Morossa's page

Ouch. Hope everything gets better. I will probably still be around when you return if you want to reassemble any of your games.

Morossa's eyes narrow as she sees the pendant.

We are to get a pendant. However, we were also told that there were seven rooms and seven tests. We have not been to seven rooms and this seems too easy. Probably a trap of some sort.

Morossa carefully moves forward searching the room for any traps.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (14) + 11 = 25

Morossa nods in agreement with Zinbah:
Yes. As before, we proceed with caution to minimize risks. Together, we all shall pass this test.

Morossa moves forward to inspect the next door.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

Morossa looks down at the snakes lying on the ground.

What are these made of? Seem pretty tough, perhaps we should take them to see if they can be made into something useful.

If they are mithril, I figure we can turn them into a mithril shirt or even breastplate if there is enough.

No problem. Post when you can. I have other things going on, so more time between posts is fine.

When you get set back up, we will be here ready to overthrow good.

Don't think you needed any help with that roll.

That is what I am built for. Sneaking around and making things easier for the rest of you. Dirty Trick, aid another, Butterfly Sting (if I decide to go that route), etc.

Will probably get some more Improved CMB feats at some point as well.

Morossa continues to try to distract the snake to allow the un-paladin to get a solid strike in.

Attack-aid another: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12 vs DC10

Lisbeth should once more have +2 flanking and +2 aid another

Morossa shifts around and once more provides flanking while antagonizing the strange metallic construct in the hope of opening up a place for Lisbeth to use her giant sword.

Attack(aid another): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18 vs DC10

Should provide +2 Aid Another and +2 flanking for Lisbeth

It is made out of Mithril, could have almost any type to overcome the DR. We should probably both assist Lisbeth and let her do the damage as her weapon does a lot more damage.

Yeh, I am holding off on posting. Spooky posted the cobras' actions, but not the effect of ours. I am waiting on the result of our actions before making my next round's posts.

This is one of those fights where I am least effective. Kinda hard to do a dirty trick against a construct snake.

Yeh, I should be able to fill a lot of the skill roles as well. Will be a decent face later on, although with Amanda and Raymond, this is less important. Morossa is going to be an almost unbeatable sneak once she gets all the vampire feats and starts taking Shadow Dancer levels.

Also, my perception and sense motive will be out the roof, which is important considering that I will undoubtedly be hunted by every good person in the land.

Round 1
Seeing the attempt to funnel the metal snakes into the room, Morossa drops her bow and moves to flank one of the snakes as it enters.

I would like to flank with Lisbeth or Amanda.

Aid another (unarmed): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
-->This should give whoever I am flanking with a +2 flanking and a +2 aid another bonus on their attacks. I would prefer flanking with Lisbeth as I believe she does quite a bit more damage.

Current AC:
AC: 20
FF: 18
Touch: 20

Look at the positive side. If Lisbeth provokes from both, then the rest of us can presumably walk right through them without a worry as their AoO will be used up.

Actually, only the one you Bullrush should draw the AoO. However, if you move out of a square that the other one is threatening, then you will provoke from that one as well.

Can Lisbeth retreat/withdraw to make them come toward us?

I always get to act in the Surprise Round - Devoted Guardian ability. Although I would have gone after the snakes, so I should go before Raymond and Tatiana, and then again in the first round.

Surprise Round

Damn, what the hell is that?

Morossa reaches over her shoulder and draws her bow, unsure of whether it will be effective.
--> only 1 action in the surprise round.

Disguise: 1d20 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 7 + 10 = 18 <-- despite her skill with disguises, the ever more morose monk does a fairly poor job at disguising herself

Looks like we might have a bit of a battle ahead of us.

Morossa reaches into her pocket and pulls out some sand mixed with crushed pepper for the next enemy should it have eyes.

Short on time today. Morossa spent much time in a Mitran monastery, so it will be easy to recast herself as a Mitran monk.

