Slick is so amazed at how well his scary act worked on the giants that he momentarily forgot about the last one. A spiked chain to the back of his head reminds him. He turns on the as-yet unterrorized creature with a horrifying glare and a low rumbling starting up in his throat. "You want some of the same, do you? Well then, you asked for it." He turns the low rumbling into another loud roar directed at his determined foe before leaping up into the air and bringing his flaming sword down mercilessly and repeatedly on the creature's head.
Electricity arcs out to deal an equal amount of electricity damage to up to two other creatures of your choice within 10 feet of the target (Shock).
Target must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or be deafened for 1 minute (or 1 hour on a critical failure) (Thundering).
Target takes an additional 2d10 persistent fire damage - no resistance (Greater Flaming).
Electricity arcs out to deal an equal amount of electricity damage to up to two other creatures of your choice within 10 feet of the target (Shock).
Target must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or be deafened for 1 minute (or 1 hour on a critical failure) (Thundering).
Target takes an additional 2d10 persistent fire damage - no resistance (Greater Flaming).
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.
With the group taking out the near giant, Billy moves in behind Slick. Then calculating the distance to next closest enemy , Billy uses some Reach magic to extend his Telekinetic Projectile. Activating his Shadow Signet to target the clumsy giant's reflexes, he sings,
♫"The giants are attacking. Each has a spiky chain.
We'll just keep a-whacking. Till all of them are slain."♫
Pine shoots his rapier at red, stabbing him in the knee. He howls in pain. He then swoops in and stabs him again!
Sigourney relocates and then leaves red reeling from her magic and Reginald's weird strand attack. Slick then makes short work of him. Billy sends a bit of detritus flying at blue and clocks him in the face.
Blue and Green both activate their strange shadow magic and stumble back, screaming for help!
Which promptly arrives, as the doors to the main building crash open, revealing more giants! The giant in the doorway hurls a rock at Billy, which crashes into his shoulder. A second giant emerges and hurls a pair of rocks at Billy.
The a strange, multi armed creature, wielding a whip emerges. Interfering fools, I shall enjoy flaying the skin from your bodies and testing each and every one of your nerves. You will make such sweet music.
, crit fail
, crit fail
, hit
, miss
, crit
x2 for 60
Haste 3/10
Inspire 3/4
Turn Order
Orange
Purple
Voricose
------------------------------
Slick
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Blue
Green
Yellow
Party to act
Combat status
Slick [248], 58 damage
Billy [198], 75 damage, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200]
Reginald [112]
Red, dead
Blue, 153 damage, blind, 3d6 bleed, blur
Orange, dead
Green, 48 damage, blind, blur
Slick takes note of the new arrivals. "Looks like we've got some party crashers here. I'll go take care of one of our old friends before they get within reach of us." Slick then leaps in the direction of the nearest giant and strikes down on them twice as he lands.
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.
As rocks start flying into Billy, Sigourney reacts quickly and cloaks him in a cloud of mist.
Upon seeing new foes move in with fresh threats of pain and suffering on their lips, Sigourney quickly moves closer to the party in case they may need healing in the future.
Pointing at the new enemies, she says to them. "I'd much rather you didn't...here's a new trick I have that you can play with first. Water sign - Whirlpool!" As the words leave her, a large swirling vortex of storming waves appears next to Voricose and the giants, crashing against them.
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.
Reginald Independently helps Sigourney with some item housekeeping that she's normally too busy or too lazy to do herself. He grabs onto the chunk of Silver in her hand, holding onto it in case she needs to use it.
Billy winces in pain as more giants join the party and throw rocks at him. But when the boss comes in and bellows something about "making sweet music", Billy looks confused. "But ... I already make sweet music. Have you not had the pleasure?" Billy shrugs.
When Sigourney provides him a magical cloak, Billy smiles gratefully, "Thanks! Those rocks hurt!" The cloaked halfling slides to his right, concentrates to add some Reach to his next spell, and sings in Jotun,
♫"These giants I can't stand. And now they're not alone.
