Round 17-18
Twitchy itch twitch twitch.
When the lich hits Jorne with the spell Quince tenses trusting his friend to withstand the onslaught. Though he takes the opportunity to strike out at the lich with his sword.
Dinenen moves up with the others, slowly (5' step by 5' step) working his away around to set up a flank for someone else.
Round 17
Quince strikes the liche twice, the acid, flame seem to sear its flesh but there is no wound from the blade stroke.
Round 18
Dinenen strikes out missing both times. Jorne swings thrice and misses each time. The liche turns and strike out at Jorne and Quince, striking them both and looking for signs of the paralysis.
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
(19–20 plus paralysis)
Round 19
The liche strikes out at Dinenen and Jorne, hitting them both.
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
(19–20 plus paralysis)
crit
Round 18
He gets touched by the Liche and can feel the negative energy. Luckily he is resistant to it.
Round 19
He moans out in pain as the hand's damage sinks into his bones.
Round 19
Lykàn thinks some feeling has returned to his limbs but alas it was not to be as he is still immobile.
Round 20
Quince recoils from the lich's touch. He lets out a small cry that get's stifled in a audible "Gach." He holds perfectly still for a second faking being paralyzed. He then takes a quick step bringing his sword in for a pair of blows against the lich. "You wish, but not today."
Quince looks on concerned for those who fight with him. He even tries to reach toward Dinenen when the lich swings for the elf. He grits his teeth letting out a vulpine snarl as his face turns fox like and his skin grows furry.
Round 18
Quince hits twice but neither of them damage the Liche.
Round 19
Quince gets two more slices in but only one of them bites in to do any damage, as the undead's flesh is not cut but instead slightly singed. Dinenen freezes in place similar to Quince but does not move, with his excellent balance he stays standing.
vs. Jorne
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
vs. Quince
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
21
vs. Jorne
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
vs. Quince
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
22
vs. Jorne
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
vs. Quince
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
23
vs. Jorne
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
vs. Quince
(19–20 plus paralysis)
paralysis (permanent, DC 25)
Vordikai the liche laughs at your feeble attacks taunting you, "Come now you have to hit me first before you can damage me." Then in mock concern he yells, "Oh no that hurt!"
Round 18
Jorne roars with laughter at Quince's acting.
Round 19
Seeing Dinenen freeze he groans out in horror, "No! Dinenen!"
Round 20
He continues to swing to no avail.
50 or lower is a miss.
22
50 or lower is a miss.
21
22
23
50 or lower is a miss.
24
50 or lower is a miss.
He grins as he gets into a flanking spot, ready to unleash his sneak attacks too!
After being struck by the Liche in round 21, he freezes just like Dinenen and likely falls to the ground.
Quince drops his flame tongue off to the side and draws his scepter and strikes at the lich again hoping the bludgeoning weapon might do more hurt to the cyclops lich. "Jezebel, can your stone forms grapple the lich."
He spins the scepter in his hands, "Keep smiling bi . . . I mean lich its easier to smash your teeth." He grips it tight and smashes at the lich.
Finally in round 22, Quince connects the scepter to the liche to devastating effect,
Round 23, Quince hits once more,
Now with Jorne struck with paralysis the extra attack is used to hit himself, apparently healing itself.
Quince pivots and springs away twisting and flipping in an unexpected way. He scrambles back about 15 feet his form blurring as he does. As he reaches stairs into the lich's room he spins putting his sceptre away and ducks behind the wall so not to be in sight of the lich. He reaches into his haversack producing a black lamp similar to the one that hangs on his belt. He uses the familiar item to call on Sulvanii.
There is a rumble and time nearly freezes. You all are still aware, even moreso now. A black cloud of smoke erupts from the black lamp. Then the smoke dissipates almost as quickly as it appeared. Sulvanii appears beside Quince, the fire genie as impressive as always. Then a fox tailed lady appears beside him. Beside her is Katrina the elven maid who helped you get to these lands. A fierce woman in a revealing red dress appears and takes on a feline appearance. A half dragon appears with a monstrous blade in hand. A human in armor appears ready to fight and defend. A man of great build and stature seems to have darkness cover his eyes, with a greatsword at the ready. They all begin to pull weapons if they haven't already done so.
