"Did you hear that? An enemy in the building? Lighthouse, scout."
Lighthouse dashes towards the building where the sound of the scraping came from.
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At the sound of the scream Ezequiel shivers. "What was that? Lighthouse!" On it! Lighthouse dashes out of the building and towards the sound of the cream as its summoner steps out and looks around cautiously. Yuk! Some gibberbush from the mist! Lighthouse communicates in an attempt to describe the being. "Everyone, you may want to come outside. Visual on one potential enemy, sounds like there's more," Ezequiel advises his companions. Is it getting chilly here? I don't like this...
Ezequiel seems dissatisfied as he walks over to the others. "Would it kill you to listen for a moment? I said we found something interesting in the church." A really big magic thing! "You left your telepathy on, Lighthouse, they can't hear you. But yes, a magical, obsidian..." Ezequiel begins to explain but stops when he sees the corpse inside. "...You guys... sure don't waste any time with hostages. Was he anyone important?"
"...He just ignored me," Ezequiel muttered half to himself, half to Dwight. Maybe there's something really important there! Lighthouse offered. "Maybe you're right, Lighthouse. Come on, Mr. Dwight, let's go see what's so important!"
"Hey," Ezequiel waves to Gordon. "You're alone? Where are the others? They have to see what we found back there. You would not believe!" Gordon follows Dench to the church. If the door is locked, he will motion Dench to look in a window, if available, while he unlocks the door. Ignore me, will you? How rude!
"Hey," Ezequiel waves to Gordon. "You're alone? Where are the others? They have to see what we found back there. You would not believe!"
"It's a sword?" Ezequiel wonders. "Never mind that, a voice challenged you? I didn't hear anything." "In any case, we definitely should head back now. Who knows what's happened with others. And we shouldn't accept challenges from suspicious stones by ourselves, anyway!" Ezequiel motions Lighthouse to exit. "You run ahead, we'll follow you."
"Hm? What's wrong?"
As Ezequiel is just about to exit the garden to meet the others, the mention of the hilt stops him. "You're right, it does look like a handle or a hilt. Lighthouse, try to lift it!" Impossible! No hands! "...Well... Would you like lift it, Mr. Dwight?"
"This is... something beyond my studies." Ezequiel sighs. "What about you, erm... I'm sorry, it's just on the tip of my tongue... Dave? Anything you know about this monument?" Maybe it's the item! What we are looking for! Lighthouse suggests. "Doubt it, the man said it's reasonably sized... but give it a go. I am not touching weird objects like that."
If nothing happens: "...Figures. Oh well. Come on, let's go tell the others what we've found."
Ezequiel and Lighthouse leave the church and greet Dench and Gurthok.
No enemies! It's a garden! There is weird rock! "Sounds like it's safe," Ezequiel answers Dwight and enters the garden. "What's this talk about... oh! That is weird indeed." Ezequiel inspects the bizarre obsidian monument.
"Careful, don't touch it..."
"Finally. Good work." Ezequiel sends his eidolon through the door. "See anything interesting?"
If Dwight does not break the door open: Ezequiel scratches his head. "...Suppose we could." Ezequiel walks forward to the door, ready to take a shot at tackling the door. Not that I can actually do anything for these kind of thing, but it'd be rude to refuse. I'll just fake it... he slyly thinks to himself, but is interrupted by his eidolon.
Master no! I can do it! the eidolon proclaims with determination. It then rams its head against the door, and again, and again. Almost! Almost! Almost!
Now to split the party and let them all gang up on us in little groups. Oh wait, already done. Good thing we are all close-ish. Well except for koon. And Dwight, who followed him :D No worries, I have a meat shield to activate traps and hold down ravenous dogs while I retreat to safety. I also I have my eidolon. :P In all seriousness I think this current style is pretty effective in covering a mission like this. Splitting up may be dangerous, but it's also quick and efficient.
It's locked! Need key! Lighthouse informs Ezequiel after failing to open the back door. "Are you sure?" the young summoner messages back. "Look, silly, the door frames are probably just stuck. Give it a good whack or something."
As the eidolon rams itself against the door, trying to break it open, Ezequiel turns to his newly-arrived ally. "Ah, good timing! This sure is an interesting place. As you can see, this church has seen better days, what could have caused its ruin? Even more interesting is, I know a thing or two of religions and I don't recognize this faith. Whatever god or gods they worshiped here are are now long forgotten. Maybe even centuries old. Isn't that fascinating? If eidolon fails to open the door: Seeing that his extraplanar companion isn't successful in opening the door any time soon, Ezequiel asks Dwight:
"We'll be here all day if my eidolon doesn't get help with that door. I see you are a strong man, could you lend a hand? I'm more academic type myself, see?"
I don't like this. What could have caused masses of people to leave in such a hurry? Ezequiel ponders while signaling his eidolon to open the backdoor.
