Devlin Plumb's page

OK, DireMerc posted in his other campaign... So he's alive. So, at the very least, a post closing this would be nice...

Is this dead? Last post was on the 23ed...

I am assuming the Chimeras are long gone at this point - if they are still in range, they are actually the priority targets...

After the others are hidden in Mae's invisibility sphere, Devlin will move out, gathering elemental power again (20' move downslope towards the encampment, using Mobile Gathering. Move Action). Gazing down to the target, if he can see an individual on the parapet, he will hurl a bolt of metal (entangling extreme range metal blast, standard action) at them. If he can't see anyone, he will start knocking down the watch-tower on the nearest corner...

To Hit: 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (15) + 26 = 41 (there might be bless on top of this for a +1, if I am still in range, but I doubt it matters)

Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (6, 4, 3, 6, 3, 4, 4, 1, 1, 4, 1, 2, 4, 6, 6, 3) + 37 = 95

"Do the rest of you want a distraction? I could just walk down the slope chucking earth bolts at anything showing itself, or the encampment in general, while you guys sneak in and set up...

Diremerc, it's not clear how much time has gone by since the dragon fell, I am currently assuming all the rounds/lvl buffs are done (haste, Blessings of Fervor), but the minute per level + buffs are still up - bless, resist energy communal (acid), life bubble)

"Some dumb beasts saw the dragon fight and ran."

"Besides, I've seen you cast that Veil spell before..."

Not to sure that's the case - we're less than 500' from the fort, and elemental blasts have been thundering around; presumably they have lookouts...

"It's been what, 2 minutes since we started the ruckus, and you think they're laying ambushes? Still, y'alls followed my lead into jumping the dragon, which may not have been the smartest idea I've ever had... You lay a plan Jonuli and we'll run with it."

I think that's 5.5 votes to take the orc camp...

"That sounds like you might have an idea Jonuli, whatcha got?"

Obidiah pulls out a Cure Light Wounds wand and heals himself.

...

Might I suggest it might be more efficient (time and money) to have Mae cast Heal on you instead? That's why I called Mae over to you a couple of posts up...

Ok, that's 3 of 6 on take out the camp. (Mae saying just keep the fight rolling, so as to preserve buffs.) One more and we're going for it...

Are you just going to keep chasing after them and keep shooting? cause if so might as well just proceed with the fight now

Not chasing, thump on them until they get out of range (480', I figure I will get 1 maybe 2 of them...Especially if they get slowed with entangle), then discuss with the group what we do next... As I posted above, I think take the orc Camp next, but other people may have other ideas.

After chasing the chimeras out of range with a series of blasts, (Diremerc, you get to decide how many shots {480' range, extreme range entangling metal blasts as above} I get before they're out of range. Either roll them yourself or let me know how many you want rolled... )

Devlin turns to the party and asks : "Ladies and Gentlemen, now that the immediate threat is settled, we have a decision to make. Do we want to finish the encampment or shall go to the castle. My own preference would be to finish the encampment - I don't like leaving active enemies behind me. From what Rune's interrogations reported, I think we can take them."

Devlin wrote:

Heh, I was under the impression that the initial objective was to break the siege...

A reasonable assumption and if we were playing IRL I wouldn't have said anything because as the gm I want to BBEG to get as close to completing his objective as possible before you find out what he is doing but at the current rate it would take a month before you finish dealing with the camp lol.

Is this one of those adventures where the PC's are on a timer that they don't know about? I kind of hate that in adventure design... "Oh, you have no (in game, known) reason to rush, but if you don't the world goes kabloey!"

Are we talking hours or days for the BBEG's objective? Or do we only find that out by taking the camp?

The dragon was close enough to death it was obvious he was going to lose so ending it there just saves time. The dragon is more intended as a big warning sight to make the party think attacking the camp is a bad idea but I guess you could say he is the "Boss" of the outside area yes.

To be honest fighting the orc camp the dragon and everything outside it completely optional and avoidable (in fact the orc camp is a challenge rating 24 all together so normally attacking it would be a form of suicide.

To win you need to stop BBEG before he completes his objective which just means getting past the orc camp and getting into the castle and there are several ways to do this.

Normally I wouldn't say anything but I don't want us to waste too much time fighting too many encounters with the people at the camp.

Heh, I was under the impression that the inital objective was to break the siege...

As a party then, do we want to bypass the remaining orcs & assorted others (chimera's, IIRC, there was some mention of giants)? My tactical preference is actually to take them - I don't like functional enemy forces at my back, potentially blocking my run away option... But it will take a significant amount of pretty boring mechanical time.

