After bravely standing next to the abomination long enough to provide Slick some flanking, Billy backs away and tries to recall what he knows about such creatures. He relays what he knows to the group.
Staring at the creature in front of him, Billy activates his Shadow Signet and sings to cast Chromatic Ray at his target.
♫"In this theater of burlesque, with horrors so dramatic.
They're really quite grotesque. My ray is most chromatic!"♫
Electricity Damage + Dangerous Sorcery: (60) + 6 = 66
Slick rushes around in all directions striking wildly as he goes. He manages to shrug off the strange sensation of broken bones from the horrible monsters.
Pine fades from view and lashes out at Orange, cutting badly into its flesh. The wound opens revealing a rotting mass, no blood oozes from it...
He then starts to feel like all of his bones are breaking!
Billy backs off from the horror that he recognises is an undead monstrosity called a Tormented. He realises that they are fast, but relatively fragile (Fort is their weakest save).
He then blasts green with a mass of electricity.
As he does so, he sees the wounds of the monster begin to stitch themselves back together!
The two horrors flanking Pine focus on him, thinking they are flanking (they are not!). Sadly for Pine they seem to know exactly where he is, despite his invisibility. They land a pair of blows and Pine feels his mind being torn apart by pain.
Red moves to attack Slick who finds his mind under assault, despite his magical protections. Seeing him weakened, Green tries to finish him off! He fails.
Orange vs Pine
, Miss due to Demon Lantern, it doesnt care about Daze
, hit
, miss
mental +2d6 persistent mental
Blue vs Pine
, miss
, hit
, miss
mental +2d6 persistent mental
Red vs Slick
, crit
, miss
*2 for 50 mental -16 resist +4d6 persistent mental
Green vs Slick
, hit
, miss
, miss
mental -16 resist
Haste 3/10
Inspire 3/4
Turn Order
Pine
Billy
Slick
Sigourney
--------------------------------------
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 153 damage, sickened 1, 2d6 bleed, 4d6 mental
Billy [198], 10 THP, see invisibile,
Pinebrush [214], 157 damage, sickened 1, 2d6 persistent mental, [clumsy 2, slowed 1, 1/3]
Sigourney [200], 42 damage, [clumsy 2 and slowed 1, 1/2]
Reginald [112], 0HP, stable, sickened 1
Marzalee, dead
Orange, 112 damage
Red, 107 damage
Blue, 35 damage
Green, 158 damage
After Slick attacks, Billy moves further back.
He calls out, "They're undead creatures called Tormented. They're fragile-ish."
Assuming Slick left one of the nearby horrors alive, Billy chants, "I'm game to aim" casting Sure Strike. Knowing they're undead, the bard activates his Shadow Signet and sings out,
♫"The last act of this show. It's Billy's time to shine.
This horror, it must go. With fire that's divine."♫
Slick grits his teeth and ignores all the damage he's taking. He leaps straight up to give himself some room and comes down slicing repeatedly left then right before once again trying to shrug off his continued bleeding and newly acquired migraine.
, Bravery, +1 vs magic
, Bravery, +1 vs magic
, Bravery, +1 vs magic
, Bravery, +1 vs magic
Reactive Strike (↺) (extra reaction from Tactical Reflexes)
Trigger A creature within your reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it’s using.
Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If your attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a manipulate action, you disrupt that action. This Strike doesn’t count toward your multiple attack penalty, and your multiple attack penalty doesn’t apply to this Strike.
Protector's Sacrifice (↺)
Trigger An ally within 30 feet takes damage
Reduce the damage the ally would take by 24. You redirect this damage to yourself, but your immunities, weaknesses, resistances and so on do not apply.
Warding Tattoo (Fiend) (↺) (1/day)
Trigger An enemy, hazard, or the environment makes an attack against your AC, requires you to attempt a saving throw, or causes you to take damage automatically
Until the end of the current turn, against the triggering effect, you gain a +1 status bonus to AC and saving throws and gain resistance 2 to damage.
The Paladin (↺) (1/day)
Trigger You fail or critically fail a saving throw
Adjust the result of your saving throw up by one degree of success.
Talisman: Snapleaf (↺)
Trigger You begin to fall.
