#8-25 Unleashing the Untouchable (Inactive)

Game Master cmlobue

Reflex DC 22: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

So close! The combat would have continued (briefly) if they made the save.

Another blast of frigid air from Quenly causes the last few troops to run off.

COMABT OVER!

Not being the sort of creatures to carry gear, nothing is left behind of any use to you.

"I am hurt, I need healing! Here is my wand for healing wounds! Who can do it?"

Ravyn runs over to Barm and starts healing him with the wand. I'm guessing that Quenly can do it as well. "Status update? Anyone else need help?

GM, is average ok for wands out of combat?

Once everyone is stable, Ravyn starts picking through anything left behind, in case there's something useful.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

Yes, alternating 5s and 6s for CLW.

Ravyn runs over to Barm and starts healing him with the wand. I'm guessing that Quenly can do it as well.

Certainly Quenly can activate healing wands - just not when he doesn't have hands. Or tentacles. Sometimes he has tentacles ;)

We should proceed with due haste. Would you like me to scout ahead? How bad are your wounds?

The main question is - does anyone have short duration buffs running that they're worried about expiring? Though there may not be any more encounters on this map, there might be something at the building.

Giovanni raises his hand. "I could use a little boost from a stick, myself." He pulls another happy stick out and offers it for use.

Looks like 8 charges for 44 out of 45 HP damage mitigated.

"Yeah, let's get moving."

Ravyn collects any boopsticks available and heals as we move.

Otto uses 10 charges from his wand to fully heal his dinosaur companion, while allowing his regeneration to heal his own wounds naturally. He'll also use his wand of heightened awareness again before proceeding up the hill to examine the building.

Barm uses 15 charges from the wand.

The ruined building on the cliff contains the charred bodies of a missing patrol. The heat-baked oread corpses have the consistency of crumbly, dry clay and much of their gear is likewise destroyed. A pair of bracers of has survived.

Marta heals up another 5 points of damage before her judgment expires in the lapse of combat. Which means...

CLW: 7d8 + 7 ⇒ (7, 2, 8, 6, 5, 2, 6) + 7 = 43

... it takes 7 charges from her wand to complete the healing. She has no clue what the bracers are; not her thing, really.

spellcraft, heroism: 1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 4 + 2 = 16

Ravyn identifies the bracers. (minimum 33 to ID magic items) "Can anyone use a set of fiery bracers?" She looks around for anything else of interest.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17

Perhaps they are best suited to one of our melee specialists? Quenly suggests, regarding the bracers. He takes his elven shape again and retrieves his shield.

Are we healed and ready to continue?

There is nothing else to find here. If you have nothing else to do, you can continue to Kandirion's Forge.

Giovanni keeps his chain out and ready. "Yeah, I think we're good to move. As for the bracelets, I could wear them, sure, but I yield to Barm if he wants them."

"I could use the bracers too, but I am usually too busy activating other things so I agree one of you should take them."

How far is it to Kandiron's Forge? I might want to cast some more spells now that we're closer.

Giovanni take the bracelets. I don't wanna them.

Thinks about giving Reiko a Knowledge Geography Check.

Looks at Reiko's character sheet.

You were not given much more than "follow this road until you get there," but you think you've covered a little less than half the distance so far.

OK. Good to go then. Did you want to pass off the Breath to someone else?

Do you follow the road the rest of the way or continue to stay off the path?

You think maybe three more hours if we stay off road, Ravyn? If so, is there any need to change strategy and return to the road? It seems like it might only save an hour or so. Though I am a little surprised to have met so many enemy troops on the route we chose, I do not believe that resistance would be lesser on the road.

"If it's not significantly slower off the road, I would say avoid the main road and keep doing what we've been doing." Not sure how much time it will take us either way.

OK. Good to go then. Did you want to pass off the Breath to someone else?

You know, I think if someone else has a free hand it's probably a good idea. Otherwise Otto essentially can't cast any spells since one hand is occupied by the Breath and the other with a weapon.

