Eben MacTeague's page

Eben prepares to step back and avoid the onrushing ankou, but then as it approaches it... evaporates under a hail of Carina's exploding vials. "Yes, run into the throwing range of the mad bomber, because that's smart..." he says as the thing falls apart and ceases to be. Of course, this means he has to find a new target to pick om. Out of the two that are closest to him, he has no idea which is real and which is a shade, so he just picks at random.

Odds=north: 1d6 ⇒ 2 Darn, fake red it is. Clustered shots applies to DR, any shots that hit after the shade dies go to the real red.

Manyshot longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor+PBS: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 44

damage Manyshot 1+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (6, 4) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 29
damage Manyshot 2+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (5, 2) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 26

Rapid shot longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor+PBS: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 43

damage Rapid Shot 1+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (1, 4) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 24

Hasted shot longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor+PBS: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 43

damage Hasted shot+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 23

Iterative 1 longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor+PBS: 1d20 + 15 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 15 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 34

damage Iterative 1+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (3, 5) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 27

Iterative 2 longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor+PBS: 1d20 + 10 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 10 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 26

damage Iterative 2+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike+PBS: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (2, 1) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 1 = 22

Continue Inspire Courage as a free action, continue Dance of 23 Steps as a free action, activate Arcane Strike as a swift action, five-foot step, full attack.

116, if their DR is 10/iron

Eben looks around, seeking a new target. And finds one. "Hey!" He shouts at the one creature that hasn't moved into melee combat. "You're hanging back. So... I bet you're real. I have some cold iron I'm willing to wager on that. Let's find out!" And with that, he sends a flurry of arrows at the lone creature.

Targeting Mr. Green, to the north. I have four cold iron arrows, those will be my first four shots, the rest I'll just rely on clustered shots for overcoming DR.

Manyshot longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 36

damage Manyshot 1+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (5, 2) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 25

damage Manyshot 2+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (5, 4) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 27

Rapid Shot longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 35

damage Rapid Shot+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (6, 1) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 25

hasted longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor: 1d20 + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 20 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 28

"Ow." he mutters, as his finger snags on the bowstring on one of his shots. "Yes, I didn't enjoy that either." says the bowstring in return.

Assuming the first three hit, that's 77 damage total. All the rest are standard ammunition, so Clustered Shots applies.

iterative 1 longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor: 1d20 + 15 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 15 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 40

damage Iterative 1+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (6, 2) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 26

iterative 2 longbow+Inspire Courage+good hope+blessing of fervor: 1d20 + 10 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 35

damage Iterative 2+Inspire courage+good hope+weapon of awe+arcane strike: 2d6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 ⇒ (4, 1) + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 23

Continue Inspire Courage as a free action, continue Dance of 23 Steps as a free action, activate Arcane Strike as a swift action, five-foot step, full attack.

Oh, nevermind, I just realized I have a better target that's not antimagiced or under cover.

How does firing into an antimagic field work for me, not in the antimagic field? Obviously I'd lose the enhancement bonus on the arrows and any other effect delivered by the arrow itself. Would Inspire Courage and good hope still grant me a bonus, since the effect is on me, not the arrow?

"And THAT'S how you deal with shadow monsters!" Eben shouts triumphantly, though perhaps not completely justifiably, as he manages to single-handedly take out the three weakest opponents on the field.

Eben, now that he can see the enemies on several sides of him (and, more importantly, they can see him...) dances back out of their reach before summoning his bow to hand and launching a volley of arrows at the nearst opponent.

Taking a 5-foot step back; this may leave me in threat range of the one ankou south of Clunk, but should keep me safe from the two north/northwest of my old position. All attacks are initially directed at that ankou, if it dies I redirect all my other attacks at the one due north of Clunk. Forzamele actiavtes weapon of awe as I attack. Using the +2 to attack/+2 dodge to AC from Astraden's blessing. Clustered shots applies to their DR.