I'm not sure if we are still in combat rounds time, but this is round 7

A little man cheers in victory "Yaaah!" Then he turns and sprints to Devlin (M-13, on the surface) , "Thank you for coming in like that, I would have been dog-food if I couldn't get loose". Looking Obidiah over, h e then shouts into the bunker,"Mae, Obidiah needs you!".

And this will be round 8 +

Yeah Not sure I wanna bot half the party thought but it's likely because this encounter is dragging on too much and people losing interest.

I feel like we should likely just end the encounter here for now and see who comes back.

I can work with that, as Jonuli says, it's your table and thus your call. I suspect for the next few encounters (which I see as finishing the Chimeras, and then the orc fortress), we can manage without the spare bodies. ( I could be wrong, but I think we jumped right in to the "boss" encounter for the "outside the castle" mini-level. )

Ok, it's May 10. The main thread has been waiting since Obidiah on May 5. Rune (Apr 29) and Liam (May 1) last posted 11 and 9 days ago - they are up in the block init... When do we bot people?

Round 6 Standard Action (his move action posted earlier)

Devlin pops up from his underground refuge, coming fully above the surface (at J-16) - he has learned his lesson about earthglide and antimagic. A storm of elemental power around him (gather power); with visible strain, he unleashes another blast at the dragon. No net of metal chains this, instead, a spring under incredible tension, it bursts into razor sharp shards.

Fragmentation, Empowered Metal Blast. Target the dragon as square M-20, which should leave Obidiah outside the 20' blast radius. Devlin takes 1 burn, onto his Burn Shard.

To Hit: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 45
+2 from blessings of Fervor +1 from bless +2 from bardsong

Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (3, 2, 2, 4, 6, 4, 4, 1, 5, 4, 2, 2, 4, 5, 4, 5) + 37 = 94 X 1.5 for empower.

EDIT: Total Damage = 141

if it misses, it does 1/2 damage, reflex save DC 28 for 1/4.

I am not sure if the following is a legal play, Diremerc, so your call
He tenses visibly, awaiting the dragon's reaction.
Mechanically, Devlin is proposing to Ready a quickened action. Trigger: if the dragon closes to within 20' of Devlin. Action: Throw a quickened extended entangling earth blast at the farthest away Chimera, and use Ride the Blast to leave the dragon jumping on empty air. This will cost Devlin 3 burn (for quicken), if it triggers

A quick note about where we are in the INIT order. We just finished rd 5, with Liam and Rune moving. Jonuli and Mae are up, then the dragon.

Also, by mysterious psychic vibes to Obidiah: "Working on it, but I have to be outside the field to do jack..."

Round 6
I am posting part of my actions early (out of order), because Devlin can't perceive the dragon (10' underground); also, the dragon can't perceive him (barring tremorsense, mindsight or something; blindsight won't do it). Thus I am working off what he knew the previous round. I will spoiler it.

It is a cliff yes, Also seems I did miss the 90 damage from round 4 so made note of that so his hp is indeed lower than I thought

That's fine, you did have me a bit worried when the math came out to roughly 1000 hp's...

Round 5 Continued after successful CMB check

Tearing free, he runs directly away from the dragon ( N by the compass rose ); as soon as he exits the antimagic field (5 or 10 feet, GM's discretion, he can tell by his Kinetic Aura reigniting as it is no longer suppressed), he uses the rest of his movement to dive underground 10' and then maneuvers horizontally (E by the compass rose, his total move is 40', so that's either 20' or 25', depending on where he exited the AMF. This puts him at roughly K-18, 10' underground.)

1 hit from 2 attacks in surprise round:138, miss, miss, 1 Critical hit for 189, 1 regular hit for 92. For 419 from Devlin + 30 from Obidiah. You did say "The dragon spends an action to heal some of the damage it took (you cant really see how but can assume it was a magic item) he healed ~roughly half the damage he took" in round 1 after the surprise round...

Round 5

"Cayden aid me!"Seeing the dragon distracted by Obidiah's brave assault, Devlin frantically tries to burst forth from his earthen prison...(CMB check as standard action vs DC 20. Could draw a AoO if the dragon has combat reflexes)

Devlin's CMB check in an AMF: 1d20 + 10 - 1 - 1 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 10 - 1 - 1 + 2 = 28 vs DC 20
-1 Str -1 size small +2 inspire courage

So for round 5
...
Obidiah initiative: attacked and hit for 30 (dragon hp remaining ~55%)
...

