@Loth: Yes. In one of the many hand-wavy types of rules, reach is reach. So this giant goblin/wold/demon hybrid monstrosity stretches out and clamps down before retreating.
@Tarphrex: Don't worry about keeping things "in order". Just get your post up and we can adjust in good faith as needed. Helps keep the game running.
@Zenaida: Karzoug: That's a name. Of a person. Probably. Not like a city or country or anything. So that's something.
"Who in the Nine Hells is Karzoug?" Zenaida can't place the name, but then she's fighting an oversized extraplanar abomination of some sort right now. She raises her shield to fend off further attacks for a moment and concentrates on her sword. The blade begins to glow with a fierce golden light.
The little kobold calls on his draconic blood to strike the monster again.
”You stop hurting friends of Tarphrex!”
Got the 7 damage from magic missile recorded. Just need to wait on Loth and Razkiv for their turns. Otherwise I'll bot them tomorrow.
Loth grunts. "Oh, you can attack a little farther than I expected..." He moves back up close and attacks once more, drawing his second shortsword for the next attack.
Raz continues to try and strike Malfeshnakor.
@Razkiv: If I had been paying more attention and realized your attacks were vs. Touch, yes. I have added the 9 from this round and another 7 from the previous rounds. Mal is suddenly much more hurt and is willing to consider you a threat.
Dol will cast bless for the party. +1 to attack and saves vs. fear.
Mal is starting to look rather injured after the beating you've all been putting on him, but still looks to angry/hungry to care.
He ignores Tarphrex's yell to stop hurting his friends, but does respond to Zenaida, "Do not try to fool me, servants of Wrath! The Lord of Greed is known to all and I am his servant! And your doom!"
He'll follow that up with a full blown attack on Zenaida, hopefully before she hits him with that glow-y blade...
-vs. Zenaida
... but is apparently more thrown off than I thought as he misses with all of his attacks. ALL of them.
"Ha! Shows what stupid big-goblin knows! The Zenaida is servant of.. of.. NOT Wrath! The Zenaida serve Ring-Lady!" He nods emphatically, convinced of the accuracy of his statement.
"Moten raketni napad!" With a snap of his wrist, he flings the flowing green Dragon Stones at the monster again.
He continues his tirade against the creature, ineffective as it may be, "And friend tree-dwarf-artist and holy dwarf not serve Wrath, either! Stupid big-goblin!"
Zenaida laughs, expertly deflecting each attack with sword and shield. "Haha, is that the best you can do? No wonder you've been trapped here for so long!" She ducks in close and slashes at the creature's body. "I serve Falayna, the Warrior's Ring!"
"Nice going, Zenaida!" Loth remarks before trying his hand at an attack himself.
@Loth: You may not have been able to confirm, but that is still 17 damage. So, you know, a lot.
@Zenaida: That +1 made the difference. That means it's a hit!
This creature is teetering. On the verge.
Razkiv still to go this round. ....
Right up next to the creature, Raz continues to try and bring it down...
...but can't connect.
Since no one got hurt last time, Dol tries an acid dart...
...sending the creature collapsing to the floor.
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The enemy is down! You guys won! Awesome job. Just added 1,000 xp to the total for that one.
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And to be clear, the enemy is unconscious. Down and out, but not dead. What will you do with your "humbled" opponent? What about other next steps? Let me know.
Tarphrex jumps up and down gleefully. ”Ha! Friends too strong for you!”
After a moment, he realizes the creature is still breathing. ”Um, what should we do now? With him-it?”
"Well struck, Loth!" Zenaida grins at the halfling. "Everyone, well fought." She looks down at the unconscious form of their enemy. "Given what Malfeshnekor did to Lyrie, and the fact that it wanted to eat us... can you imagine if it got loose in Sandpoint? Or worse, Magnimar." The warpriest shakes her head. "I think we should kill it now and eliminate the danger for good."
"Thanks!" Loth grins back, before turning back to Malfeshnekor. "I agree with Zenaida. The sooner this is over, the better. However, we do have an opportunity to ask it any questions now. I don't personally have much to ask him though."
@Tarphrex: The door is still open. There appears to be a few stone shelves on the other side. Like a closet.
@Everyone: Before I progress with killing this helpless creature (even though it is un-repented evil), I'm going to wait for Tarphrex and Razkiv to weigh in. Or for my next post. Which ever comes first.
@Everyone 2: What else do you folks want to do here?
"Do any of you know what this creature is? Does it have a soul? Can it be redeemed?
The blade in the Druids hand flickers a bit before going out.
"Tarphrex trust the Zenaida of the Ring-Lady. Big goblin lose battle, big goblin dies now."
Bored with the topic, he will wander over to the open door to see if there's anything interesting within.
