Byron drops his bow, draws his greatsword and swings!
Aiko switches weapons once more, dropping the bow and picking up the naginata.
What about the Wasp? Is that also on the ground?
It was just a moment, but it was one he wasn't going to put to waste. Adrian switches over to his sword and practically slides under the creature and slashes upward before attempting a swinging slash at the creature.
Lyraesel reaches up, trying to touch the frustrating enemy with the flame in her hand.
Nindinzego and Kelda both rolled 1s on their attacks. That is important as you may discover later.
B, A, A, and L all miss.
Aiko provokes a tentacle attack when she bends over for her naginata.
Aiko is now held and at 13/24 hp
Kelda swings the magical longsword and misses again.
Zaraleva channels again as the Earth Elemental reappears at her side.
healing.
Kelda to 22 hp. Aiko to 20 hp.
more later tonight.
Sense of Doom: Each time it rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll or saving throw, and each time it takes a critical hit, it becomes shaken for the following round, taking a –2 penalty on all d20 rolls for that duration. It retreats into the air to use its wand for 1d3 rounds after each time its sense of doom activates.
So that's why it flew away when Kelda got a crit and again when EE got a crit. Now it has rolled a 1 against Zaraleva, so it should fly away while shaken, but of course Aiko is wrapped up in its tentacle, which means it would either have to release her or try to drag her into the air. Both of which seem a little dicey rule-wise. I can go scour the grappling and withdrawing rules or maybe Chuck8 wants to weigh in. Other input is also welcome.
I'm also willing to go with "dramatically appropriate." As an acrobat Aiko has some ability to mitigate falling damage if the party kills it while she's in the air.
The hideous atrocity drags Aiko over the bottomless pit as the party members take their AoO's and kill it. Aiko, the creature, and over a million gp of treasure fall into the abyss, never to be seen again.
The hideous atrocity, clearly shaken and clinically unstable, takes the withdraw maneuver, leaving all of the party behind.
Everyone may go. I'm guessing everyone switches back to missile weapons except Lyraesel who has a produce flame ready to go.
And on it goes...
As the creature drops Aiko and retreats into the air, Lyraesel sends a ball of fire streaking up at it.
Lyraesel hits the creature dead center for max damage and the creature laughs in a hideous evil voice. Fire Resistance 10.
Zaraleva hits the creature with a crossbow bolt and it bounces off. She looks at Lyraesel in disbelief. "Really?" Then she reloads.
The EE disappears back into the walls.
Byron drops the greatsword, grabs the bow and sends another flaming arrow at it!
Lyraesel and Zaraleva do no damage.
Byron misses, but it seems a flaming arrow is not the best offense, given what happened to Lyraesel.
Kelda readies.
Adrian probably moves back to his crossbow and picks it back up.
Aiko picks up her bow.
Seeing the effectiveness of the arcane bolt, Winsome tries that again, but misses.
New round:
The creature realizes that it is susceptible to arcane bolts and blasts Winsome instead of Kelda. It hits him for 10 fire damage. He is now at 12/22.
Everyone may go. (Aiko needs a new roll, I think.)
With no ranged weapon, and the vile creature seemingly immune to her fire, Lyraesel draws her sickle, growling as she waits for the creature to come within range again.
Yelping as he's hit by the creature's blast, Winsom fires another arcane bolt at the monster.
Adrian gives chase and hopes that his next bolt can finally nail this beast.
...but he misses yet again.
Byron reaches for the remaining magical arrows he has and tries to hit something other then a stone wall.
Adrian and Aiko miss with their ranged shots. Zaraleva says a prayer to Sarerae and tries again but misses.
Lyraesel and Kelda hold for melee.
One giant earthen hand swipes at the monstrosity from the ceiling, missing badly, but the other gets ahold of its tentacle, spinning it around and throwing it off kilter.
"Yes!" shouts Zaraleva as Byron looses his arrow into the . The creature is not very concerned about another arrow and focused on escaping. That's when the bane arrow explodes and knocks it unconscious and slowly bleeding out.
Zaraleva collapses to her knees in thanks to Sarenrae. "That cost us a lot of magical arrows and a 2300gp earth elemental gem, but we did it. Whew!" She starts to hug Aiko from her knees, but gives up on the awkwardness.
Lyraesel pounces on the body of the fallen enemy, her sickle slicing a bloody line through his throat, determined not to relent until she is sure of his death.
Byron lowers his bow and says, "That creature was terrible...Hopefully, it doesn't have a mate floating around somewhere."
