It was a super awesome game IB! Probably the farthest I think a PbP game has ever reached as well, closest I've got otherwise is a level 6 character.
Good times, good times.
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Farewell all, it's been a blast! I'm sad that we'll never get to see the 9th take on the world, but such is life. Take care of yourselves, and remember to take time out of your busy lives and to have some fun :) ** Caladwhen gracefully curtsies, and exits stage left **
Just wanted to give you guys the heads up that I'll be out of town and unable to post until Sunday evening.
Alarmed at the sudden turn of Arthepius against them, Caladwhen looks north following the voice. Somebody knows how to command Arthepius. Calling out to her summoned demon, Caladwhen speaks abyssal in a commanding voice "Vehar zeith, azan!" Translation:
"Find it, and kill it."
If Caladwhen can see the target:
Her summoned demon having cleared a visual path, Caladwhen scowls impatiently. You dare interfere with our golem? Grabbing a vial from her belt pouch, Caladwhen flicks the top off, waving her hand over the open vial "Laer seena nos far."
But on that note, I am taking much inspiration especially since Sindran will be dealing, summoning, and binding with other planes if he survives that far and if the GM allows it. Incidentally Sindran, when it comes to binding planar creatures... Caladwhen has dibs on Tiadora; that devil will rue the day she crossed paths with a certain elf necromancer ;)
To be honest IB, the only distinction the spell makes with respect to alignment is good vs. evil, not lawful vs. chaotic. I know that lawful evil is the preferred alignment of those following Asmodeus, but honestly, this Babau will be here for all of nine minutes before it disappears back to the Abyss... hardly enough time to get into an axiomatic debate with it. Honestly, the reason I didn't go with the Barbazu was simply a matter of usefulness... the Babau has sneak attack, and I thought it could be of real use to our sole melee character in this battle. If it's going to be an issue though, we can swap out the Babau for the Barbazu.
The last to arrive, Caladwhen observes the carnage taking place safely and out of sight of the enemy. Suddenly from the corner of her eye, she watches in horror as the woman fires off a vicious flame attack. Deciding she poses a great threat, she quick draws a small candle and murmurs in the demonic tongue "Var calthis umun saeyer." Suddenly, as the candle melts away a vicious skeletal creature dripping with blood seems to silently rise from the shadows behind Kyra. The horrifying creatures wastes little time before eviscerating the Sarenraen with its claws.
Damage subtotal = 18+20+15
Seeing things well underhand, Caladwhen flies near towards the ceiling while moving west about twenty feat.
I just have to say IB, that is one the best PbP battlemaps I've seen from a GM here on Paizo; you even took the time to show Cole with Mirror Image. Bravo! Oh, and Caladwhen will absolutely go in with Improved Invisibility, Fox's Cunning and Fly.
If it's safe for Caladwhen to take over:
Cursing as she hears the explosions, Caladwhen rushes up to ritual room and gently places her hand on Talon's shoulder "They're here; I'll take over here; you need to join Sindran and Cole in the fight." Stepping in, Caladwhen starts to perform the rites that are so familiar to her now, that the transition is almost seamless. If Talon is mid-ritual and can't be disturbed:
Shaking her head, Caladwhen mutters "Damn, they're timing is awful." Glancing at Sindran, she nods since they both understand that they can't really know for sure where the intruders are "Arthepius is powerful, but so are our the intruders; I'm not sure we can wait for the ritual to be complete."
That's more or less what I had proposed... it's the closest thing we can do to an actual assault on their position without the password.
Accompanying Sindran to investigate what happened with the Ceustodaemons, Caladwhen scowls as she observes the carnage "Our sentries are useless with this current predicament. I can reposition the Golem perhaps to help defend the upper reaches here, but until we can figure out where they're coming from, they can come and go at will." Pacing around, Caladwhen glares at the remains of the archer that Vexor had pummeled and raises an eyebrow "We need to take one of them prisoner; as sure as I am that they are torturing Nariel for information on us, we need to do the same," shaking her head she looks up at the ceiling and adds "if we're successful, we might be able to extract the correct password from one of them... otherwise we have to rely on Ezra." With a spiteful emphasis on the Banshee's name, it's clear to all and sundry that Caladwhen is at her wits end when it comes to the spirit. Continuing to look up, Caladwhen shrugs her shoulders and adds after a moment "Well, some good news anyway... the password to this throne is Nen; so now we can port quickly between two locations."
