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Doormouse stares with bloodshot eyes at the tiger wrestling the flying wizard, the raging wind woman, and the chainsaw wielding man riding in the pouch of a wallaby before darting through the door. “What is happening? Can someone...” She losses her second lunch, a Halfling’s third favorite meal and lets out a retching sob. “feed me?” She pulls a vial out of her bandolier, forgetting no one can see her.
Ingrge's attacks hit the flying Wizard three times and pierce his body which is now clearly bleeding!
"You are all doomed! The runelord of sloth will consume you! I will destroy you!" he shouts.
Also Winds' arrow hits the wizard!
* * *
The remaining felsh-warped being immediately attacks Arnold with his Longspears and then 5ft steps forward to bite him! The spear misses but he can bite Arnold's shoulder!
* * *
The two figures that are in the Temple now charge forward towards the first visible target which is Arnold! These canine-headed humanoid’s well-groomed appearance and polished greatsword show that they are more than common beasts. One of them hits Arnold's back!
Those of you that have a good heart feel a sense of security and protection!
* * *
Naroth concentrates ...
... and suddenly his greased body vanishes from the grasp of the large tiger!
He reappears flying behind the two Archons and looks directly at Doormouse and Spackle. "Your invisibility is in vain! I will find you."
He moves and with a swift wave of his hand he casts another quickened grease spell on Ingrge's bow.
He presses his large body to the roof of the ceiling being 15 to 20ft above ground now.
* * *
Initiative! Round 7
Spackle, -38
Doormouse, nauseated
Colin's Air Mephit, round 4, nauseated
Colin, fatigued
Colin's Tiger, round 3
Colin's Tiger, round 2
Ingrge
Winds
Arnold, -16, DC 14 Will save
Slothspawn purple
Naroth, -63
Hound Archon yellow, round 5
Hound Archon orange, round 4
Bold may act.
Ingrge in his mind has already sketched how to shoot these arrows but suddenly his bow slips from his hands!
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N Large animal
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, –1 size)
hp 57 (6d8+18)
Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +3
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 claws +12 (1d8+8 plus grab), bite +11 (2d6+8 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks pounce, rake (2 claws +12, 1d8+6)
STATISTICS
Str 23, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +4; CMB +13 (+17 grapple); CMD 23 (27 vs. trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception), Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Acrobatics +10, Perception +8, Stealth +7 (+11 in areas of tall grass), Swim +11; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Stealth (+8 in tall grass)
Colin, steps back and weaves some arcane energies, ripping a hole in the fabric of reality and calling forth a number of stirge to harry the enemy mage! After that, Colin employs a similar trick to wink out of existence, appearing twenty feet away
N Tiny magical beast
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +1
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+4 Dex, +2 size)
hp 7 (1d10)
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +1
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (average)
Melee touch +7 (attach)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks blood drain
STATISTICS
Str 3, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +1; CMB +3 (+11 grapple when attached); CMD 9 (17 vs. trip)
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +8, Stealth +16
SQ diseased
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Attach (Ex)
When a stirge hits with a touch attack, its barbed legs latch onto the target, anchoring it in place. An attached stirge is effectively grappling its prey. The stirge loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and has an AC of 12, but holds on with great tenacity and inserts its proboscis into the grappled target’s flesh. A stirge has a +8 racial bonus to maintain its grapple on a foe once it is attached. An attached stirge can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself—if its prey manages to win a grapple check or Escape Artist check against it, the stirge is removed.
Blood Drain (Ex)
A stirge drains blood at the end of its turn if it is attached to a foe, inflicting 1 point of Constitution damage. Once a stirge has dealt 4 points of Constitution damage, it detaches and flies off to digest the meal. If its victim dies before the stirge’s appetite has been sated, the stirge detaches and seeks a new target.
Diseased (Ex)
Due to the stagnant swamps in which they live and their contact with the blood of numerous creatures, stirges are harbingers of disease. Any creature subjected to a stirge’s blood drain attack has a 10% chance of being exposed to filth fever, blinding sickness, or a similar disease (See Afflictions). Once this check is made, the victim can no longer be infected by this particular stirge, though attacks by different stirges are resolved normally and may result in multiple illnesses.
The new swarm of stirge all attempt to latch on to the mage!
For each Stirge attached, Naroth will take 1 con damage at the end of the Stirge's turn. So this round, it looks like he will probably take 4 con damage.
The blue tiger will pounce on the remaining slothspawn!
The Red tiger will also attack the slothspawn, then redirect any other attacks vs. the Hound Archon.
[Dice=Reflex]1d20+14
Ingrge picks up his bow and shoots an arrow right into the flank of Naroth who cries out in pain!
*
When the 5 stirges attach and drain his blood you see his face become pale!
“Aarghhg ... “ he exhales.
*
The two tigers hit on the remaining slothspawn and shred its body and grapple it!
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[ooc]@Colin how can you summon Stirge? They are not on the summon monster list (they are only on summon natural ally)
And now the fact that the only other summoner I played was a druid is showing.
Please disregard the stirges as well - I'll just cast Glitterdust on Nazaroth. DC 21 will save or be blinded.
Colin casts 'Glitterdust' and Naroth is shining brightly but he is obviously not blinded.
The two hound Archons try to hit Wind but they both miss!
Arnold is able to cut the first hound archon to pieces although he notices that their hide is unbelievably resilient so that only his last attack really sends the Archon back to his home plane!
Naroth shouts out.
"Kill the Wayang with his strange weapon! Kill him!"