Maybe have the familiar carry it??? Marta could carry it but it would prevent her from using her spear. Her go to weapon is her UC but it would nerf her combat reflexes/longspear combo.

My creature will take the Breath of Lyssianassa. If we require its power to quench flames, it will return the artifact to you Otto. In the meantime it is best that you enjoy the full range of your powers.

The little dragon swoops down to take the Breath.

"I think the opposition will be lighter off-road. I think the road could be faster, despite the additional conflict. Trade-offs suck. Are we more worried about time, or healing magics?"

"Even if they sent someone when they saw us, I think we should stay off road or we may bump into a lot more soldiers than that marching down the road. Let's stick to the original plan."

"I also vote for off road!"

That seems like enough votes for off-road to continue that way.

It takes another two and a half hours to reach your destination. Plus fight and searching, it is now 4:40. Ahead of you in Kandirion's gate, a crumbling ziggurat with a thousand-foot tall plume of fire surrounded by a field of ash and bones several hundred feet wide. There is a collection of outbuildings that are now little more than brittle beams, crumbling walls, and vitrified foundations.

perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18

"I think it is time for that spell now. Otto, would you please use this to cast that barkskin?" Marta hands him her lesser rod of extend, and a pearl.

"And you might as well borrow this too. If there is a wizard present with Mage armor I usually lend this so that they can cast and extra copy."

Otto has an extra pearl of power to use for the day.

After the spell is cast, Marta grimaces at the all too familiar sensations that accompany the spell, such as itching, the snagging of her clothing on the rougher patches, and the odd change in sensation from sunlight,even more pronounced it seems in the current environment.

She also loads up on her usuals and casts the following:

Heroism (when at spire, 260 minutes)
Keen Edge on UC (when at spire, 260 minutes)
Freedom of Movement (when at spire, 260 minutes)
See Invisibility (when at spire, 260 minutes)
Tongues (when at spire, 260 minutes)
Barkskin (when at spire, CL 10 by Otto, 200 minutes)
Ablative Barrier (when at spire, 60 minutes)
Heightened Awareness (when at spire, 130 minutes)

Though the wand of ablative barrier requires an activation:
UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34

Ravyn spots a partially obscured entrance. "Oooh, a back way in. Think we can bust it?"

Assuredly. We have Fossilblight. And we have me.

The shadows envelop Quenly again, and when they recede he has transformed into a large earth elemental.

I think Barm also has an adamantine sword.

If the blockage is significant enough to need more than a few minutes work as an earth-gliding burrowing elemental with two adamantine armed buddies, Quenly will withdraw and let them finish the job (in order to conserve availability of Many Forms).

Will update buffs later.

I think Barm also has an adamantine sword.

Yes

"This is even the kind of work picks were actually invented for. Combat picks are an adaptation. Like so many other weapons. Time to sweat, it seems."

perception, heroism, heightened awareness: 1d26 + 25 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 25 + 2 + 2 = 41

"I may have just the thing."

Marta reaches back and detaches a crowbar. Not just any crowbar but the infamous Trusted Buddy, an adamantine crowbar that has featured a number of times in the Pathfinder Chronicles.

Trusty Buddy: adamantine crowbar from The Golemworks Incident, +4 circumstance bonus on strength checks to open doors and chests, bypasses DR in combat.

Do you need a strength or skill roll?

Otto also has an adamantine lance.

After the group digs through the blockage, Otto casts extended Barkskin on Marta and also recasts it on himself and Allison (Quenly, do you want to use your ability to receive another casting as well - the one I cast on you earlier will have expired? Otto has one remaining preparation of it but would prefer to hold it in reserve for now) and drops the proffered pearl into his pocket. Otto also uses his wands of Heightened Awareness and Longstrider again. Otto also asks one of his friends to use his wand of Heroism on himself and Allison.

Life Bubble has expired for everyone. Does anyone else have the ability to cast it?

"Comrades, I have prepared three communal spells: communal air walk, communal stoneskin, and communal resist energy. My friend Zarta also gave me a scroll of communal delay poison. I will rely on you to judge when it were best for me to cast any of these spells."