Sulvanii walks forward as if the time doesn't stop for him. He grabs Dinenen and Jorne and pulls them away from the Liche. Once he is into the next room time begins to resume as normal.
Krazok, Arthur, and Selena charge the liche. Katrina quickly comes over to Jorne and checks them both. Elizabeth goes over to give a kiss to her lover and then unleashes some magic missiles at the undead.
Round 24
The liche is astounded, "Wait! What? Who? You must be stronger than I expected!" It snaps a magical item and steps into the wall.
Round 24
She quietly looks over Dinenen and Jorne.
Round 25
She touches Jorne first casting remove paralysis.
Round 26
Then she touches Dinenen casting remove paralysis.
Round 24
With his bloody axe in his hands he charges forward to let it draw blood.
---
As the threat leaves he calms down and takes a moment or two to refocus.
Round 24
She charges forward with fierce grace. On her move she dissappears. She appears on the far side of the liche getting flanking!
Round 24
Crit: 17-20
Confirm
Crit: 17-20
Quince nods, to Katrina, "Another elf with the red hair paralyzed over there." he indicates back the way Lykan had been stashed.
He grips his scepter and calls out, "For Greenwatch and for Erastil!" He rushes back in from around the corner and lays into the lich with his scepter.
The liche is gone, so there is nothing for you to strike Quince.
The liche is gone, so there is nothing for you to strike Quince.
Quince rushes in to see the lich vanish. "This one is a trickers keep your eyes up for more. I don't think we have been everywhere in this . . .tomb? place. He might have allies to send our way."
He turns to those that Katrina are restoring. "Glad you are with us."
Quince turns to Sulvanii, "The lamp works more than once a day?" He facepalms at his own thoughts.
Dinenen joins the group, restored and surrounded by the Baron's servants.
"I'm afraid I wasn't much assistance in that conflict. The paralysis was beyond my experience, but my inability to strike the foe was more alarming. I have another trick I could have tried to solve that, but there was this whole paralysis thing, again. How did you avoid succumbing?"
Back where he was put in for safety, once recovered he steps forward trying to get his limbs back flowing.
"I was useless in this fight, that one's pet almost rifted my own life away. Worse thing is, it fled. We need to find its life container and destroy it." he looks rather stiff in his movements much like a wild creature up from hibernation.
Quince turns to Sulvanii, "The lamp works more than once a day?" He facepalms at his own thoughts.
He states almost as it should be obvious, "Yes, it works as often as you want, it tells me where you are and when you rub it."
Consoling he offers, "The paralysis got me too. It seems we needed a little help. Thanks everyone! We will buff you both up should you want to join the Greenwatch. Though I am just a vassal and subordinate, so my say has very little weight."
As the group talks most of those who teleported in are on high alert. So when the Liche appeared again most were not caught flat-footed. He appears among the group and attacks with his claws. Little effect and with most of the group getting full attacks on him, the liche turns to dust, saying, "I curse you..." More may have been said but he was slaughtered.
Quince casts detect magic and starts to search the round room. "The lich said something about residents of Varnhold being here?" He also looks for things that might be a life container.
He also picks up his flame tongue he had dropped earlier.
Quince you find a shelf with about 40 glass potion bottles. Each one of the bottles glow. There are also dozens of massive stone tablets that seem to have arcane writing on them. Let alone the huge pile of treasure.
"If we mean to kill this thing, then we need to acknowledge what we have found is meant to distract us from the more urgent search."
[b]"It may also have more clues on how to find our intended."{/b] Lykan points out.
He too joins in the search with detect magic and general searching for the that life container.
"Killing the lich is a bonus the goal is to save the folk of Varnhold. The lich spoke of 'Soul Jars'." He points to the potion bottles. "Might be 40 here. The lich said 3 dozen of Varnhold might remain."
"A prick that would build himself as an undead monster that could return indefinitely thinks in contingencies. Assume that everything is a trap till its clear otherwise."
He quickly says, "With that in mind let me look over the areas first!" He checks out the potions first and gives a thumbs up to Quince, then he continues from there unless someone wanted to search someplace other specifically.
The slow progress of Jorne's search gives you all plenty of time to take inventory, talk, and such.
