Donkor's blessing to extend its duration.
No longer fatigued, and confident the fiend hasn't fled beyond his reach, Hurgah begins to cast enlarge person, using Donkor's blessing to extend its duration.
-
And then this happens.
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Oh wow! Have a great time! And give us a report when you get back!Anything to throw at him? You mean other than Donkor? There's a bunch of mosaic tiles, but they are pretty tiny.
And just for clarity, Karek doesn't have line of sight to Suekahn. He would need to follow Hal through the breach in the sand wall - he's currently on the 'safe side' of the wall.
(I just might have to refer to Javell's PC as Shattershield for the next while to avoid confusion. . .)
Let me try to assist!
Meanwhile!
Suddenly a second barrier of sand springs into being inside the mosaic chamber. This one is much longer – and larger. It cuts the room off into two halves, running straight up to the ceiling.
The larger half, on the east side of the barrier contains: Hurgah, Moonpate, Donkor, Karek and Halstadt. This side also contains the gigantic double-doors and the controversial “sand door”. It also contains the two small earth elementals.
The much smaller half contains: Xerissa, (the taunting) Gandel , and Breach. Thanks to Moonpate’s last second intervention, it also contains Tasem, the summoned hound archon. Finally, this side contains the strange butterfly bas relief, the “song tube” the Dune Squad entered by in vapor-form, as well as the much larger cylindrical tube or stone shaft in the floor that you verified leads to another level down below.
Breach is still on the west side - the "bad" side if you prefer. Though the above should be updated to reflect Halstadt bravely joining your side.
You did not see Suekahn jump down any tube. You suddenly heard him cackling away from down inside one. If anything, it's more like he's coming up the tube from a level below.
It was the hound archon that dove down the tube to battle the devil. Breach can only hear the combat. If he wants to see, he needs to go to the edge of the tube (or pit) and look down.
Breach can see just fine - he's got his darkvision if there aren't enough light sources. He just doesn't have line of sight to the devil, unless he moves.
Breach moves toward the tube to see if he can get a glimpse of the battle from somewhere below.
Breach can do that with his move action.
He can then see the spoiler tag I made for Halstadt - which I repeat here for ease of reference.
Suekahn is floating half-way down the shaft. He appears to be flying or suspended in the air, though without any visible wings. A large golden wolf is on top of him, its four claws trying to find purchase on the demon's skin while its jaw goes for his throat.
Breach can also use then use his standard action if he wants to.
Just so I don't lose track of our order as we've flipped a page, it's Karek followed by Donkor - then Suekahn. Then Gandel and Moonpate to end the round. Xerissa is still on delay.
Karek and Donkor hustle through the hole in the sand wall, one after the other, rushing to the edge of the pit.
Donkor makes a knowledge check to test his knowledge of the ways of devils, specifically, whether or not this one may resist cold damage.
He reacts based on his findings. If he thinks it may work, he fires off an icicle from his finger. for .
If not, he will take his Wand of Command out of his pack, ready to assault the creature with that.
Karek will drop his hammer next to him, and take his longspear out of his pack, ready to begin the ranged assault.
Karek and Donkor hustle through the hole in the sand wall, one after the other, rushing to the edge of the pit.
Donkor makes a knowledge check to test his knowledge of the ways of devils, specifically, whether or not this one may resist cold damage.
[dice=Knowledge (Planes)]d20+5
He reacts based on his findings. If he thinks it may work, he fires off an icicle from his finger. [dice=Ranged Touch Attack!]d20+4 for [dice=Cold Damage]d6+4.
If not, he will take his Wand of Command out of his pack, ready to assault the creature with that.
Karek will drop his hammer next to him, and take his longspear out of his pack, ready to begin the ranged assault.
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Just how everybody squeezes through that same 5x5 hole in the wall of sand in the same six second time frame is a fiction we'll just have to put aside for the moment (and by moment I mean forever).Both Karek and Donkor race to the edge of the tube leading to the lower level. You should feel to read the spoiler tag left for Breach and Hal two posts above.
Donkor is uncertain as to whether one of his icicle attacks will be effective here. It's a creature of the desert and that bodes well. But didn't his training include something about devils being equally resistant to both cold and fire? Some of the hells are pretty darn chilly. Just let me know what you want him to do.
Donkor shrugs and gives it a try. He rolled well enough, I suppose.
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Correct! It will and Gandel will get to go as well. The only catch is Suekahn still has to go first. . .