Aiko drops her bow after her terrible performance in the fight and helps Zaraleva to her feet so that she can give her a proper hug. The acrobat seems awkward in the embrace, like she is unused to such displays of physical affection but the moment seems to call for it so... here it is.
"What a horror," she grumbles. "I hope this puts us a step closer to solving the mystery of what afflicts Ameiko."
Byron lowers his bow and says, "That creature was terrible...Hopefully, it doesn't have a mate floating around somewhere."
"Actually, three mates. We support polygamy as well as evil," says a voice from somewhere in the darkness ahead. Roll initiative!
Lyraesel adds a final slice to the tormented cultist of Pazuzu and notices some shinies in the corner, set up as an offering. Perhaps the few black feathers in the area suggest that the dire corbies saw Nindinzego as their evil overlord.
Aiko takes a light source and makes a circuit of the chamber, looking for something, anything, that could lead the group to another clue about what's going on with Ameiko.
Cleaning off her blade, Lyraesel joins Aiko in searching the chamber, taking notice of anything interesting.
Byron sees no reason to hurry, and slowly searches the whole area.
"Whoosh." Adrian shook off the miasma of evil energy he still felt was washed over him as he saw the evil outsider finally fall. He still had the time to glare at Byron.
"For the love of the gods don't jinx it! I'd rather jump off the castle than deal another of those things."
Byron sees no reason to hurry, and slowly searches the whole area.
Byron that would be 156 5' squares at two minutes per square, so 312 minutes. Zaraleva will be bored long before those five hours have passed. :p
The monster has a small statuette of a bird-headed, four winged humanoid
with his right arm raised and, obviously, a wand of scorching ray.
You also find a a darkwood-and-silver disc decorated with an intricate etching of Brinewall under the midnight moon. This disc radiates faint transmutation magic.
"I think we should go and fix the statue of Desna. Perhaps some Divine inspiration will come upon us." Byron says and turns to head back towards the statue.
Aiko takes the darkwood-and-silver disk, turning it over in her hands and examining the etching.
"This is more than an art piece," she says slowly. "But I wonder what purpose it serves."
With a nod, Lyraesel moves to lead the way back to the broken statue.
Aiko takes the darkwood-and-silver disk, turning it over in her hands and examining the etching.
"This is more than an art piece," she says slowly. "But I wonder what purpose it serves."
"It's like the other one from the tengu...only night instead of day. Maybe they work together somehow." Lyraesel suggests.
U15 has the statue of Desna.
U5 is the solarium.
U12 is where the crying child was inside a locked room.
Two flights down is W1.
Zaraleva casts make whole on the statue and feels like another accomplishment has been completed. Desna does not comment to the cleric of Sarenrae or anyone else here at this time. Where to next?
"It's like the other one from the tengu...only night instead of day. Maybe they work together somehow." Lyraesel suggests.Aiko takes the darkwood-and-silver disk, turning it over in her hands and examining the etching.
"This is more than an art piece," she says slowly. "But I wonder what purpose it serves."
Aiko nods and says, "Let's get them together."
The magic is the same, as is the shape, but they don't "interact."
Jump in anytime, Chuck8.
"We might as well deal with anything else in this castle. Crying child thing or the sun room next? Then we should head down." Lyraesel suggests.
"My vote is for the sun room. I've had more than my share of horror right about now."
Solarium is fine. Kelda is coming, but Win isn't?
Aiko, you have your Dancing Wasp ready?
"The Sun room works for me." Byron says.
Maybe Kelda should stop by to see Spivey on her way to the upstairs? I have her at 15/40 and she is probably out of rage for the day. (Maybe that was before I channeled? I'll check.)
Chuck8, you know about Spivey? Zaraleva will probably tell her about the Desna statue.
Solarium is fine. Kelda is coming, but Win isn't?
Aiko, you have your Dancing Wasp ready?
As Chief Medical Officer, I am putting this out there:
Lyr, Byr, Zar: Full hp
Adr 21/22
Kel 22/40 when raging, 16/34 when not. 4 rounds of rage left today.
Aik 20/24
Thus, Kelda should visit Spivey quickly.
Having defeated the hideous creature, you finally depart the sanctum to Pazuzu and return to exploring the castle, making your way to the old solarium.
This chamber may have once had a beautiful roof of glass, but little remains today save for a few precariously leaning wooden timbers hanging above a swath of crumbled stone and ruined furniture. The roof covering the southern half of the room has been crudely repaired with thick sheets of canvas and furs that have been stretched and fastened over the frames, creating a dark, almost cavelike, nesting area.
Byron searches the room that now hosts the dead wombat.
"So no answers here...I think we should check on what sounded like a crying child before going down to whatever lies below." Byron suggests.