With blessing of fervor superseeding haste's ac bonus, EBen's effective AC is 37 this round.

manyshot longbow+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+find fault+good hope: 1d20 + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 5 + 2 = 48

damage Manyshot1+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1, 5) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 22

damage Manyshot2+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (4, 2) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 22

rapid shot longbow+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+good hope: 1d20 + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 31

damage rapid shot longbow+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (6, 1) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 23

hasted longbow+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+good hope: 1d20 + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 20 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 32

damage, hasted longbow+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (6, 5) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 27

iterative lonbow1+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+good hope: 1d20 + 15 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 15 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 30

damage, iterative longbow1+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (1, 3) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 20

iterative lonbow2+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+good hope: 1d20 + 10 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 10 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 = 38

damage, iterative longbow2+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike+good hope, gravity bow: 2d6 + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (5, 4) + 4 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 25

using my moment of greatness doubling for the crit confirm.

crit confirm, iterative2+PBS+Inspire courage+blessing of fervor+good hope: 1d20 + 10 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 4 = 38

crit damage, iterative longbow2+PBS+inspire courage+weapon of awe+arcane strike, gravity bow: 4d6 + 8 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 8 ⇒ (4, 6, 6, 5) + 8 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 8 = 49

"HERONS? They're Ankou. Fey assassins. Hard enough by themselves, in a group it's another order of magnitude. Those... things they make are shadow constructs, like what I make, but scarier. Try to not believe in them, or if you can see through illusion, that would work too. Cold iron kills the main ankou faster, if anyone has any." Eben says, a sudden encyclopedia of knowledge gained the easy way, by casting a spell.

It has been pointed out to me that I failed to do this before. Oops.
mirror images: 1d4 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

The Silence aura is the pale circle around one of the monsters, by the way. As long as he's not encompassed in that, Eben can quip all he wants.

I'm not sure which pale circled monster you're referring to. There seem to be multiple monsters with pale circles around them, and all those circles seem to be personal-sized, rather than encompasing a radius. I'll just assume you''re saying Eben can speak for now? If I'm wrong, I'll retcon. But for now..."

Also, Combat Adjudication Bot, can you tell me how many of those attacks ate a mirror image? I figure at least one or two came within 5 points of AC 30.

Surrounded by enemies, both real and imaginary, Eben begins his fancy footwork.
Beginning Dance of 23 Steps as a free action, alsobeginning Inspire COurage as a move action.
"Okay, first of all..." he says, as he clicks a button on his Quickening rod, "What are these things?"
Casting Quickened find fault. Gives me the equivalent of a knowledge (whatever) with a result of 35 to Know Stuff about them. Prioritizing, Special Attacks, Vulnerabilities, and spell-like abilities, in that order.
"Whatever they are..." he says, waiting for the spell's knowledge to hit his brain, "Let's knock 'em out... fast."
Standard action to cast haste. Casting on the defensive concentration check: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (5) + 21 = 26. Success!

TLDR, Casting find fault, haste, beginning Inspire Courage (+3), and Dance of 23 Steps.

reflex+good hope: 1d20 + 20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 20 + 1 = 28

Eben zigs and zags, but still can't avoid at least a glancing blow from one of the yellow beams of energy. His lips flap around as though he's trying to say something, but thanks to the last of the three shadow monsters, he doesn't actually make any audible sound. He pats his hair, smoothing it down, clearly concerned that what just happened might disrupt his coif.

linguistics+good hope: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 5 + 1 = 20

Eben just barely recognizes the runic script. "Ohhhh, hey, that's Druidic. Not something you see in the written form very often. I have no chance of translating it, though. Where's Anlathi when we need her?"

Given the alterations to spell durations, I'll add the following to Eben's pre-cast spell list, all used with Extend Spell via arcane concordance: good hope, moment of greatness, cat's grace, mirror image, shield, and gravity bow.

Eben's updated buff list is as follows:
Greater magic weapon on Eben (longbow): All day.
Greater magic weapon on Cuetzpalli (Kelmarchen): All day+
Freedom of movement on Tanith, Farrukh, and Cuetzpalli: all day.
Good hope on the group: full dungeon/8 hour travel
Moment of greatness on the group: full dungeon/8 hour travel
Cat's grace on Eben: full dungeon/8 hour travel
Mirror image on Eben: full dungeon/8 hour travel
Shield on Eben: full dungeon/8 hour travel
Gravity bow on Eben: full dungeon/8 hour travel

"No, you're not..." Eben says, casting his own set of spells, first on himself, then walking around, touching first Kelmarchen, then tying little strips of leather on to the clothing of Cuetzpalli, Tanith, and Farrukh, and casting an additional spell upon each of those. "OK, now you're ready."