This small, crystalline carving takes the shape of a tree leaf and attaches to armor or clothing with a simple strap. When you activate the snapleaf, you gain the benefits of feather fall and a 2nd-level invisibility spell for 1 minute or until you stop falling, whichever comes first.
Skeptic's Defense (↺) (1/day)
Trigger You are targeted by or are in the area of a mental spell or effect.
You don't believe in any mental twaddle, and you're certainly not afraid of it. You scoff and verbally refute the triggering effect, attempting a counteract check using your Intimidation modifier with a counteract level of half your level rounded up. If you succeed, you ignore the triggering effect, though any other creatures that were also targeted or in the area are still affected. If the source of the effect you successfully counteracted understands your language and has an Intelligence modifier of –3 or higher, that creature becomes stupefied for 1 round.
Blessed Denial (↺)
Trigger An ally within 30 feet would become Frightened, Drained, Enfeebled, Sickened, or Stupefied.
You exude peace and protection, lessening a harmful condition as it falls upon an ally. Reduce the value of the condition your ally would take by 1 (to a minimum of 0). If the ally takes more than one condition at the same time, choose one to reduce.
Shield Block (↺) (extra reaction from The Paladin)
Trigger While you have your shield raised, you would take damage from a physical attack.
You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.
Slick leaps into the air. As he lands he cuts down green, who crumples to the ground. He then hacks into Red a couple of times but he does not go down. He then starts feeling decidedly unwell.
Billy then blasts Red, who also crumples to the ground.
Haste 3/10
Inspire 3/4
Turn Order
Pine
Billy
Slick
Sigourney
--------------------------------------
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 157 damage, sickened 1, [clumsy 2 and slowed 1, 3 rounds]
Billy [198], 10 THP, see invisibile,
Pinebrush [214], 157 damage, sickened 1, 2d6 persistent mental, [clumsy 2, slowed 1, 1/3]
Sigourney [200], 42 damage, [clumsy 2 and slowed 1, 1/2]
Reginald [112], 0HP, stable, sickened 1
Marzalee, dead
Orange, 112 damage
Red, dead
Blue, 35 damage
Green, dead
Sigourney doubles over with pain as she finishes casting Holy Light. As she sees Slick runs back into the corridor, she yells "Careful not to step on Reginald!"
to him.
While Sigourney's body is wracked with pain, her mind is still sharp. She effortlessly tries to think to herself what weaknesses the Tormented have.
Her movement is inhibited by her newly wracked bones. Using her staff as a walking stick, she slowly hobbles over to Slick's side. Trusting that Slick will protect her, she begins to Cast a Spell.
She sees the tiny form of Pine in the room, flanked by the undead. While his heat signature registers a blazing hot red compared to the cold living dead, she doesn't think that he can last much longer on his own. With her newly acquired Staff of Healing, she expends 7 charges from it and tries to Heal Pine's wounds.
[
Activate—Antimagic Armor [reaction] (concentrate); Frequency once per day; Trigger A spell targets you or includes you in its area; Effect The armor attempts to counteract the triggering spell with the effect of a 7th-rank dispel magic spell and a counteract modifier of +26.
"Oog. You can still see me. That's cheating. I think I have to--oh!" Sigourney's magic revitalizes Pine, but he's still hurting. He lurches to one side to attack one of the remaining tormented, then suddenly moves the other way and quickly circles the other one, stinging it as he goes.
But even with Billy's spell, he can only move so fast. "You need to stop it, or we're going to make you!"
Regrettably Sigourney recognises nothing about these things. She does managed to bring some relief to Pine.
Pine manages to feint out orange and stabs it in the chest. It does not react. He then stabs it in the knee. He then writhes in pain as his bones keep breaking!
Orange lashes out wildly at Pine as does Blue but neither can lay a claw on the nimble little sprite.
However, then the eyes of red flip open and they scream!
Orange attacks
Blue attacks
Billy hears one of them scream ... again. And sees the red one moving. "Wait! Wasn't he dead?" This time sounds different. With his current inspiration ending soon, he cheers louder to drown out the new sound.
♫"My name's Billy and I couldn't be prouder.
It's time I sing a little bit louder."♫
Billy's quip negates the shout so Red tries to swipe at Slick. It sinks its long fingers into his leg.
