Frantino Kaddren's page

Feeling much more like himself, Frantino is ready to move on.

"I don't want to wait in here to see if the vampire might show up again. I vote that we go out those double doors and enter the room to the right. We were told there's some kind of abomination creature around and if we can find more information about the cult and their plans we can prepare to move along. If the vampire hides from us we'll alert the city authorities to his presence, he's not an existential threat to Magnimar like a plague might be."

The bigger differentiator is that Infernal Healing gives a flat Fast Healing 1 for one minute, thus a guaranteed 10 hp, while Celestial Healing gives Fast Healing 1 for one round per two caster levels. I always thought it a gross oversight that Celestial Healing didn't become the same as Infernal Healing until 20th level, when it's pretty much an irrelevant spell. As a 6th or 7th level caster, Celestial Healing will only heal 3 hp, not even remotely worth the cost of holy water.

Your spells bring Ayita and Frantino and Nasir back to health. But... for some reason, the damage to Frantino remains. He still isn't as dexterous as he once was. And the stutter he developed recently, as well as the weird nose twitch, continue.

His dex dmg and cha drain remain

Frantino has dex damage and cha drain??? That's news to me. I saw those on Nasir's status line until you just posted a new Status.

"Doc, how many times can you cast the restoration spell today? I know it would be a big drain on your resources but Nasir, Ayita, and I have all had portions of our life force drained out. This would go a long way to making the group fully capable again."

Frantino advocates that we prioritize having the negative levels repaired. Ezranadir's and Yazhi's charisma drain is unfortunate but doesn't really affect their core capabilities, those can wait until tomorrow.

Frantino collects up his cloak and grabs a bunch of the other stuff that was here before, carrying them to the ledge outside the door where we've been entering. He's working off the assumption that the vampire won't go outside until dark.

"If we're just going to sit around waiting for the monster to come attack us, we should set ourselves up in a room with a lower ceiling. We need to negate his flight advantage."

He looks at the first room where we entered the tower, where we fought the mohrg immediately south of the coffin room. What is the ceiling height there? It also has tables we can stand on, if need be.

"Unfortunately, we just don't know which way the gar/vamp went, flying creatures are terribly inconsiderate when it comes to not leaving tracks. I thought that was why we were trying to track him by scent. Looks like we have three options: Continue this way, double back to the coffin room, or go partway back and check out that other passageway, since he may or may not have come this way. I suppose he may have flown up into the small crawlway in the ceiling, too. I can step into this room and see if the haunt manifests again or if it's in a lengthy reset phase. Hopefully it's dormant and we can see what is at the far end of the room, but if it is active again I can try to jump back before suffering injuries like Nasir. I'm also pretty good at resisting mental effects, although I fear I'll be less resistant in my weakened state. This may be our best chance to get through this room unopposed, if the monster did come through here."

Frantino mulls over Ezranadir's comments. "We did get some information from the gargoyle before he attacked us, he told us that the cult had headed to Riddleport. While this creature is a threat, I'm still feeling very weak and wouldn't mind avoiding him if we can help it. Maybe we can do a quick search through some additional areas to find more information, perhaps confirm the vampire's information, and then leave. It sure seems like the cultists aren't here right now, and stopping the plague is the mission."

Since the indicators of the "attack" on Nasir are supernatural, Frantino tries to figure out what caused it and if the area can now be safely traversed.

Knowledge religion: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 ⇒ (12) + 13 + (5) = 30

Frantino casts detect magic and scans for mundane and magical danger before entering.

1d20 + 21 - 4 ⇒ (13) + 21 - 4 = 30

Frantino looks for a secret door and the mechanism to open it.

Perception: 1d20 + 21 - 4 ⇒ (2) + 21 - 4 = 19

If he is stumped, he'll swap positions with the eagle-eyed Ayita.

Frantino moves over and stands at the ready

"Should we move down the rough hewn hallway to the left?"