Hey all, apologies for the delay but I forgot to mention that this weekend is Thanksgiving north of the border; I'll try to post either later tonight or tomorrow.
Looking out the window, Caladwhen shakes her head impatiently "Oh now what? Can we not get a moments peace?" Observing the fray a moment, Caladwhen yells out to Talon below Infernal:
"Be careful, they have the ability to dimension door!"
With an urgent look towards Cole and Sindran, Caladwhen nods "We'd best get our forces to meet these fools immediately." With that, Caladwhen starts sending commands to her undead quarries.
With a quiet sigh, Caladwhen shakes her head lightly in guarded frustration. We're done here, for now. Bowing, Caladwhen takes her leave of Ezra.
As Ezra's horrible scream resonates throughout the Horn, Caladwhen winces in fear; this above all else was why Caladwhen hated having to approach the specter of the former elven priestess. Luckily for both Talon and herself, it appeared that her feigned prostrations had mollified the egotistical spirit. Listening to the demands, Caladwhen appeared contrite but secretly she was furious. Ezra, the Daemons... all these servants of Vetra-Kali are so impatient; you'd almost think they hadn't been waiting here for eighty years in shameful defeat the way they carry on... "Of course Priestess, we'll try to speed up the ritual as you have suggested." ... and here we are, trying to usher in her Daemon master where she failed, and the first time we need her help, she has the temerity to demand a pound of flesh from us! "Priestess, I beseech you in the meantime to answer us one last question; can you tell us how many thrones outside the Horn? Until we reach the midpoint, we remain vulnerable to invasion by our enemies... it would help to know just how vulnerable we are." You will live to regret this Ezra-thrice-damned... for as my power grows, your stock will continue to decline. Some day, you will be under my thumb, and all the screaming in the world won't free you.
Looking over at Talon with an expression of both relief and exhaustion, Caladwhen speaks in his native tongue Auran:
"Well, that was simply an awful experience... I apologize to you Talon, I should have warned you that Banshee tend to be touchy about being... well, dead. Standing up and throwing her cloak over her shoulders, Caladwhen shivers and starts to make her way from the Ezra presence as quickly as possible "We need to see the others; what she is proposing is going to get messy. Truthfully, it's probably something Sindran will be able to handle quite aptly, and it it works... we might be able to get out of this god forsaken place sooner than we had originally thought."
Wincing at the sound of the Banshee's voice, Caladwhen bites her lip as though trying to suppress pain. Truly, it took every once of control for the skilled Necromancer to not attempt to overpower the tragic elven specter and send her away from her sight. Shaking her head, Caladwhen cooled herself down and found her nerve... Nariel's life and the security of the Horn depended on Ezra's cooperation. "Don't anger her Talon, she is still a servant of he who eats the eyes, and is deserving of our respect as such." A lie of course, Talon and indeed any of those close to the Necromancer knew it was a lie; Caladwhen didn't give a damn about Ezra or her fiendish master, but she needed them now, and she was good a feigning such sincerity.
Bowing her head and taking a knee, Caladwhen plays the role of penitent and worshiper in one fell swoop "Priestess, we are in dire need your experience. The Horn has been infiltrated by enemies unknown to us, perhaps forces of the Victor or the Sarenraens from Farholde. They threaten the ritual to restore the Master by their insolence." Glancing up reluctantly, Caladwhen looks at the specter, appearing sincere in her reverence "They have used the thrones to enter the Horn, the very same thrones I suspect that you once graced yourself. In order for us to rout out our enemy, we beg of you to let us know the passwords for all the thrones, especially those that lead outside the Horn itself."