Donkor shrugs and gives it a try. He rolled well enough, I suppose.
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Donkor narrows his eyes and fires his ice cannon at the fiend in the shaft. He does his best not to inadvertently strike Tasem el-Kep, a difficult task while the two snarling foes twist and whirl careening and smashing around the shaft like bouncing balls.
The icicle rifles into the darkness, shattering its frozen payload as it hits the sid of the shaft. Neither Suekahn nor Tasem appear to even notice.
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Correct on both counts! Before the conflict, Karek flew down there in gasseous form and checked out the bottom ever so briefly. He discovered it connects to the cieling of another chamber.
The personified battle between good and evil explodes in the tunnel shaft as each great beast angles to secure their jaws around the other's throat.
(threat!)
(applies)
(miss!)
(n/a)
(miss!)
(n/a)
(hit)
+ poison (Fortitude save DC 25) (applies)
(saved!)
(confirmed!)
(applies)
Moments later it appears Suekahn has proven himself the greater combatant. The desert horror bodyslams the hound against the wall and wraps his twin-rowed fangs around the archon's neck. The devil scissors its powerful jaw closed and drinks deeply of Tasem's celestial blood while at the same time injecting its stinger into the hound archon's flank, pumping it full of a sickening ichor.
Gandel and his summons is next, followed by Moonpate (and Tasem and the two elementals). And that will end the round.
Ambriel Aranaeus appears next to the diminutive halfling Pathfinder. He points to the Fiend in the pit. "Aid Tasem against this Unholy foe my friend!"
Ambriel quickly heads down the shaft to join in the fight against Suekhan.
Ambriel (the medium-sized monstrous spider) can fire his web at Suekahn without fear of hitting Tasem, not so much because the two aren’t close by—they’re practically enmeshed--but because of the way the rules for web (and nets) conveniently work. Ambriel does though, have the same problem as Donkor, which makes it a very difficult attack.[/ooc]
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The shimmering hairy legged spider quickly scrambles over the lip of the shaft and begins sprinting downwards, trails of soft starlight streaming behind in its wake.
(“miss”)
The sticky blue net of startfire splats against the side of the tunnel. At the last moment, Suekahn drops another five feet permitting the attack to sail over his head. Then, still dripping with the hound archon’s blood, the fiend slowly rises back up again, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Moonpate will direct one of the earth elementals to widen the breach through the sand wall and the other to pass through the wall near the double doors and report back on what is behind. He will stay on total defense.
“Potentate!” cries a gurgling voice from down the shaft. “He is too strong!”
“I will hold him off for as long as I can. You must get your people away from here!”
The voice breaks off into a savage growl.
(“miss”)
+ trip (“n/a”)
Moonpate will direct one of the earth elementals to widen the breach through the sand wall and the other to pass through the wall near the double doors and report back on what is behind. He will stay on total defense.
-
The first elemental goes to work, sand spraying in all directions, while the second disappears behind the stone wall to the east, melting through it as though it were made of water.
Initiative Order:
(with celestial monstrous spider: Ambriel Aranaeus)
(with elementals, Dignon and Cragg-el and hound archon, Tasem el-Kep)
Traditionally after 5 rounds, I do like to offer the party the opportunity to surrender. I'm sure Suekahn would be merciful. Isn't that what Raena-Tep translates into?
Yeah, you're right. That's a bit weird as Ambriel his summoned spider is not. I guess we'll depart from the general rule that summoned creatures go on their summoner's initiative tick. Ambriel will go on 10 and Gandel is on delay up where Xerissa is. I can work with that!
"Flee Tesem el-Kep, I am here to deliver the wrath of Angradd to this abomination! Angradd, show this Fiend your power!"
Halstadt casts Holy Smite on Suekhan Raena-Tep.
Holy Smite
Will save DC 18 or Blinded for 1 Round.
Nice! Pulling out the big guns!
And here I thought Suekahn was craftily making his way out of Hal's channelling range.
I'll need to check his Will save to resolve it, so I'll need a brief indulgence.
I was looking for a fire descriptor on the spell so Halstadt could use Kythrodan for a second die roll, but it's all holy damage.
:
A pair of black lids suddenly iris over top of Suekahn's eyes shielding him from the holy fire. A second later, their work done, the lids retract into the creature's skin.
"Nice try war-priest, but your god is too weak."
"Nice try war-priest, but your god is too weak."