Casting arcane concordance to Extend the next four spells I cast: greater magic weapon on Kelmarchen, lasting for 30(!) hours, and freedom of movement on the three burly boys, lasting for five hours on each. Eben's own GMW on his bow still has about two hours of life in it as well.
Apologies if this contributes to KC's hate of high level PF1. :-)

"Huh. Yeah, looks like we lost a day or so of time, relatively. Well, hopefully we'll be done here in a day or so, though who knows how much time going through the library itself will take. So we shouldn't be planar-timing all the way through the Age of Worms itself. Anyway, we'll keep an eye out for... whatever it us underwater."

Is 4 days the rough amount of time we've been gone for on our side? Sounds about right, but I haven't been keeping meticulous track.

"We might have... almost met the thing you're talking about. Two days ago? Um..." Eben thinks back to the last two days, but decides he needs to ask some followup. "How many days ago did we leave? Time... might be working a bit differently where we are. In any case, yes, there's an ancient intelligent hurricane surrounding the island. I don't know that it will hamper anything underwater, but then it would have to get through the gateway to this plane."

Eben winces. "That was something we weren't supposed to let anyone know, Cuetz." He sighs. "Okay, so now you're in the loop, obviously there are very important reasons to keep that completely to yourself, Lashonna. For starters, if Tenser finds out, well, I really don't want to see what an archmage does when his trust has been violated."

"To expand on what Tanith said, Darl and his crew are dead, captured, or switched sides. Darl himself is extremely dead. That's the main threat down, so there should only be one more step until we're 'worthy' of admission to the library," Eben says, apparently not comprehending the word 'concise'. "Anyway, yeah, Celeste is good people. Manzorian is the one that sent us to Alhaster in the first place, following Bucknard's trail. She should be safe to talk to."

Level upping:

16th level:
Bard 15
+1 STR
FCB: +1 4th level spell known
+7 hp (119)
+1 BAB
+1 Fortitude
7 skill points: +1 Perception, +1 Perform (act), +1 Perform (dance), +1 Perform (oratory), +1 Use Magic Device, +1? knowledge (arcana), +1 sleight of hand
***I know I was doing some late game purchasing of K:(a) for something, but honestly can't recall what at the moment.
bardic performance: +2 rounds/day
inspire competence +5, inspire heroics
+1 3rd level spell per day, +1 5th level spell per day
new spells known: 4th- freedom of movement? 5th- bard's escape

Eben beams with gratitude and then grimaces with buyer's remorse as mouldering, oozing charnel liquid that used to be mind flayer flesh seeps out of the cloth and over his hands. "Uh... I didn't think that one through, I guess..."

"'Live'? No, not exactly..." Eben says cryptically while staring out at the waters with a satisfied smirk on his face.

After camp has been established, Eben strews the piles of identified loot from the past few days on the ground. "This is actually an upgrade from the one I have... and it's a trophy, too!" he says, plucking out the ring that formerly graced one of Zyrxog's fingers.

Trading off Eben's current +1 ring for a +2 one. We can do the formalt 'buy-in' lootlist later, but for now no need to let this stuff go to waste as long as there's more fights ahead. There's several more +2 rings of protection to go around, spellcasters should take a long look at those metamagic rods, etc.

Eben peeks into his wrapped bundle. "Maybe you're right about that. A skull would be easier to bronze than a rubbery head anyway. You got any spells that will take the meat off?"

Back on the beach: After the fire elementals have faded away, and little is left but charred bone lumps, Eben casts his spells again, this time making a shadow puppet of something with big, snapping teeth. What comes to his summons this time is more horrible than anything he's spawned from shadows to date: Nothing but a ball of teeth and hate, floating in the air. "Eben, this is not a proper use for the lessons on planar denizens I have been teaching you..." Forzaamle says, reproachfully, but Eben ignores the chiding. "Eat everything that's left there..." Eben says, pointing to the makeshift pyre. "All of it, gobble it right down. When you're done, start flying away across the ocean as fast as you can until the spell holding you hear ends." e crosses his arms and nods as the little horror gets down to business. "Burned up, eaten up, and then regurgitated over the Shadow Nyr Dyv by a shadow daemon returning to the essence of the plane. Come back from that, Darl."

Again casting arcane concordance, and then extended shadow conjuration to emulate cacodaemon. 28 rounds for it to join the clean plate club and then fly away.