Glancing over at Talon contemplatively, Caladwhen nods "Yes, that is a distinct possibility Talon, and renders us considerably more vulnerable than we had previously thought if true." Her slow pacing beginning again, Caladwhen appears to be once more lost in thought. Suddenly she stops, and looks to the ceiling as though resigned to something difficult and unpleasant "I'm afraid I may need to have a word with Ezra. She was head priestess in her day, and her experience might be the only record we have of the passwords that is in our reach." Slowly looking over towards the others, a reluctant Caladwhen adds "Anyone care to join me?" The request seems born out of an underlying strand of tension in the normally stoic elf woman; while weeks had past, this much was clear... Caladwhen was still repulsed by the Banshee in their midst.
You are forgetting one *small* detail though... I think Cala would be able to figure it out. Can you?
Two things come to mind 1. We've thoroughly searched the Horn, and there are only three thrones as far as we know; is it possible it's located somewhere else offsite? In Farholde even 2. We have figure out the password for the forth throne. Is there anyway to do that, or anyone who would know? Wait, wait... Ezra was the head Priestess back in the day; would she know all the passwords? Caladwhen would absolutely hate having to go see her, but I can't think of anyone else who would know.
After inspecting the other thrones, Caladwhen nods her head as though an obvious revelation has finally become clear "The thrones are teleport points; say one of the passwords while sitting on one throne, and you'll be whisked away to one of the others." Angry at herself for not paying attention to the thrones sooner, Caladwhen sits down and leans on her elbow, scowling while lost in thought "That explains the thrones, but not how our enemy is entering the Horn, unless they're already here. Sindran, can you use the eye to scour the entire Horn? I want to make sure there is nobody in our midst."
Getting up and pacing about, Caladwhen suddenly turns and looks at the Throne again "My former master used to have a saying - "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Falling silent a moment, Caladwhen suddenly snaps her right finger "Perhaps there is a fourth throne that our enemy knows of that we don't? That might explain why we haven't been alerted to their presence. Nariel may have discovered who has been infiltrating the Horn by accident, and paid for her discovery dearly."
Alarmed at the sudden disappearance of her trusted confident, Caladwhen follows Cole to the Throne room. Following the evidence to throne itself, Caladwhen coolly shakes her head, though she is clearly cross "This would explain Nariel's absence... whoever attacked her knew about the enchantment tied to this throne." Cursing herself quietly, Caladwhen mutters "How did I fail to notice her absence?" It was true that Caladwhen's time was always consumed by something, either rituals or crafting magical gear for the 9th, but such an oversight was beyond the pale.
Ascending the steps up towards the throne, Caladwhen glares at the stone monstrosity, lost in thought "If memory serves me, the throne is laden with conjuration magic, something I have became increasingly adept with in the past few weeks." Her expression turning to a hardened scowl, Caladwhen realizes the implication of what has transpired "Nariel's abduction here informs me what I always suspected, that this throne is a teleportation device of some form... it also tells me that we very well might have an intruder." Kneeling down to inspect the runes closely, Caladwhen adds "I've put this off long enough; it's time to discover exactly where this damnable throne leads."
While inspecting the throne, Caladwhen looks back at Talon and Cole, an emotion registering on her face that one could only call concern, if indeed Cala was capable of such things "Talon, Cole, can you both thoroughly search the Horn while I do this... we can't rule out that an intruder might still be in our midst."
Back at the Horn, Caladwhen wanders about her lab as she considers what could be nagging at her. Summoning Nariel to her chambers, Caladwhen speaks from behind her desk "Something isn't right Nariel... maybe I'm being paranoid, but I think we should take stock of everything here." Standing up, Caladwhen starts to pace as she recites a laundry list of things to check out "Let's start with the Banshee... I don't trust her, never have; is she up to something. Next we need to check up on our two Daemon friends, make sure their still playing chess." Glancing over at the tablets that Morvius had found, Caladwhen adds in afterthought "I doubt those two are up to anything, since we hold these, but let's not leave any stone unturned." Continuing her pacing, Caladwhen resumes her train of thought "I need to see Sindran; we should do a thorough inspection of the Goblins. In general, we should review our security, make sure that there isn't someone here that shouldn't be. When Cole and Talon return from Farholde, I'll ask them to suss out our present security condition." Sitting down again, Caladwhen looks to her mantle where her trusted broken wing is perched "T'larryo, I want you to thoroughly scout out the Horn for me... if there is anything out of the ordinary, let me know." After a moment of silence, Caladwhen finally finishes her meeting "Alright, that is enough for now; let's get to it."
