"Gandel is his thing evil or simply a force of nature?"
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Q. “Immediately in front of Moonpate, 45 feet from the water.”
A. “What is Hurgah the Reaver’s current position.”
(Audience delivers mild applause)
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The central head of Deca-Jaws centers on the dwarf who has been left standing at the edge of the water. This center head is skinned slightly darker, its teeth all the longer, and its eyes, were it possible, even more feral. From the beach, Professor Gandel hurriedly explains that the creature’s “master head” is his only original remaining head since the creature was first spawned.
The center-head lowers and readies to masticate the dwarf. Breach is standing perfectly still, brandishing the twin dagger-like barbs he collected from A’Viss in front of him. They look puny though when compared to the monster’s cluster of incisors. Deca-Jaws waits for the dwarf to make his move so he can end him.
Breach, however, isn’t moving - at all. He almost seems to be engaged in a starring contest with the hydra’s center-head. Deca-Jaws takes advantage and slowly angles its center-head even closer as it locks eyes. Deca-Jaws snorts in disdain and Breach can smell the behemoth’s foul breath.
But despite the challenge, Breach is just waiting. He has sacrificed all opportunity for escape and allowed the hydra to gain position over him. Once he moves, he will be swallowed.
Nevertheless, Breach slowly allows himself a smile. For he knows something.
“You ain’t no snake after all, are you,” he says quietly to himself.
The veteran dwarf has been listening to the incessant diatribe of the halfling. At first, when Gandel explained Deca-Jaws has tarsal folds and blepharo, the elder dwarf dismissed it as useless babble. But now, face-to-face with the creature, Breach has put it together: Deca-Jaws has eyelids.
And so Breach waits, twin daggers ready. Deca-Jaws lines him up slowly closing the distance – its unmoving target becoming all the more vulnerable with each passing moment.
Then it happens. It only lasts a split-second – but it happens. Deca-Jaw’s blink reflex kicks in. All ten heads flash closed for a micro-second.
A micro-second is all the magically-enhanced dwarf needs. From his standing position, the dwarf tumbles backwards. The cat’s grace and expeditious retreat spells from Gandel kick-in instantly and the dwarf moves like the wind, spinning end over end. Deca-Jaw’s eyes flash open and the creature bites down – hard – but there’s nothing but air left in Breach’s former position.
Second’s later the dwarf has retreated up the beach, taking up a new defensive position next to Halstadt and Gandel at the weapons dump. Deca-Jaws is enraged.
“Now there ugly,” he calls, “If you want me, you gotta come outta that water and get me. . .”
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As Breach joins his side, Halstadt calls out to the Forge-fire, Angradd, the youngest of the three brother-gods of the dwarves. As he does so, the Dune Squad can feel the fires within their souls ignite, inspiring them to greatness. The monstrous lizard bellows in anger as Morgrym’s magic settles upon him, disrupting the creature’s concentration.
Next up is Donkor - then Deca-Jaws!
Wow, that was a quite impressive post for Breach's withdraw action! Donkor does the same thing! Sorta. He waits for the blink, then bravely casts his own Sanctuary, and heads backward. Is the bag o' goodies near the shore? If it is, he just goes backward, I can't recall. If the bag is back a ways, he will head over there and try to rummage through it for fire-making stuff.
Wow, that was a quite impressive post for Breach's withdraw action!
Breach is so studly, even his retreats are badass.
Donkor calls on Pharasma for protection as he picks his moment to join Breach and retreat from Deca-Jaws. The King of Hydras pounces. The monster launches from the pool displacing a tremendous amount of water. A huge wall of waves explodes around Donkor.
For a split-second, the waves appear to freeze in place around the Pharasman – matrix style. In the closest wave Donkor thinks he sees a pattern in the churning froth. It looks vaguely like a spiral, the eternal symbol of his goddess. Perhaps he is just imagining things in a moment of incredible stress. No, there can be no doubt. It is a sign, a sign that it is now time for Pharasma’s prophesy to at last be fulfilled.