You'll heed this one Command: It's time you all Drop Prone!"♫
5th rank Command allows up to 10 targets and Reach Spell extends range from 30' to 60'.
Note: Billy speaks Jotun and uses that language to command them to Drop Prone.
Will DC 37
Success => Unaffected
Failure => Spend 1 action to Drop Prone
Crit Failure => Spend all actions next round: drop prone
Sigourney cloaks Billy in mist. The giant shouts out
Hey, that lady did something weird, get her!
Slick leaps at Blue (
Slick crashes into Blue, swiftly cutting him down and then grants himself some much needed healing.
Sigourney creates a massive pool of water from nowhere. Two of the enemy are swept up in it while the other is merely battered. Billy then seeks to command the enemy!
, hit
Purple, Orange, Voricose
, fail
, crit fail
, crit fail
Haste 3/10
Inspire 3/4
Turn Order
Orange
Purple
Voricose
------------------------------
Slick
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Green
Yellow
Resolving Billys actions, Pine yet to act
Combat status
Slick [248], 58 damage
Billy [198], 15 damage, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200], 60 damage
Reginald [112]
Red, dead
Blue, dead
Orange, dead
Green, 48 damage, blind, blur
Purple, 34 damage
Orange, 68 damage
Voricose, 68 damage
Pine chooses not to dive into the whirlpool, and therefore joins Slick in striking at the other giants.
He moves towards and around the other one, who still doesn't seem to be able to see him after Sigourney's light spell. That's cheating, which is fine with him. He stabs and slashes as he circles around.
Billy's words sear into the minds of the giants while Pine zips over and stabs poor, blind, Green. He begins to bleed copious amount of blood and ice covers his limbs.
Green flails wildly at the enemy attacking him but to no effect. Another giant emerges on the far side of the whirlpool and hurls a pair of boulders at Sigourney.
Orange flails about in the water, his mind overwhelmed. Purple wades out and chucks a rock at Sigourney but it goes well wide.
Voricose drops to the ground at Billy's command. He struggles to his feet and wades out of the water, snarling in frustration. Impudent mortals, you will all perish in agony With that he lashes out at Billy with his whip. His wounds also appear to be closing.
Green, Purple, Orange, Voricose
, pass
, pass
, crit fail
, fail
, miss, possible hit
, miss
, miss
, miss
, crit
x2 for 62
I missed Greens bleed, rolling it here to avoid messing up rolls.
Haste 4/10
Inspire 4/4
Turn Order
Orange
Purple
Voricose
------------------------------
Slick
Pine
Sigourney
Billy
------------------------------
Green
Yellow
Party is up
Combat status
Slick [248], 10 damage
Billy [198], 77 damage, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200], 60 damage
Reginald [112]
Red, dead
Blue, dead
Green, 220 damage, blind, blur, 6d6 bleed, enfeebled 1
Purple, 34 damage
Orange, 68 damage, prone
Voricose, 48 damage
Having cut down the nearest giant with a couple of well-placed sword strokes, Slick throws a quick glance at his blurry buddy. Seeing that Pinebrush had the situation under control there, Slick turns to check on what the rest of the bad guys are up to. He is pleased to see the leader of the pack wading out of Sigourney's makeshift swimming pool well within reach of his leaping abilities. He is definitely not happy to see the blackguard preparing to slice Billy open with a precision whip strike.
"Hey bub! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Then, with another mind-melting roar at the boss (), he leaps over Billy and slams his sword down repeatedly on the evil creature's head.
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.
Sigourney would very much like to pull Voricose back into the vortex, but she knows knowledge is power and that the party lacks information on the fiendish enemy before them. Besides, she already has a victim stuck inside her vortex. Effortlessly, she Sustains the effect of the Whirlpool, giving the giant inside a bad time.
She then tries to Recall Knowledge about what she overheard at any point in time about what kind of creature Voricose is, as well as what the lowest save its creature type would normally have.
She uses her Loremaster Spells (Loremaster's Etude) to boost her cognitive ability.
