Naravash Avernus's page

Well, at least it's not my only game with you, mdt.

As for questions: What the crap are these weird oni?! lol

Really sorry to hear about all that mess with your family, mdt. That's a lot of awfully heavy stuff, dude. =(

Avernus shakes his head at Zamu's question, "It's not a language known by me, I'm afraid." He then looks at the oni blankly following Xu and shakes his head. "Whatever it is or however it came to be, I haven't the heart to put it down. But I'm also at a loss as to what to do besides press onward with it in tow. That, in and of itself, though, also seems less than ideal." He sweeps his eyes over the group and shrugs helplessly, "What should we do?"

=(
Man, dude that's terrible! I hope you guys are able to help your brother in law in whatever way he needs. Geez.

we're pretty disparate as far as specialties go at this point: a monk with an archery focus, a fighter with an armor rather than a damage dealing focus, and a dragon-blooded sorcerer.

I'm not familiar at all with the retraining rules, so I'm not sure how easy/feasible it'd be for you to switch to something else, but I think that just about anything you like could work with what we have right now.

Though I do think you'll get a bit more mileage out of a less mass-buff focused class than you've been getting out of skald (or would get from bard, I imagine).

Aw, dude. Sorry to hear that =(

"Children?" Avernus' tone is baldly appalled and the sneer that twists his face quickly matches. "Foul thing deserved worse than he got if he was turning kids into-" he waves at the puppet-like oni Xu has been testing commands with, "these."

Omen pokes his head over Zamu's shoulder to take a look. "Wasn't that cloaked troublemaker stuffing goblins into these as we approached?"

Level 4!
+9 HP (1/2HD+1+Con mod+fav class)
+1 BAB
+1 Fort Save
+5 skill points
(+1 Craft (armor), +1 Craft (weapon), +1 Diplomacy, +1 Intimidate, +1 Linguistics (orc))
+1 Bonus Feat (power attack)
+1 Str

Avernus watches, plainly puzzled at the oni's strange behavior. "Do we bring it with us?"

[raises hand] Present!

Avernus glances from Xu to the oni then back to Xu. "Well. It looks like you've got a puppet."

Dude. You are one *busy* dude!
Sheesh!

Take some time off from the boards if you need to, my friend. Golly!

Avernus shrugs and looks at the oni quizzically before asking in abyssal, "Why do you kneel?" He repeats the phrase slowly for Xu if the kneeling thing doesn't respond. If that doesn't work (since it's not orcish) he just shakes his head and shrugs.

Avernus spins as the oni leaps from the sarcophagus, his sword at the ready, but the tip lowers to the ground as the oni kneels and the tiefling's face twists into a look of bald confusion.

"What? What is it doing? Why is it kneeling like that?"

Avernus frowns at the corpse as Ling examines it, "Well, perhaps now we know where those fleas we found earlier came from."

The dicebot turns in our favor for once! Huzzah!

Avernus lowers his bow as the skreeling figure falls and the others go strangely still. He claps Zamu heartily once upon the shoulder as he steps past to recover his shield and heavy pick leaning against the nearby wall. "Nicely done, Zamu." He then nods to Ling, "And you as well." As he trades his bow for the twisted shield and pick, he shakes his head ruefully, "I don't know what magics that thing called upon, but I couldn't tell which was the real threat. I'm glad the two of you saw through its trickery."

Avernus nods and sets his rent shield down, sheathing his sword and drawing a heavily strung bow of his own as Zamu readies his. The horned smith nods in readiness, draws, and takes aim. "Everyone ready? Good." He looses his arrow, aiming for the smaller robed figure.

Longbow: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27for: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
critical hit?: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19for an additional: 2d8 + 4 ⇒ (7, 4) + 4 = 15

Avernus shrugs noncommittally, "Ok then." He turns away from the stairs and starts lumbering toward the distant light.

Avernus chuckles at Xu's question, "Go towards the light? Can't say I've heard that suggested all that often. Seems fitting in the Land of the Dead though." He looks down the stairs, then to the seemingly distant light and shrugs. "That's one vote for the stairs and another for over there," he nods toward the direction of the pale glow. "Do we flip a coin?"