Frantino follows Nasir, looking around, his see invisibility augmenting his darkvision.

Perception: 1d20 + 21 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 21 - 4 = 26

"The fly spell I cast on Nasir will last a few more minutes and will minimize the vampire's main mobility advantage. My shield will protect me for a few minutes more, too. When we find him, I can refresh the undead bane enchantment on two weapons but that's all, hopefully that'll be enough."

Frantino moves to the opening the vampire disappeared through.

Frantino moves over to the double doors looking out into the big room with the deep pit in the middle to keep watch, and readies to attack the gargoyle if he approaches within reach.

Perception: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (7) + 21 = 28

Frantino will take a single move action to go 30' into the room beyond Ezranadir. He'll once again ready to attack any threat, presumably the vampire, that comes through the double doors to the east, taking advantage of his temporary reach. Because of his negative levels, he'll stop using power attack to make his attacks a little more accurate. He still has Lunge if the vampire stays 15' away.

Frantino moves toward Ezranadir and then readies an attack against Sumsarru in the unlikely event he comes back in here. His reach is still 10' from his long arms, and if the vampire stops 15' away then he'll opt to add another 5' to his reach from Lunge.

GM Derek wrote:

Summary: “use buckler” is not an action and thus, is allowed while nauseated.

If you read the description of a Buckler then it is pretty self explanatory. If using a weapon in that hand, in order to gain the AC bonus then you take a -1 to attacks. If you do not take the -1 to attack then you lose the AC bonus. If not attacking then you still get the AC bonus.

Wow, I've been assuming the worst of both worlds- I haven't been taking advantage of the shield bonus to my AC AND I've been taking the -1 to attack rolls with Fury. I need a shield as my abjuration implement in order to take Trappings of the Warrior and gave it +1 with light fortification for the Ability Mastery feat. Since I've been taking the -1 to attack rolls my AC should have been two higher the whole time! Ugh. Thanks for the clarification.

Free action not allowed. Move actions only. Do you wanna use your move to raise buckler? Or move behind Nasir and Ayita.

I can't disagree any more strongly. In 2E you have to use an action to raise your shield, but not here. The buckler is already strapped on. Nasir didn't have to raise his shield when he was nauseated, it's always strapped on. Same thing. Either way, he's going to move rather than sit there and get full attacked next round.

Since he can't raise a mind barrier, Frantino will hold up his buckler to help deflect attacks (free action that means he can't attack with Fury for the moment) and move as indicated behind Nasir and Ayita.

Feeling his life force being siphoned away, Frantino will attempt to raise a mind barrier as a swift action (if he can while nauseated) and then pull his left hand off of Fury as a free action so that he can protect himself a little more with his +1 buckler.

Another +2 to AC, now 27, and unable to attack with Fury.

Finally, he'll move well behind Nasir and Ayita.

Frantino full attacks again, with flank, then raises another mind barrier as a swift action.

+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 16 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 16 + 2 = 22, damage: 1d10 + 16 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 16 + (2, 6) = 30
+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 9 + 2 = 18, damage: 1d10 + 16 + 2d6 ⇒ (7) + 16 + (6, 3) = 32

Frantino takes his own 5' step back and full attacks the vampire with Fury held in his long arms and Ayita in flank. With Fury the equivalent of a +5 weapon against undead, it should get through all DR.

+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 13 + 1 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 13 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 24, damage: 1d10 + 15 + 1 + 2d6 ⇒ (5) + 15 + 1 + (5, 4) = 30
+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 6 + 1 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 6 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 29, damage: 1d10 + 15 + 1 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 15 + 1 + (3, 4) = 25

Since his last mind barrier protected him exactly from the 12 points of damage he would have otherwise taken, he'll spend another point of abjuration focus as a swift action to erect another one.

Why is Nasir nauseated? The DC is 11 and that's what he got, even after the -2 penalty.