Wow, that's pretty impressive, so far we've hit it for 450 ish, and it's at 55% of max, with all it's constitution boosting effects and so forth turned off...

Devlin scrunches as low as he can in his hole and hopes that his friends can get him out of this one.

Devlin chooses to delay to Init 10; let's see what everyone else does...

A question about how you are handling Earthglide being turned off. Is Devlin form fitted into the earth? ie. is he effectively helpless, or can he at least duck lower into the hole. Also, does he get a reflex save or some such, to duck below the level of the earth (and thus out of line of effect for the AM shell), as the dragon descends?

What happens if you're partially underground and earth glide stops working.

I suspect that's a question I don't want to find an answer to the hard way...

but, from Diremerc, in post #6 of this thread,

"Earth glide is a form of burrowing when you come into contact with rock or earth you can cause it to become smooth and the you can move trough it and it re-solidifies behind you but the instant you touch it is still solid. Your not becoming incorporeal."

If I understand that right, I'm not interpenetrated with the earth/rock, I've just moved a "bubble" through it, inside which I stand... Thus presumably the "bubble" stops moving? Leaving me standing there in a pit up to my nose in the ground?

Yep, not to mention a lot of his other abilities become really questionable, " Elementals, corporeal undead, and outsiders are likewise unaffected unless summoned. These creatures' spell-like or supernatural abilities may be temporarily nullified by the field.", so for defense talents, shroud of water would turn off, flesh of stone is a maybe...

So avoiding being closed with and grappled has to be top on my tactical list..

As AM field is an emanation though, if I am under dirt, I am safe:

"An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell."

and

"A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can’t see. It can’t affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don’t extend around corners)."

(Bolding mine of course.)

Dm's call on what rules to use when I tries to close w/me, when I am up to my nose in dirt... The question is can I duck in time.

Antimagic Field doesnt care about SR, the existence or otherwise of SR means nothing to AMF. if it did care then spells like glitterdust would work but they dont. Only instantaneous conjurations work.

If our GM wants to deal with it differently he can but at this point I can do nothing to the dragon.

What's a physical kinetic blast?

More to the point though, I don't think you're right about only instantaneous conjurations. Glitter dust wouldn't work because it manifests entirely inside the AMF. A Cloudkill on the other hand, is a non-instant conjuration, with SR no. Having been cast, IMO it won't go poof when/if the dragon moves into the cloud, and it will poison said dragon (it being an existing cloud of chlorine gas). Further, IMO, if you cast a Cloudkill such that it's volume included an AMF, it would flood into the AMF with gas created outside the shell...

AMF pretty much guarantees we cannot harm it. Most of us have no nonmagical means of flight, it has massive reach and kinetic blast doesnt affect it as its an SLA.

Look at Diremerc's post above mine. SR doesn't apply to physical blasts (the theory being like many conjuration attack spells, the magic is creating and launching the stuff, not what it does at the target), and Antimagic is generally treated as infinite SR.

From the game thread

Mae looks on at the dragon, a growing sense of horror on her face. A dragon, inside an antimagic field...not sure there is much I can do about THAT! Maybe this will help.

It may just made a tactical error...All it's defensive buffs (AC, saves, bonus hP from con enhancers, etc) went away... No magical healing /regeneration effects...

Unless Diremerc changes his mind about the AM shell being physical blast proof, it could be in trouble...

I'm redrawing the map at the moment will post shortly note that cloud kills moves 10 feet each round (heading down and left on the map)So that likely changes were you moved so let me know.

It's not worth redrawing; currently you have me at the edge of the cloud, P-18. If I'd known about the cloud movement I would be at Q-18. Just so long as I'm deep enough in the cloud to have full concealment from the dragon.

Round 4
Devlin continues to take advantage of the dragon's own cloud. He moves again,still staying inside the cloud, gathering elemental power as he goes. Gather Power as a move action for 2 burn available, move 15' through mobile gathering, to square O-19 (still staying nose-deep in the earth for cover). He blasts again. I am not sure if I am within 120', so he repeats his Entangling, Extreme Range, Metal Blast

To hit: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 50
+2 from blessings of Fervor +1 from bless +2 from attacker is effectively invisible (full concealment from the cloudkill)

Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 1, 4, 1, 6, 5, 3, 5, 2, 5, 5, 1) + 37 = 92
as usual, there is a DC 28 reflex Entangle effect as a rider if it hits.

from the gamethread:

...
The dragon focuses his innate powers and the magic entangling him vanishes. He then moves forward ignoring the dwarf for the moment.

