Holding his Lance high for a moment then seeing the dwarf explode in a flurry of action Flizz just shakes his head."Well Rothgar, I am quite happy you are on my side! I could have used you against the Duke of Sloven. But that is another story, maybe for the dinner tonight!" Speaking to Pele he smiles."Well I guess that one has also nothing useable on himself. Well maybe the hide for armor, I do not know, what do you think?"
"Perhaps it might be useful, but hardly something to spend our time on right now, I'd say."
Pele casts detect magic and looks at the fallen bulette.
No magic detects off the bulette. Leaving behind in the plains the broken corpse of the gargantuan creature, you continue your trek toward the Vale and the mountain range. About 6 hours later, as the day nears twilight, since there appears to be no sun/moon on this plane, you reach a valley nestled between two dark peaks in the western reaches of the Tilagos highlands. The valley is teeming with wild underbrush bedecked with vicious irony thorns. This must be the aptly named Vale of Thorns.
"Well, we have dealt with several rather potent challenges. Perhaps we set up a camp for a bit, and proceed after? Of course, if you would like to proceed, I am still capable in combat and general purpose magics."
"I am all for continuing as well, but how do we get over the Thorns? It does not seem very efficient to go through them. Flying? Does anyone have any magic that can help? Airwalk? etc..."
Rothgar uses his Wand of Fly on himself, Radiance, and Gideon. As the party flies over the Vale of Thorns, in the distance you see a single cave opening looms 30 feet above the top of the thorns in the northern cliffs. Clouds of steam constantly vent up from the cave opening, making it easy to locate from a distance. You sense there is something significant in the cave, perhaps the location of one of your trials.
"What evil beast shall be slain here?" The paladin looks at the Wizard and sighs. Patting his friend he asks Gideon for a quick blessing before battle.
"We are too far away to see clearly, even my eyes only see a dark cave opening. It could be anything, in this case."
Thinking back to the druids' statements, Pele speaks up again, quietly.
"They called it a Nightmare, which is the proper Taldan name for a type of evil horse-like outsider. I personally doubt that is what they speak of, but anything is possible. They did call for its death, in their speech, so discussion or diplomacy is likely a waste of effort."
Gideon quickly says a moving blessing over the party. With your magical protections, you enter the depths of the dark cave overlooking the Vale of Thorns. As you pass through, you see the constant steam emissions emanating from what you imagine may be an underground boiling mass of water. You see a couple of 30 and 40' crevasses from which the steam passes through, but thankfully due to your flight, you pass over them without much danger. 30-40' past the crevasses, the steam dissipates allowing you see see a 100' long and 40' high cavern, littered with bones of all shapes and sizes as well as droppings. Glowing fungi on the walls light up the cavern, so you can see its dimensions. At the edge of the cavern, you see a six-limbed beast, 20' high and 40' long (so his jaws filled with deadly teeth are only 60' from your necks!), stalks forward with a fluid grace, like that of a cat. Barbed quills run along its back, and its eyes glow with a blue light. It is obviously the master of this den and it looks at you with hunger in its eyes!
kn (arcana)
Pele remains invisible with his ring and casts wall of force across the room, about 5' in front of the beast and stretching from the western wall to the small stalagmite, floor to ceiling.
"I've placed a wall in front of it. Take this time to bolster your defenses!"
He then flies up and east, towards the roof (30' high, just east of his current spot)
Before Pele threw up the wall, Rothgar speeds over (70') movement to the great cat using Improved Vital Strike and doing staggering fist on it to limit its attacks!
Pele has heard of these creatures in legend only: a bandersnatch! Once native to the primal world of the fey, they preyed on the greatest hunters of that ancient realm. As with other legendary creatures from this realm, bandersnatches belong to a group of creatures known collectively as the "Tane." Rare in the extreme on the Material Plane, bandersnatches lair within forgotten forests where ancient beasts walk the world.
So once Rothgar gets within 30', he needs to make Fort save to resist the gaze attack (which may end his round if he fails) and assuming he makes that since the creature has Combat Reflexes, he gets an AoO from its tail slap that has 20' reach, which the monk perfectly times and leaps over it, not missing a step!
Flizzibus casts divine favor to prepare for the battle
The monk delivers a powerful blow straight to the creature's nose, staggering the beast, but not before embedding the monk with one of its quills. The bandersnatch is staggered for 7 rounds and Rothgar is sickened by the pain of the quill in his ribcage.
Seeing the monk land such a solid blow on the creature, Pele flicks a small glowing bolt of energy to strike it on the nose.
Force Missile: force damage, SR:
Round 1:
Pele raises his hand and a wall of acid energy once again spring up through the bandersnatch's rear legs.
vs SR
acid damage, if SR passes, no save.
Taking his lance for a bit of reach Flizz attacks the bandersnatch vigorously.
Rothgar uses a ki point and since the creature is staggered, unleashes his 8 attacks on it:
Is this dead? Flizz, you never responded.