Caladaer Eglen's page

Knowledge (nature): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24

What does Cal know about this lady? Not that it matters that much; she has shown her power and Cal's mind is basically already made up. But he would still like to know who it is he's going through a mysterious portal with while essentially completely helpless.

Caladaer doesn't say a word as the... woman?... makes her sales pitch and demonstration of power. Even after she is done speaking and awaiting an answer, he doesn't respond. He doesn't ask questions, though of course he has many. She doesn't seem the type to answer them truthfully--or at all--anyway.

Cal isn't the particular flavor of arrogant that allows one to believe oneself to be superior to all others and incapable of being outsmarted. But he is the type of arrogant that believes that only a being capable of outsmarting him has anything to offer him. The promise of "untold" power is obviously b~&!%+~%; that said, he has to admit to being intrigued.

Kroft told them to lay low. Fatia and her band of fanatics will protect Golloriel, who surely will spend her time training and tending to the rabble. Going to the fey realm with a fey queen to learn some fey knowledge sounds like a better time than wallowing in his own filth again.

The creature is still looking at him, patiently awaiting his response. His head almost imperceptibly turns toward the door--toward Golloriel--then he shrugs and walks through the portal.

Caladaer isn't surprised. He simply gestures for Rey to follow him and returns to the vampire's room. The vats can wait until they have retrieved Kroft; after all, she may useful in procuring the resources they need to deal with them.

He enters the room and immediately finds that he doesn't want to make eye contact with Kroft. What is happening to him?

He holds the coffer up to the creature. "Your spoils, Vampire. Return our comrade and leave this place."

Caladaer doesn't say anything out loud, but with the loot they are gathering here, they could afford to resurrect Andakos a dozen times over. Given the state of the city right now, it may be difficult to secure a cleric skilled enough to successfully read the scroll, but finding one that can keep him gentle reposed until things return to normal should be doable.

As he gathers their spoils, he glances at Andakos's broken body, idly wondering if there is divine magic strong enough to repair him back to full strength. He supposes powerful clerics wouldn't be as expensive (or as rare) as they are if it didn't restore the body, but what of the mind? Can one even as strong (Cal begrudgingly admits) as Andakos recover from such a trauma, or will he see Andaisin's scythe everywhere he turns?

Was it a blessing that he had been blinded and didn't see his demise coming?

He is so practiced at identifying magic items that these thoughts are all able to race through his mind even as he goes through the items one by one. But any opportunity to feel smug about his rapidly increasing magical abilities is undercut by another feeling, one he isn't familiar with: could he have taken Andaisin down sooner? After all, it was mere seconds after she cut Andakos down that he dropped a horse on her. Hells, he even took out his bow! His magic was gone, but he proved in the end that he had other tricks up his sleeve. Did he allow their frankly effortless handling of her human form to make him complacent?

Is it his fault Andakos is dead?

He shakes the thought from his head as he finishes up with the spoils. It strikes him that almost everything here will be useful to Golloriel way in one way or another... if he can convince her to use them. She would be the type to reject powerful relics with the taint of "evil" on them. He has a strong feeling this isn't over -- that stupidly powerful vampire in the other room hints at even more influential forces at work -- and they should take every advantage they can in order to keep those who are left alive.

But that is a conversation for another time. They have the death's head coffer; time to go make the trade for Kroft.

He finally responds to Rey. "Yes. He will be fine here while we deal with the business in the next room. Unless you'd like to stay with him, Golloriel?"

Cal holds a finger up impatiently while he finishes searching Andaisin. Once done, he sets aside anything he finds, then stands and begins to study the room.

I want to check out the pool in the middle and the seven pools (?) around the perimeter. Using detect magic and perception, I guess? He also has all the knowledges so feel free to roll whatever he needs. +14 arcana, +14 dung, +10 eng, +11 geog, +11 hist, +9 local, +10 nature, +9 nobles, +14 planes, +9 relig. +14 spellcraft with +2 to identify items.

perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29

Caladaer wants nothing more than to revel in his ingenious idea. He just used a spell that the greenest acolyte could cast in his sleep to put down a powerful undead beast, a creature blessed by Urgathoa herself! It is unlikely he will do anything as badass as that again, and he's entitled to gloat about it.

But... but. The person who would be most impressed with what he just pulled off is lying in two pieces on the floor.

Godsdammit, tiefling.

He looks around the room, unsure what to do with himself. His daughter is praying at Andakos's side. Rey is just standing there, stunned. The zombies... oh. Yeah. The zombies. They need to go. He has absolutely no magic left, so he draws his dagger, looks at it, shrugs, and gets started on one of the three remaining zombies. He isn't skilled enough with a blade to make it quick, but the beast is under his complete control, so it stands there patiently while he remurders it.