Greens eyes then also flick open and it screams as well!
mental, -16 resist, +2d6 persistent which cannot get through the resist
Will Saves
, Bravery, +1 vs magic, pass
, Resolve, +1 vs magic, fail
, +1 vs magic, fail
, +1 vs magic, pass
, crit pass
Billy feels himself start to succumb to the screeching, so he quickly draws a harrow card (Chaotic Destiny) in an attempt to avoid any lasting effects.
Billy holds himself together. Green also lashes out at Slick, clawing at his legs. He then crumples back into inertness from the fire damage.
mental
, hit
mental -16 resist
Haste 4/10
Inspire 4/4
Turn Order
Pine
Billy
Slick
Sigourney
--------------------------------------
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 191 damage, sickened 1, [clumsy 2 and slowed 1, 3 rounds]
Billy [198], 10 THP, see invisibile,
Pinebrush [214], 112 damage, sickened 1, 2d6 persistent mental, [clumsy 2, slowed 1, 0/3]
Sigourney [200], 60 damage, [clumsy 2 and slowed 1, 1/2]
Reginald [112], 0HP, stable, sickened 1
Marzalee, dead
Orange, 174 damage, -2 per and ref, enfeebled 1, cannot flank
Red, 240 damage, prone,
Blue, 25 damage
Green, 0HP, prone, 2d10 persistent fire
Sigourney's ears are still ringing from the sonic blasts. She considers rescuing Reginald, but reconsiders after remembering he'll come back even if killed.
She looks into the room and sees that the Blue Tormented is still relatively unharmed. Knowing that they have weak Fortitude, she decides to try something fun.
Pointing at the undead monstrosity, she says "I hope your next life is less painful than your current one." The Blue Tormented slowly transforms into a small, harmless creature.
She then turns her mind to starting the trial and error process of finding out the Tormented's weakness. Slick suddenly hears Sigourney's voice in his head.
"I need you to kick the Tormented in front of you right now."
Activate—Antimagic Armor [reaction] (concentrate); Frequency once per day; Trigger A spell targets you or includes you in its area; Effect The armor attempts to counteract the triggering spell with the effect of a 7th-rank dispel magic spell and a counteract modifier of +26.
When the two presumably dead dead undead turn out to be not quite so dead dead, Slick looks down at their prone bodies. "Oh, ho! Looks like these fellows have a little regeneration up their sleeves. Let's see if we can find a way to finish them off properly."
Just as he's about to try a different approach to killing these creatures, he receives a message from Sigourney and immediately feels the urge to kick the creature lying prone before him. Seeing no reason to fight the urge, he slams a well-aimed dawnsilvered boot into the tormented's ribs.
Still in view of two of the enemies, Billy takes a moment to recall more information about them.
The bard then moves forward and sings a soothing spell for Slick.
♫"Slick may look sick and tired. He could use a little healing.
Yet his strikes should be admired. Again, this time with feeling!"♫
Sigourney expends the last of her Focus to grant Billy some additional inspiration.
"Come on Billy...You need to pull through." She desperately thinks to herself.
Slick kicks Green, it remains unconscious and inert. Whether its regen has been deactivated you cannot tell unless it gets back up on its turn.
Billy recognises that these things are in fact stopped by bludgeoning damage while Sigourney transforms one of them into a squirrel. It is very confused.
COMBAT OVER
, fail and too low level to beenfit from incapacitation.
As you finish off the last of the minions Molly pokes her head around the door, Err, is it over? she asks in a quavering voice...
Assuming you search the room, you find a small leather pouch hanging by a cord around Marzalee's neck. Inside is a long slender tongue and several dozen sharp fangs—most of these obviously belong to Bernaditi. However, one of the teeth is a much larger fang that’s been scrimshawed. You easily identify it as a speed runestone (Quickstrike in the remastered version).
Slick looks at the inert form of the tormented he'd just kicked and is unimpressed by the results. "Billy? You sure beating them up is the way to go?" He shrugs, then adds to himself, "It's not like we've got anything better to try." He then proceeds to stomp the remaining creatures into pulpy messes from which there is no coming back. "There we go. That should take care of business."