Morossa looks over at Lisbeth, letting out a sigh as though she had been holding her breath for some reason.
Information is king. He who holds sway over the education and communication of the realm rules. A king without control of the schools and mail is nothing more than a puppet. Clearly this rookery is tied in as a means of communicating. With whom, I do not know. Other towers? Other Mitran forces near the tower? Other important persons such as the leaders of local militia? Who knows.

She pauses and once more looks at the door where the squire was locked while licking her lips.
However, if this tower considers its rookery so important, then perhaps the tower is understaffed and the rookery is a means to restaff it should something attack the tower.

She pauses again before nodding toward the next door.
Perhaps we should move on now and leave the squire in his hole.

Morossa looks over at the place where Timeon was hiding.

He could stay where he was hiding and we can get him when we return. I would hate for him to get injured and . . . bleed - she licks her lips nervously - while we are moving through the other rooms.

poke - where is everyone? If you all delay much more, I might start eating the boy.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
Morossa raises an eyebrow at Amanda unsure if attacking the boy would help with converting him to Amanda's faith.

Morossa continues to watch the boy hoping that her companions will tire of their games and kill the boy. She is unsure why she is having these desires, but she almost wants to see if the young boy's blood might taste different than any other. She is unsure what she would compare it to, but the desire is there, like a subconscious thought just at the edge of her thoughts.

Morossa licks her lips when she sees the young meal, er, squire. She has an urge to hear him scream, but realizes that allowing Amanda to go about her business is likely the better option at this point.

Morossa looks at the rack:
The instructions say this is a tool. The question then is, who is to be tortured.

She turns her head toward Tatiana.
You are new. For your sake, I hope you are not the one we are to use this tool upon.
As she says this, there is no real emotion in Morossa's eyes. It is as though there is something dead, or dying lying beneath her darkened eyes.

After a moment, Morossa too begins to search the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16 <-- apparently she is too thrilled with the idea that she might be able to torture someone and is not really paying attention to the room.

Morossa shrugs as the orb falls off the pedestal and cracks.
Oops. Might be worth less now, but it is definitely worth more than if we did not survive whatever that thing was.

Shall we see what trickery the next room holds?

Morossa looks at the orb.

Hmmm, perhaps we must shatter the orb. I am not the most skilled, but lets see what happens if we shoot that thing.

She then takes out one of the guards longbows that she kept, carefully sights the arrow and releases.

Attack-longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
I am proficient with this through the Sohei archetype.

Attack-longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 <-- if first shot misses
Attack-longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10
Attack-longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Attack-longbow: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

UMD(Wand of Mage Armor): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8
UMD(Wand of Mage Armor): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Morossa taps her want once or twice before a shadow appears around her which quickly disappears leaving only wispy traces behind which, while appearing insubstantial in fact are quite effective at deflecting some blows made against her.

AC 20, FF18, T20

Morossa looks at Lisabeth and raises her hand while shaking her head: Before we fire aimlessly again, lets see if there is anything else within. It would not do to destroy some tool that must be used to overcome then next obstacle.

Morossa looks to the others.
I can see somewhat in the dark, not sure if I can see in this magic dark though.
I have 30' darkvision from the Bitten feat.

The instruction appears to be to shatter that which blinds. To me this sounds as though it is an instruction that something breakable is within and must be destroyed.

Morossa looks to Raymond.
Can Sammy enter the room and search for that which lies within and destroy it?

Morossa watches as Amanda kills the strange mold.
Well read. Strange that you can freeze the frozen. The Cardinal is indeed tricky with some of these tests.

She then proceeds through the heretofore unopened door to the west.

Which door did we enter in from? Your description makes it sound as though we entered from the north, but it could also be from the south. I want to make sure before we tromp through the room.

Morossa looks at the jewel.
We were to find some sapphire jewelry. But, this seems too easy. If it does not appear to be magic, I believe we should carefully take it with us. Unless it is somehow trapped, it will not harm us. If it is what we seek, then we will have it.

