Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

Just waiting for Erick to make a post as either he or the squire is opening the door.

Oh sorry. I was waiting on the squire.

Erick gives the young man a small shove nudge. Quit stalling and open the damned thing already Squire!

Sorry about the delay. I've been enslaving cute monsters and forcing them to fight for my enjoyment.

Snake Initiative: 2d20 + 4 ⇒ (5, 10) + 4 = 19 (average 9.5)
PC Initiative: 6d20 + 25 ⇒ (16, 17, 9, 15, 12, 10) + 25 = 104 (average 17)

Timeon opens the door to reveal yet another chamber lit by an oil lantern. There's a door on the south wall that's barred with a heavy wooden beam (full-round action to open). Of more pressing interest, however, are the pair of snakelike constructs that hiss and begin to slither toward you. By their coloration, they're made of mithril.

Assuming we are up.

Now this is my kind of puzzle. Erick rushes into the room and leaps at one of the snakes.

Improved Grapple: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

he topples on top of it and tries to get a decent hold onto it.

Celestine considered for a moment, then shrugged and hurled a blast at the remaining construct. It was probably going to be piled on shortly, but she saw no reason to not strike it as she could before the others moved up. Every little bit helped, after all.

Ranged Touch Attack (Lower Enemy): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18 for Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 Plus Exhausting Strike (Fort DC 16 Partial), if it happens to be vulnerable. ...I suspect not, but it doesn't cost me anything to try. XD

Just holding on everyone else. :-)

Zyxtyvia rushes into the room and casts her double hex against the snake creature fighting Erick...

Bouda Hex and Evil Eye focusing on the cobra facing Erick to affect their AC and attack ability, DC 15 WILL to lower the hex to one round

Oops, missed that it was our turn.

Marvin sauntered into the room and leveled his crossbow at the snake that is not engaged with Erick and let fly.

Crossbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

"Looks like I've been neglecting my ranged weapons for far too long. Squire, let's see that you haven't been ignoring your practice with that longsword as much as I've been ignoring my crossbow."

Squire: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17 Damage: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Snake (erick/squire): 2d20 + 3 ⇒ (13, 14) + 3 = 30 Damage: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 5) + 1 = 10
Erick's snake hits AC 14 for 5pts damage. If that connected, I need a Fort Save DC 11 or take 1d2pts DEX damage from poison.

Erick rushes forward and grabs one the the serpents - which promptly attempts to bite him. Its fangs are dripping a blueish liquid. Celestine and the Squire both strike the lower serpent, but their attacks bounce harmlessly off its mithril hide (you've learned it has DR). It retaliates by biting the boy's arm, and he promptly falls unconscious to the ground. Zyxtyvia's hex appears to have no effect (constructs are immune to mind-affecting effects). Sholano and Linus keep watch from just outside the doorway.

Top Snake: grappled
Bottom Snake: full

Your turns

Zyxtyvia moves to assist Erick in keeping the top snake grappled...

CMB Aid: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

Erick continues to wrangle the snake as he tries to pin it to the ground. Take care of that one. I got this one! He growls as he struggles with the snake.

Confirm Grapple to pin.

Maintain Grapple: 1d20 + 9 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 9 + 5 = 27

Move action to gain power attack feat with martial flexibility

Celestine frowned slightly, then lowered her hand. It looked like her blasts wouldn't be particularly effective here, and she saw no sense in wasting her time with that. Let those with more... brute strength handle these things.

(Speaking of, she needed to learn how to throw energy someday...)

Marvin sighed, then fell forward as his hands gave way to draconic claws and bright red scales flashed down his rapidly growing body.

Fire Breath (DC 14): 1d8 ⇒ 6

Reset: 1d4 ⇒ 3

Dragon form, with wings and size change traits. Spending a point to hold form without concentration. Can I get that line from here? If not, I'll just get close one. No sense in killing off a perfectly good minion.