When Molly appears and inquires as to the state of affairs, Slick nods. "Yes. It is indeed over Molly dear. Marzalee died quickly and her creatures not long after." He lets Billy deal with the woman while he searches the room, occasionally glancing at the smashed remains of the tormented to make sure they aren't magically reforming themselves. Once they find Bernaditi's missing mouth parts, Slick says, "I hope what that Bernaditi fellow has to tell us is worth all this." He indicates the bodies and general destruction in the room.
Once they find the extra runed tooth mixed in with Bernaditi's own teeth, Slick is impressed. "I've heard about these runes, but I've never seen one in person." He purses his lips in thought. "With Billy around to speed us up on the regular, I'm not sure its worth keeping it though." He tucks it away with the rest of the loot for a later decision.
Once everyone is all healed up and they're satisfied there's nothing more in the room of interest, Slick heads for the other door leading into the room. "I guess we better check the rest of this place for dangers before bidding our goodbyes of Molly." He opens the door and pokes his head through to see what's there.
Billy chills out, strategically in the hallway with Molly, while Slick finishes punching and kicking the bad guys. Calling out to Sigourney, "Thanks for the assist with the information recall. Looks like it helped." He adds, "I'll just wait here and keep Molly company, while you finish up. No sense getting these golden locks mussed up." He combs his hair, even though it doesn't need it.
Turning to Molly, the bard says sadly, "Yes, I'm afraid we had to take down Marzalee. As you suspected, she gave us little choice." He frowns and asks her, "What shall you do now?"
After chatting about her future, Billy shares, "It seems we found Bernaditi's ... body parts. Would you happen to know how we might re-attach them to the poor fellow? Or maybe you'd wanna help?" When Slick talks about exploring other rooms, Billy also asks Molly, "Are there any other surprises in this place that we should know about before my determined friend stumbles into something new?"
"Um, okay."
Pinebrush isn't especially good at smashing things, but since Sigourney defeated the last one that didn't just need finishing off, it shouldn't take much. He gives one a quick stomp.
He's glad to recover quickly from the assorted afflictions. "Those things are... unpleasant. It doesn't sound very fun to be them, either, judging from the name."
Pine takes out his medical tools to get to work tending injuries.
Sigourney pumps her fist in celebration as she finally manages to transmute something into an animal.
"Yes! I did it!" She cackles with glee.
Suddenly, she remembers that her familiar is lying motionlessly on the ground. She runs for her familiar, picking him up and desperately moving him to Pine. She waits for Pine to tell her if he made it through that experience. With nothing she can do in the meantime, she Refocuses for forty minutes, casting Life Boost on Reginald at the soonest possibility.
Reginald splutters as he is revived by Pine's medicinal remedies and Sigourney's magic. He looks around the room, aghast at the carnage the party has rought. As soon as he regains his footing, he runs into Sigourney's sleeve and stays there, unwilling to come out for now.
Molly looks over the body parts. Oh, you should probably just give them back to him. I am sure he will be able to sort himself out. As for me, I dont really know. This is my home. I should stay and keep up with the work. Maybe in time I can fix Marzalee and re turn her to her former state. I am not really sure though...
Checking through the rest of the house you find a range of new and more inventive horrors as well as several cannibalistic haunts which you generally avoid or disable. The place is a House of Horrors, each corridor worse than the previous one but in terms of interesting features or information relevant to your goals there is nothing more here. What is left is to return to Bernaditti or, perhaps, explore one of the other locations before going back to him.
Once Slick is satisfied that there's nothing more to be gained from the little house of horrors that is Molly's home, he bows to the lady of the house and says, "I believe our work here is done, Molly. We will leave you to deal with the aftermath of our short visit. I hope some good comes from what we had to do here today and I wish you all the luck with whatever you decide needs be done with Marzalee."
He then turns to the others. "Let's repair back to the Circus and reunite Benaditi with his wayward tongue and teeth. Perhaps the fellow will then prove more communicative, assuming he still wishes to be freed from his wrought iron restraints."
Billy looks sadly at Molly. "Thank you for your help." After a short pause, he adds, "If there's anything we can do return the favor, please ask. Otherwise, looks like we'll head to the circus and have our long-awaited chat with Benaditi."
