Dwarves of Gold Peak

Game Master Nathanael Love

Globe doesn't work that way exactly- key phrase:

"Spells of 4th level and higher are not affected by the globe, nor are spells already in effect when the globe is cast."

Oh, so all our buffs still work :D

Technically, buffs you cast before round 6 of the previous combat still work (round 6 being the 2nd of the 3 rounds of healing). . .it's obscure if you were to cast a new buff on a person outside the globe now who then strikes into the globe- the buff affects the person who doesn't technically enter the globe, so theoretically works.

But something like Prayer's debuff on her does not.

Effectively though- yes, your buffs on attack/damage are still working even when you swing at her (and her layered buffs are still effective).

Thanks, Gage! Learning all the time.

Aether elementals are fantastic. Highly recommended for summoning builds. The finals of that 1v1 tourney I ran came down to a monster tactician inquisitor vs an AMF barbarian with a jetpack. The inquisitor summoned aether elementals and had them throw random crap at the barbarian from outside the AMF. He made a couple mistakes and lost game 1. By then, I was too burnt out running it to run the full best of three and just stopped, declaring the barb the winner.

Coincidentally, I'm now running a dungeon race where teams of two race to clear certain objectives as quickly as possible in a dungeon. The team with a master summoner is absolutely crushing everyone else.

I love this fight because it has so many layered buffs and because I'm getting to use spells I would never use ordinarily since I designed her so heavily on abjuration.

She may not provoke. But she'll have to concentrate all the same if she eats damage while casting. Pity I rolled so badly on the to-hit :/

In his fleeing Thurgrom ends on a yellow square- that's +5 HP right?

Woo! Kragg is being useful by stripping away her magical defenses via brute force. :)

A good boss fight. Durable enough to not be one-shotted, strong enough to be a real threat, but not a glass cannon that kills a PC each round. Good design.

Thanks for the heal, thats 59 total and puts me at 18+59 = 77 again.
Here's hoping she messes up concentration or Rubius goes to town.

Yeah, tried a pair of dispels to weaken her defenses but my luck with dice wasn't the best.

Dvalin, is that an Aslan reference I spy?

Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch.

And Tramontane's making Dune references?! Man. I better up my game.

Hehe, yep, that was the source - just took some creative liberty.
@Dune: Me gusta... (Another char of mine, just funny that I recently used the full quote)
We also have a Yellow Brick Road via Gage.
I'd say we're on the right track here...fun nerd references - This is the Way.

@Kragg: As I understood it's not up to us, but up to Rubius if he continues his attack sequence.
We don't get a say just yet, I'd guess. Afterwards, I would speak up, probably. One way or the other.

Specifically, my thought is that we know too little of this woman. Her lover meddled with a destructive sect and his business was not really on the morale high ground, but perfectly legal.
But that does not make her guilty by association, we don't know if she was involved in anything that incriminates her. For what it's worth, we are invading her home right now and did not go straight for her boyfriend, we made a detour, slaughtered what could have been her guards, and now assail her. She didn't go out of her way to come out and attack us, she stayed in her room and - for all we know - defends herself.
My hope was that I would get her spells to fizzle and prompt her to yield.

I would have tried to knock her out when she yields, so that she presents no further danger at that time. Then have a talk with her when she comes to, bound and weapons trained at her. My Sense Motive is pretty decent, Rubius's one as well. So I'm pretty certain we could catch if she is a future threat or not.
A child would make things even more interesting, because we could demand it as a ward for Gold Peak in exchange for her life - with the option that she aligns herself with us and gets to be with her child...she may not love the idea, but she would be reasonably safe, alive, and with her kid.

She survives Rubius first set of attacks, but his second would utterly obliterate her- so effectively anyone could decide to kill her at that point unless you decide to stand down.

Well, there's always dealing nonlethal damage. If she is willing to yield, she could allow herself to be hit nonlethally.

That. And Breath of Life. I'd rather not waste it on her, but honor is honor. Dvalin is not keen on killing a woman that may have gotten mixed up in the mess. Neutralize her, certainly. Kill? Doesn't seem honorable.

IC we only have a few seconds to decide this, so discussing OOC.

Killing her is simple, easy and clean. We're here to clear the place out, and she is a dangerous enemy combatant who could quite easily take us out. Even if we think that we have her tied up, who is to say that she won't teleport away? This lets us continue on our way without threat. (Lawful Neutral)

Sparing her life could assuage morals and get us intelligence. And if she has the son's child, then she makes for a good hostage. (Lawful Good or Lawful Evil, depending on how it is played out)

I'm for just killing her. Preferably by having the second set of arrows slam into her, so that morally there isn't any tarnish. She wanted to surrender? Sorry, shouldn't have waited until arrows were in the air.