Moving to another spell, she notices Voricose's regeneration and decides to put a stop to that. Taking advantage of his frightened state, she glares at Voricose and invokes death upon him. "You scared? You should be. Because your life will come to an end very shortly. Curse Sign - Death upon you!"
She then hastily moves away from the action and behind the giant anvil.
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.
"Okay, I'm feeling pretty good that these are definitely bad guys!"
That settled, he jabs at the blinded giant again. "Okay, I'll just... do that, then. Did you know that a giant's eyes are super vulnerable to a tiny sword if they can't see?"
Billy waits for Sigourney to provide intel on the multi-armed boss, who was kind enough to drop prone, but is now uncomfortably close. After the witch shares what's in her large brain, Billy quickly moves away from the monstrosity .
Muttering "aim game" to cast Sure Strike and activating his Shadow Signet , he sings,
♫"The boss is getting near. He looks to be in fright.
Billy's role is clear. It's time for Holy Light."♫
or
Voricose seems mildly startled at Slicks roaring.
However, as Slick leaps at him he tries to cut him out of the air. Sadly that does not save him as Slick pounds him mercilessly.
The giant in Sigourneys whirlpool flails around. Regarding Voricose, Sigourney recognises that he is some form of unique Velstraac interlocutor. As a large creature he is somewhat clumsy (Reflex is lowest).
She then tries to curse him but he shrugs off the worst of it.
Pine stabs Green who crumples under all of the punishment. He then scurries over to purple who is somewhat discombobulated by the little Sprite.
Billy blasts Voricose with divine light. Fearful as he is, the beam strikes him full in the face, burning out his eyes and searing into his brain. His lifeless corpse crumples to the ground.
With only a handful of giants left the group quickly dispatch them with little trouble. All goes quiet.
COMBAT OVER
, hit
, slashing and cold, -4 resist
, pass
, crit fail
, success
Combat status
Slick [248], 34 damage
Billy [198], 15 damage, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200], 60 damage
Reginald [112]
After Billy's blast takes the top off Voricose's head, Slick and Pine finish off the last of the giants. Slick searches the bodies, especially Voricose's, hoping to find a Harrow card, or failing that, anything of value. He then pokes his head into the room that Voricose came out of and notes what appears to be a bar and a desk covered in documents. What he doesn't see is any more bad guys in the room and no indication of bad guys coming through the door on the eastern wall of the bar . "Looks like we're clear. I think we've got time to patch ourselves up."
Once everyone is patched up, Slick leads the way in a thorough search of the area and particularly the office/bar room for anything of interest.
"Well then hold still!" says Pine as he stows his weapons and takes out his medical tools.
Slick is down 34. I'll do Master Risky Surgery. critical success for and . Net 38, fully healed.
Sigourney is down 60. Also Master Risky Surgery. critical success for and . Net 43. (Hey, Risky Surgery actually helped this one!)
Next Round:
Sigourney is still down 17. I'll do Exert Risky Surgery. critical success for and . Net 28, fully healed.
Sigourney Refocuses for 20 minutes while waiting for Pine to finish treating her wounds.
After Slick checks for traps and loot for her, she follows him into the next room. She takes an interest in the documents on the desk and starts looking through them.
Billy's eyes widen as Voricose goes down. "Thanks for the intel, Sig. And having him frightened was a big help, Slick." While Pinebrush tends to his wounds, Billy softly strums his lute to refocus his energy.
Once the group is healed, Billy helps search the bodies and the giant-sized room to the north.
The group spend a little time patching themselves up and preparing for any further enemies. Peering into the building, it contains a single room that’s been outfitted to serve as a giant-sized tavern. The chamber features one table and three chairs, a bar, and a gigantic barrel that drips red fluid from its tap. The place smells of raw meat as much as it does alcohol. The twenty-foot-high ceiling is supported by a tangled crisscrossing of soot-stained wooden beams reinforced with bronze fittings.
A giant lies sprawled on the table, seemingly insensate. His skull has been sawed open and then the top hurriedly replaced. He appears to be conscious, but immobile. It is unclear just what was being done to the poor creature but, checking the other giants, they all seem to have gone through a similar procedure.