Zenaida shakes her head, a grim expression on her face. "It has a taste for humanoid flesh. I don't know what manner of being this Malfeshnekor is, but that alone makes it a threat to the local communities. As a priestess of Falayna, it is my duty to eliminate such threats."
@Tarphrex: This "room" appears empty besides dust.
@Everyone: I like this discussion. However, let's not drag it out to much. I'm okay with you all having this talk and still posting other actions to keep the game progressing. That being said, let's try to hit a resolution by EOD Friday. IF POSSIBLE.
"I can't imagine there's much to be redeemed with this creature. It stands at the heart of everything that's happened here. It corrupts people, puts them in their thrall. I wonder if that happened to the Aasimar ringleader as well... And I think he'd do it all over again if given the chance, without a second thought." Loth pulls out his shortsword, ready to do the deed himself if need be.
Razkiv nods to Loth. "Do it."
Tarphrex looks back from the closet he's searching and nods, drawing a clawed finger across his throat.
"Allow me." Zenaida will not ask anyone else to perform such a grim deed. She bows her head over their fallen foe, sword in hand. "May you find the peace in death that eluded you in life, Malfeshnekor, and your soul travel safely to Pharasma's court." It may not have a soul, but then again it might. With that, she raises her blade and slashes down upon its neck.
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@Zenaida: It's in the negatives, auto-crit with the coup de grace, I don't think we need to bother. Even if it failed, you could just try again.
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@Everyone: As Loth draws his blade to do this dark deed, he pauses for the briefest of moments, looking to his comrades for confirmations. He has truly come a long way from monitoring shipments for his merchant family. When everyone agrees, Zenaida takes the burden upon herself, severing the head from the body.
Black blood oozes sluggishly from the newly opened wound, staining the floor.
Wheat next, everyone? Search the room? Search any other part of the complex? Razkiv pulls out the surprise piñata he's been carrying and you have a surprise birthday party for Loth? Head back to Sandpoint?
Tarphrex just knows there has to be something interesting in this place. It didn't sound like Malfeshnekor had any gear, but the kobold will look for rings and baubles, just in case.
Then he has an Aha! moment and casts detect magic again, focusing on the headless corpse.
Loth sheathes his sword again. While he was absolutely ready to do the deed, he feels relief that he didn't need to do the grisly act.
Before they leave, Loth also gives the room one last look around.
Razkiv gives his dragon friend a moment to check over the body before he begins to drag the creature and roll him into the fire pit. If the body does not seem to burn he will add some of his own magical fire to the mix.
Then he also begins to look around the room.
"Let's see if we can find any clues as to how it got here, or who this 'Karzoug' is." Zenaida cleans her sword, then sheathes it and murmurs a quick spell. With that, she joins in the search.
@Tarphrex: You detect only the same magic auras as before.
Reminder: the candles in the corner, the fire pit in the middle, the door-frame.
@Loth: Only the things previously mentioned.
@Razkiv: Rolling the body into the pit is bloody work, but the body does not burn. The fire there is heatless, like the candles. But you are able to set fire to the creature.
Looking around the room, you notice the second of two secret doors. This one still closed, symmetrical to the first. Would you like to open it?
@Zenaida: You're here as well.
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Tarphrex, unaware of the second secret door, goes to the candles and concentrates to see what sort of magic powers it. Being heatless, he wants to see if the light lasts and can be carried in his pack to be used later.
”Creature trapped here, Tarphrex thinks. Big magic on door hold him long time, maybe.”
Loth thinks about Tarphrex's words.
"Until people returned here and set about trying to free him, I guess... But that doesn't quite line up either, huh? The key was right there, on the table. They could've set him loose at any time."
The little dragon aspirant shakes his head. He points at the doorway, ”Tarphrex not know. Big magic still on door. Maybe not to hold hungry thing, but it stay here when we leave. I think magic stop him, not door.” He shrugs, [b]”But not know why. Or who cast such big magic.”
@Tarphrex: The candles are indeed enchanted with continual flame. They are known as eternal candles, they create an area of dim light within 5 feet of the holder and there are 30 of them.
The pit in the center is the same, but is cast directly onto the stone and as such isn't particularly moveable.
@Loth and Tarphrex: Reminder of two things from some time ago. This area was behind a secret door that took you lot several attempts to find.
There was a mural of sorts upstairs, painted by the goblins as near as you can tell, showing a giant goblinoid creature in the lower levels of the giant head that is this island.
Razkiv moves over to the new door he found and opens it if he can find a way.
@Razkiv: Prying open the door, you find a closet much like the one on the other side of this same wall. Unlike that one, this one still contains a single, dusty coffer. All the other shelves sit empty, small depressions only hinting at what they once held. Blowing aside ages of dust shows the small box is made of finely wrought silver and the inside is lined with velvet and cushions. Clearly marked spaces show room for several rings, but only one remains. The ring inside is magical, the coffer is not.