Increddibelly: IB, is Caladwhen getting this nagging feeling back at the Horn or while still in Farholde? I'm going to roll a perception in the event that might reveal something a little more telling than her sixth sense.
If that turns up nothing, Caladwhen will quickly try to discern if something is amiss in Farholde, and if not... she'll teleport back to the Horn.
Remind me, what is the third sacrifice? A direct descendent of the Victor. Oh, and we really should get started on the third sacrifice as well. Sindran is a bit busy with his pet projects though.... That one Cala does have covered actually, since she absolutely charmed the pants off (not literally, or at least not yet) of a certain Sir Valin Darian at the Baron's little party a few months back. He was of the Victor's blood, a direct descendent. I think it might be time for Caladwhen to pay him a visit soon...
Cala, what did you craft this week? I really need to get that Reach Rod done for Caladwhen; she cannot be anywhere near the front line for combat given her physical weakness, and so many of her spells are touch... so that'll help tremendously. We're getting close to the mid point of the ritual. This required a sacrifice of some sort. This is the next thing Caladwhen will focus on. We need to find a true follower of Sarenrae if I recall correctly... I can't remember, did we take someone prisoner already for that purpose, or do we need to get our butts in gear and find one? If I'm not mistaken, we need one, at which point I'm going to suggest Heitr and Venorik Rah have but one very important task this week... find us somebody.
That little bastard... we're gonna have to locate him and teach him a lesson. I'm going to post later this evening in response to your in-game questions IB.
It is a bane arrow. Mmmm... Dragon Bane one might hope ;)
Eying the Baron closely before he exits, Caladwhen signs to Cole "He's up to something..." Politely refusing the last drink, Caladwhen gets up from her seat and begins to make for the exit. Stopping before leaving, she instructs the servants "We'll be by to pickup the Baron within the next two days, let him know." Exiting the manor, Caladwhen turns to Cole "I'll leave you to your investigations. I'm going to check in with my operatives. Should you see Talon while you're out and about, inform him of our progress with the Baron... I'll inform Sindran."
I think if the Baron agrees, we can move him to the Horn via Teleport and begin preparations for meeting the Argossarian threat. On that note, Caladwhen will be prepping some different spells upon her return to include fire. Sindran, I think you're going to like this encounter... On a completely different topic, and I can't remember if we discussed this before... but are we going to attempt to replace Oret? I think perhaps a more succinct question is, should we attempt to get a front-line warrior to fill the void left by Aerent/Oret?
Cole:
Caladwhen nods and whispers back privately "Precisely, and I'd like for him to continue thinking that."" Listening to Baron as he extols the virtues of reproduction with him, Caladwhen feigns amusement but secretly reviles such notions The nine hells will freeze before such a union ever took place. Looking over at Cole with a raised eyebrow, Caladwhen signs back "No, that will work." Looking over at the Baron with a broad smile, Caladwhen adds "Dear Arkon, of course you can join us at the Horn. While our luxuries pale to those of your manor, it most certainly is the most safe place for you." Satisfied at these turn of events, Caladwhen takes another sip of her wine. At the Horn, the Baron is no longer a potential threat to us. We'll have to make sure to clear all signs of Elise from the place before he arrives. Standing up, Caladwhen crosses the room and leans over to speak breathlessly to the Baron "You'll have to give us a few days to prepare for your arrival; we can setup a private study for you. I'll come and retrieve you myself, so you needn't suffer the hardships of the Caer Bryr in order to find us. Is this... acceptable m'lord?"