Obidiah also loses his ability fly falling 15 feet before regaining it.
...

Your game, your call. That said, this sounds like some sort of dispelling effect, but would this get rid of the entangle? A metal blast is a purely physical effect that if launched from outside of a Anti-Magic shell would still land on a target inside it...

Entangled
The character is ensnared. Being entangled impedes movement, but does not entirely prevent it unless the bonds are anchored to an immobile object or tethered by an opposing force. An entangled creature moves at half speed, cannot run or charge, and takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity. An entangled character who attempts to cast a spell must make a concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) or lose the spell.

Doesn't say it can't fly, just 1/2 speed.

Devlin's mobile gathering ended with him in N-17

Round 3
Devlin ignores the poison gas. Frontovik's Gas Mask; not only is he immune, he can see through it....
He moves towards the dragon, staying inside the cloud for the extra concealment value, gathering elemental power as he goes. Gather Power as a move action for 2 burn available, move 20' from mobile gathering. You will have to put the cloud on the map so I can pick where i'm going; I suspect I'm going to have to move south-west to stay in the cloud. Devlin is using earth glide to stay nose-deep in the earth for cover
He hurls another blast of elemental metal at the dragon...Only this time, the dragon can't see him throwing it. Entangling, Extreme Range, Metal Blast

To Hit: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 51
+2 from blessings of Fervor +1 from bless +2 from attacker is effectively invisible (full concealment from the cloudkill)

Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (3, 2, 2, 2, 5, 2, 5, 1, 2, 6, 3, 6, 2, 2, 5, 3) + 37 = 88
and there is a DC 28 reflex Entangle effect as a rider if it hits.

EDIT: Possible Crit!
To Confirm: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 26 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 46
+2 from blessings of Fervor +1 from bless +2 from attacker is effectively invisible (full concealment from the cloudkill)
Extra Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (3, 6, 3, 4, 3, 2, 2, 6, 6, 6, 2, 4, 6, 2, 3, 6) + 37 = 101

Further Edit, 189 total, and I suspect he's much less happy about this fight...

Devlin is at 14-M, up to his nose in dirt...

Diremerc, I don't want to hurt your feelings, and you did work hard on that map, so I'll roll with it... but given the initial set up,

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1eYQhKuzkmDRFQ8tDQry716BtQQy9WHwgBEj ntgZXQwk/edit?usp=sharing

how is the dragon coming from the top edge of your encounter map, when it's coming directly from the orc fort? Might I suggest rotating the whole thing a quarter turn clockwise?

Guess who forgot the save for Frightful Presence? Yeah, the guy who brought it up in the first place...

Will save vs Frightful presence: 1d20 + 21 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 21 + 1 = 32
+21 will +1 vs fear from bless

@Diremerc, note that the tag line for Devlin doesn't include several temporary buffs (eg Bless, Blessings of Fervor, improved cover), and if you want a current #, let me know either here, discussion thread or PM

I am assuming Jonuli will have cast his Glitterdust (no SR, save only affects the blindness) on the dragon, as it is now withing 200', so I am not calculating a miss chance.

Submerged in the earth up to the bridge of his nose Improved Cover , Devlin slides forward (towards the dragon) and left (the castle side), raising elemental power around him as he goes. Gather power for 2 burn, mobile gathering. 3 diagonal square = 20' of movement . He then unleashes said power, throwing another writhing ball of chains at the revealed dragon. Entangling, Extreme Range, Metal Blast

To Hit: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 26 + 2 + 1 = 37
+2 from blessings of Fervor +1 from bless

Damage: 16d6 + 37 ⇒ (3, 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 2, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 4) + 37 = 86
and there is a DC 28 reflex Entangle effect as a rider if it hits.

As a point of discussion, would it make life easier for everyone's posting schedule if we started using block initiative?