After healing up and praying to Desna as he refocus, Billy stows his belongings, "Good luck with everything, Molly." The bard is most sincere as he follows the group back to the big top.
Molly waves you all off, calling out, Don't worry about me dears, I am sure I will be just fine. Here in this big, spooky house. All on my lonesome. Except for the horrible cannibalistic haunts of course but we get on fine....
You quickly return to Harrowheart and, from the stain, reach the ruined circus. Benaditti is where you left him. Handing him his teeth and tongue he gobbles them down. there is a strange churning noise before he opens his mouth wide revealing a very toothy grin.
Well now, that is so very much better he says. He gestures towards his other arm which remains trapped. Could you free my other arm please?
Returning to the circus, Billy offers Benaditti some celebratory honey mead from his jug. "It really is the finest in Absalom." He hands over a mug of mead and takes a sip from his own.
When the ringmaster asks to be freed, Billy shrugs helplessly, "I would help if I could, but while my talents are many, manual labor isn't one of them." Billy makes an obvious gesture towards Slick and continues, "I already like you, but my friend here is probably gonna need you to tell us about this place so we know we can trust you. What happened to the circus and what happened to you?"
"You know, I've never seen a creature recovery from such an horrific injury without magical help." Sigourney muses to herself. "What are you?" She curiously asks the Ringmaster.
Slick nods at Billy and Sigourney's inquiries. "Yes. I too am interested to learn what manner of creature you are. Not all of us can so cavalierly revitalize our mouth parts after being separated from them for so long. I'm also quite interested to hear about how it is that you got caught up in this..." He waves his hands to indicate the wrought iron cage, "... predicament."
"Very well. Previously you said you might be able to help us in our exploration of this realm if we restored your tongue and teeth. Perhaps now would be a good time to share such information with us. If I am satisfied with what you tell us, then I will free you. How's that for a deal?"
Bernaditi grins at you all, Clearly you are all very wise. He gratefully takes a swig of the mead, I am, as all of us are here, a harrowkin, a creation of the Harrow deck. Surely you are familiar with such manifestations, after all you control a similar realm do you not? As for how I arrived in this state, when Sonnorae returned to take over the Realm she took vengeance on all of us who had overthrown her. She was a tyrant then and, now she is a velstrac, she is most assuredly a tyrant now. I took her tongue when we killed her, she took mine and my teeth in revenge. Can't say I can really blame her.
He pauses and takes another swing. As for how things are now, well Sonnorae returned somehow and took over the Realm with the aid of a bunch of velstracs. Then, several weeks ago, the whole place was struck by storms and earthquakes. I've no idea what caused that but it reduced the already very neglected circus to its current state. If you are here though, I assume you are probably going to deal with Sonnorae in some way. If thats the case then I would visit her garden first. She is very partial to the bloody pears that grow there. Taking one as an offering would stand you in good stead. Is that good enough to earn me my release?
Slick frowns and raises an eyebrow. "Ah! So the infamous Sonnorae is to blame for your imprisonment and defanging. Seems that her return is to blame for much that has gone wrong in the Harrowed Realm. I can well imagine her being less than happy towards those that plotted to overthrow her."
After mulling things over, Slick continues. "As you say, it seems almost inevitable that we'll run into Sonnorae at some point in our explorations. Based on what you and others have told us about her, she doesn't sound like someone with whom we're likely to have a civil dialogue. The last velstrac we ran into attacked us on sight. So, we will take your advice and collect some of these bloody pears you spoke of; if nothing else, perhaps they will distract her and give us some sort of edge in the ensuing battle."
Satisfied, Slick grabs onto the wrought iron imprisoning Bernaditi and with the help of his handy crowbar, once again tries bending it out of the way and freeing the ringmaster.
Billy continues sharing his mead with Benaditti. As Slick is freeing the poor man, Billy says, "Thanks for the tip on harvesting some pears for our inevitable visit."
The bard looks confused for a moment and asks, "Forgive me, but I don't understand. Sonorae was the ruler here at one time. But was she always a tyrant? If you and the others overthrew her, she must have felt it was a terrible betrayal. How many more of you were involved? Perhaps they're equally incapacitated. Can you describe your colleagues?"
Pine only has one question. "Why are they called bloody pears?"