He and Selena are collecting the loot and filling bags. Once this is done he takes a handkerchief and slaps it onto a nearby wall. He unfolds it revealing it to be a portable hole. He alerts the group, "Any bags of holding or handy haversacks would tear a rift in our plane and such us all in to our demise, so please leave your bags out." He then takes two leather bags into his portable hole. Eventually securing all the loot in the hole he looks at the group and asks, "What is the plan now, pilfer, retreat, or explore?"
the last strikes upon Vordikai's form, rent it asunder, he crumbled to dust. A great blast of black magic washed over the group, no obvious ramifications of the powder have been seen.
Using detect magic and the groups ability to identify magical items you have:
cloak of resistance +3, Cursed
headband of mental prowess (+2 Int, +2 Cha, grants ranks in Knowledge [planes]), Cursed
Aura overwhelming conjuration, divination, and necromancy;
CL 20th
Slot eye; Weight 1 lb.
Description
An oculus of Abaddon is a potent artifact rumored to have been
created by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as a
way to reward those who work as their agents on the Material
Plane. More likely, these items were crafted by a powerful preEarthfall race that has long since moved on, leaving behind
these dangerous artifacts to tempt mortals into serving the
needs of the Horsemen.
An oculus of Abaddon appears as a sphere of clear crystal
that contains a pinpoint of flickering red light at its center.
When held, the oculus feels warm to the touch and fills the
holder with a sudden desire to pluck out an eye and place the
oculus within the socket—this causes 1d8 points of damage, 1
point of bleed damage, and 2 points of Constitution damage.
Once placed in an eye socket, the oculus can only be removed
by ripping it free (causing the same amount of damage as
the initial plucking). An oculus placed in an empty eye socket
immediately heals all damage caused by plucking the previous
eye out. Once placed, an oculus allows its new owner to utilize
its powers, as listed below.
• Darkvision to a range of 120 feet (constant)
• True seeing once per day as a free action
• Greater scrying three times per day
• Planar binding once per week (only to summon natives of
Abaddon, such as daemons or soul eaters)
• Familiar farsight at will (if the user has a familiar or an
animal companion, he may use clairaudience/clairvoyance
to observe the world through his familiar, despite any
intervening distance as long as he and the familiar are on
the same plane)
The oculus of Abaddon’s greatest power, though, is its
haunting beckon. This ability is usable once per year, and
allows the user to manipulate the minds of a huge number of
targets, provided that the end goal of the manipulation is a
tragic or otherwise horrific fate for those being manipulated.
This functions as mass charm monster, but with a range of 1
mile, and establishes a telepathic link between the caster and
all minds in that area. The effects are still language-dependant
despite this telepathy—creatures without the ability to
understand language (typically, creatures with an Intelligence
score of 2 or lower) are unaffected. All other creatures are
automatically affected unless they have 6 or more HD, in
which case they gain a DC 22 Will save to resist the effects.
Spell resistance applies regardless of HD.
The oculus of Abaddon is powerfully neutral evil and
possesses a limited and hateful intellect of its own. While not
capable of communicating directly with its owner, it refuses to
activate its powers for any user who is not neutral evil.
Destruction
A foul and hideous object, the oculus of Abaddon is
fortunately relatively easy to destroy, as far as artifacts go.
To destroy an oculus of Abaddon, it must be smashed by a
bludgeoning holy weapon wielded by a permanently blinded
humanoid—alternatively, any bludgeoning weapon wielded by
a permanently blinded good outsider with at least 7 HD will
work as well. A DC 30 Knowledge (arcana) check is enough to
learn this method of destruction.
portable hole,
ring of protection +2,
Aura strong conjuration; CL 15th
Slot none; Price 5,000 gp; Weight 2 lbs.
Description
A soul jar appears as a 1-foot-tall glass jar, often with a thick,
black, wax plug. While a soul jar has no ability to capture
souls, it can function as the material component for a trap the
soul spell (but not as a focus for soul bind). If a soul jar is used
with trap the soul as a trigger object, the spell can be cast on
the soul jar without inscribing the target’s name. This allows
the soul jar to capture the soul of the next person to touch it,
allowing the jar to be used as a devious trap. The creator of the
soul jar and nonliving creatures can manipulate such a soul jar
without fear. This variant method does allow the victim a DC
22 Will save to resist the effect.
When a creature is trapped in a soul jar, its body and
soul appear as a roiling cloud of glowing white smoke that
provides dim light in a 20-foot radius. A creature that touches
an occupied soul jar can communicate telepathically with its
occupant. Opening a soul jar or smashing it on the ground
releases the stored soul and returns it to life—although victims
who have spent hundreds of years in a soul jar may well have
gone mad. In any event, once a soul jar is used to capture a soul,
it can never again be used for this purpose.