Block Initiative: Participants in the battle are split into the player and GM sides respectively, and you don't worry about post order as long as you are inside your block. For an example, lets look at the current battle:

The init order is

Mae Initiative: 31
Jonuli Init: 21

dragon init: 19

Devlin plum Init: 19
Obidiah initiative: 16
Aurora nit: 12
Liam : 11

The first block is Mae and Jonuli

The second block is the dragon

The third block is Devlin, Obidiah, Aurora and Liam

What block initiative does is that Jonuli doesn't have to wait for Mae to post her action and get a resolution of the action from Diremerc, before he can post his action, he can just post because he is in the first block (together with Mae). After Mae and Jonuli have acted, we have to wait for Diremerc to do the dragon's action (block 2). Then all four of Devlin, Obidiah, Aurora and Liam can post their actions in any order (block 3). So if I, Devlin, am away from computer for whatever reason, Liam, Obidiah and Aurora don't have to wait for me...

Devlin is definitely outside of the bunker, he's not being stealthy, having taken his surprise shot and is now being obvious in the hopes the dragon will come and play. The original plan was that anybody who wasn't engaging a long range would stay hidden, so the dragon would come and play, and thus get ambushed...

As an aside, while it is in final state, the GM's responsibility for the init order and keeping track of who's doing what. It does make it a lot easier if the players are trying as well...

We back on the dragon? On his turn he moves 240 feet closer.

Who is visible in the group? Hiding or not?

OK, after your Init summary post, Mae cast communal resist acid. We went through the init order, with 1) Jonuli readying his Glitterdust, 2) Dragon healed and moved to 400' range, 3) Devlin threw a blast (and missed), 4) Obidiah, 5) Rune and 6) Liam all readied actions.

In the middle of that, Mae cast again (out of order), Cleromancy. ???Is that her action for this round, round 2???

Next is Jonuli, who was holding a readied action... ???He may continue to hold it??? Then comes the dragon, who's moving 240' closer (presumably to a range of 160', he was at 400')

As far as who's visible - Devlin is visible (he used gather power without playing fancy games last round) but under improved cover (up to his nose in dirt). Everybody else may still be undercover, but I don't know. The dragon probably also gets a perception roll for most of them.
Finally, don't forget frightful presence...

So, you know those storms that tore through the South in the US last night? Yeah, I’ve been out of power for 22 hours and have no estimate on when it’s coming back yet. Over 125,000 customers out of power in my state, according to what I’ve seen from the power company. I’m sitting in my car charging my phone atm. Sooooo...

That sucks. Don't just charge your phone off the car battery, run the engine or you'll run the car battery down... Hope you're not out of power for too long.

A miss unfortunately. I want to specify that Devlin's second shot on the surprise round and his attack here both missed because they did not hit the dragon's Ac and not because the dragon is invisible thought you were correct that there would be a 50% miss chance.

I take it the dragon's hoard is a pile full of dragon usable magic items, that are in use...

OK, I'm assuming that Jonuli's keeping up his location play by play here, so I know "400 feet away from the group, 40 feet above ground.

"I've always gambled, here's to Cayden's Luck." Elemental fury rises around Devlin again, as he hurls another blast of metal at Jonuli's direction.

Gather power as a move action (gain 2 burn), extreme range entangling metal blast (spend 2 burn). Throws the ball of sharpened metal chains through a point 400' away from the group, along the bearing to the tower, 40' up. The dragon's gargantuan (a 20x20x20 cube), so hopefully that's one of the right squares (cubes).

Their shaman, this Tiboquoboc, is what concern me most. The set-up looks to me like this human girl conspired with the dragon and other allies to take over the clan and use them as weapons. As I mentioned earlier, the dragon seems very ambitions for a "CR17"; attacking 2 20th level wizards at their fortress and expecting to win... This young lady might be the motivator for that confidence...

WRT Questions,
1) exactly who is "Their chief, Tiboquoboc and his most skilled companions" that are inside the castle itself. Who's at the camp right now:
A) Bird Lady Yes or No
B) Spider Lady Y or N
C) Frost Giants Y or N
Sounds like the dragon is pretty much out here with just the Chimera's, the orc warriors and the giants (maybe). Not bad odds at all if we can rip the dragon and break off...

2)Are there any junior shamans around (ie Does Tiboquoboc have apprentices around)?

3) A question that we probably can't get an answer for: how skilled are "the greatest of the Ironmaw clan Warriors"? Are we talking Orc vs Orc Barbarian 4 vs Orc Barbarian (N>6)?

Acid Resistance, thank you.
@Jonuli Don't forget talking is a free action, the occasional bit of play by play might help everyone who can't see invisible... Yes, I should have thought to buy a potion (or two).

It occurs to me that that might have been considered a surprise round; we definitely haven't rolled initiative. Thus:

Init: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19

Rune, DireMerc, shouldn't you be doing this in the gameplay thread, not discussion?