Given the other things they've seen, he's concerned that it may be literal.
"He's telling the truth," Sigourney informs the others. "About being a harrowkin, at least. Not sure about the rest."
She stares deep into the ringmaster's eyes. "And if you betrayed your creator, what prevents you from betraying us? You won't stab us in the back, right?" She earnestly asks.
Fumbling around with her hands, she finally remembers to stow the crystal ball which she was lugging around the whole time.
Slick easily pries open the bars. Bernaditti stretches his arm with a contented sigh, Thank you my burly friend, that is very much better. You were wise not to trust a crocodile, I sense you will go far.
Turning to Billy he says, There were many of us who worked together to overthrow her. I am afraid I do not know what has happened to my confederates but I fear Sonnorae has disposed of all of them. Marzalee was one such and you have seen what she did to her...
As for the pears, a single tree bears them, you will find them in her garden. They used to be delicious but the change brought about by the velstraacs is likely to have changed them. I cannot say how as I have been trapped here for a long time.
At Sigourneys suggestion that he would betray them he grins a toothy grin, Certainly such things are possible but what would be the benefit for me? You are here for some reason although you havent said what. Its likely you will confront Sonnorae. If she learns that I have escaped she is likely to try and capture me and do something even worse. Its in my interests that you dispatch her. In any event, I plan to keep a low profile until such time as you are done. I've no desire to fall into her hands again. Good luck to you!
With that he casts a fly spell, leaps into the air, gives you all a wave and vanishes into the thickets.
After Bernaditti leaves, Billy turns to the group, "Are we certain that Sonnorae is our enemy? It sounds like our ringmaster and seamstress were part of a group who betrayed her." The little halfling frowns and considers, "Maybe Bernaditti deserved the same fate as Marzalee...."
In any event, he stows his jug, grips his staff, and resumes his Musical Accompaniment. Ready to continue, he asks, "Shall we search for more of these betrayers before heading after Sonnorae?"
• The Big Sky leads to Ticktock Peak.
• The Carnival connects to the Shadow Circus. (This is where you are)
• The Demon’s Lantern connects to Demon’s Bog.
• The Empty Throne leads to the Garden of Grief. (Where the pears are)
• The Tangled Briar leads to the Blood Briars.
• The Vision leads to the Fleshworks. (This is where Marzalee was).
"I think people who make velstracs are probably bad. I think you gotta be pretty bad for the harrowkin to turn on you. This place is... different."
Slick shrugs. "At present, Sonnorae is not our enemy. But given what we've know of her and the velstracs, I suspect we will not be given a pleasant welcome when we finally meet."
He turns to the rest. "It might be best if we were to delay this inevitable confrontation with Sonnorae until we've collected more information about the situation in this demiplane." He pauses to consider the options. "How about we visit TickTok Peak? A little fresh air might do us good."
Billy nods to Pinebrush. "That's a fair point about velstracs being evil. Do we know if she was always a velstrac?" After a pause, he adds, "Still, if they betrayed her..." The normally far-too-trusting halfling doesn't know what to think.
At Slick's suggestion to go to TickTock Peak, "As long as visitors aren't banned, sure, let's go there."
"Visitors aren't banned here, I think. Because they don't need to. They have never received any until now." Sigourney muses to herself.
"I would much rather retrieve the pears before anything happens to them and take a rest to prepare more Holy spells. But sure, let's press our advantage before Marzalee regenerates and sounds the alarm." Sigourney is not a fan of continuing and Slick's destination, but would rather get it over with now rather than later.
Remembering the Velstrac vulnerability to silver, she draws her silver chunk in her free-hand. Thumbing it slowly, she readies herself to shoot Needle Darts first and ask questions second.
The group return to Harrowheart and prepare for their trip to the local volcano in the Harrowed Realm. Activating the strange stain, the world swirls around you and you find yourselves in the dormant caldera of the volcano. It shelters a worksite with a disorganized array of tools, materials, anvils, stools, and tables. A stone structure, its walls adorned with dozens of metal pipes, sits at the centre of the caldera.