He nods his thanks to Rey when she notices what he is doing and comes over to help (hope it's not presumptuous to make that assumption!). With her assistance, the zombies are down before Golloriel completes her prayer.

When she finishes and doesn't immediately get up, he again wonders what he should do. The obvious thing would be to comfort his daughter, but he ... well, he doesn't know how. And, if he's completely honest with himself, she probably doesn't want to be comforted by him.

He catches Rey's eyes and gestures that she should comfort Golloriel. In the meantime, he walks to Andaisin's remains, thankful that the summoned horse disappeared when it died rather than exploding all over the room (though it would be hard to make this room more covered in gore). He kneels next to her and searches her. Whatever else they do here, they need to find that death's head coffer.

Cal auto-aids perception

Caladaer retrieves another wand from his pack and addresses Rey. "Once we are through the door, stay close." He holds the wand up. "This will make you more dextrous. Should help with those daggers."

Okay. So. Animate dead is a 4th level wizard spell, but a 3rd level everything else (cleric/oracle/etc) spell. The caster level matters not for duration but for the number of HD of undead we can raise. Not sure if the book specifies what the CL of the wand is, but lmk either way. We're literally just creating meat shields here. Choke the battlefield and annoy the s!!& out of the GM with the gazillion tokens!

Caladaer returns to the carnage of their massive battle. He directs Andakos, "Look for the most intact ones," then begins the gruesome process of finding his "candidates", prioritizing those that would return as zombies rather than skeletons. Once satisfied, he gestures to Andakos to stand back, then begins the process.

Even though it would be a simple matter of waving the wand to activate the spell, he still takes it slowly and treats it with the gravity it deserves. He even feels a twinge of shame at the underlying excitement and anticipation coursing through him.

Ugh, it's late and I'm tired and feeling prosed out. Wrapping this up.

He raises some zombies and commands them to follow him back to the others.

Cal nods. "Of course."

Before she can change her mind, he looks at Andakos. "Would you care to assist?"

Cal scoffs. "Do not act like a child, Golloriel. You need my help, and this" -- he brandishes the wand -- "this is how I can help. It is not evil. It is practical. Pragmatic."

He feels his anger rising and he wants nothing more than to chastise her, to tell her to grow up, to pull the "I'm your father, that's why" card. But he can feel the tiefling's gaze on him. That gaze speaks multitudes: this way will not work. And he hates -- HATES -- to admit that the tief... Andakos... is right.

Play to her protective nature.

"Golloriel. Look at me. My mirror images are gone. I have nothing left to summon. I will be a sitting duck in there. At the very least, having a few extra bodies around me will free you up to help Andakos and Rey, instead of worrying about me." He smiles at her, and is a little surprised to find that the smile is genuine. "This is my role in this fight. They are mindless and their... souls... have already left their bodies. They will be literal meat shields and under my complete control. You know that I am right."

Caladaer can't help but snort a laugh at his companions' bravado. "I have basically nothing. I can make one of you fly, and I think I might be able to toss a glitterdust out. And I guess I have a handful of acid darts left. Haste is gone." He shrugs and thinks for a minute. Eyebrows raised, he turns to look back in the direction they came from, where they left a few dozen corpses behind. "Huh."

He looks at Golloriel and laughs again. She is not going to like this.

"There is one way I can be helpful." He pulls a black, desiccated wand from his pack. "I may not be able to do any direct damage, but I can overwhelm our foes with numbers. I'm going to ask some of our friends back there to help us."

Caladaer's eyebrows raise at the tiefling's offer. He has to give Andakos credit: he did not see that coming.

He looks at the vampire, suddenly very curious what will happen next.

Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27

Cal points at the door. "Five hundred year old opera."

---

In response to Andakos's question, Cal shrugs. "Each vat is enchanted separately. Get me a scroll for each vat and I can do it."

Cal auto-aids perception checks.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17

Figures.

Not knowing if Rolth teleported or simply vanished, Cal yells "EYES!" and drops a glitterdust directly southeast of Andakos.

Acid dart from the ranged expert of the party.

ranged touch: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (7) + 6 - 4 = 9
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

"Tiefling! He's trying to drain you!"

He's basically completely spent so I might as well keep the new MI. I seriously doubt I can hit Rolth with acid dart but it's all I have left.

acro: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4

Cal tries to scoot past #6 without taking a claw to the face, but he trips over a body at exactly the wrong time. He hopes that his new images will save him the indignity of getting hit by a mook skeleton.