Checking for loot you find a veritable treasure trove! Each giant carries a spiked chain, a bag of 5 rocks (some have been used) and wears a +1 breastplate (size large, which makes no difference to the value but makes them far more bulky).
Voricose does carry an interesting oversized magical whip.
Its a +3, greater striking, greater frost whip
A large, heavy set, door stands to the east leading into the cliff face the building is built against.
There are no documents on the desk, that's just a map artefact.
"I don't think I like this. Oh, oh! Lemme see that!"
"I dunno what that is, never mind. It's too big anyway."
Pinebrush instead turns his attention to seeing if he can figure out anything about the unconscious giant.
Billy peers into the large room. "Wow! This is, quite literally, the largest bar I've ever seen." After a short pause, he admits, "And I've seen a lot of bars."
When he notices the poor giant with half his head missing, he turns gravely serious. "This is horrible. I think he's still alive. Can we save him?" Billy studies the creature.
In Jotun, Billy says, "I'm Billy. We're here to help. Are you in pain?" Depending on the giant's response, Billy may lay hands on the creature to offer immediate healing.
"Only literally, though. There's only one table."
Slick checks out Voricose's whip.
"Nice weapon! Almost as nice as mine, but not quite." He goes onto describe what each of the runes on the whip does. He hands it to Pinebrush. "Looks like you can make the best use of this for the time being."
When Billy starts healing the recapitated giant on the table, Slick makes a tch tch tch sound with his mouth. "You're wasting your time Billy. Even if you can get the brute back on his feet, we'll probably have to cut him down again like we did with the others."
Sigourney checks out the whip, surprised that Slick knew what it was and unsure that he managed to identify it.
With a quick glance, she confirms that it is a large magical whip, exactly as Slick said. She leaves it at that and moves over to the far more interesting thing - the comatose giant.
"How very interesting. Billy, you know more about medicine than I do. Let me know if you need magical healing to keep him up though." She remarks.
Pine looks from Slick, to the whip whose handle is longer than he is tall, then back to Slick. "Um, Minty Toothpick already has all those same runes anyway."
Checking over the giant, he is entirely insensate. The velstraac seems to have been in the middle of some sort of procedure to render him compliant. Your arrival has interrupted it, leaving him in a comatose state which you could not repair without access to powerful magic. A regenerate spell would likely restore him.
Checking the rest of the room, the barrels clearly contain more of the disgusting bloody beer and then there is the set of large doors to the east. Beyond them you can hear a ticking sound...
Once Billy gives up on trying to revive the comatose giant, Slick looks over at the large eastern doors. "If everyone is done in here, I think we'd better go see what's behind those doors. I'm curious to discover what the source of that ticking sound might be.
He lets Pinebrush examine the doors just in case, then leads the group through.
After examining the poor creature, Billy decides not to waste energy trying to heal the disfigured giant. Instead, he follows Slick to the eastern doors.
Upon hearing the ticking, the bard mutters, "Note to self: Buy some Clairvoyance scrolls on your next Absalom visit." After Pinebrush checks for traps, Billy grips his staff, starts up his Musical Accompaniment, and waits for Slick to do the honors.
"Well, let's take a look first..."
Pine looks over the door to see if there's any mechanism there that might explain the ticking. If he doesn't find anything, he guesses that the sound is actually coming from the other side and listens carefully to see if he can make anything out.
+1 if sight is helpful.
Sigourney considers regenerating the giant to bring it back to life, purely so that she can use more magic. However, after seeing how Billy and Slick were at best not keen to do that, she relents...for now. She'll come back later to check this giant out.
She hears Billy muttering to himself about Clairvoyance scrolls. A smile creeps across her face as she pulls out her very expensive Crystal ball.
"There's no need for that, Billy!" She says to the halfling. "Gather around me, we can see through the door with my crystal ball." With the group all looking through the ball, she spends a minute to view the other side of the doors.