Right? You need to surrender much earlier xD

I don't really care either way. I think Gage might want to spare the lady under more reasonable circumstances, but saying 'wait, I know I was trying to kill you a second ago without giving you a chance to explain why you're invading my home or giving you a chance to surrender, but having a baby in my tummy makes you guys bad, rather than making me irresponsible...' isn't a great way to obtain mercy xD

To be fair, she has no reason to expect anything other than a swift death from someone invading her home, buuuuut... then why ask for mercy only now and not try to end hostilities at every step? Seems sus xD

I disagree...we are here to kill the dragon, the son of our employer. Anything else is collateral.

She named the Elf as Chamberlain here.

That means she may well be aware of our intention, and instead of faithlessly fleeing, decided to remain with her employer(and possibly father of her child).
He may have told her attackers would come and to remain in her quarters - she didn't try and sneak out through that secret passage. And she may have had a chance to flee, but just killing everything regardless of need seems a murderhobo thing to do.

She may have been his lover, by choice or otherwise, so there's a chance she feels more loyalty than that of a subordinate to their commander - I see how it could mean she may return as a threat in the future. But thats why I said we have some people with very good people knowledge.

But seriously, my issue stems mostly from the fact that to her, we are the marauding home invaders that just trashed everything and came to her dead-end room.
If I imagine it the other way round, being trapped with hostiles outside my room, in my own home, then I would also blast first.
Also, and I consider this important: She had defensive Spells up, but that fireball at the door was a trap(6d6 is not what she has as output), and in the first round she attempted to banish Elementals, in the second she attempted to use Fear on us.
Nonlethal attempts to defuse the situation or make us leave.
She only resorted to blast us with damaging magic after all her images were popped, her absorption gone, and she took actual damage despite her stoneskin.
Before that the only lethal damage output from her was her defensive Wreath that WE triggered.
It's not like we stormed in there and tried to TALK with her. (someone called her b*$++ but that's about it - the remainder was tactics talk among us or orders for summons-)

So I am not fully convinced she was trying to kill us all that hard. Instead of trying to Banish Elementals trying to rip her from her safety cocoon, she could have opened with that Cold Blast, then followed up with some more direct damage...

As a result, I am against killing her in cold blood, which would possible be murder. (her supposed unborn child may play into this, but even without pregnancy I would have preferred to give her a chance to yield).
We came after her in her chamber, not the other way round.
We did not try talking with her. She did(just now, but still).
She tried to deal with us nonlethally - we did not.
Not very gentlemanly of us. So at least in defeat, I'd prefer to give her benefit of the doubt. If it is clear she would remain a threat, we can still decide what to do with her.

So, lawful good approach then? I'm fine with that. I'll defer to Dvalin on accepting the surrender.

Yeah, Thurgrom is still far away and panicked. The mynrughdaer will bow to Dvalin's wisdom in this matter.

That's a good point about those less lethal methods.

Still, she must be crazy to think the unborn child is the reason for us to keep her alive. I still say sus xD

Not that we shouldn't let her live. It might be fun to have her child come back for revenge against the evil dwarves :D

Well, she certainly kept it for herself while she was clearly buying time for his employer. She was well aware that any lucky blow could have her her killed, and still she kept on blocking our way. Now, she comes with this, which is certainly even more time consuming for us.

But well, I'm just a healer... I don't think I could kill her even if I tried :p

Well, to be fair, it was us who took the detour. We could have headed straight for her employer, and she is standing with the back to a wall which hardly qualifies as "blocking the way".

She'll be my responsibility to handle, and I'll accept fault for any ill that comes from this.

@Gear: Aye, strip her before binding her. (not in the sexual sense, but anything that pings to detect magic and any components she may have come off her.)

I don't carry a spare armor, but she can have a sack over her head, a sock in her mouth, and a silk rope on her hands and feet. If she DOES use components that would be convenient as it already rules out a good number of spells.
We'll make sure via Heal check that she IS knocked out, but I wouldn't spend more time here now than needed, we can presumably properly subdue her after we dealt with the Dragon.

When she comes to, she should initially be unable to see, unable to speak, and unable to gesture, with no components or gear, prone and surrounded. We can take it from there and take away the mouth sock to let her speak, then.

I know we've all had problems getting in this week; the only threat left here is the dragon himself so let me know what preparations you're going to make before entering his cave.

Rubius volunteers a sock. He's not particularly happy with her.

Buffs still going:

Defending bone on me and Tawny
Heroism on me and Tawny
Protection from lightning on Tawny

Cast before going into the dragon chamber:
Divine power on me and Tawny
Weapon of awe on bow
Heightened awareness on self

Had trouble logging in, yes. As for buffs:

I only had long-term buffs active previously.
False Life is gone, but Barkskin, Protection from Energy and Heroism are all still online.

@Short term: Animal Growth on Tawny if Rubius wants it despite the tight quarters.

Fey Form II on self, taking the form of a Norn. (+4 Str/Con, -2 Dex, Large Size, Speed 40, low light vision, all-around vision, DR 2/cold iron)
Divine Power on self.