"Nice try war-priest, but your god is too weak."
Pondering the situation, Breach's anger just rises as he stands here doing nothing. Looking up at the others, he comes to a conclusion, "I've had all I can stands and I can't stands no more!" With that, Breach jumps into the pit, attempting to land on the Demon.
Good question! I am sure it will be insanely cool (or painful) whatever it is. Here's my best interpretation:
My first thought is that this is a grapple. If Breach beats Suekahn's CMB, he hangs on - no fall damage - and he gives and gets the grappled condition. If he fails, he's falling down the shaft, possibly with an Acrobatics checks to reduce a sliver of the damage. But to pull that off he needs at least one hand free, ideally both, so he'll need to drop something.
Option two is he tries to land on the fiend with his feet balerina style, keeping his axe and shield. For that we're looking at a really tough Acrobatics check--Suekahn is flying and in motion, say his CMB plus 10. But in the unlikely event Breach were to succeed, he would have a standard action left over to take a swipe. A miss is a ride to the bottom.
Option three, is an aerial attack with his axe. If he takes a -8 penalty and he still hits, he can bury his axe in Suekahn and hang on for the ride. If he misses, he can contemplate Suekahn's high AC all the way to the bottom.
Pick your crazy! Like you say, they probably all beat standing around.
With a mighty roar, Hurgah charges lets go of his axe, brings out his fangs and claws and charges straight over the edge of the shaft.
A massive tangle of muscled fury, he plummets straight at the floating devil and the hard pressed archeon, his eyes alight in draconic fury.
As he impacts with the devil, he lashes out with his claws, attempting to sink them into the evil outsider and hold on.
Gandel, seeing Hurgah's leap does not quite have the proper trajectory, attempts to aid the Reaver.
Gallant Inspiration
Quisquat!
[dice=Draconic arieal attack of Doom]1d20+16+2
Wach d'edge, Urga! Karek sees what the half-orc is about to do, and far from discouraging him, Karek clears a path for him, pushing Donkor, Hal, and the various accumulated weapons out of the way so he doesn't trip over anything. As the massive creature passes by, he doesn't notice as Bunky the Heroic Weasel scurries up Hurgah's leg, hitching a ride down the tube.
Hold a sec before you re-roll that studly leap there Hurgah--I gotta check something first. Might be able to save Karek's hero point. . .
What I needed to double-check, is exactly where Hurgah was to count his movement (on a paper map, which I should update for us on screen). Also recall that Hurgah is on the far side of the wall of sand, meaning he is not on the side with Breach, Hal Gandel and Xerissa.
Thanks to the elemental wrecking crew, he's got a 5 x 5 hole to get through, but now that he's enlarged, he's got a squeeze to get through. While he technically has enough move to still fall down the shaft, he wouldn't have enough to make an attack, which means he would have stopped at the lip of the shaft this round, rather than skydive for fun.
Now, technically, I believe it is possible to take Karek's hero point for an extra action, so Hurgah can still make a dramatic roll of 1, but you might have a better use for that point at a later time.
Anyways, this is terribly anti-climactic, I was quite looking forward to an enlarged Hurgah dive bomb. But I think it has to wait.
Assuming that Hurgah's action then is rushing up to the lip of the shaft, that would take us to Breach - we'll get Javell to clarify his choice as to what Breach is attempting.
Breach drops his shield down the tube and then leaps over in an attempt to drive his axe into the demon. "See ya at the bottom!" he yells as he figures this to be a terrible mistake.
Wow! That's pretty exciting. The crazy part is looking at it mathematically, I'm not sure Breach can do that without a 20.
We're into kinda unchartered territory here but I suppose Breach gets +2 for a charge and +1 for higher ground, but those cancel out for an instability penalty that I just made up. But then on the damage side there's gotta be something for the sheer momentum of such an attack. Let's say 2d6 more points of damage.
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The mad dwarf sails down the shaft and burrows his axe into the devil's carapace. Suekahn's back makes a sickening "CRACK" as Breach hacks it open like a lobster dinner. Despite the sheer torque of the collision, Breach hangs on to the hilt of his axe and somehow arrests his fall.
Wild.
Xerissa cheers!
Meanwhile Breach's legendary shield completes its drop down the shaft and into the chamber below. As it strikes the floor, it bounces in a high arc, lands once more, and then begins to roll end-over-end into the dark chambers beyond. . .
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