Ezequiel runs to his spider companion and touches it with a healing hand. "It was very brave what you did, keeping a wolf at bay like that," the summoner says as his eidolon's wounds slowly close. "Anyone else in need of some healing? If not, Lighthouse and I are going to investigate that strange church. I encourage you to join us!"
Sensing his eidolon companion is at the brink of collapsing, Ez orders it not to strain itself. He then thrusts his longspear at the wolf in front of him While he's thrusting, he yells: "My spider friend could use a little help!" Lighthouse takes a 5-foot step away from the wolf (square P4, or if that's occupied by the tree then P3).
Ez comes out of delay (put me before or after Dwight; as long as Ez moves before Wolves 1 and 2 it's alright), moves to G7 and takes out his longspear to threaten the two wolves. Lighthouse continues to stay in total defense.
Sure, but just this once. Part of the appeal of playing a summoner is that I have two different initiatives to utilize.
Lighthouse moves 5 feet north to stand in front of Wolf 4 (square Q3) and takes total defense (+4 AC). Ez delays, waiting for a wolf to come closer or a companion to request aid.
I think you forgot to roll my eidolon's Init (+2 modifier).
Wolf! Wolf! Danger! Ez! Help! the panicking eidolon messages to Ez. The moment Ezequiel receives the telepathic message he shouts to his allies: "Attention! Potential threat in two o'clock! One wolf! No visuals on others!" "Lighthouse, take safety precautions. Help is on the way. Keep it occupied but don't risk yourself. Let me know if you're in danger so I can dismiss you. Let me know if you see any others," he messages to his eidolon.
Eyuk! No good, Ez! the eidolon messages to its master. Can't go past it! Too much resistance! Ezequiel nods. "Seems like we can't go to the purple fog. Presumably that means the item we are looking for has to be on this side." "Lighthouse, go investigate that church. And you," he says while pointing at the towering tiefling, "could you go with my pet? He might need the assistance. What was your name again?"
"This is where I come in, friends!"Ezequiel announces proudly. "Time to get to work, Lighthouse!" A dog-sized, shining spider hops around him and dashes forward. Ezequiel follows it to the exit of the alley. "My eidolon companion, 'Lighthouse', can scout the area for us. Should I send it to investigate that daunting purple fog?"
Sorry for being absent for the last few days. A map, yay! It could use a "you-are-here" mark, at least for where we begin at. I assume it's the narrow alley space on the bottom-left?
Ezequiel nods respectfully for Hannah and turns back towards the tower's doors. He whispers for Argus: "Seems like you were right, Mr. Argus: they are here to give us twisty words and little else. She could have just said 'I don't know' and we would have learned just as much, right?" "My extraplanar companion and I are going to head back and see what others are up to, would you like to come along?"
Ezequiel listens intently but grows increasingly tired as her story goes on and on. So the gist of it is that some people screwed up and some statues came to life and wrecked havoc. What a dull story. Although this tells me that there must be some magicks of higher order in this place, I don't know how else statues could do that much damage. When Hannah shows signs of disinterest in continuing further, Ezequiel smiles wearily. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'll leave you alone in a moment. But if you could, could you tell me something-" he pauses, remembers the dwarf next to him and continues "-tell us something of the master of this place. Ms Anna and Mr. Vezan were not generous on their description of him."
"You are graced with a charming name," Ezequiel laughs gleefully, "but I'm afraid I'll join the many and call you Hannah. I am Ezequiel, but my friends call me Ez and so can you. Ms Anna told us you witnessed the 'accident' that shook the place there. I was wondering if you could tell us more about that event." Ezequiel pauses. "Actually, Ms Hannah, I would also be grateful if you could tell us a bit more about this place, its master and challenges."
I wrote a little summary on what my eidolon(s) look like on my page. Huzzah for extra-planar Play-Doh. By the by, GM: is there a reason, linguistic or otherwise, why you write "Grey Piece" as "GreyPiece" and "Light Bearer" as "LightBearer"?
"Hello. My name is Ezequiel from family Koon," Ezequiel says as he gives a friendly wave and smile to the tall man. "I'm a newly-arrived resident here, staying in room A8. I was wondering if I could speak with her." He nods in the direction of the woman tending the flowers. Talk about a redhead.
"Comfy. This will do nicely," Ezequiel muttered to himself. He closed the door behind him, taking note of the number of the room, and began searching his pockets. That Vezan fellow said to claim the room I need insert my greypiece into the vault. He takes out the grey cube with the word "Koon" engraved on it. The small cube begins levitating around Ezequiel's left arm. I suppose the Light Bearer is my greypiece. It's not exactly grey though, more like silvery-blue. Ah, who cares? He inserts the cube into the room's vault, thus claiming room A8. Next, I should make some friends here. I heard that there was someone in the garden, Honey or something.