The sound of venting steam, piped water, and operating machinery issues from within the structure. A giant-sized door in the southern face of the building has a broken bone painted on it, with a pool of blood between the broken ends. The east half of the caldera is sheltered by a tall stone wall that’s also festooned with pipes, many of which extend upward to spew smoke and steam into the air, while to the south, a break in the caldera’s wall allows a flight of steps to descend and affords a majestic view of the entire realm below.
A group of grey skinned giants working in the area react to your appearance with alarm, and violence!
Initiative
, +2 item visual/hearing, +2 circ scout
, Perception +25, +1 circ if visual, +2 circ scout
, +2 circ scout, +2 item visual
Turn Order
Slick
------------------------------
Red
------------------------------
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Blue
Green
Orange
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248]
Billy [198], see invisibile, 10 THP
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200]
Reginald [112]
Red roars a challenge and wraps shadows around himself. He then pitches a couple of rocks at Slick. One of them catches Slick on the shoulder, nearly spinning him around!
, hit
, miss
Turn Order
Red
------------------------------
Slick
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Blue
Green
Orange
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 26 damage
Billy [198], see invisibile, 10 THP
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200]
Reginald [112]
Red, Blur
When Slick arrives on Ticktock Peak, he's a little disappointed. He was expecting to see beautiful vistas from the top of a mountain, but instead he finds himself in a grungy volcanic caldera being attacked by a bunch of angry ashen giants. "Fine," he thinks to himself. "If these guys think they can scare us, they've got another thing coming."
Slick is a little surprised when the giant choses to toss a rock at him. The first one bounces off his plated shoulder leaving a slight bruise and he easily dodges the second. "If all these giants are going to do is throw rocks at us, this'll be over a lot faster than I thought."
Striding forward just far enough to get all the giants within range of his voice, Slick stops and points his flaming, sparking and thundering greatsword straight up above his head for them to see. As his face darkens behind his mask, he sucks in a big breath and directs three piercing deep-throated roars at the giants.
Reactive Strike (↺) (extra reaction from Tactical Reflexes)
Trigger A creature within your reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it’s using.
Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If your attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a manipulate action, you disrupt that action. This Strike doesn’t count toward your multiple attack penalty, and your multiple attack penalty doesn’t apply to this Strike.
Protector's Sacrifice (↺)
Trigger An ally within 30 feet takes damage
Reduce the damage the ally would take by 24. You redirect this damage to yourself, but your immunities, weaknesses, resistances and so on do not apply.
Warding Tattoo (Fiend) (↺) (1/day)
Trigger An enemy, hazard, or the environment makes an attack against your AC, requires you to attempt a saving throw, or causes you to take damage automatically
Until the end of the current turn, against the triggering effect, you gain a +1 status bonus to AC and saving throws and gain resistance 2 to damage.
The Paladin (↺) (1/day)
Trigger You fail or critically fail a saving throw
Adjust the result of your saving throw up by one degree of success.
Talisman: Snapleaf (↺)
Trigger You begin to fall.
This small, crystalline carving takes the shape of a tree leaf and attaches to armor or clothing with a simple strap. When you activate the snapleaf, you gain the benefits of feather fall and a 2nd-level invisibility spell for 1 minute or until you stop falling, whichever comes first.
Skeptic's Defense (↺) (1/day)
Trigger You are targeted by or are in the area of a mental spell or effect.
You don't believe in any mental twaddle, and you're certainly not afraid of it. You scoff and verbally refute the triggering effect, attempting a counteract check using your Intimidation modifier with a counteract level of half your level rounded up. If you succeed, you ignore the triggering effect, though any other creatures that were also targeted or in the area are still affected. If the source of the effect you successfully counteracted understands your language and has an Intelligence modifier of –3 or higher, that creature becomes stupefied for 1 round.
Blessed Denial (↺)
Trigger An ally within 30 feet would become Frightened, Drained, Enfeebled, Sickened, or Stupefied.
You exude peace and protection, lessening a harmful condition as it falls upon an ally. Reduce the value of the condition your ally would take by 1 (to a minimum of 0). If the ally takes more than one condition at the same time, choose one to reduce.
Shield Block (↺) (extra reaction from The Paladin)
Trigger While you have your shield raised, you would take damage from a physical attack.
You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield.
Billy sees the really really big giants, and the tiny halfling sings out,
♫"On top of old Ticktock we find
Some giants that don't look too kind.