Now: Eben nods to Krekie. "We'll keep an eye out." Turning away from the tengu, he answers Cuetzpalli, "I heard something like that too. It's definitely a creepy place. And, I dunno about you guys, but I'm pretty tapped magically after the big fight. Another night of rest might be in order before we tackle this thing."

At the very least, everyone should mark themselves at full hp, unless you really had a moral stance against making use of Eben's path of glory spell and were too polite to say anything about it.

Eben stares. "Astraden, that's gross!" he says, adding another layer of wrapping around his current bundle to keep excess ichor from dripping out as he then stuffs it into his backpack. "Why would Lowri want bone chunks from some rando she's never met? Zyrxog she still has nightmares about, so I want to give her solid evidence that he's dead. She works with metal, maybe she'll want to cast it in bronze or something." He grabs the bottoms of Zyrxog's feet and begins dragging the corpse down the beach, to just below the high tide line. The work is surprisingly easy, illithids are apparently less dense than people, plus the body has lost about eight pounds or so of weight in the past minute. "And I intend to make sure this is final. For him and Darl both. Just in case the nightmare can get the genie brought back to life and he gets someone..." he looks up the beach to where Carina is chatting with Sabir, "...to wish his buddy back into existence..." he continues, somewhat more laboriously hauling Darl down to the same spot before unceremoniously dumping him off on Zyrxog's corpse. "We've got everything useful these two had, right? Good." he asks, then looks back up the beach to where the minotaur lies, then shakes his head as though determining the effort isn't worth the payoff. He then takes a few steps back, casts arcane concordance on himself again, and then, his back to the sun, raises his hands in the air and wiggles his fingers in a shaft of light, causing shadows to trickle down the beach, which after a few seconds begin to look like dark, crackling flames on the sand. And then they are flames, 1d3 ⇒ 2 of them, in fact. He points to the corpse pile, smirks, and parrots Darl Qethos' own words. "Burn the evidence." The shadow conjured elementals crackle their way to the heaped bodies and begin to finish the process of incineration that Krathanos' obscene meteor swarm began.

Extended shadow conjuration, summoning 2 small fire elementals. Each doing 1d4 bludgeoning plus 1d4 burn damage each round, I think 28 rounds of that will be enough to insure only a few chunky bits remain. And I have plans for those, too.

While the conversation between long-lost mother and daughter is proceeding every bit as awkwardly as might be imagined, Eben suddenly remembers that he had a little task for himself to take care of. He picks up the late minotaur's axe, grunting a little from the ungainly wait, and walks over to the charred remains of Zyrxog. He hefts the axe overhead, and then lets it fall onto the illithid's rubbery neck. It's not as dramatic as he might have hoped... it takes two or three swings of his underdeveloped arms to get all the way through the gristle and bone, but finally, he bends down and hoists up the severed head of their longstanding enemy. "Souvenir for Lowri." he says by way of explanation as he wraps it up in some cloth cut from Zyrxog's own robes.

"Well, technically, once the storm is gone we could just use Astaden's cloud spell to fly off, so if Seabeard really wants to get going, he can..." Eben admits. "We could also shadow walk back across the Nyr Dyv... that's how we got here... but the rest of them have problems with the possibility of encountering armies of shades or meeting shadow leviathans again. They're kinda wimps like that." He looks down at Krekie's handbag. "I don't know if you have plans for that, either... personally, I think your talons look perfectly nice the way they are... but I can only wish you the best with it. And, y'know, hope you don't go on some kind of 'overthrow all the other gods' crusade. But, your choice, now."

"Do? I dunno, maybe it would have been easier if she had taken a powder alongside Rin. As far as getting off the island... I know Captain Seabeard is back on the beach, and he's just waiting for the hurricane to end so he can sail off. Like you said, you don't owe us any further support, if you want to go there and wait with him, that'd be fine. It would probably also be appreciated if you could disincentivize him from sailing away until after we return, just in case that matters. Maybe Sabir could wait with you? I don't know what Carina has planned. I mean, I don't think she had a plan, just made a last minute decision to save her birth mom..."

"Right, so... off to find the Doomshroud and silence its 'mournful song'. That creepy forest we flew over on our way down here might be a good place to start looking..."