Seeing that his suggestion of having the entire group choose rooms from area A has been approved, excluding the fetchling and the half-orc, Ezequiel contently walks with the others to area A to select his room. If those two don't want company then that's their problem. Frankly, I think this is for the best. He opens the doors one at a time. I should probably get a room that is clean and tidy. That might be too much asked, seeing that this tower has suffered some damage. Hm, I might also need some tables.
When Ezequiel first sets foot on the second floor, his eyes widen in awe. Whoa. This is some structure. Even grander than what I had imagined from outside. Ezequiel listens the two's explanation intently. From the sound of it, we'll be staying here for some time. If that's the case, the choice of rooms could be a very important one. Asking the two instructors: "How much exactly is the fee to change rooms?" He then looks at the others. "Since we all came here together, would it not be best that we choose rooms that are close to one another? I suggest we all pick rooms from one area, say, area A. Agreed?"
So we have no choice. Figures. Ezequiel sighs, knowing that his plans for future have been made much more difficult to accomplish. But this only a minor setback, a bump on my road to greatness. "I understand. Show me the way, Mr. Velzan, Ms. Anna. But first, might I take a minute to gather my thoughts?"
Ezequiel listens in shock as the man claims that he, Koon Ezequiel Mariano, would have died. There's no way. He must be lying. I would definitely remember if I had died. No... I definitely would not have died in the first place, no matter the circumstances. He then opens his mouth, with an accusing tune in his voice. "Mr. Vezan, forgive me if I sound rude, but do you have any proof that we are dead as you claim?" Still... this place is definitely not my home plane. What in the world is going on?
Ezequiel follows the mysterious woman and the even more mysterious group. The sight of the enormous tower leaves him speechless for a moment. After the initial impression has gone, he races along the others, following the strange woman. He walks next to the dwarf and notifies quietly: "Seems that Ms. Anna has taken offense to your comment, Mr. Argus. You could refrain yourself from calling her a 'witch'." He then lowers his voice to a whisper. "She said 'our rooms'. You don't suppose that place is a prison of some kind, do you?" Why else would they have taken our equipment? But they don't know I don't need a weapon to be deadly. If things get any worse from here I have the element of surprise. What is this place anyway?
The young man walks to the shore. He reflexively tidies his hair, which is wet and ocean blue in color. He's a bit puzzled, and looks around, only to notice the place he's in is unknown to him. What? This is definitely not the inn I remember staying at... Just where am I? he ponders while straightening his clothes. He notices he lacks the fine, fashionable garments he is used to. "Hey, who took my vest?" he says angrily. "That vest was a genuine Fabrizio! Cost me a fortune!" He sees the people around him. A strange bunch. The vest can wait. I should probably first get things organized. he thinks to himself before introducing himself. "Ah, hello everyone! My name is Koon Ezequiel. My friends call me Ez and so can you." He says that with a smile, but as his gaze turns to the brawny tiefling the smile dims a bit. We didn't have those back home. Doesn't seem hostile, and at least intelligent. Best keep my guard up anyway... "Say, I got the idea that the lady has our belongings. Should we go after her and do as she says?"
Sorry I'm late to the party. Yeah, I'm the party face. Diplo, Bluff, Intimidate, I can talk. Out of battle, I talk with NPCs and let my eidolon(s) scout the area and do some skill checks. In-battle, I summon bunch of expendable meat-shields and provide flank buddies when needed. Edit: Do I have my eidolon summoned?
Summoning is what I plan to do at early levels, when my eidolon critter army can't swarm everything. At 3rd level, 1d3+1 eagles is better than three 1HD pounce beasts. Besides, I plan to use the eidolons for scouting and skills (like UMD, Disable Device and Linguistics first), battle proficiency comes second. At least flank buddies for rogue should always be available in some form. BTW, how do those Path of War maneuvers work? Do they require a feat or something and how do I use Warning Roar?
Switching magic fang to infernal healing is probably a good idea. I'm not going to be buffing my individual critters much anyway. I just usually pick magic weapon/magic fang as a 1st-level spell just because it makes dealing with DR and occasional shadows much, much easier. I might pick Flagbearer at 5th level. I would want to take Superior Summoning at 3rd level. But who knows, I may pick it at 3rd.
Are there any psionic feats that would help me be a good minion master? I'm not familiar with 3PP content.
Made some tweaking to my stats. I'm also considering re-writing the backstory a bit, but not sure if I have time to do that.
Here's my character. Unfortunately I won't have enough money to afford good clothes to get benefit out of Extremely Fashionable at 1st level. But the GM gave me a green light to min-max a non-unchained broodmaster. Am I dreaming? I noticed I had dumped Int down to 7 when the minimum was 8 (?), so I made some changes to ability scores. One more question: do you rule that Natural-Born Leader trait works on eidolons? They are summoned creatures, after all. |