.....T'would be nice if it ends
.....With all of us friends.
But if needed, we'll fight. We don't mind."♫
He then belts out another ditty to cast his usual follow-up spell.
♫"These giants are so large. They look so very strong.
It's time that we take charge. It shouldn't take us long."♫
A rock goes flying past Sigourney's head. Whipping her head around, she sees another projectile strike Slick. Sadly, she gets her bearings too slowly to react to the first volley. She silently promises herself that that will not happen again.
She hastily Strides up to get a better view of the enemies. Seeing four identical grey giants, she starts reasoning rapidly as to what these creatures are. She tries to Recall Knowledge 5 times about what she overheard at any point in time about the Giants.
She looks past the giants and sees nothing but the worksite stretching on and on. Smiling to herself, she realises that there is space enough for a Sunburst.
"You want to toss things at us? My projectile is bigger - and brighter! Fire Sign - Sunburst!"
Activate—Antimagic Armor [reaction] (concentrate); Frequency once per day; Trigger A spell targets you or includes you in its area; Effect The armor attempts to counteract the triggering spell with the effect of a 7th-rank dispel magic spell and a counteract modifier of +26.
Pine reveals himself as he zips forward, taking flight to get over the [obstacle] before alighting and taking the last bit on foot.
"We'll defend ourselves," he says conversationally as he jabs at the distracted giant, "but we weren't attacking you. If you stand down, so will we."
Billy does Billy things and the group starts to move more quickly and with greater confidence.
Sigourney also advances and reasons rapidly. She recognises these as Shadow Giants (you get this for free). They are clumsy (reflex lowest), have no weaknesses, generally possess opportunity attack and greatly prefer dwarf flesh. She unleashes burning flames at them and they scream in pain, with two clutching at their eyes.
Slick rushes forward, seeking to terrify the enemy into submission. (). One giant keels over, stone dead. The other two appear deathly afraid.
Pine zips over to the unfortunately blind Blue and stabs him in the toe.
Blue and Green blindly stumble away from the terrifying Slick. Red however, still has his wits about him. He hurls a rock at the door and yells something in Jotun.
Boss, we've got company
Before advancing on Slick and striking at him with his spiked chain.
Red, Blue, Orange, Green
, fail
, crit fail
, fail
, crit fail
Blue, Orange, Green
, fail
, crit fail
, fail
, pass
Haste 2/10
Inspire 2/4
Turn Order
Red
------------------------------
Slick
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Blue
Green
Party to act
Combat status
Slick [248], 58 damage
Billy [198], see invisibile, 10 THP
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200]
Reginald [112]
Red, Blur, 48 damage
Blue, 88 damage, blind, frightened 1, no reactions, 3d6 bleed
Orange, dead
Green, 48 damage, blind, frightened 1
Oh. They speak Jotun. Duh.
It's probably too late to matter now that one of them has been killed, but Pine repeats his offer to let the giants cease hostilities--this time in Jotun.
A little wary of approaching, given the giants' size and spiked chains, and Sigourney's warning about their reaction times, he decides to distract the one near her and Slick by striking from a distance.
He jabs his rapier at him from across the room, before moving closer to follow up with his short sword.
On crit, add , Off-Guard until the start of Pine's turn, DC 34 Fort or Slowed 1 until the end of Pine's turn, and target triggers Reactive Strike from Slick. Total 57 on crit.
Sigourney smirks as she sees the results of the Sunburst. "Of course, Shadow Giants would react badly to sunlight!" she thinks to herself.
As the blurry giant comes up to her, she realises that she had better move away. She hastily hikes away from the giant while he's distracted.
With her next action, she Commands Reginald to do his thing and stop the giant from following her.
Summoning a bunch of rocks from the nearby debris, she creates a Scatter Scree to further hinder the Giant's movement and get around the concealment.
"You're between a rock and a hard place, giant. Earth Sign - Scatter Scree!" She yells in Jotun.
Activate—Antimagic Armor [reaction] (concentrate); Frequency once per day; Trigger A spell targets you or includes you in its area; Effect The armor attempts to counteract the triggering spell with the effect of a 7th-rank dispel magic spell and a counteract modifier of +26.