Quenly refreshes his Freedom of Movement and Deathwatch spells. He Channels the Gift in order to receive a Barkskin from Otto.

Would like a Heroism from someone before just we go inside if possible.

The entrance is buried under several feet of slag, and excavating the entrance takes 10 minutes. The caverns below the surface of Kandirion’s Gate traverse a winding mile-long path through the Plane of Earth and into the edge of the Plane of Fire. The journey itself takes roughly 1 hour. 5:50

The path travels along a twenty-foot-wide tunnel of smooth, rippling stone that once carried high-pressure magma up from the Plane of Fire. The winding passage opens into the demolished remnant of some subterranean complex. Rivers of magma flow from fissures in the walls, collecting into a sea of bubbling molten rock far below. What remains of this chamber’s floor has collapsed into a makeshift bridge of partly intact masonry and crumbling debris. Overhead, part of a collapsed second floor is visible, though it is little more than exposed stairways and narrow ledges.

Arrange yourselves on the far left of the path.

"I also have a scroll of communal resist energy. Maybe we should do one now and use the other when that runs out?"

Casts Mass Feather Step and Message again, though it won't last as long. Also cast Heightened Awareness from a wand (will drop it for initiative every time.)

Otto uses his wands of longstrider and heightened awareness again, and again asks one of his comrades to use his wand of heroism on himself and Allison.

Re the question of communal resist energy: note that according to the map slide, due to the fire-dominant trait of the plane of fire, everyone will take 3d10 fire damage every round. As long as the Breath of Lysianassa's mist is active (and there's no reason it can't be active all the time), everyone within 30 of it has fire resistance 30, but only against the fire dominant trait (and also fire resistance 10 in general, but again, only within 30' of the Breath).

Marta does the honors with the heroism wand. If an hour has expired, he uses the wand of ablative barrier and the wand of mage armor again, relying on a Reiko for the Mage armor but attempting to do the ablative barrier herself.

UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
UMD: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

She arranges herself near Otto in case he needs to cast a communal touch spell for protection purposes.

Those scrolls aren't going to cut it against 3d10 environmental fire damage - they're only CL5 (normally) and that's only Resist 10. Quenly has a Mnemonic Vestment that we could use to get a CL12 casting, preserving the scrolls, but this is a once/day item. Without additional Resist Energy spells, everyone will need to stay within 30' of the Breath - probably not too hard with the dragon carrying it, but that is a very vulnerable dragon and it does limit our tactical manoeuvring.

I just reread what I grabbed and it was communal protection from fire, which is good for the big boom, but not so much for the constant damage. If Quenly could hold the scroll of communal resist fire for when we have the space to maneuver, that might help a lot. (Note to self: get one of them there Mnemonic Vestments). Otherwise, I think we can probably travel in a pack with the Breath and go from there.

"Okay, so we stay close together and keep moving until we find this jet of Trueflame, right?"

"Agreed. Let's move on."

As the group proceeds into the chamber, Marta and Otto notice movement from the rubble to both sides of the path.

Barm Initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
Reiko Initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11
Quenly Initiative: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15
Giovanni Initiative: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Marta Initiative: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18
Otto Initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12
Blue Initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (4) + 9 = 13
Green Initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16
Orange Initiative: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
???: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31

Please use arrows to mark your paths, as it matters here. Or spend actions searching if you'd prefer.

COMBAT!

Orange fires some sort of loud, long ranged weapon at the dinosaur.

Attack vs. Flat Footed Touch: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (9) + 17 = 26
Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 piercing and 3d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 3) = 8 fire

Surprise Round - bolded may go

Giovanni
Orange
Marta
Barm
Green
Quenly
Blue
Otto and Allison (-4 HP)
Reiko

Marta uses the opportunity to activate the shield spell stored in her ioun stone and to begin a judgement to protect her (AC and healing), then tucks away her spear, figuring this might end up being a ranged battle.

kn planes, monster lore, heroism: 1d20 + 6 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 6 + 7 + 2 = 28, resistances and immunities