Showing little sign of insult as the Baron disrespectfully refers to her as elf, Caladwhen takes in the report fully. This half-breed should tread more carefully. His time will come; nevertheless, best foot forward for the time being.
"Argossarian, thank-you; truly, my reports came from the mouths of common folk, so you'll forgive the inaccuracies; it's why I came to you." Pacing about the room with a drink in her hand, Caladwhen inspects the art hanging in the sitting room, casually attempting to appraise it's worth to herself.
"Some lovely pieces your Lordship; you're home is a treasure." Taking her seat again, Caladwhen smirks and muses "Kill it with fire? My, Sindran will love demonstrating his talent and penchant for fire to Argossarian." Appearing reflective, Caladwhen considers the report and looks to Cole "Reflective scales, clever, a strong sense of justice and obligation towards the weak, and a fear of fire," nodding, Caladwhen adds "yes, I'd be willing to bet it's a Silver Dragon. It is a member of the chromatic family of dragons, very powerful. This will be troublesome indeed."
Turning to face her reluctant host, Caladwhen frowns and confirms the Baron's frosty inference by coolly restating his conclusion "Me." Glancing over at Cole, a resplendent Caladwhen smiles again and continues in a voice that feigns insult as much as it delivers rebuke "My Cole, if I didn't know better, I'd suspect the Baron wasn't expecting somebody else." Gliding slowly across the room, Caladwhen stops close to the Baron and continues to in a similar tone "Of course, that couldn't be, right my dear Arkon?" Slowly frowning at the Baron, Caladwhen returns to usual stoic disposition and flatly states "Come now Baron, we have much to discuss... I mean after all, your city is about to have a most unwelcome visitor, and I don't mean us; what do you know of a certain Argossian?
Watching Talon take off towards Farholde, Caladwhen quickly pens instructions to her followers in the city. Hesitating a moment before handing the envelop to T'Larryo, the stoic Necromancer appears lost in thought. Putting the envelop in the fire, Caladwhen gets up and glances over at T'Larryo "Summon the others, and Nariel as well." When they arrive, Caladwhen appears dressed in her finest garments and immediately address them as they arrive "Talon has gone ahead to Farholde; I've decided to do the same. Firstly, I'd like to check in with my operatives in person, and instruct them personally; it would be good for morale to see me." Moving across the room, Caladwhen picks up a scroll and looks to up "I also intend on dropping in on the Baron. With Elise disposed of, we need to exert control over him once more. He'll be easy to manipulate I suspect, if he could fall for someone as pedestrian as her. I also intend to pick his brains on the Argossian; being native to Farholde, I should hope he knows something of it." With a light smirk, Caladwhen holds the parchment in-front of herself "I have a new method of travel; instantaneous and extremely efficient. I'll be in the Baron's home in a matter of seconds; someone will need to remain behind to hold the fort, but if anyone else is interested in a field excursion, take my hand..."
Arriving in the Baron's home unannounced, a radiant Caladwhen calls out upon arrival in an almost musical tone, which is highly unusual to hear from her "Baron Vandemir, you have company..."
But seriously - please, kindly, accept the consequence of your earlier choice, until the time where Caladwhen falls behind (for whatever reason) and then, absolutely, we *will* come back to this. Of course. I was assuming that Caladwhen wouldn't get the chance to change this, but it never hurts to ask. In any event, it is still good as an RP element for Caladwhen, whatever the impact on effectiveness might be. Also, I'm not worried about Caladwhen diminishing in any way. Caladwhen gets a bonus metamagic feat at level 10 anyway, and some of those crazy tricks you can do only really start to take effect after you can start stacking feats. Getting access to Intensified spell via re-training would be nice at level 9, but not strictly necessary in the grand scheme of things. TLDR - basically, my next two feats will be Sacred Geometry and Intensified Spell. On other business IB, do Grumblejack and Nariel level as well?
Damn right, don't you forget it either lol
Fair enough, had to try. Skeletal summoning was something I did more for flavor, not realizing that it really actually just debuffs summons in some cases; none of the creatures you can summon have decent charisma, so you end up losing HP almost universally and get little in return (except perhaps that they receive the undead template).