What the young priest didn’t fully appreciate at the time was that the divination was about his own fate.
Donkor does the same thing! Sorta. He waits for the blink, then bravely casts his own Sanctuary, and heads backward.
(success!)
(fails!)
One with the water, the gift of his goddess, Donkor darts between the exploding waves of Deca-Jaws' emergence and completes his spell of protection. Once up, the great lizard seems unable to attack – at least not against Donkor. Pharasma has spoken: the time for Sooron’s trip to the boneyard is not yet – the dictates of fate must be fulfilled by the life of another.
Is the bag o' goodies near the shore? If it is, he just goes backward, I can't recall. If the bag is back a ways, he will head over there and try to rummage through it for fire-making stuff.
The weapons dump is 30 feet from the shore, conveniently precisely the same as the distance Donkor is able to travel with a move action so it works out very well for him. Hurgah dumped out the bag, so the equipment is sitting on the beach in a pile next to Hal. Gandel is already going through it. On his next turn Donkor should be able to scoop up whatever it is he’s looking for.
“Woohoo! Nice escape guys!” Jason calls out to Breach and Donkor, impressed with their collective savvy.
Then it suddenly dawns on him that he is left closest to the hydra.
“Oh ^&%#!”
He discards his glowing crossbow and hurriedly tries to climb for more altitude.
Deca-Jaws lands back down in the water, finding itself no longer able to attack the more choice targets on the shore. With lightning speed belaying its massive size, the creature dives back down into the water. From there it uses its fins to propel itself upwards at an incredible speed and launches its several dozen ton body completely into the air.
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(crit!)
(miss!)
(hit!)
(miss!)
(miss!)
(crit!)
(hit!)
(miss!)
(hit!)
(miss!)
(applies!)
(n/a)
(applies!)
(n/a)
(n/a)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(n/a)
(applies!)
(n/a)
(critical confirmed!)
(applies!)
(critical confirmed!)
(applies!)
That's 3 hits plus 2 criticals for 54 points of damage. Holy hydrarific! Previously injured, Jason drops from 34 to -20. He literally just needed that last confirmation roll to fail to survive. Ugh! There goes my NPC. I'm looking for math/buff errors to help him out, but I think it's done.
Lastly, as the beast's turn ends, Deca-Jaws fast heals 10 hit points.
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Once the Apex-predator breaks the water, it quickly envelops the young sorcerer. A massive tangle of biting jaws rip away at Belleson’s body, overpowering the multiple layers of magical protection, stripping them away. You can hardly look as your comrade is torn to shreds by an entire pack of shark-like heads. The sorcerer’s spell immediately ends and his body splashes down into the pool. Having tempted fate one time too many at last, the adventurer begins to sink beneath the surface.
70 feet. Karek had slowly wandered off a fair ways before Deca-Jaws announced himself with that water bomb.
P.S. Deca-Jaws is close enough to the shore so that someone with Karek's 15 reach with the giant long spear could stick him, if they were at the shoreline. Though that's a bit academic as Karek is far from that shoreline.
The veteran dwarf has been listening to the incessant diatribe of the halfling. At first, when Gandel explained Deca-Jaws has tarsal folds and blepharo, the elder dwarf dismissed it as useless babble. But now, face-to-face with the creature, Breach has put it together: Deca-Jaws has eyelids.
Brilliant!
DecaJaw's display of power hits Karek like a rock. He doubles over as if in pain, his knuckles turning white as he grasps his spear all the harder. Nevertheless, he grits his teeth at he returns to the center of the fray. He's moving slower than he was before, but you wouldn't really notice. Though Belleson's Blur spell has ended, Gandel's Expeditious Retreat is still active.