Once tucked into a corner in the next room, he unleashes the last tool in his toolbox: ACID DART!!

ranged touch: 1d20 + 6 - 4 ⇒ (6) + 6 - 4 = 8
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

This is going well so far!

Okay, I'm secretly fascinated by necromancy and even I think this is f%##ing annoying.

Cal decides he better get some images back up. They have been clutch in this slog of a fight. He steps out of #1's reach and recasts mirror image.

images: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

That's what I was going to do anyway.

Cal makes everyone fast again.

Not to well-actually you, but that crit didn't confirm because I rolled a nat 1. Still a lot of damage though!

Earnest pops onto the material plane and quickly assesses the situation. Whoa, that's a lot of dead bodies. Let's make more!

He steps toward the zombie to the south of him (#1) and slams it.

slam: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
damage: 1d6 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

Ugh.

---

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

Ah, ghoul touch. I have a wand for that but everyone is always too close to each other! Stupid 1e!

spellcraft on spectral hand: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

I'm assuming that's enough for him to know that he can kill it.

Cal moves past the floaty scythe and into the next room. He uses his pearl of power to recall magic missile and fires off two missiles at the spectral hand and the third at zombie #1 (which he can now barely see).

MM @ hand: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (2, 3) + 2 = 7
MM @ zombie 1: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Caladaer is running out of spells. He hears the cultist yell for a "necromancer", though, and realizes there must still be more dudes to kill. He shakes his head and begins an incantation.

Earnest the small earth elemental will appear at the beginning of his next turn. Concentration check in case he needs it (if he takes damage, it's DC 12 + damage taken):

concentration: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15

Cool.

Cal fires off his final magic missile at cultist #1. He makes sure they fly close enough to Golloriel's head that she can hear the whoosh as they go by. He grins to himself.

MM: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 4, 2) + 3 = 11

spellcraft 1: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20
spellcraft 2: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (3) + 14 = 17

Caladaer resists the urge to yawn and sends some more missiles in #1's direction. (I can't remember if spiritual weapons threaten, but here's a CD check just in case.)

CD DC17: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24
MM: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 1, 3) + 3 = 9

Well this isn't ideal.

Caladaer once again tries to cast a spell while almost completely surrounded.

cast defensively DC17: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

He breathes a sigh of relief as the three small orbs of pure force appear over his palm. For a split second he hesitates, realizing that he hadn't decided whose face was going to be the recipient of the missiles (which in turn makes him wonder if he expected to lose another spell? And if he did, wtf?), but he quickly settles on skelly 1. They seem easiest for him to take down, especially since none of these burly idiots brought a hammer.

MM: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (4, 3, 1) + 3 = 11

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31

Does Cal know if these damn scythes will despawn when their owners go down? (I know, but I'm wondering if he does.) If they stick around, he knows he's the only one that can kill them so it will affect what his target is this round.

Well. This isn't great.

Between his images, Andakos's protective fighting style, and the general mook-iness of their opponents, Caladaer feels pretty protected, but he still does not enjoy being surrounded. He sends some magic missiles point blank into cultist #2's face, going through the incantation carefully to avoid opening himself up to counterattack.

cast defensively DC17: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15

Christ on a f$!$ing CRACKER!

Cal curses under his breath as the bad guys come up behind him. He steps inside Andakos's protective shell and casts haste on the party.

Caladaer says nothing. Instead, he raises his hands and prepares to attack the people who will definitely not listen to his daughter.

Readied magic missile for anything hostile that opens the door.

MM: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (2, 3, 4) + 3 = 12

perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23

When it becomes clear they aren't going to move on quickly, Cal waves a hand and dismisses Lawrence. He looks over the silver coffer.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 14 + 2 = 24 (+2 to identify)

Interesting.

He hands it to Andakos with a brief description of what it is.

Lawrence doesn't speak Common so he makes his way across the room and goes for #4's throat. One day I'll get to use Pounce.

bite: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 8 + 2 = 16
damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
grab: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31

---

Caladaer does speak Common, but he doesn't do anything to stop Lawrence from attacking, nor does he stop himself. These people have made it clear they aren't going to surrender, so he doesn't know why his daughter is wasting everyone's time. He takes a step back and fires another acid dart.

acid dart (ranged touch): 1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 5 - 4 = 17
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Lawrence pops into existence on the other side of #3 from Rey. On the small chance that the physician is lawful, he smites them ("Grr."), then #3's world is naught but pointy things.