Frustrated that the gargoyle keeps flying just a little higher, Frantino will pull and consume an extract of Long Arms as a standard action. To protect himself from the bats, he'll raise another mind barrier.

Ayita and Hatfield both have the plague. Please forgive us if we're a little slow posting or need reminding about details.

Oof, sorry to hear that, hope you both roll strong Fort saves to recover soon!

I assume that Frantino didn't have to roll saving throws against the swarms because the mind barrier negated the damage? Thank you for remembering.

As a swift action, Frantino will spend another point of abjuration focus to raise a second mind barrier, then use his move action on his Combat Trick ability to learn Lunge for one minute. It costs three more points of mental focus, and he'll pool together one point each of divination, transmutation, and abjuration focus to pay the cost. Finally, he'll spend a point of transmutation focus on Legacy Weapon and give Fury another +1 and undead bane, thus it's the equivalent of a +5 weapon for the purpose of getting through damage reduction, which this vampire seems to have.

Pretty sure I haven't had to spend five points of focus in one round before!

Since the gargoyle is down just off the ground, Frantino spends a point of abjuration focus on a mind barrier, moves 30', and attacks the monster.

+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (14) + 13 = 27, damage: 1d10 + 15 ⇒ (8) + 15 = 23

Don't forget your undead bane from Frantino. Adds +2 against undead, plus +2d6 dmg

Don't forget about the flat +1 I had to add as well.

Wanting to get the team attacking the gargoyle, Frantino will 5' step out of the swarm, pull out a scroll as a move action, and cast fly on Nasir.

UMD: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (3) + 17 = 20

Afraid this isn't enough, he'll spend a point of inspiration to add to the check.

Inspiration: 1d6 ⇒ 5

The DC is 20 + caster level, which in this case requires a 25.

Phew, that was close.

Frantino moves close to Nasir and casts shield on himself.

Frantino takes his AoO on Yellow using the weapon at hand.
+2 halberd w/ PA: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15, damage: 1d10 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24

Assuming the weapon had no effect, Frantino will draw his alchemist's fire while moving south. He'll throw at the far squares of Red swarm since then Ayita won't get splashed.

alchemist's fire: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18, damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Before Nasir can run off, Frantino will step over, spend one point of transmutation focus, and use Legacy Weapon give Nasir's scimitar an extra +1 and undead bane, thus against undead it becomes a +4 weapon with another 2d6 damage.

I've been looking back through posts to try to refresh my memory on what the group needs to do. Please correct errors/ omissions here.

So we haven't found the cult in this Irespan yet... perhaps Ayita should ask the vampire where they are, as her question? If not that, what question would be most obvious to our characters?

This is the question that Frantino already asked the vampire, "Where are the leaders of the cult?" He answered that the leader (singular) went to Riddleport, kind of a narrowly legal answer.

Maybe we can expand on the question to get additional information: If other cult members went to different locations, where did they go? Where else in Magnimar are the cult members? Where do they intend to release the polymorph plague first? I know it's hard to narrow this down to one question, and asking for the wrong information might get us nothing. Too bad we can't ask more open-ended questions like, "What is the answer to the next most important question I should be asking?" Too easy for him to twist.

Hearing Nasir and seeing everyone else move to the coffin room, Frantino follows. He moves up near Nasir and Ayita, taking off his feathery Cloak of the Hedge Wizard as he does. It's a little flashy for his style anyway. He waits to see how the vamp-goyle responds to Nasir's collection. Afterward, he'll bring up the negotiations from their previous visit.

"Greetings again. In our previous discussion, you had expressed an interest in my magical Cult of the Peacock Spirit cloak, the one I took from my own brother after he tried to kill me. You had offered up the answer to a question in exchange for it. After thinking about your generous offer, I have decided to accept. We came here after being told that a different cult was based here and getting ready to release a plague on the city that would warp the residents into aberrations, but we have not seen evidence of such a group here yet. Here is my question. Where can we find the leaders of this cult?"

