Leothar prepares new spells in the morning:
1: Enlarge Person, Lesser Restoration
2: Resist Energy
The dwarf remains frustrated after the bridge episode.
"We are not good at stealth, and we are not very mobile. Nor are we likely able to deceive the demons or trick them.
Our strength is in a head-on attack or a valiant stand against the hordes of the Abyss. Not sneaking about."
He stews a bit, then looks at the map.Slide 5, it seems.
"Okay, the watchtowers aren't that close together. If we do hit one, and they raise the alarm... what are they going to do? Turn their catapult to fire on their own troops? They might. Desert the watchtower they are on and charge towards us? Better. Well, I think it worth the risk.
The two near the bridge are quite close together. Then there's one due west of that but further away, and one northeast that is further still. With several broken towers scattered about.
I'd say we should go for the northeast tower. If they have many archers, we can fall back and return with a mantlet."
After helping to make camp, Ian listens as Aron and Anvenn explain what's left of the city defenses. Believing they can bring down the four catapults He nods in agreement with Dadna, when she asks about cover, he looks towards their scouts. Chuckling when the chief says their 'not good at stealth.'
Looking at the map Leothar had drawn in the dirt. Ian pauses for a moment, looking from the map to the fortress itself, thinking about the 'lay of the land.' Drawing his sword, he 'sketched' the dry riverbeds on the 'dirt' map.
Pointing towards the north east tower "We can follow the river bed to the destroyed bridge. If we can't climb the ravine under the cover of the bridge we can use the scales to get up it quickly. Dash to the wall and use the scales again. That would put us in the tower fairly quickly."
Looking back to where the 'troops' were building ramps. "It will take a few days to build the ramps. We can hit the towers on different days at different times to keep the enemy guessing."
"We can move to the northeast tower via Paradise Hill direction. With the army over here, they might not be paying too close attention to their eastern flank."
You can see no entrances outside the curtain wall but true to demon habits there are things growing outside that might provide some cover.
While they finalize plans, Ian goes and speaks with the soldiers who are building the ramps. Explaining to them that he needs small two platforms small enough for them to carry that they can use the scales with. Looking around, he remembered they had used a tower shield at one point in time. Making arrangements to pick the platforms up in the morning, he heads back to the group.
Sitting near the campfire, he asks. "Is there anything else we need to plan before we sleep a little?"
Fley slowly comes to, unsure of what happened. He feels weak, but stable. "Wha... what happened to me.". He looks around the tent and slowly gets up to his feet. "Where is everyone?" he asks to the darkness of the tent, no one else around.
Leaving his tent, he slowly stumbles over to Leothar and puts his arm against the dwarf's shoulder. "So... what did I miss?" he says with a weak smile. Still not fully himself, Fley looks around at the landscape ahead of them.
”So glad that ye be back.” Dadna said with a friendly smile and a squeeze on his arm. ”We got clobbered. Now we’re going to take the fight to them. Four towers, each with catapults. Time to silence them so our army can advance.”
"Let's stick together. Splitting up to take down the beasts might have worked if they had not been so effective at taking down the bridge so quickly. But we have generally run into trouble when we split up.
Staying together does raise the risk of spells such as Fireball, which that tiefling had, so I think we should prepare Resist Energy spells. I know that Ian's powers do not lie in spellcasting, so one of us should prepare an extra to cover him."
Having had a restless night, Ian is happy that the dawn has arrived and they can be doing something of value. After a quick breakfast he heads to the carpenters and picks up the two platforms they were going to use with the 'scales.' Returning to the group, he nods in agreement with Dadna.
Raising an eyebrow as the Chief says someone should prepare an 'extra cover' for him. He smiles, "thanks Chief, are we ready to go?"
He holds up the two platforms, each one a little larger than a tower shield. "I think we can use these platforms to get up the towers." He furrows his brow. "Maybe a grappling hook on a rope to pull ourselves close?"
While the army works on the ramp the heroes look over the citadel. They can tell that four watchtowers remain: 2 at the southern entrance, one on the northeast part of the curtain wall and one at the southwest corner. They need to decide which tower to approach and how they are going to get to the top.
Ardriel nods. "Maybe we can even use them as extra shields while we approach the tower, to protect ourselves from archers. Otherwise, I think using the scales to levitate the platforms up once we get close is the path to take. The northeast tower seems to be the most isolated. We just have to hope that the caster isn't on that tower to bombard us with fireballs."
'Use the platforms as shields, not a bad idea.' Nodding in agreement with Ardriel, "The northeast tower makes sense. Three of us to a platform. Maybe we want to spread out so one fireball won't take us all out." He furrows his brow, "Fortunately the cloud will give us some cover." Looking towards the others to see if there was any questions.
"I have one of the scales, Agna and Fley with me." He extends one platform to the chief and the other to Agna, asking her. "Agna would you carry our platform?" He gestures towards his shield with his left hand. "I can help with my free hand, but I don't think I could hold it up effectively by myself." He looks to the gnome, "Fley once we get aloft, could you have a weighted rope ready to pull us to the tower?"
Sent up to bolster the vanguard, charged with taking the towers, Agna stands and listens. She has driven the metal clad butt of her polearm into the ground and leans on it like a staff.
She is completely encased in plate armor. Even her helmet allows only her brown eyes to be visible. The armor is of an unusual make. The plates are curved and shaped in such a way that makes it obvious the wearer is female, including details such as the decorated disks attached to each side of the helm mimicking earrings.
Any cloth, mostly on the legs and arms, is blue, as is her cloak, though the cloak has a golden edging. The long, flowing crest of the helmet is also golden. The upper chest of the breastplate displays a painted on winged angel with a corona halo surrounding the head, indicating Agna's service to Sarenrae.