With that, she heads to the south door to see what lies beyond.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

Morossa looks at the jewel before turning to her companions.
Can any of you determine what this does and how it might benefit us?

She then moves over to the southern door.
I suppose we should keep moving. The farther we get, the less we have to worry about the Cardinal's time constraints.

Ready to move forward unless someone wants to do something else. I assume that Raymond or Zinbah will use Spellcraft on the jewel.

Lol - I am pretty sure who you mean each time, and with Tatiana being the new character, it just makes things that much more confusing.

Morossa looks at the door carefully.

Sounds like a riddle of the First. Trickery is his middle name.

Undoubtedly there is a second exit from this room somewhere. My guess is that going through that door will lead to something nasty, either a trap or an enemy.

Morossa begins to search the room for any hidden passages. She will start just within the room and move about the room to the north, then along the north wall. She will avoid the area before the east door, but search the ground before it for traps. Then continue to search the rest of the east wall followed by the south wall.

I can take-10 for a 21 Perception, but personally I hate take-10 and take-20 on perception.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

EDIT - Dang, ninjaed by Amanda - but I still beat her nat-20 on the search. tbtbtbtb.

Morossa nods silently to the Cardinal and then follows the others behind Tiadora(I believe?).

Ok, for clarification.

I buy a Wand of Mage Armor.

The group purchases a Wand of CLW - 125 gold each.

Please let me know if this is ok Spooky. Everyone else, please confirm you have deducted the gold for this. I think that it would probably be best for Tatiana to carry the Wand of CLW. Several others can use it if necessary, but she is the least martial of the healers - with the others being Lisabeth and Amanda who seem pretty front line in their makeup.

A little retcon here. I am not sure we all agreed on things, but I would like to purchase a wand of Mage Armor and also put 125 gp toward a Wand of CLW. This should cost a total of 875 I believe. I will continue to fight with my hands at this point.

I will also take one of the longbows from the guards and a 2 quivers of arrows.

If this cannot be done, or others do not wish to purchase the CLW wand, let me know.

Morossa listens to the others as they boast and or complain. As the evening gets late, she too heads to her room for a quiet rest. She finds the bed to be too comfortable as she has spent too many months sleeping on pallets in monasteries, on the ground plotting against her family, and most recently in shackles in Branderscar. Thus, she takes the sheets and finds a place in the corner on the floor to curl up in wondering what strange occurrences the next day will bring.

Biggest difference is that the Infernal Healing is always 10 hp, 1hp/round for 10 rounds. CLW is 1d8+1 for an average of 5.5. Thus, the Infernal Healing is much better out of combat.

My vote is get both if we can somehow procure the infernal healing wand.

For now CLW is probably the best option. When we get some more money, then get Infernal Healing. Both have their place and that way we will have everyone covered as they move toward the dark side.

Once we get to level 3, Tatiana, Raymond or Zinbah should be able to summon a Lemure devil. Then we just need to get some of its blood before sending it home. Since Craft Wand is not available until level 5, this should alleviate this problem.

Perhaps the nice Cardinal has Craft Wand, or his sorceress companion.

Morossa shakes her head at Amanda's comment:
It was not out of compassion that I allowed them to live. It is to confound those who arrive to find us escaped. If we were truly forsaken, then we would undoubtedly have killed them all. Instead, we only slew those who raised weapons against us, and even some of them were left alive. Now, the Mitrans have a quandary, who were these supposed horrible forsaken if they compassionately allowed so many disabled guards to live?

Morossa takes another bite of the rather undercooked meat.

Morossa looks up at Raymond, blood from her last bite of meat still dripping from her chin.
Perhaps you were not listening. Our goal is to run this land. There will be no Mitrans bothering whatever operation you are running. You could be the minister of kickbacks . . . I mean minister of commerce. Every ship would pay a tithe to the government. And as a loyal servant of the Cardinal, I am sure that you would be well compensated enforcing the receipt of these tithes and import duties and income taxes and other legal income streams. Money, luxuries, women, whatever sick and twisted desire you might have, it will all be yours if you serve the Dark Lord and bring about a new and better nation on the foolish inhabitants of this land.