Frantino moves into the position just behind and to Ayita's side, leaving room for the better armored Nasir to be up front. Once everyone has moved into this room, he'll nod to Ayita to stealthily open the doors.

Frantino will cast see invisibility right before we head back in. Knowing that we've been through the door to the left where the gargoyle vampire has his bizarre collection, he crosses the room straight ahead and peeks through the doors.

perception: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (15) + 21 = 36

"This leads to the platform where our fight with the derro began. There's another set of doors about 30' to the right that we haven't looked in yet."

Frantino is ready to go back in and finish tracking down the cult, thus ending the plague threat to his beloved Magnimar.

"How should we plan on everyone going back up to the top of the tower? Assuming that we rid the world of Xanesha's ghost, I got a scroll of levitate so I can slowly move back up much more cheaply than more scrolls of fly. Ezranadir, did you mention you can do short range teleportation now? How many people can you take with you?"

Knowledge arcana: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 ⇒ (7) + 13 + (6) = 26

Knowledge planes: 1d20 + 13 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 13 + (5) = 38

I guess I should have realized that even with a nat 20 and full inspiration, there's no way I can get a 40 or higher.

Frantino eyes the various oddities and analyzes the goblin fire.

Craft Alchemy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

"I don't mind chipping in to help buy some of these items, if we can get some answers from that gargoyle. Doc may need to convince him of their rarity or unusualness."

Frantino opts to take one more level of investigator, which switches some key skills to his Int modifier. His ability boost will also go into Int. After this it'll likely be all occultist. He purchases a scroll with one copy of fly and one copy of levitate on it.

And just to make sure he doesn't drop Fury again, he buys a weapon cord and makes sure Fury is attached to him every time they approach a potentially dangerous situation.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 - 1 ⇒ (20) + 16 - 1 = 35

Alert to the point of paranoid, he'll add his last point of inspiration to the roll. Inspiration: 1d6 ⇒ 2

"Aunt Zimandi, please pass along our thanks to the Council. The residents of the Gecko have proven to be quite dangerous but we have not yet uncovered the threat of this plague. We will soon!"

"Excellent improvements to the rough plan, thank you both!"

As soon as Nasir can fly and Doc is on the flying carpet, Frantino will cast shield and then put ghost touch on the listed weapons (or on Ayita's arrows if the bow's ghost touch property doesn't transfer, I forget which do and do not), after which he'll step off the ledge in conjunction with Ezranadir, Fury held at the ready should Xanesha appear.

"Yes, it was always my intent that we bring the last two men with us down to the city, that's why you and I will go first and float down via the rings to see if Xanesha reemerges while Ayita and Ezranadir cover us from the carpet and this landing. If she truly has passed on, or at the very least she doesn't appear, we can use the carpet to shuttle the rings back up twice more so that Doc, the two men, Ezranadir, and Ayita can join us at the bottom.

"We need to shut these secret doors behind us to make sure any other monsters can't escape until we return to finish searching for Szuul's cult. Unless I missed something we're ready to go. Who will ride the carpet? Once we're ready I'll give Fury, Nasir's scimitar, and Ayita's bow another +1 and ghost touch, then we must quickly go since that enchantment will only last for one minute."

Frantino grasps Fury gratefully, feeling the strength (literally) return to his body through his bonded weapon. Does it look safe to push the empty coffins over the edge once we've claimed everything of value from them? We don't want the gargoyle vampire to make more vampires with an unclaimed coffin waiting for them!

"That big coffin may be for the gargoyle vampire we first met when we entered this room. We didn't fight him so if he is in there, he's not resting to regenerate, he'd likely attack us right away, probably before we could move the coffin very far. Then again, he said he was going into the city in search of oddities, although how a vampire can do that during the day is in question, unless being a gargoyle negates that particular vampire weakness. It could have been a lie and he's really in the coffin. We would be well advised to get back to full strength first and come back tomorrow with all spells and focus points restored. He was very chatty, maybe he can tell us about the cult Maga Szuul was in and the location of their plague so we can stop them from infecting my city! He was interested in weird items and was willing to trade by providing the answer to a question. I still don't trust him, or course, he's a vampire!"