You know what, if no one hits the Spellcraft DC, just consider that Father Zantus does it for you later and commence to argue (possibly violently) over who gets this AWESOME ring.
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@Everyone: Any final actions before returning to Sandpoint? Anything here in Thistletop, the now abandoned goblin camp just outside, or the woods in between?
Otherwise, we're back to Sandpoint and your adventure continues....
Tarphrex takes the ring in his hand (if allowed). He is not a well-educated arcanist, but he thinks he should be able to know what the ring does. Reality soon disabuses him of that notion.
He mutters, "Tarphrex sees magic, but not magic Tarphrex knows. More powerful than candle-magic, but different." He stares at it for a long time, tracing the designs around the band with a talon while he tries to identify the type of magic, but he finally relaxes and sits back, visibly disappointed. "Tarphrex does not know. Powerful, maybe. Maybe book-wizard would know."
He offers the ring up to someone else that might have more knowledge of such things.
After considering his failure for a while, Tarphrex looks around at his companions. "Maybe we go back to water room and find more treasure for hoard?"
"The coffer itself should fetch us a decent 100 gold as well, think we can take that with us? Get some extra spending money."
Loth's certainly not opposed to trying to nab some value from the water room either.
"Ooh, very nice." Zenaida admires the ring for a moment. "I can't tell what kind of magic it has, but hopefully Father Zantus can. And yes, by all means, let's take the coffer! It's a lovely piece of work."
She nods to Tarphrex. "Sure, might as well. We can always get the good Father to check it for curses while he's looking at the magic ring."
Before returning to town, you stop back by the watery chamber to see if there is anything you missed amongst the detritus. After a quick but thorough search, you do not locate anything else of value.
As a reminder, this is what you'd originally found:
3,500 sp
630 gp
40 precious stones worth 10 gp each
Jade amulet of natural armor +1
The giant helmet you estimate is worth 3,000 gp and weighs approx. 300 lbs.
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The group returns to Sandpoint. The walk is warm, but the shade of the trees and the breeze over the water prevents it from being oppressively so. Upon entering town, what appears to be a dwarf stands in the town square, waiting. It is difficult to tell details such as ancestry or gender as it wears full plate armor adorned with only a hammer and anvil, but Dol seems to recognize the meaning. He turns to you all and says, "It appears my time has run its course. I am called back to the church for new orders." He reaches out, shaking hands with any of you who will. "Take care my friends and may Torag guide and protect you." With that, the stalwart dwarf strides over to the other figure, which turns without a word and the two head out of town and out of your lives. For now, at least.
As mentioned, you can ask Father Zantus to check your various loot items for curses, which he does, and finds nothing. He informs you of the use of your new magic ring. And he suggests you report all your findings to Mayor Deverin.
As a group, you return once more to the council chambers. You are, of course, allowed immediate admittance, and find Mayor Sandra Deverin in her usual spot, at the head of the council table, the table itself covered in reports and ledgers. Another stands in the room, and both heads turn as you enter.
Mayor Deverin speaks first, standing as she does so, "Ah, speak of devils and they shall appear." She rounds the table as she extends an arm, almost as though presenting you like some pieces of art. "These are the ones I was telling you about." She looks slightly confused for a moment before continuing, "Well, most of them, anyway." Turning to the group, she seems to explain, "You know, normally when we petition for help from Magnimar, we get almost nothing. This time, we have received a plethora of aid. None of it from the ruling bodies, of course, but aid none-the-less." She gestures back to the new figure and waves them over, "Come, come. Introduce yourself."
Tarphrex's head whips around, his eyes wide, at the mention of devils appearing, quite confused.
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A kind eyed yet determined half-orc steps forward. He is wearing a good quality breast plate, has a sword and shield and wears the sword and sun symbol of Iomedae. Calmly he says "Greetings famous heroes. I have come to help. Mayor Delvin... Deverin told me of your feats. If there's anything I can do to help quench the threats that... threat this village, please let me know." He is clearly a little awkward to be representing a faith, but his arm is strong.
Still wondering what happened to the devils and glad to see they did not stick around, Tarphrex turns to look at half-orc with the nice armor and, deciding discretion is the better part of valor, steps close to Zenaida and offers the holy one a small wave. ”This is one is Tarphrex. You look like warrior, yes?”
Zenaida beams at the new arrival, walking over to him and offering a gauntleted hand. "Welcome to Sandpoint! I'm Zenaida Radulescu, warpriest of Falayna. I'm glad your goddess has guided you to us. I may be a priest, but I'm not much of a healer." Indeed, the Varisian woman is tall and muscular under her full plate. She moves easily in the heavy armor, obviously well accustomed to its weight.