Luminarion's page

Luminarion ponders for a bit. Then he says, "At the moment there is no need to rush. We can wait for the others to get back so they can provide their input before we do anything to Failure."

"As far as the wizard's spell book is concerned study it as much as you want, but please don't cast any spells that mimic channeling negative energy(*). That starts taking us into territory where my Goddess would want me to take official notice of enemy action."

(*) In other words, spells that have the "[evil]" descriptor. I simply wasn't quite sure how to word that in game world terms that the characters would use and recognize.

Just to clarify things before they end up getting out of control. Luminarion doesn't mind Spectrum studying the Wizard's spell book. Luminarion isn't too concerned about Spectrum dabbling slightly in necromancy. But if Spectrum wants to go around casting spells that have the dreaded "[evil]" descriptor then Luminarion's going to let it be known in no uncertain terms that he has heartburn with that.

On another subject, killing the prisoner. In our day and age now that the actual combat has ended that sort of thing would be considered a "war crime" and thus be a big no no. But we're not playing a game set in our time and place, and I suspect that things in the game world are in may respects rougher than ours. In this particular instance we have a prisoner who was captured while controlling undead and using them to attack people, as well as trying to kill people by casting spells at them. While it is the GM who is the expert on what the actual laws of the game world are, it seems to me that those are the sort of criminal offenses that would carry the death penalty. That the wizard is in fact guilty of them is irrefutable.

If that analysis is in fact correct, then I don't see any potential "alignment problem" with simply executing the prisoner and saving the problems inherent in dragging her back to some place where she can stand trial and then be executed. I'm not saying that we necessarily have to do that right now, but I'm saying that Luminarion doesn't see any problem with just executing the prisoner if that seems reasonable to do.

Luminarion comments to Morphet, "Needing her spell book and needing her are two different things. If you really want her book I have no real objection. Just consider the source. The real question is whether we simply grant her a swift and relatively merciful death, keep her tied up like an animal with the resultant problem that we'll have to keep an eye on her, or trade her back to her superiors for some consideration of some sort. In the latter case her death is unlikely to be merciful."

"So, do we want to just kill her now, hold her given that she has said she will not cooperate thus requiring us to kill her later, or turn her back over to her side for them to torture her to death? Decisions, decisions."

Luminarion replies, "As I do not know what your name is, I will simply call you what you have proved yourself to be. Failure."

Luminarion makes a show of looking the area over, then he says: "My idiot kid brother, given the advantages of terrain offered by this position and the resources your superiors so foolishly entrusted to you could have held out all day long against a force several times more numerous and powerful than ours. You were utterly defeated in less than one minute. Now, I am not sure whether or not it has actually sunk into that chamber pot you call a brain, but those who follow the dark side have a problem. Incompetence and failure usually end up receiving severe punishment. And it is blindingly obvious that your farcical performance in this battle is most definitely not a success."

"Given that is the case, it is likely that one of the worst things we could do to you is to simply turn you back over to those you have been deluding yourself into believing that you were working for. As if such an abject failure on your part could be referred to as work on their behalf."

Luminarion wanders on over to one of the destroyed skeletons and pokes at it with his morningstar. He says:

"I wasn't keeping close count, but you must have lost around a couple of dozen of these animated skeletons. Those don't come for free you know. First you've got to go to all the work of digging the body up, then you've got to cast the spell. And one can't forget the other material component, an onyx stone worth at least 25 gold pieces. So that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 gold pieces worth of material components rendered totally useless as a direct result of your tactical stupidity. Who do you think is going to pay your superiors for that? Certainly not I, and certainly not my companions."

"Also, as soon as I get the ability to renew my spells and perform the ritual of cremation, none of the other bodies that you have stockpiled here will be useful for anything other than fertilizer. All that work done for your superiors will go into the chamber pot because you couldn't defend a pass that could have been held by an old lady with a walking stick."

"So, Failure, do not cop an attitude with me. All we have to do is turn you back over to your superiors so you can give an account of your incompetence to them in your own words. Perhaps they will simply polymorph you into a small animal. Then you could become a familiar for a real wizard and see how actual magic is done while all you have to do is sit around an catch flies with your tongue. Even you would have difficulty fouling that up. Or maybe they'll only take a few feet of your intestines for use in some ritual or other. Perhaps they'll breed you to something disgusting in the hopes that the child may be of more use than the mother was before the child ate its way out of her womb."

"It matters not. You have no use to us. We may decide to simply kill you or turn you back over to your superiors to do worse to you. For all your alleged intelligence you have not grasped the simple truth that light banishes the darkness. It's why you can see stars at night and light a candle in a cave."

Luminarion wanders over to see what is going on. Catching the last part of the conversation Luminarion says: "Perhaps this wizard is nothing more than a glorified messenger bearing a letter for somebody else. As she was obviously not considered worthy enough by her superiors to be let in on its contents perhaps it would be wisest if we were to follow suit."

Luminarion takes a couple of minutes to check up on Gregers and see if there is anything he can do for him.