The group gathers around Sigourney's crystal ball. Peering into its depths an image slowly forms of a large cavern with countless clockwork machines built into the walls. Some emit steam, constantly or in intervals, whistling as they do. Most of the machinery has been built off the ground, leaving the stony floor clear. On one side of the chamber stands the upper portion of a titanic humanoid skull.
The door does not appear to be trapped or locked and you can see no other exits from the room although there are many nooks and caves in the walls and ceilings of the cavern.
Billy studies the crystal ball carefully, using his infrared heatvision and ability to see the unseen.
Seeing all the interesting clocks, he says brightly, "Time's a wasting. Let's go in!" He waits for Slick to do the honors and follows him in.
Upon entering, he looks around for any spirts or haunts using his Spirit Sense.
When Slick gets the all-clear from Pinebrush, he pushes open the door, regrips his sword, and steps through into the large cavern beyond. "Hello? Anybody home?"
Sigourney puts away her crystal ball after everyone is done looking through it. She follows Billy and Slick into the room, continuing to Detect Magic.
Pushing open the door you enter the large cave. The first thing that strikes you is the heat, then the noise of the machinery and the steam venting from the various devices.
Moving inside, a figure emerges from the mouth of the massive skull to the south. No bigger than a halfling, the creature has had its eyes burned from their sockets and its fingers are a strange amalgam of tools and keys. Despite this, they hold what is unmistakably, a harrow card from the Deck. It cocks its head to one side and the distinct sound of ticking machinery can be clearly heard over the sounds of the machines.
Intruders, it whirrs, You must not be permitted to interrupt the great work...
Initiative
, +2 item visual/hearing, +2 circ scout
, Perception +25, +1 circ if visual, +2 circ scout
, +2 circ scout, +2 item visual
Before the group can react however, a strange, shadowy, bat like figure with broad wings swoops down from amongst the pipework on the walls. It spreads its wings wide and unleashes a mass of multicoloured light over the group!
Sigourney recognises it as Prismatic Spray.
Then a second swoops down and does the same! Sigourney and Billy are both struck by the green rays and begin to feel unwell.
, not a crit pass so no bonus
Who gets hit by what! Slick, Billy, Pine, Sig, Reg
, pass
, pass
, pass
, pass
, pass
Prismatic Spray has no effect on a save.
Who gets hit by what! Slick, Billy, Pine, Sig, Reg
, pass
, fail
, pass
, fail
, pass
Turn Order
Billy is up
Combat status
Slick [248],
Billy [198], 30 damage, enfeebled 1, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200], 30 damage, enfeebled 1
Reginald [112]
Tiktoc
Blue, 10' up
Red, 10' up
After taking a blast from the green ray, Billy is weakened. The non-athletic bard doesn't notice much difference. With his background music aiding him, he belts out some inspiration.
♫"Hearing a lot of tick-tocking.
And now we have bats that are flocking.
.....It's time for a cheer.
.....Let's get into gear!
These enemies need a good clocking."♫
Not satisfied, he continues. As he usually does.
♫"Here among the clocks. I'm keen to keep on rhyming.
With flowing golden locks. We'll now improve our timing!"♫
As ever, Billy gets the party moving. The, a third of the strange shadowy bat things, drops down from the pipes, spreads it wings and unleashes another prismatic spray.
Slick, Billy, Pine, Sig, Reg
, fail
, pass
, pass
, pass
, crit fail
Slick gets struck by yet another colorful spray from a bat creature, but this time it hits him head on and he starts to feel a little funny. He shakes his head to try and clear it...
, Bravery, +1 vs Fear effects
Slick manages to hold himself together as Reginald loses it. He begins to squeak and screech and claw uselessly at Sigourney.
Inspire 1/4
Haste 1/10
Turn Order
Blue
Red
-------------------------------
Billy
-------------------------------
Green
-------------------------------
Slick
Pine
-------------------------------
Tiktoc
-------------------------------
Sigourney
Combat status
Slick [248],
Billy [198], 30 damage, enfeebled 1, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214]
Sigourney [200], 30 damage, enfeebled 1
Reginald [112], permanently confused
Tiktoc
Blue, 10' up
Red, 10' up
Gree, 10, up
Having weathered all the spell-generated colorful bursts with no more effect on him than if it were all confetti, Slick turns his focus to the nearest enemy. "You'll pay dearly for what you did to our friend Reginald, bub. Now preprare to die!" And with a load roar to terrify the creature, he leaps up and slashes at it twice before landing.