Once the Apex-predator breaks the water, it quickly envelops the young sorcerer. A massive tangle of biting jaws rip away at Belleson’s body, overpowering the multiple layers of magical protection, stripping them away. You can hardly look as your comrade is torn to shreds by an entire pack of shark-like heads. The sorcerer’s spell immediately ends and his body splashes down into the pool. Having tempted fate one time too many at last, the adventurer begins to sink beneath the surface.
Holy TPK!
DecaJaw's display of power hits Karek like a rock. He doubles over as if in pain, his knuckles turning white as he grasps his spear all the harder. Nevertheless, he grits his teeth at he returns to the center of the fray. He's moving slower than he was before, but you wouldn't really notice. Though Belleson's Blur spell has ended, Gandel's Expeditious Retreat is still active.
Nice post!
I had forgotten Karek had an expeditious retreat as well. You are right that gets him to the front line. I'll do a subsequent post to clarify where everyone is in that front line.
I'm checking when Karek got his blur spell - it's got a duration in minutes, so now that you mention it I think it should still be active. Not for much longer, but this fight might not last long.
Hmmmm, looks like you might get a chance to demonstrate the potency of a good set after all.
You may disagree but I understand the pundits gave last round to Deca-Jaws:
Send me your turns!
Here's an update on positioning. My scanner is still in a box - so no map, I'm afraid.
- Deca-Jaws is in the water (the oasis) 10 feet from the shoreline. His body sticks partially out of the water as does all of his heads. He can reach the edge to attack (and threaten).
- Nobody is on the shoreline anymore. Everyone has pulled back.
- The closest to water is what we are now calling the "front-line". This is the gathering of PCs at the weapons dump, where Hurgah dumped out the red sack of weapons. This point is 30 feet from the shoreline, 40 feet from Deca-Jaws. At the start of the round, the Dune Squad is standing in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder. Here they are left to right:
[Left]
Halstadt
Gandel
Breach
Donkor
Karek
[Right]Halstadt, Breach and Karek take up 10 feet on a side. That means, for example, Hal is 25 feet west of Karek or 25 feet to Karek's left if you pretend there's facing in this game. In most cases, if anyone wants to fall behind that line and let it close up, that should probably be easy to achieve with 5-foot steps.
- 15 feet behind the front-line is Hurgah. If it matters, he's directly behind Breach, in the center. That makes him 55 feet away from the hydra.
- Moonpate is in a 5 foot square immediately behind Hurgah. That's 60 feet from the hydra.
Happy hunting!
A couple of options come to mind, depending upon if we think we can lick this mutant fish-lizard-chicken thing.
1) I can place the fire elemental in front of our line and we take the opportunity to bugger out.
2) I can delay the cast until the end of the round and place Mr. Crispy behind the critter, assuming it is still hungry and charges. That would box it in for a nice little kill zone.
Round Two:
Tiny Gandel scurries back from the front line as he continues to offer words of advice for battling the fearsome Deca-Jaws. Taking up a position behind Hurgah, the diminutive scholar prepares to aid his companions with his few remaining spells.
Wow! That's fantastic - thanks!
To the extent I've got inconsistencies in what I've posted, let's go with Gandel's Google map.
The one change I would have is let's put Moonpate at W7 instead to reflect that Hurgah was trying to shield him from Deca-Jaws.
My understanding is that unless the spell specifically requires concentration as its duration, it just continues - it doesn't depend on its creator to maintain it.
I'm consulting with my secret academy of rules guys. They'll set me straight if I'm wrong, but I think Karek stll has the protection. In my view, he should feel invulnerable, drop his spear and challenge Deca-Jaws to a bout of arm wrestling. (Best 2 out of 3)
. . . Move action 20 ft to square W6. Holding standard action if possible.
I don't think Gandel can quite do that. Your sort of stuck with the imprecision of a PBP.
He can move and then take a readied action, but he'd have to specify what he wants to do and the condition which would trigger it. Like 'cast X as soon as Deca-Jaws moves', for example.