Sholano dove into the room, popping back to his feet in the wake of Martin's blast of fire. He took up a classic fencer's pose and flicked his blade towards the snake's head in a calculated ruse designed to throw the blasted thing off its guard long enough for him to find a gap in its defenses.

Feint: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (10) + 15 = 25

Reflex: 2d20 + 4 ⇒ (16, 16) + 4 = 36
CMB: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Bite (sholano): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

With Zyxtyvia's assistance, Erick successfully immobilizes one of the serpents. Marvin's fire breath manages to burn both constructs, dealing a small amount of damage. Sholano's target completely ignores the attempted misdirection, but its attack is equally ineffectual.

Your turns. Marvin, I added some spell templates to make targeting easier. Sholano, you've just learned that the constructs are mindless and therefore immune to feinting. On a positive note, pinned creatures lose their DEX bonus to AC. ;-)

Top Snake: 3pts damage, pinned
Bottom Snake: 3pts damage

Erick continues to pin the snake down as he tries to twist the small bits of metal.

Maintain Pin for damage; Power Attack: 1d20 + 9 + 5 - 1 ⇒ (10) + 9 + 5 - 1 = 23
Damage: 1d3 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 2 = 7
Strangle Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8

Breath Reset: 2 rounds left.

The large wyrm lumbered forward, a bit uneasy on his new legs. Using his wings to steady him, Marvin reared up and lashed out with tooth and claw.

Bite: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12, Damage: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Claw 1: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26, Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
Claw 2: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13, Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Claw 1 Confirm: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9, Crit Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

Once Erick has the cobra tightly in his grasp and begins squeezing it, Zyxtyvia will move to the other cobra and aid the others in attacking it...

Aid Attack with Staff: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9 and fails...

Celestine... didn't really want to risk hitting anybody else with a blast of magic when they were all tangled up, and simply waited for the others to finish up. One way or another, this would probably be over soon.

Sholano scowled, letting his irritation show now the squire was out of the picture again. He quick-stepped to the snake's other side, putting it firmly between himself and Marvin, then lashed out with his blade, hoping that the thing would at least allow itself to be distracted by opponents surrounding it.

5-foot adjust SE (which for some reason my new laptop is hating letting me do to the map, sorry), attack w/flanking (presumably)

Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Damage: 1d6 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0
Sneak Attack: 1d6 ⇒ 4

With a powerful tug, Erick rips the serpent in half. The other construct is struck by Marvin and Sholano, but its mithril body drastically reduces the effectiveness of the blows.

Bite (sholano): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Top Snake: smashed to bits
Bottom Snake: 6pts damage

Breath ready next round.

Marvin snarled, and lashed out against the last snake.

Bite: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 2 = 14, Damage: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Claw 1: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 6 + 2 = 16, Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Claw 2: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 2 = 10, Damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11

Most of Marvin's attacks are blunted by the mithril covering, but one claw manages to strike a weak chink and destroy the serpent.

Combat is over
-----------------------------------
By the way, the reason I've been repeatedly mentioning the construct material is because it's quite valuable. If you gather the smashed bits, you'll accumulate 1,000gp worth of mithril.

I'll hold onto that, I suppose. Celestine isn't the type to let valuables go to waste. XD ...Unless it's too heavy to fit into her storage space?

With the snakes destroyed, Marvin resumed his humanoid form so as not to startle the squire when he awoke.

"Nasty little things. Nice work with yours Erick. One might think you've had a lot of experience wrangling serpents." Marvin chuckled as he helped gather up the metal pieces.

"Is anyone too weak to continue?" Zyxtyvia asks the others. She watches Marvin turn back into his humanoid form and is duly impressed although her facial expressions betray nothing.

Erick frowns. No. Never wrangled anything? He says confused at Marvin's sarcasm.

Where do we go now boy? Erick asks the squire.

*cough* The squire's unconscious, and there's a door on the south wall. *cough* XD

"Is anyone able to wake him up," Marvin asked as he rolled the squire over with his foot, "or should we just leave him here for now?"