Most soul jars are worth 5,000 gp and can thus trap a soul
of up to 5 HD. Soul jars can be built to capture more powerful
souls, at an increase of 1,000 gp per additional HD.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, trap the soul; Cost 2,500 gp
phylactery (worth 3,500 gp if sold as an art object)
With the phylactery found, you can tell it holds no power, something must have gone wrong and it didn't function properly for its owner. It does not hold the soul of Vordikai.
(1,140 pp, 13,000 gp, and 103,000 sp) and various art objects
altogether worth an additional 19,500 gp. In addition
to the ancient treasures:
a ring of friend shield (the match to the one found in the
village),
a ring of protection +2,
a cloak of resistance +1,
gloves of swimming and climbing,
a pouch holding three packets of dust of dryness, and
a +1 cold iron magical beast bane flail.
Of course, the bulk of Vordakai’s treasure consists of the
42 soul jars.
The preserved knowledge of ancient Casmaron is contained in dozens of stone tablets weighing nearly 1,000 pounds in all—but the tablets are worth 10,000 gp to a scholar of this ancient land. In addition, while many of Vordakai’s spellbooks have crumbled, enough fragments remain
here to please any wizard.
9th - wish
8th - Gate
7th - Limited Wish, Reverse Gravity
6th - Guards and Wards,
5th—dominate person, waves of fatigue
4th—bestow curse, dimension door, phantasmal killer
3rd—dispel magic, displacement, suggestion, tongues, vampiric touch
2nd—blindness/deafness (DC 17), detect thoughts, false life, ghoul touch (DC 17), resist energy
1st—charm person (DC 17), chill touch, comprehend languages,
grease, mage armor, ray of enfeeblement, shield
0 (at will)—arcane mark, bleed (DC 15), detect magic, read
magic, touch of fatigue (DC 15)
The walls of this dome-ceilinged room are filled with stone
niches, each bearing a number of strangely shaped glass jars.
Each jar is about a foot tall, is stoppered with a clot of black wax,
and contains a swirling plume of glowing white smoke—there
are dozens of these jars on display, and the swirling light each
emits gives this chamber an otherworldly feel.
A character who touches a soul jar can communicate telepathically with the soul trapped inside
becomes nonmagical and disgorges its trapped soul in a
plume of smoke, reforming into the trapped victim’s body
physically in the same condition he or she was in when he
was captured.
With the items being checked and looked over. Quince notes the phylactery. "This appears to be the phylactery. The second time the lich was defeated seemed off. Something went wrong for him I think."
Quince looks over the Soul Jars, "These if the lich is to be believed are the folk of Varnhold." He takes one up and realizes its power and thinks to the person inside.
"Really these are the soul jars?" the red haired elf strides over to Quince.
Looking to see how many of those jars are left.
"What happens if one is broken?"
"But there are no other bodies here unless they have being preserved somewhere else?"
Upon seeing the magical items, the spellcasters of the group discuss and then relay what they have learned on every magic item, including the phylactery and soul jars.
Quince nods to Lykan, "The release from the jar reforms the body." He holds up the one he is hold, "I believe a child is in this one. Asking for parents. Between their ability and our supplies we might want to make sure we are in a safer place to free them."
Quince grows quiet and looks at the bottle in his hand.
Quince looks to those around, "I would offer Lykan, Dinenen, choice among the treasure. Items that you would not readily use might be of use to others and in the end treasure will be shared, my goal there is generously so." He winks playfully. "The Oculus it is linked to demons. The 4 Horsemen are rulers of Abbadon. It will not serve one who is not of evil like mind. I wonder, it has a powerful charm to it. Might the lich have simply charmed the people of Varnhold and drew them away into his clutches. Such an item should be destroyed. The Headband of Mental Prowess is cursed. I wouldn't recommend that."