Or he could not move at all and then simply delay, going when he wants to. This will let him have complete flexibility in what he ultimately decides to do, but will drop him in the initative order. (You can only delay a complete turn, not a part turn). This is easier to do in a live game where you are continuously watching the action so you are confident you will know when the right time to jump in is.
Maybe what you want is to delay, but for me to be sure to check back with you before Deca-Jaws goes so he doesn't get left standing in front of a pounce?
A couple of options come to mind, depending upon if we think we can lick this mutant fish-lizard-chicken thing.
1) I can place the fire elemental in front of our line and we take the opportunity to bugger out.
2) I can delay the cast until the end of the round and place Mr. Crispy behind the critter, assuming it is still hungry and charges. That would box it in for a nice little kill zone.
Jasons death seems to increase Hurgah's rage.
The huge half-orc shoves past Breech and stops five feet in front of the line of dwarves. There, he drops his axe, brings out his claws and bellows a thunderous, wordless challenge to the hydra.
Jasons death seems to increase Hurgah's rage.
The huge half-orc shoves past Breech and stops five feet in front of the line of dwarves. There, he drops his axe, brings out his claws and bellows a thunderous, wordless challenge to the hydra.
Will delay placing the elemental until after our doom, I mean nemesis, moves.
. . . Move action 20 ft to square W6. Holding standard action if possible.I don't think Gandel can quite do that. Your sort of stuck with the imprecision of a PBP...
Maybe what you want is to delay, but for me to be sure to check back with you before Deca-Jaws goes so he doesn't get left standing in front of a pounce?
Gotcha!
Gandel repositions,
Moonpate goes on delay,
Breach, a good soldier, falls in-line with the plan and also goes on delay, letting Hurgah pass. . .
Jasons death seems to increase Hurgah's rage.
The huge half-orc shoves past Breech and stops five feet in front of the line of dwarves. There, he drops his axe, brings out his claws and bellows a thunderous, wordless challenge to the hydra.
. . . this happens.
I see Max has positioned Hurgah at which is what I'll go with unless Jace advises differently. It looks right to me.
So now we just need to know if Hal or Donkor, who are now behind Hurgah, want to act before Deca-Jaws or delay until afterwards.
Deca-Jaws certainly does look like he's preparing to storm the front-line, though it's hard to say if he will do it on his next turn for certain.
The huge half-orc shoves past Breech and stops five feet in front of the line of dwarves. There, he drops his axe, brings out his claws and bellows a thunderous, wordless challenge to the hydra.
When Hurgah roars at Deca-Jaws, he gets the creature’s attention. The center head roars back, then the two adjacent heads join in and soon the whole pack is showing off its deafening roar-chorus.
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Hurgah's roar echoes across the oasis, a mighty challange born of the dragon blood that pumps through his massive veins.
Awesome roaring!
Donkor will rummage through the bag for his 3 acid flasks, and back away to the 30' magical channeling range.
Hurgah's roar echoes across the oasis, a mighty challange born of the dragon blood that pumps through his massive veins.
Deca-Jaws answers:
Donkor will rummage through the bag for his 3 acid flasks, and back away to the 30' magical channeling range.
Done!
Though with that magic backpack of his, it’s perhaps not so much rummaging as it is sweet convenience.
I’ll have Donkor back-up from AA8 to X8.
1. Hurgah/Breach/Karek remove a head from Deca, Hal will launch a firebolt at the stump to try to cauterize the wound and prevent a new head(s) from growing, or
2. If no heads are removed Hal will channel energy to heal injured party members.
Let's have Halstadt delay then so he can see which option is the better for him - which is I think exactly what you meant.
I see what you were trying to accomplish, but these things happen, especially in the heat of battle. The true might of a set from a Large-sized spear will have to be demonstrated another time.
Deca-Jaws charges! The massive creature moves surprisingly fast on land for his girth. The ground thunders as he runs, as though the creature were a herd of beasts and not merely one.
But this triggers first, as soon as Deca-Jaws is within 10 feet of Hurgah.