Oh no, Reggie! Pinebrush sees Slick going after the big bat-things, but he's more concerned about the little key guy that seems to be their leader (even if they did hurt Reginald!).
He also doesn't seem to have noticed him, so he might be able to get the drop on him... even if he has to cover a lot of ground to do it. If this turns out to be a bad idea, he can always turn invisible!
Is the little guy too mechanical to bleed?
Slick howls at Blue and leaps at him. He lands two swift blows, leaving the creature reeling.
Pine rushes over towards Tiktok. As he closes on him the eyes of the massive Skull flare brightly.
, fail
As Pine approaches Tiktok he feels as if his skin is being peeled from his body! He reels in agonising pain. The ticking sound also grows louder. Tiktok jabs at him with his key like fingers as he gets up close and personal, hitting him in a very sore spot. He does manage to land his own blow, although the cold does not seem to bother him. He does bleed at least. The ticking sound is quite distracting though.
Tiktok turns on Pine. As he does so, Pine sees his wounds already starting to close. Tiktok lashes out, leaving another serious hole in the little sprite before moving, slowly, towards the main group.
mental and slowed 1 next turn
, crit
, doubled for 50 and 4d6 bleed
, pass
Tiktok
, crit
, miss
, doubled for 54 and 4d6 bleed
Sigourney isn't doing so well. Enfeebled and physically ill, she has spent her round fighting off the now maddened and confused Reginald. She had hoped Pine would be able to fend off the weird looking small creature, only to see him bend under 2 hard blows. She rapidly considers her options. The main enemy is immune to Cold and has fast reactions. The flying enemies can cast spells. That's...not a lot to go off. She needs knowledge. Knowledge is power, she reminds herself. And power will let them win.
Weighing her options, she realises that she needs to keep Pine in the fight, if not healthy. She leaves Reginald to madly thrash around and hastily Strides towards Pine. Once in range, she Heals Pine, restoring some of his wounds.
She then realises that she is too far away from Slick to give him a boost into the air - but not too far away from the enemies to give them a nasty shock. With a quick incantation, she summons a Phantom Orchestra on top of Green and Red.
"You'll regret what you did to Pine! Sound Sign!"
As she slows her stride near to the weird creature known as Tiktok, she feels her mind overtaken by a distractingly addictive ticking sound emanating from this horrible deformed being. Drawing on her reserves of willpower, she tries to fight off the brainrot.
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.
Heal reroll because I messed it up:
Sigourney recognises the flying things as Ankou's, a dangerous type of fey. They are rather fragile (fort lowest save). She brings some much needed healing to Pine before blasting a pair of the creatures, but to limited effect. Moving closer to Tiktok she resists the strange ticking noise.
Blue, badly damaged, breaks off from Slick and dives at Sigourney before soaring back into the air, leaving a bloody slash in its wake. Red, apparently angry at being blasted, does the same!
, pass
, pass
Blue
, hit
+2d6 bleed
Red
, hit
Inspire 2/4
Haste 2/10
Turn Order
Blue
Red
-------------------------------
Billy
-------------------------------
Green
-------------------------------
Slick
Pine
-------------------------------
Tiktok
-------------------------------
Sigourney
Combat status
Slick [248]
Billy [198], 30 damage, enfeebled 1, see invisibile
Pinebrush [214], 70 damage, slowed 1, 4d6 bleed
Sigourney [200], 71 damage, enfeebled 1, 2d6 bleed
Reginald [112], permanently confused
Tiktoc
Blue, 143 damage, 40' up, frightened 1
Red, 11 damage, 40' up
Green, 11 damage, 10, up
TikTok, 29 damage, -10 spd, 3d6 bleed