"What's the plan to return to the city? We have two rings of feather fall, a flying carpet, and Ayita's and Yazhi's flight ability. I'm out of scrolls of flying. It would be easy to use the rings to float down and have someone shuttle them back up with the carpet until everyone is down, but my biggest concern is Xanesha. She said her soul would be at rest when her skull was destroyed but nothing seemed to happen beyond Nasir no longer feeling compelled, and that could just be because he fulfilled the request. What if she attacks us again while we're floating down? Maybe Nasir and I should go first and see if she emerges, I could give our weapons a minute of ghost touch with a few points of transmutation focus. I can't afford to spend my last point of abjuration focus, though. Ezranadir, do you have any spells left to cover us from up here, or would you be better positioned on the carpet? I'm hoping that all of these plans are unnecessary, but as my grandfather used to say, "Hope if not a plan!" Thoughts, anyone?"

[dice=Use Magic Device DC20]1d20 + 15 = 1

This was supposed to be + 15 - 1, oops, somehow that turned into +151.

Frantino will use the wand of CLW that he holds for the party to heal himself a little more.

Use Magic Device DC20: 1d20 + 151 ⇒ (8) + 151 = 159
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Frantino will walk through the southern double doors to the room with the tables where we killed the mohrg, then look out the secret doors to the landing with the gargoyle statue where we came in. It faces west, is it getting direct afternoon sunlight?

"The coffins are small, and I don't know how long the vampires need to regenerate. Rather than try to kill them with a wooden stake or running water and risk a fight, let's bring each coffin out here, shut the door, and then open the lid. The sunlight will completely destroy them, after which we can retrieve their gear and hopefully Fury. Once that task is done, we can take the two poor men we rescued and go back into the city for healing services."

Frantino looks at Nasir expectantly. If he doesn't destroy the skull, Frantino will use his heavy flail and smash it himself. At the very least it should release Nasir from the compulsion that he's been under.

Frantino is low on funds, too, after buying the elixir of spirit sight and two scrolls of fly. More importantly, he really needs Fury back. We also need to take the rescued humans who were hanging from the chains back to the city.

"Once we're back to full health, minus any mental, physical, or general life drain we can't heal here, we should at the least go back to the room with the coffins and destroy the vampires one at a time. Nasir and I can probably work together to carry each coffin to the outer landing, where we can open the lids in the sunlight. Hopefully one of those undead will be holding Fury and I'll finally get it back. We still haven't found any information about the cult or the plague that they're threatening to use on the city so we'll have to come back, maybe after a day to recover."

With our CLW wands and various sources of lesser restoration we'll heal back as much as we can.

"So, does this tunnel here take us back to near where we came in?"

Frantino will check for traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 16 - 1 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 16 - 1 - 1 = 16 (wisdom drain and negative level) +1 for traps

Looks like three of us took a Wisdom hit as well, was that damage or drain?

"My examination indicates that the runes are designed to trap something inside the circle, possibly Xanesha's soul attached to the skull. Will destroying it free her soul from captivity? Perhaps, that's a question better answered by a cleric. That's what she stated, although I try not to take creatures at their word when they're trying to kill us. However, nothing indicates that destroying the skull will bring us harm." "I hope", he thinks.

Frantino pull out his heavy flail. "Nasir, do you want to do the honors? Xanesha did say you are THE ONE. Maybe this won't do anything, but if it does free her soul to move on to the Boneyard then we won't have to deal with her as we all try to descend safely to the surface. I'm out of fly scrolls and floating via feather fall leaves you pretty vulnerable!"

Are there still some humans hanging upside down on the chains? Seems like we should free them before the derro vampires reform.