bite: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 8 + 2 = 17 Flanking (no bonus for smite because his CHA is 6)
damage: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7 +3 if lawful
grab: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13

claw: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 8 + 2 = 27 Flanking
damage: 1d3 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8 +3 if lawful

claw: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 8 + 2 = 14 Flanking
damage: 1d3 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6 +3 if lawful

---

Cal thinks the burly types probably have this under control, so he opts to not use up his more valuable spells. He sizes up #4, conjures a glob of acid above his palm, and launches it at the physician.

acid dart: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7

Using a harrow point to reroll that save.

fort: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22

Caladaer raises his eyebrows at Andakos's very bad day, steps behind Golloriel, and begins an incantation.

summon monster iii to bring Lawrence the leopard in. We need another warm body!

Cal re-casts mirror image on himself, then nods to Andakos that he is ready.

images: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

At Kroft and Cabe's mention of it, Caladaer seems to realize for the first time how disgusting he must look. He stands near enough to them to interject anything that the tiefling fails to bring up, but he prestidigitates the gore off of him in the meantime.

Cal begins looking around the rest of the room, with the intention of finding evidence against Devaulus (and perhaps the Queen?).

perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26 +3 bright light
perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14 +3 bright light
perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27 +3 bright light
perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15 +3 bright light
perc: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (4) + 11 = 15 +3 bright light

Caladaer burps up some bile and makes a mental note to get a scroll or wand of delay poison. He calls Thúlae to his shoulder.

spellcraft: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16

sigh

Cal figures the brawny types can finish off the last Maiden, so he pulls a cure light wounds potion out and downs it.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

Cal moves past Golloriel and out of the swarm. He moves past the Maiden, knowing that she will probably take a swipe at him, but trusting in his mirror image to save him (provokes). Once he is in a position where he won't hit his allies, he unleashes a burning hands into the swarm.

burning hands: 5d4 ⇒ (1, 1, 2, 3, 1) = 8

Woof. DC 16 reflex half, +50% damage (maybe?). Physician #3 is in the cone too.

Caladaer sees maiden #1 close to falling and decides to put her down so Golloriel and Rey can get freed up sooner to help with Big Bad over here. He waves a hand dismissively and three missiles erupt from it.

MM @ #1: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (3, 4, 4) + 3 = 14

Booyah.

Yep, that's correct on life link. Also, Rey doesn't get Bodyguard because Andakos isn't adjacent to her :(

Cal's eyebrows raise at Rey's impressive display of dagger work. He was going to have Thúlae burn some "physician" eyeballs out with burning gaze, but she took care of them. He knows it would be next to useless on the good doctor, so he hesitates. On the other hand, he can hear the Grey Maidens on their way, and they looked flammable, so he proceeds with his original plan, casting burning gaze on the hawk and sending him off to perch on the highest piece of furniture he can find (I guessed on the map, but feel free to move him to a higher perch, provided it's on the eastern end of the room).

Cal doesn't have false life. And I rolled 6 images.

Cal yells out a succinct summary of all that he knows about this thing. Then he waves a hand, utters an incantation, and everyone suddenly feels faster.

haste

# of images: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

NOICE.

Also: gross.

Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33

So 3 questions?
1. Resistances
2. Immunities? Probably at least fire.
3. Special abilities/attacks?

Okay. So I just saw the knowledge (local) spoiler, and I swear I didn't switch the order of these rolls.

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Hmm. Interesting.

I'll wait for knowledge before proceeding.

Readied mirror image

Cal makes his way into the room, ensuring that he is as far from both the doorway and the doctor as possible. He commands Thúlae to keep watching for trouble, then calls the incantation for mirror image to the front of his mind.

Up to you if you'll allow this, but I'd like to ready an action to cast mirror image at the first sign of hostility.

heal: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Caladaer helps.

Autoaids all perception checks.

Caladaer doesn't trust any of these people, least of all that "doctor". Something isn't right here and he is certain they will be fighting soon. He speaks one simple word to Thúlae. Thúlae hears "WATCH" but everyone else hears something along the lines of "SQWAAAAK!"

The tiefling seems agitated and off his game. Cal looks for everything that Andakos is sure to miss.

perception patients (aid): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30 +3 if bright light
perception storage (aid): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21 +3 if bright light
perception storage (aid): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29 +3 if bright light
perception storage (aid): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (1) + 11 = 12 +3 if bright light

LOL I guess he autoaids, but rolling is fun!

Cal casts mage armor via the wand (12 charges remaining) and false life (1d10 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 temp hp), then helps out with the looking and the peering.

perc door: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (18) + 11 = 29
perc inside: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14