Heal Check

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26 (Using heal kit)

Luminarion will return to trying to fortify the area around the wagon better when he has finished checking up on Gregers. Luminarion will suggest to Tokara that maybe she should try to bring her horse through the fog to where the party is.

That looks like a good position for the wagon. Now to get some rocks to pile up near it ...

Luminarion replies, "Ok, so who wants to help me move the wagon?"

Luminarion shrugs, then he says, "We should probably do what they did, set ourselves up to hit them as hard as we can as they emerge from the mist. We just need to have a good front line."

Luminarion will cast "Detect Magic" as he looks in the caves. He is trying to figure out whether or not the corpses are simply corpses, or undead being stashed until they are needed.

Luminarion looks things over and says, "So, do we want to go exploring and risk getting attacked from behind by Pumpkinhead and his group when they return, or set the ambush here and perhaps get attacked from behind by whatever's in the caves when we ambush Pumpkinhead? Or perhaps split the group and have some stay here and others explore?"

Luminarion looks the battlefield over and thinks, "All that, and we still have at least one more major fight to go before we're through. Maybe I better get the wand out."

Luminarion draws out his wand of cure light wounds and proceeds to make sure that those who need it are brought back up to full health.

Curvlk

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Egil

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Kaiden

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Hmmm, "1" came up rather more often than expected on those rolls. Anybody know a good exorcism ritual for a die roller? :-) At any rate, 11 wand charges used, 49 charges remaining in the wand. That should have everybody back up at full. Yell at me if that's not the case.

Luminarion will move forward two squares, going from J-10 to I-9 and then I-8. When he has finished moving he will again brandish his Holy Symbol and channel positive divine energy to harm undead. As he does so he says, "Feel the wrath of Sarenrae!"

3d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 4, 1) + 3 = 10

Eagerly awaiting block 3 (already posted).

Minor oops, my round 3 action has already been posted. Granted it will actually happen at the very end, but please don't forget it.

Round 3

Luminarion should now be at square J-10. He will finally have the chance to do something that could make a difference. He will switch to holding his morningstar in his left hand and draw out his holy symbol. Saying in a loud voie, "Feel the wrath of Sarenrae!" He will channel positive energy to harm undead.

3d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 2, 6) + 3 = 17

Round 2, minor change in plans from previous post. Will still execute a double move, drawing morningstar and going to support Gregers, but new path will be H-15, I-14, J-13, J-12, J-11, J-10.

At the end of round 1 Luminarion had advanced to H-16. For round 2 Luminarion will move forward, not knowing that there is a problem until he sees the ghouls as he exits the fog. Once he does he will move to support Gregers. Luminarion will go through squares H-15, H-14, I-13, I-12, I-11, I-10 finishing up in I-9 (a double move). As he moves forward Luminarion will draw his morningstar.

Drat, really low initiative this fight. However, while Luminarion didn't notice any threat, he may very well have noticed Kaiden running past him back towards the rear of the group.

Perception check
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

And with a perception check like that Luminarion will simply continue moving forward as if nothing is wrong. Assuming a standard move of 20 feet and 5 foot squares that will put him in H-16.

IIRC the usual marching order had us more or less holding formation around the wagon. That is probably still a good idea but we need to be careful not to get strung out too much.

Luminarion says, "Depending on how bad the mist gets it might not be that bad an idea to rope us all together somehow, or at least provide for a guide rope that we can hang onto for reference."

"Ghost Sound", "Dancing Lights" and "Light" are all arcane cantrips, so if a spell caster has them prepared he can cast them as many times a day as he wants. "Ghost Sound" lasts one round per level, "Dancing Lights" lasts for 1 minute, and "Light" lasts 10 minutes per level.

I don't think that trying to use some sort of illusion to trigger an ambush before we get to it is going to work that well with the spells we have available, though "Silent Image" might be worth a try (simply create an image of an armed man walking point). The duration on that spell is concentration so that would entail the spell caster who cast it having to maintain concentration (thus using a standard action each round) for an extended period of time.

Luminarion has "Light" prepared because that is also an orison. He was largely planning on using it to make an impromptu torch for a light source, but the spell could be cast on a weapon or arrow or crossbow bolt that could then be thrown/shot ahead. Obviously if it were cast on a throwing weapon it could be recovered and thrown again as long as somebody cared to do that.

And one long hard pull followed by the rope going slack means he got eaten. ;-)

Luminarion simply positions himself so that he is near the front of the group and says to the others, "Curvlk's plan sounds reasonable."

Luminarion says, "Egil is right. There is magic associated with that mist. Rather strong magic in fact. It is possible that we could become the ambushees instead of the ambushers. If we decide to proceed we should do so with caution."

Upon hearing that a spell might be active in the area Luminarion uses a "Detect Magic" orison to see if he can pick up on any magic auras.

Luminarion gets out his seeing eye dog. :-)

Perception check

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

Tracks? What tracks? :-(

Luminarion looks the situation over and says, "We might have no choice but to have the wagon turn back, and likely the horses as well. So the question would be whether or not we go back as a group or split up. Anybody have any ideas?"