Eben- who's been doing his best to be a proper bard and shouting out enthusiastic comments that provide a certain tangible circumstantial effect upon one's performance- concludes his one-man cheerleeding section with a whoop of triumph on Tanith's behalf. "Top notch, Tanith, I never doubted you! Eh... Farrukh, nevermind what I said about 'inevitable'. Just pretend I was talking about Clunk..." he adds in an undertone. His face does blanch a little at Carina's own comment, and he nods sagely to Krekie.

"Well, how fortunate for us that we wouldn't dream of violating our deal, then." Eben responds, out loud, to Krathanos after Forzamele and Sanette have their mental conversation. He does keep fingering the strung bow, producing a few more notes of music.

Ugh, just went back and double-checked. I apparently wasn't paranoid enough and 'cast good hope on everyone', not, 'everyone except the mentally ill titan'. So he's got that going for him, just like Tanith.

"Hm, true, though at least in this form I can still invoke an aspect of her glory, although this one barely understands the nuances of using a string to send small shards of heaven through the air. I've been trying to tutor him, but... well, mortals. Eben, show Sanette how far you have to go." Eben looks more than a little peeved at the notion of being put on display like a child that has finally learned how to spell C-A-T, and opens his mouth to retort, but then gets a curious look on his face, then nods and plays a few basic chords.

Forzamele whispers something telepathically in Eben's ear, and he follows through as requested, using a round of bardic performance to allow Forzamele to communicate telepathically with Sanette.

Eben blinks. "Wait, you know my bowstring?" he asks incredulously, before being cut off. "No, she knows the sentient lock of the archlillend Willorenth's hair." There's a slight pause, as though the inanimate object attached to a bow were turning away from the silly human it is reprimanding and facing the azata. "Why, hello yourself, Sanette. I apologize for not recognizing you right away myself. I must say, most uinuja who go up a few sarong sizes look terrible, but... you pull it off nicely." Bah. Cattiness would be fun here, but... The bowstring... sighs. "Well, as you can see, I'm hardly being allowed the opportunity to shine, here. I could have been woven into a gossamer necklace, threaded with cloth of gold into a diaphanous crown, embroided a pattern of commesurate beauty upon the cloak of a high priestess... instead, some centuries back, some wizard who fancied himself an arcane archer said, 'Oh, you know what would make a really neat accessory for my weapon?' Well, we all have our misfortunes to tolerate. Yours sound significantly worse."

"Well, since my head may be on the line, best of luck!" says Eben, after quickly muttering a spell under his breath and clapping Tanith on the back to transfer the effects to him. "Don't mind me, I tend to get voal when I'm cheering people on..."

Casting moment of greatness on Tanith, and beginning Inspire Courage once he starts wrasslin'. Good hope is still active from before.

"Just to clarify... when you include my 'blasphemous head' as a prize, you are talking about the dragon head, right?" Eben chimes in before any actual combat can begin. "And Cuetz, are you good with Kelmarchen being on the line?"

Tanith (and the rest of us) should still be affected by Astraden's communal air walk. I don't think it's been 20 minutes since the fight ended.

Sense Motive+good hope: 1d20 + 24 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 24 + 2 = 281d20 + 24 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 24 + 2 = 27

"If he isn't up for a contest and just tries to murder us because crazy, think you can start by hitting him with whatever you did to Harrowdroth?" Eben asks as he does a quick shuffle step and makes the beach around the huddled group start glowing.

Casting greater path of glory, using my extend rod starting off with me, Tanith, Cuetz, and Astraden, next round extending it four squares to fit in Farrukh, Carina, Clunk, Krekie and whoever else is near, (I'll be nice and not kick Sabir or Rin out if they approach.) and keep doing that until we're actively in combat and I need to do something else with my swift actions or until the spell expires 28 rounds from now. (Which means we should start tracking rounds, but apparently Astraden just took 15 rounds of wand-poking.) Fast healing 5 to anyone standing in a glowing square.

"I have a deck of marked cards... but he's still unlikely to wager his belt for kicks. You always give a mark something to tempt him."

"Well, we're still negotiating. He hasn't said if he take Mr. Jabber-Talky or not yet, for instance. If he doesn't want to play ball... well, I don't know if we should attack, that's kinda muggery. Maybe we could just sneak back and steal the belt later, when he takes it off to bathe or whatever..."