Tha hound archon attacks but misses with his greatsword and bite!
Also the slothspawn concentrates on the Wayang also he knows it is in vain with the tigers grappling him. He uses his claws and bite and drops the spear but cannot connect because of the aid of Arnold's companion!
* * *
Naroth is furious!
"You are completely useless!" he cries out and flies a circle stopping right in front of the invisible Doormouse.
"I told you that you will die!"
Suddenly, acid sprays in a straight line and hits Doormouse, Winds, Arnold, the Hound Archon as well as the Slothspawn!
The slothspawn immediately dissolves and the hound archon is severly wounded!
Initiative! Round 8
Spackle, -38
Doormouse, nauseated, Reflex half DC 21
Colin's Air Mephit, round 5, nauseated
Colin, fatigued
Colin's Tiger, round 4
Colin's Tiger, round 3
Ingrge, DC 18 Reflex each round when bow is used
Winds, Reflex half DC 21
Arnold, -16, Reflex half DC 21
Naroth, -96
Hound Archon orange, round 5, -37
Bold may act.
”I will not give up! Even if I am gone ... sloth will rule!!!“ Naroth shouts with a trembling voice.
”Arghh ... you are plankton ... nothing more ... sloth will eat you!!! I have given word to my Aspis agents and the followers of sloth ... your death awaits you in any case!“ Naroth shouts aware that these could be his last moments.
Arnold chainsaw liberates the Archon after all!!
When Winds aims you see that Naroth’s eyes widen.
And Winds’ arrows find the corpulent wizard’s body and drop him to the ground.
The adamantine weapons crush the chest of this evil man and you see that Naroth’s corpulent body is torn and his inner organs are being being ripped out.
”I ... I ... nooo ... agghhhhh ... “ are the last words of the sloth wizard and after his body hits the floor only your painting is audible.
The hardships that you all endured in the last minute were unbelievable and only your joint efforts to keep each other alive and to assist each other to be successful were the reasons that you are now standing here together! Victorious!
Naroth moans and then everything is silent.
Ingrge looks around and sees the large statue ... he also looks at Naroth.
The corpulent wizard's body lies on the floor ... you notice that Norath Balam's body is covered in glowing runes, though many are hidden by folds of excess flesh.
You search Naroth’s body.
The letter Naroth carries is correspondence from another of the wizard's Lissalan allies, who informs him that the ally's followers have discovered the location of Krune's runic archive and will soon have the keywords to activate the refuge tokens.
* * *
Suddenly you all see an ion stone tear out of Naroth's arm!
The bloody ion stone fractures in the air and splits into six pieces that float in your direction.
Around 10 feet above your heads they start to circle around you and they are descending ... each of you feel as if the stone would grant you great power and experience, but doing so may be ... evil?!
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"Good riddance," Arnold says, shaking off residual acid.
When the ioun stones appear, the wayang looks uneasy. "The Venture-Captain who mentored me often espoused doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. I think he was including things of this scale. But it still seems...I don't know." He follows suit if anyone else accepts a stone. But either way, he isn't entirely discounting the option.
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Doormouse takes the hit like a champ, at least on the outside. Owie owie! That hurt! Gah! At least he is dead. As the Ioun Stone floats down over her head Doormouse looks at it with interest. Oh, I like the color. I'll take it As it settles around her head she and after the magical items have been removed, she starts dragging Naroth’s body into the corner of the room and out of the way. Bad man, evil mage, it doesn't matter any more. When she get him in the corner she pulls out a dagger and starts chipping away at the Stoneskin surrounding Naroth.
Approaching the statue
Ingrge looks around and walks nearer to the statue. He suddenly feels that the statue casts comprehend languages on him ... approaching nearer leads to a magic mouth activating!!
In Thassilonian, the mouth declares, ”Prostrate yourself and mark your flesh in honor of the Lady of Runes!“
Winds, Doormouse and Arnold accept the ion stone that has shifting colors and suddenly they realise that practical experience can be gained by the ion stone and that it can also be placed in a wayfinder for the resonant power to be trained in arcane knowledge.
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"I hope not," Arnold says. "It'd likely be something awful, like flagellation. And I feel like I've done enough bad today, despite the problems we've solved." The wayang starts poking around the room for an alternative, ready to backtrack if need be.
"I'm willing to give the place another once-over if it means avoiding this. I don't suppose our magic can trace the letter that oaf got?"
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Standing before the statue, Ingrge shakes his head. "We cannot leave, we must recover the cache of refuge tokens as detailed in Venture Captain Heidmarch's letter...perhaps this statue is the key?"
As distasteful as it is to Ingrge, he retrieves a dagger, draws some blood from his palm, and kneels before the statue...and awaits...
As soon as Ingrge ends his self mutalation you feel a presence ... almost as if something was watching you from far way ... and a token of ancient Thassilonian design suddenly appears out of thin air in front of Chrone.
This is one of the tokens that the venture captain asked you to retrieve!
You decide that hurting yourself is the only way to get the tokens ... it hurts but the magical summoning leads to 25 floating refuge tokens in your possession!
You have searched the complex and Haywood and Wattlee request that you escort them through the dangerous Wyvern Mountains back to Kaer Maga.
Venture-Captain Heidmarch is not present but two letters await you where the one with SUCCESS on the envelope is handed to you.
In the letter the VC congratulates you on a job well done, and promises to keep you abreast of the Society plans regarding the Lissalan cultists, and to keep you in mind for future missions in general!!