Upon examination, it becomes clear that the squire will require healing if he's to be revived. (he's at negative HP)

Opinions? Celestine's minion is fairly good at healing. XD Frankly, if he fell THIS fast, she thinks he may not be worth keeping further... but if you'd like to keep using him as a meat shield, she'll help.

I'm just thinking if we can turn him to our cause, he could be a useful spy. We can revive him after we're done with the trials though, since I'd rather keep my dragon shapechanging secret from him for now.

Zyxtyvia will heal to stabilize him...

Heal: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

rather do that then burn a heal spell we could use later... didnt matter with that roll

Once you decide what to do with the unconscious squire, feel free to move on to the next room. I've updated the map as well.

After following another short corridor, you find yet another wooden door. On this one is inscribed, "Suffer not the fool. Stupidity is our faith's cardinal sin."

Inside the chamber are two things of note: a staircase on the east wall leading upward, and a stone podium in the center of the room. Resting atop the podium is a pendant of silver - a dragon with sapphire eyes.

"Hmmm another cryptic message associated with this room. 'suffer not the fool' most likely means a trap if we choose wrong. 'stupidity is our faith's cardinal sin' a wrong choice could be obviously wrong. He did say he was seeking a pendant. Is this perhaps the one? Or is that too obvious?" Zyxtyvia speaks aloud after the group enters the room.

Maybe we should wake up the idiot down there and let him grab it to find out? Erick sneers.

"He did ask for us to find and return a silver pendant with sapphires... but you're right that it seems too easy." Marvin said, carefully searching both the pendant and the pedastal without touching anything.

Taking my time visually inspecting all around the pedastal and looking for any traps, catches, or hidden compartments.

"One of you might want to take a look at this pendant as well... it could very well be a fake. Also... was anyone keeping track of the rooms? There are supposed to be nine trials, but the pendant on a pedastal with stairs leading up seem to be the end. A trick so that we claim to be done without finishing the trials perhaps?"

Carefully search the walls for hidden passages, starting at the door and moving counterclockwise completely around the room.

Sholano stood a few steps behind, allowing Marvin to take the lead on the search, but running his own careful eye over the pedestal nonetheless.

You can never be too careful, after all.

@Marvin: what do you do when you get to the stairs?

Sholano Appraise DC 15: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Appraising items was not among Celestine's talents, and she eyed the pendant for a few moments... then shrugged. The others were right. It did feel way too easy, and they'd lose nothing by thoroughly checking the rest of the place first. With that, she started looking around.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

I'll skip over the stairs to finish the walls first, then check the stairs. Maybe there's a switch to flip them up to reveal a passage behind? At this point, Marvin's pretty suspicious. If I have time later I'll go back and count how many rooms we've been to so far, but I'm pretty sure we haven't gotten 9 yet.

Ignoring the stairs for the time-being, Marvin carefully circles around the chamber. On the west wall, he finds a secret door that leads to an L-shaped hallway.

Erick squints his eyes as he watches Marvin pat the wall. How the f#%* does he find cracks in the wall.

"By looking carefully, of course." Celestine said, not looking in Erick's direction. "Don't believe everything you see."

"So I am to believe this is not the item we were sent for based on the hidden door?" Zyxtyvia asks the others after Marvin finds the secret alleyway.

Marvin took a moment to recount the previous rooms' challenges, then slapped his palm to his forehead. "The squire mentioned this was here. He also mentioned there's a shrieker that will sound if there's movement or light that will awaken drowned men. And this is the sixth challenge, so I'm pretty sure that this amulet is a fake. Let's leave it here for now, and we can come back and collect it if we don't find something else farther in."

Works for me. XD ...As usual, Celestine will be towards the back so she can offer support from there.

Erick will move in and push open the secret passage. Sounds about right to me.

"So which way do we go now? through the secret passage here?"

The passageway leads south, then turns east before ending at another wooden door. "Secrecy is our greatest ally. Exposure brings death."

However, about 20ft before reaching this door, Marvin spots another secret passage leading to the west.