Famous last words ...:-)

I decided to take Curvlk's advice and swap out "Bless" for "Endure Elements". Thus I can only help one person, but a single casting will last for an entire day. That should hopefully be the last change before we set out to do something. I should also note that as I have access to Sun Domain spells I could in a serious enough weather emergency prepare "Endure Elements" in all of my spell slots thus protecting seven people. However, that would wipe me out spell wise for anything other than channeling, "rebuking death" and using wands.

And after thinking about it long enough I decided to make a minor change to the spells I had prepped. New list is below, swapped out silence for bull's strength.

Luminarion will have his normal complement of spells prepped. Will be listed below.

Luminarion prepares his spells, grabs breakfast, and joins the rest of the group on the journey to the ambush site.

"Even if it does have a pumpkin for a head," Luminarion says, "I doubt it would make a very good pie."

Luminarion continues on, saying, "On a more serious note, let's decide where we're going to end up sleeping so I can get some good shuteye in."

Luminarion replies, "Capturing or killing this beast would seem to be in all our interests. I would be willing to help you do that."

Well, we certainly don't want him freezing to death outside, and we don't want the barbarians attacking him because they don't realize he's one of us. Does he have both pseudo-dragons with him or just one? If only one, then the other pseudo-dragon could be sent to "fetch" him with an explanation then being provided for our host.

Luminarion says, "That was quite a tale. However, we have run into others who have told us of the giant with the pumpkin head and had figured we were probably going to have to deal with him anyway. I thank you for your offer of hospitality and I and my traveling companions will likely take you up on it."

What are the arrangements that are offered? Will there be a tent big enough for our entire group to sleep in or will we be split up?

Luminarion moves up and takes a seat.

Assuming that the silence from the GM means that Luminarion did not detect anything out of the ordinary with his second heal check trying to figure out what the shaman was doing ...

Luminarion watches what the shaman is doing. Then he shrugs his shoulders. He says: "I do not yet have the ability to directly cure disease through prayer. But there is something I can do which may help somewhat, and for the sake of these people here I will try it."

Luminarion holds forth his Holy symbol and in a loud voice says,"May the light of Sarenrae heal you all."

Channeling positive divine energy to heal everybody in a 30 foot radius, which I assume will get everybody in the tent.

2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11

Everybody who has taken hit point damage just got healed for 11 of them. Whether or not that's going to really help with the disease is of course up to the GM.

If nothing else a heal check to try to figure out what the shaman is doing, if anything, other than just standard long term care.

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Luminarion also looks over some of the sick people.

Heal check for diagnosis, skill modifier +9 because healer's kits as described don't seem to help with diagnosis, only treatment.

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Luminarion remains in his place towards the front of the group and follows along into the tent. He also tries to see what he can of his surroundings.

Perception Check

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Luminarion makes sure that his Holy symbol of Sarenrae is visible and says, "We really don't want much more than simple passage through your lands and advice on our journey. If it will help, I have some skill as a healer if any of your people are in need."

Diplomacy Check

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

And our diplomatic corps falls on its face, <sigh>

Can you just tell us when to level? For some reason I find it harder to track XP online than I do in real life.

I'll second that.

Luminarion says, "I'll go along with you. Anybody else want to come?"

Luminarion comments:"A simple plan would probably be best. We approach as a group. If the stealthy types want to be sneaking along as opposed to being out in the open with the rest of us that would probably be alright. If we get attacked we fight, if not we talk. Not too much more to it than that."

Luminarion commented, "I still find it strange that they did not appear to have any fires. Did you see any signs that they were using fire at all? While I suppose it is possible that they could have some way to keep fires inside their tents it seems unlikely. Which also brings up the question of how they intend to cook their kill."

Luminarion shrugs, then he says, "Still, I see no reasonable alternative to approaching them and talking to them. If they are friendly all will be well, and if they should prove to be hostile odds are that we would have to deal with them sooner or later anyway."

Upon seeing that the scouts have returned, Luminarion asks, "So what did you find?"

Luminarion replies, "Kyonin can be nice, though just about anywhere would be warmer than here. Besides, who knows, maybe there are people in this tundra who could use a little clerical support."

Luminarion replies,"Originally from Kyonin, but my duties for Sarenrae have me traveling all over. There are many places where the congregations are too small to have established temples with regular services. So I move around trying to visit as many of those small congregations as I can holding services, providing healing, performing marriages, baptisms, confirmations, etc.. It's also a form of missionary work as well. Last but not least, occasionally I run across situations where the power of Sarenrae is needed to deal with some sort of evil situation. Thus I am here."

Luminarion simply waits patiently to see what transpires.

Luminarion moves to the front of the group and waits to see what transpires.

If I channel positive divine energy to heal, then I can cure any hit point damage, as well as nonlethal damage. However, I think that in order to make fatigue go away I would need to use "Lesser Restoration" and I do not have that spell prepared. Even if I did I could only get one person with one spell. Another consideration is that if those things out there are undead, I can harm them more effectively than I can heal by channeling energy, and would prefer to save my channels for dealing with them. Perhaps Tokara could channel some healing energy?

Luminarion moves to the center of the group, pulls out his Holy symbol and casts "Bless" (good for 3 minutes/30 combat rounds).