Eben follows Astraden down to the beach, his feet a little unsteady on the wet sand. "Yeah, I'm not good with that. Krekie betrayed her allies, did the heavy lifting on killing Zyrxog, and nearly died on our behalf. Krathanos was useful for maybe three seconds before standing there drooling, then tried to pretend he was essential all along by murdering four angels and dropping them on our heads when we'd already won. Not screwing over Krekie for that guy."

Eben, of course, has zero ranks in Appraise. So, if you can't do something well, you can at least fail in a spectacular fashion.

Eben considers, taking into account the fact that it really wouldn't be fair to lead off by offering up his freind's posessions. Then it occurs to him:"Oh... do I have the item for you, Krathanos. Now, this might seem like a stupid trade at first, but a Titan of distinction and no uncommon taste like yourself should surely see the real value on offer. Honestly, it's a prized possession and dear friend of mine. How would you like... a talking dragon head on a stick!" Eben produces Mr. Jabber-Talky from his quiver with a theatrical flourish, proffering it headfirst to the titan with a bow.

"Krathanos... stupid... titan...no...taste," the dessicated black dragon's head chimes in as though advertising it's own remarkable capabilities.

Dammit, I coulda used them winged boots in this last fight! So much smoother than air walking. Ah, well.

sense motive+good hope: 1d20 + 24 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 24 + 2 = 27

I was prepared to ask if Eben might conveniently be making this check while trying on Darl's bracelet, but, well, wouldn't help...

"It's a nice belt, to be sure. What's it worth?"

That is indeed a loot list. Also probably a good time to bring up the fact as I've been trying to find a convenient moment to do for a while that we never actually ID'd the stuff we got from Harrowdroth either.

Among these slain adventurers, several magic items can be found, including a brutally sharp scythe with the word Alacrity carved into the haft, a mace constructed of iron set with silver rivets, a pair of circular prisms, a golden crown, and a pair of fine blue shoes.

"Well, the initial plan was, prior to our deciding to team up and take out Darl's group, to negotiate with you over the use of your belt, alongside the feather, to unlock the library. I would hope we can get it back- I'm not sure what that will result in- if the stuff gets 'used up' or permanently given to the undead druids, but since we can't guarantee that, would you be willing to discuss the purchase? Maybe a 'purchase with partial refund attached' if the druids don't destroy or take off with it? "

"No, bad cat! BAD CAT!" Eben yells, chasing after the fleeing displacer. The chase goes on just a bit longer than it logiticallsy should; Eben's advantage in elevation and use of ranged weapon is mitigated by one thing:
"Stop displacing yourself, dammit!" he says, as his third shot in a row goes through an empty patch of air that's supposed to be a tentacled panther. When it dives into the ocean, he prepares to try and make more complicated guesses as to where it actually is based on the movement of the waves around it, but fortunately by this point the beast, focusing on staying afloat, drops Darl's body as it begins doggy paddling away. Eben grumbles as he air walks down into the water before the corpse sinks out of sight, heaving up a waterlogged ex-high priest of Vecna shortly after. "Yeah, and don't come back!" he shouts after the fleeing displacer, before air-trudging back to the beach, sopping wet and tottering under a corpse as he does so, "Hey, guys, got the body back, and Astraden, didn't even have to kill the beast... oh." He notices the active air of tension around the paused battle site. And then hears Krathanos's bellowing voice insult Kord. In front of Cuetzpalli and Tanith. Eben sighs, and as quietly as possible, clangs his bracers together, assuming the worst is about to come.

Activating my bracer's for aspect of the falcon. In case doing it surreptitiously is an issue, he tries to mask the motion and sound as incedental to him dropping Darl's body.
Sleight of hand[/i: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (10) + 17 = 27

Are we out of roundtime, or can Eben try shooting at the fleeing displacer?

Yeah, I suppose an important question is, 'did the big K just drop that spell to take out the Sinfires and we were just collateral damage in the process because little things like 'allies' mean little to him?' or, 'Has the crazy titan decided it would be fun to wipe everyone out now?'

Getting Darl's body back is important, too, for several reasons. (Hand of Vecna reward for Krekie, 17+th level elite NPC loot for the rest of us, plus I sort of want to make sure there's no resurrection in his future. Zyrxog, too, but Carina's bombs likely took care of much of that for us.)

"Oh, did we mention that the dinosaur is actually a titan? Ta-da..." Eben says, a little sheepishly.