As far as respect from your men go. Once you have consumed . . . er - Morossa shakes her head as though trying to figure where that last comment came from - beaten or placed several in slavery for disrespecting you, I rather doubt that you will have much trouble. I have read about Asmodeus and while I will not claim to be his most devout follower, I know that he only respects those who wield power to control their surroundings, whether that power comes through contracts or might is irrelevant. He is about the rule of law, but does not care about what law that is so long as it is a consistent law.

I am thinking a Wand of Mage Armor for me. Probably have Zinbah use it for me until I get enough UMD to be able to use it effectively.

Anyone have any thoughts about what I should buy? Bracers of Armor are about all that is really useful and if I can get a Wand of Mage Armor, that is much more useful, and less expensive, for many levels.

Why would a Wand of CLW only be good for you until level 3? It will benefit me until level 5 when I take the third Vampire feat.

Morossa spends her time in her room brooding. For some reason, she has little interest in pleasures of the flesh and no matter how hot the slaves make her fire, she is frequently overwhelmed with shivers. There is little that she can think of which she needs as her time living on her own has made her fairly self sufficient.

I think that each of us chipping in for a Wand of CLW would be a good idea. A wand of Infernal Healing would also work if we can get one, although it is not as useful in battle, but more useful out of combat. Either wand would be 125gp each.

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At Dinner
Morossa picks at her food, much of the breads, fruits and other fine foods not being in the least appetizing. When the meat arrives, despite requesting rare, she finds hers grossly overdone and that it be redone several times until she receives a satisfactory piece which to most others appears to be almost uncooked.

After the others begin discussing their predicaments.
Does it truly matter what happens after we are dead. It is readily apparent that we shall not expect to be well received in Heaven. And I doubt we would be allowed to stay in Purgatory for long. Thus, all of us must expect to be sent to the depths of Hell. In my view, we should all strive to experience the most we can while we are here. Whether it is pain, pleasure, or something else. We have been saved from an early meeting with the guardians of Hell, we should make the most of it. If it requires service to the Cardinal so be it. All of us chose to sign the contracts. If we had chosen not to, then I imagine that our heads would be impaled on spikes by now. If this dinner is a sign of the thanks that we might receive for service to the Cardinal, then I shall do all I can to receive more. After all, what is the alternative? Instant death? Years spent in hiding from the Mitran inquisitors? Something worse such as becoming one of the slaves we see here? No, I chose the contract and will see that I profit from it to the maximum.

I am sure that the Cardinal could purchase the weaponry and then send it somewhere to arm his forces. By the time we get there, the equipment will probably have been used and destroyed in the fight and we will long since be forgotten as Talingarde will have other things to be concerned about.

Morossa shrugs:
Not like I have a lot of other choices, even if I were able to leave the mansion.

With that, she sticks her finger in her mouth and with a quick bite pokes a small hole in her pointer finger. Everyone watching suddenly realizes that her canines seem to be slightly elongated. Not overly much, but more than one would expect. She then squeezes some blood from the finger and signs the contract.

Morossa to steps forward and reads the contract. She to notices that the Second Loyalty appears to be strongly weighted in favor of the Cardinal. After reading this and attempting to understand its ramifications, she looks up at the Cardinal.

Three of the loyalties I have no problem agreeing to. However, the Second Loyalty appears one sided. We are bound to not harm you, but there is no similar binding upon you to not harm us. What is to keep you from using is to perform your tasks and then have you order us eliminated to, so to speak, tie up loose ends?

"You shall sign these. The woman at my side, Tiadora, has already given herself to Asmodeus (And signed the contract already) and is one of his most loyal clerics. She will join you, as even with some of you being devoted to our dark lord already, there are none who have given themselves to the full extent of his magical gifts."

I assume you mean Tatiana, not Tiadora who I believe is the Cardinal's right hand (wo)man and a mage.