Also, because it's been a while since it was cast: Hunters Blessing is still active on Dragon/Underground.

anyone have stoneshape? It'd be easy to make a nice place to tie a rope to :3

...
Also stairs xD

Ah, forgot fly with the shorter-term buffs. It's also minute per level and should be there with Fey Form, before Divine Power :P
Specifically saved those until before we enter his chamber so it's annoying I would forget now.

Just to be clear, the round/level buffs will only happen after the scouting, I think that's true for all of us.

Also, I do have Acrobatic Steps and Nimble Moves - will those work for the ground here or is it not 'difficult terrain' per se?
In that case I'd probably remember I also have fly prepared today once realising the perils of the place.

It's not difficult per se- the only restriction is against charging/running due to slipperiness, but the ledges will make either of those difficult to pull off as well.

Okay, then it makes sense to use Fly instead, if only as a failsafe against falling.

Also, as the situation seems unclear: The dragon noticed us as we started our ascend/descend, right? That means we are still where we are on the map.
(probably has longer-ranged Darkvision, too).
At the same time, we don't see it, which is also why no spellcraft-check for the Spell was listed as only Kragg is close enough and does not seem to be trained?

That said, unless Thurgrom is TOO loud, we may still be able to deduce from any Vocal Component if the casting is ongoing or finished-?

It has great impact on the desirable actions this round...how many of us could close with him or how long would it take them to even get nearby, could a spell be interrupted, are there any other buffs provided after moving closer if there are no other actions for those players?(Bardic Performance, Prayer, etc...)?

Holding for now. Assuming I do fly, could I charge the Dragon in a straight line?

I believe the rule on Spellcraft is that you have to be able to see it to get the check; yes Kragg isn't trained so doesn't get the check when he sees/hears the dragon casting--

But having already encountered this dragon before you could reasonably assume that he's casting Shield (a spell you knew he had up before) to add to his Mage Armor.

I'm going to have to read all the flying rules-- I believe that you can charge while flying.

Ah, nevermind the charge - problem is that I have to see the target of the charge when I begin it - even if I know where he supposedly is, I can't start charging in the rough direction and then home in on him, unfortunately :P

But it's still good to know there are no massive obstacles in form of rock formations or something...and that IF light were to be provided, a charge would be an option. Not necessarily the best, but an option. Because I think right now he sees us, but we don't see him, which is...not tactically great.

Gage, I think inspire courage is not active yet. Is that right? Just trying to make sure I neither miss nor wrongfully add those juicy bonuses.

That's correct.
Still a move action and I needed that to pull Ali out of my backpack xD

So Kragg is outside of Blessing of Fervor range, and he currently needs a 20 to hit. I...think that being next to the dragon might have been a tactical error.

Tawny is about to step in and take some of the pain, especially if he nat 20s a grab cmb from one of his bites.

I had to actually write out how many buffs Thurgrom has, cuz they're so many!! I think I have them all now. Thanks Gage for helping me figure that out.

when you have so many casters in the party, it can easily become a challenge xD

Important questions for party members:
1. There were no buffs active for that save against fear on Tawny or the aether elementals besides my own, right? Gage's IC started after the fear.
2. What info do we have on this dragon so far?

he has buffs to his AC that won't go away anytime soon, he has a sexy breath weapon that he decided not to use yet, and he hits like a truck.

I really thought that dragon would get at least one more action in there.

PREVIOUS XP 105,851
GAINED: 36,255
NEW XP TOTAL 142,117

So still 10th level.

LOL, it took such a long time to post my actions that the combat was resolved in between XD

I'll leave the post there, though, as a witness of my dumbness. Also the save bonus from Prayer might be useful.

In the Dragon's Hoard you find:
5,000 copper, 1510 silver pieces, 113 gold, 15 platinum
Otyugh Hide Armor
Lesser Toppling Spell Metamagic Rod
Cloak of Resistance +2
Masterwork O-yoroi Armor
Masterwork Katana
Potion of Remove Disease
Potion of Magic Fang Greater
Potion of Fox's Cunning
Potion of Good Hope
Scroll of Mirror Image
Scroll of Charm Person
Scroll of Commune
Scroll of Shifting Sands
Silver Bowl worth 75 gold
Painting worth 100 gold
Assorted Gems worth 100 gold

Great fight! That really felt both difficult and epic. Was afraid that Kragg might bit the dust. Also....loot! Going to be able to buy some stuff after we get it sold/used.

To be honest, I also expected the Dragon to get another action at least.

But before you go making the next enemy harder: That was peak performance right there. I could not squeeze any other boni out from somewhere, so if the next guy has even better defenses or we can't prepare specifically against him, I'd be out of tricks.

The next time you fight a dragon it will inevitably be harder- since the known dragons are known to be more powerful (a Mature adult green who has a human sorcerer rider, a great wyrd white, and a great wyrd red).

Other than that- I imagine there will be a lot of giant fighting in our future!

After the political intrigue, and pending random encounters on the return trio.

Yeah...he was the child of a stronger dragon. And even then I thought that he had a chance of wiping us (without good dice rolls on our part).

That said, looking forward to revisiting the war!