Because bite attacks have the unique and rather favorable property of doing piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage, you’ll need to let me know if you are trying to tear a head off or if you are seeking to damage Deca-Jaws’ body as a whole.
Apart from that let’s have a roll.
Hurgah's supernatural fangs glitter with magic energy as he tears into the charging hydra.
One of the neat aspects of gallant inspiration as I read it is that Gandel gets to know if you have succeeded or failed before he decides to expend the spell.
We'll have to spoil the fun then by revealing that not only did the bite and the wisp attack hit, the Demoralize succeeded (by 5 for 2 rounds duration). Arguably Gandel could use the spell on the Intimidate check to try to increase the duration of demoralization even further, but as I read it he can only use it on failed rolls, and we can't quite label that a failure.
I count 30 damage on the hydra.
Urp! Apologies! (Grrrrr!)
I misread - I used the "25" result (from the damage roll) not the "16" for the Intimidate. A 16 total is not enough to demoralize Deca-Jaws and certainly not for 2 rounds. So I guess Gandel could try to bump it up or he can save the spell.
As awesome as Hurgah is, he's not that awesome.
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Deca-Jaws is irritated that the death-water priest ensnared him in a whirlpool in his own lair.
Deca-Jaws is further annoyed that this same priest ejected one of his heads to the surface and made it flop like a fish
Deca-Jaws is particularly agitated that the large dwarf drove a spear through one of his brains. He had to re-grow the whole head – he hasn’t had to do that in years!
Deca-Jaws is further agitated that the same dwarf took him on in a staring contest and managed to escape in the blink of an eye (so the hydra has some difficulty telling the dwarves apart – don’t we all?)
Deca-Jaws is further enraged that this giant dwarf then cast some kind of hex on him – messing with his chi. (You seen one enlarged-dwarf, you seen em all, no?)
Deca Jaws is seriously cheesed off that to top it off a draconic-beast man has entered his oasis and shouted him down in a contest of roars.
Deca-Jaws is downright angry that this same beast has sunk his jaws into his neck and tore a gaping hole all the way down to his chest.
Yeah, hulk definitely smash!
(hit!)
(threat!)
(hit!)
(hit!)
(hit!)
(hit!)
(hit!)
(hit!)
(miss!)
(hit!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(applies!)
(n/a!)
(applies!)
(unconfirmed!)
(n/a!)
That's a total of 63 damage. However, Moonpate's stoneskin absorbs 62 points of that. Hurgah takes exactly 1 point of damage. Amazing. Though, I should note there's only 8 hit points of protection left in that spell. Dang, if it weren't for Hal, Deca could have exhausted the spell in a round.
Lastly, Deca-Jaws fast heals 10 points of damage.
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The stampeding hydra rolls over the half-orc with ease, crushing him deep into the sand. It then stops on a dime and begins laying into the dragon disciple. One at a time each head rises to its full height and then comes crashing down, using the full force of its muscled neck to slam into the half-orc, each time with a reverberating thunder crack as the creature’s head strikes home. Angry and determined, the creature refuses to give its target even a sliver of time to recover and escape. It is time for the interloper to die.
The half-orc however is. . . laughing?! Although practically buried in an impact crater, Hurgah finds the mega-hydra’s attacks merely amusing. For unbeknownst to the ten-headed one, the real power behind the half-orc’s daring gambit has come from the wizard behind him, the Potentate. By harnessing the mystic power of diamonds, the wizard has transfused Hurgah’s body with the properties of stone. With each strike the King-Lizard’s teeth simply shatter and break as they hit the half-orc’s glittering body. As the assault continues the hydra’s faces gradually transform into bizarre collages of purplish bruising – each blow brings the creature more and more pain with little return.
Slowly Hurgah rises to one knee, then to his feet. Deca-Jaws pounds away faster and faster and more furiously until suddenly a new emotion strikes enters the creature’s brain-cluster, one the apex-predator hasn’t experienced in a very long time: fear.