Sorry to bug you IB, just one more rule question before we move one - can we can utilize the re-training rules from Ultimate Campaign? Specifically, I'd like to drop Skeletal Summoner (which actually is kinda crap in hindsight) in favor of spending some one-on-one time with Talon to learn Intensify Spell. The feat retraining rules are below: Feat Retraining:
You may change one feat to another through retraining. Retraining a feat takes 5 days with a character who has the feat you want. The old feat can't be one you used as a prerequisite for a feat, class feature, archetype, prestige class, or other ability. If the old feat is a bonus feat granted by a class feature, you must replace it with a feat that you could choose using that class feature.
Note that this retraining is unrelated to the fighter ability to learn a new bonus feat in place of an old one at certain class levels. That class ability is free, happens instantly when the character gains an appropriate fighter level, doesn't require a trainer, and can happen only once for any appropriate fighter level. Retraining a feat requires you to spend gp, takes time, requires a trainer, and can happen as often as you want. Five whole days with teaching Caladwhen something new; I'm sure Talon won't object to having her undivided attention for a few days ;)
Thinking about Feat still. Either leadership or Manyshot. I think manyshot unless we need another cohort or group at the moment. What do you guys think? Hmmm, ultimately it's what you want to do Cole. That being said, our cohorts consist of somebody relatively bulky and mean (Grumblejack) and an evil cleric capable of many buffs, so I don't think we're hurting in keeping our bases covered. I'd probably say go with Many Shot.
That. Feat. Is. Fantastic. Wow, I'll say. Thank for finding that one Sindran! While I think in a table top scenario, this feat would drive the GM nuts, in a PbP scenario, it it crazy awesome. This feat will get exponentially more powerful the higher level you get. The big draw back is the casting time, but with the quicken feat I just took, in a few levels I'll be able to do something like this: Using Caladwhen's Reach Rod, she could fire off a highly powered ranged touch attack doing the following starting at level 11: I. 6th Level Spell Slot - Quickened (+4 SL) & Intensified Shocking Grasp (+1 SL)
So in this instance, she would deliver a 10d6 jolt via ranged touch attack that inflicts a guaranteed 90 points of damage, no save. Ouch. That's Talon level damage right there. The feat is definitely better when you can apply quicken readily to keep the casting time to a standard action though. Just for fun, I'd probably research a Freezing Grasp version of the spell, which better suits Caladwhen. The possibilities for pumping up lower level spells with this feat are endless now that I think of it... so yeah, I think at level 10, Caladwhen might want to take the feat plus 10 ranks in Engineering. Edit: Oh oh..! Doing the same thing as above at level 13 using Vampiric Touch, Reach rod - Quickened Vampiric Touch, apply sacred geometry and maximize and reach again for a medium range touch attack that does 42 points of damage, no save and transfers those HP to Caladwhen. Damn, I could do this all day!
Quick question IB, do our cohorts also level when we do? Also, I'm thinking I think I'm going to take Summon Monster V instead of Feeblemind. At this point, you start to get some pretty good summons, like evil outsiders and the whatnot. One final question IB... are we able to utilize the retraining rules? If so, I think I'd like to swap out Skeletal Summoning for something more effective.
So, I'm making a substitution for the lesser empower rod for the standard extend metamagic rod... reason being is that Caladwhen will be taking the Suffocation as her necromancy 5th spell. This spell is normally kinda meh, but with twice the duration and a high Fort DC save of 24 or higher for Caladwhen, it'll be a reliable autokill spell. More importantly though, Caladwhen will be able to use the classic line "I find you lack of faith disturbing Admiral..." Oh, I can't bloody well wait to do that! In any event, her is Caladwhen's level up:
Fort +1
2nd Level Spells +1
Feat: Quicken Spell Skills:
Spells: Suffocation, Teleport and Feeblemind
Working on leveling. Think I'm taking the Anti-Paladin level. That'd be cool actually... we lost our Anti-Paladin when Aerent left, and it seems almost all Way of the Wicked adventuring parties have at least one lol
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