When Ian calls on her to go with him, she says only "ready, lead the way."
Agna's armor is that of a Gray Maiden. The Gray Maidens were an all female corps who served as bodyguards and soldiers for Queen Ileosa of Korvosa during her reign, which was cut very short by a violent revolt. Queen Ileosa has since become know for her brutal and corrupt rule of the city.
Agna's armor has clearly been modified for it's original appearance. All cloth portions have originally been red, including the cloak. The helm crest would have been red as well. Obviously the Sarenite holy symbol on the breastplate would have been added later.
"Being too spread out for a Fireball means we are too spread out to come to each others' aid," Leothar grumbles. "Being separated is the situation that has most often left one of us near death."
Leothar casts Resist Energy (Fire) on himself. He only counts as CL4, so that is Resist Fire 10 for 40 minutes.
"Ardriel, I would ask you to ready a shot to interrupt that caster if you see it again. Disrupting its spells may help us greatly."
"I will have to concentrate on moving the platform - I won't be able to ready a shot."
"Aye then, we have a plan and we have the will to do it. Let's get this siege going." Dadna said.
Agna unlimbers her bow.
"This isn't something I use very well, but I don't have to concentrate on moving platforms."
The group scrambles up the ravine with their platforms with some help from the army building the ramps. They move through the abandoned town trying to avoid being in sight of the wall to the north east tower. They catch occasional movement on the tower and step out cautiously waiting for the inevitable attack, which doesn't come. They get to the base of the tower and put the platforms down. They concentrate on levitating the platforms and they begin to hover just off the ground. THey throw their grappling hooks up and they clank on the walls and take hold. Suddenly a fireball erupts high above the tower.
Round 1
Party Up
"Here we go."Having cast the spell onto the platform, Ian focuses on keeping his shield raised with his right hand as the platform raises. With his left, he returns to scale to his pouch, and draws his sword as he breaths a prayer. "May Iomedae be with us and her sword go before us."
Seeing the fireball convinces Agna to cast Resist Energy to protect herself from fire as she ascends.
Dadna prayed for the strength to overcome the evil that they would face as they continued to rise towards the top.
"That Fireball didn't target us - it was a signal to call for help."
Leothar will have his buckler on and a javelin in hand; if there will be more rounds of ascending, he wants to at least have a chance to strike back at the foes.
Total Defense this round for AC 26 (Touch 16).
Is it map slide 30 and are the platforms that brown part?
I don't seem to have an icon.
Ardriel focuses on raising the platform up the tower, hoping that they can get up quickly.
Seeing the fireball go up in the air like a flair, Ian realized that reinforcements were coming. Hopefully they could destroy the war machine in time.
Drawing his sword and keeping his shield high, Ian focused on the scale and the platform, hoping the cloud provided cover.
As the platform reaches the top you see 2 brimoraks standing on the platform by the catapult. Suddenly two fireballs arc in from other towers and explode. One of them stares toward Leothar, Ardriel and Dadna, their metal items start to heat up.
Round 2
Party Up, Ian and Ardriel used a move action to raise the platform.
Leothar drops his javelin, draws Radiance, uses Mythic Power for a Fleet Charge against the nearest Brimorak (Brown), and then attacks again.
Agna leaps from the scale onto the tower and lands already powering forward. The fireballs only result in some minor scorching. She follows Leothar, her polearm extended forward. When she's close enough, Agna jabs the spiked head between Leothar and the demon, gouging it while also blocking some of the demon's lines of attack with the pole.
Concentrating on the scale, Ian lifts his shield, hoping to deflect most of the fireball.
Both fireballs landed directly stop Dadna, causing her to light up like a living torch. She channeled the divine will of her goddess, putting out the worst of the flames.
Ardriel manages to avoid the worst of the blasts and fires a single arrow at one of the Brimoraks, then casts a spell to resist flame upon himself.
Leothar throws off the spell thrown at him and moves into the attack. As he approaches the brimorak he is engulfed in the choking, sickening smoke surrounding it and pounds it. Agna moves off the platform and advances and slashes the demon. Dadna lights up and spends her time healing herself.
Round 2
Fley Up
Dadna continued her advance, coming around the other side so that she could keep the demons surrounded. As she moved her wounds continued to heal, leaving only superficial burn marks behind.
Leothar avoids getting sick on the smoke and pounds the demon twice. Dadna moves next to the other demon Ian moves towards a demon as well
Two more brimoraks appear on the tower. Leothar is attack and slashed once. Dadna is attacked and missed.
Round 3
Party Up , Fley gets round 2
O-53
B-0
R-0
G-0
'Can't lose the platform' Stepping off of the platform, Ian stops long enough to drag it onto the tower. Slipping the 'scale' back into his pouch he draws his longsword, moves towards the southern Brimorak, trying to get it's attention away from his friends, he shouts his war cry. "For Iomedae and Kenabras!"
Leothar calls upon the power of Torag to smite these fiends, then strikes back at the nearest Brimorak.
If he drops Orange with his first swing, he will transfer the Smite to Red and then move to engage with it.
Dadna dodged to the side as the demon tried to gut her, and she returned the favor by swinging back at it, aiming for the head.
Agna pauses for a moment to see if Leothar's opponent drops or she will need to strike as well.
Ian moves toward the battle after securing the platform. Leothar pounds the demon twice and it drops to the ground. Dadna attacks hers and hits it hard.
Round 3
Agna, Ardriel and Fley Up
O-107
B-41
R-0
G-0
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Moving onward from the now dead demon, Agna goes around Leothar and swings her polearm at the demon now within reach, slamming it with the hammer head.
Ardriel sights in on one of the Brimorak, then looses a pair of arrows at it.