Avernus nods, bringing his rent shield up before him in readiness. "Want me to go first?"

I can't hit either of those DCs

Xu's call is all the confirmation Avernus needs to fall back into the hallway. He keeps his shield up between him and the statue until he sees it break off and return to its previous position in the room.

He looks down at his shield, and frowns. "That thing did a real number on this shield." He shakes his head and curses under his breath as he brings his free hand up to the wound in his chest. "Well, could have been worse, I guess. Did we learn anything at least? Anything other than fighting that thing head on is a bad idea?"

With some sounding the call for retreat and others holding their ground, Avernus shifts back toward the hall he'd entered from but tries to hold the statue's focus still to buy his allies the time they need to try whatever it is they're trying.

"I hope I'm not making this look easy, people - because it's not! Whatever you're trying to do, do it now!"

5ft step back one square and full defense!

Right now, I'm just buying time for Ling and Xu

Does that attack ignore hardness? If not, the shield doesn't take any hp damage.

Avernus growls in pain as the statue's blade slips past the shield by gouging a jagged cleft into it to bite into his chest. "Whatever we're doing, we need to do it faster!"

It's was Turn 3 when Xu made a grab for the gem and learned it was fake (the statue already moved and attacked and Avernus already attacked as well). Maybe Xu's shout revealing the truth of the gem can happen then so the others can go (Ling with the detect magic and Zamu who hasn't posted a Turn 3 action yet).

Then on Turn 4 Xu can go for the door if he can't go for it with the remainder of his movement during his Turn 3 action.

Don't forget, Xu's invisible and we can't see him =)

Avernus skirts around to the side of the statue, his eyes narrowing with recognition. "You're on to something with the importance of that gem, Zamu! I think this thing is trying to keep me away from it!" He then lashes out, weakly, with a strike from his pick and a snap from his jaws.

+1 Heavy Pick: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8for: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9
Bite: 1d20 ⇒ 14for: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

While it's true there isn't an exhaustive list of hardnesses for all the myriad things one might pick up and brandish as a club or shank, there are rules in place for a GM to assign hardness to improvised weapons. That doesn't seem to carry over to natural weapons as far as I've seen in the rules or found on the boards.

That said, it's your game mdt, so you rule how you feel is best! =)

"I hope you're right," Avernus shouts between grunts and swings, "I can't hold this thing's attention for long!"

According to the Big T-rex himself, the Shatter Weapons extraordinary ability doesn't function vs natural attacks.
Link

Most of the sentiment I've found on the boards seems to concur. Natural Weapons lack hardness and aren't objects, so they can't gain the broken condition.

Another suggested the damage the caryatid column does shouldn't apply to the attacker's hp pool, or a third level character is rather likely to punch themselves to death on the first swing. =\

I'll still bite, but yeah, I'd forgotten the -5 to the roll. My apologies! =)

Do I get an AoO for it moving to get in front of me again? It took more than a 5-ft step, yes?

Avernus brings his pick around, hoping the magics from the oil might help overcome the statue's resilience. He grunts and growls with the effort as he keeps his shield high before slipping to the side of the statue again.
+1 Heavy Pick: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14for: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Bite: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23for: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

swing with pick and bite as full attack then 5-ft step as a free action

Avernus steps to the side, keeping his shield between himself and the statue. He slips his heavy pick free as his tail fishes a flask of oil from his belt. He then empties the contents over his heavy pick, holding it ready for the statue's next attack.

5-ft step, draw heavy pick as move action, draw oil of magic weapon as swift action (tail racial trait), apply oil to pick as standard

"Ok! It's the statue! It's the statue! Can any of you smash it? It's going to carve through my shield before too long at this rate!"

Avernus hefts his shield after shrugging. "Stay back, all of you. Until we know what we're dealing with at least." With that, the horned tiefling strides over the broken form of the ratfolk and into the chamber beyond, his shield held close and ready.

Total Defense as I move in, which nets out to an AC of 28

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 4

Avernus frowns at the corpse splayed atop the ruined door. "Quite a grisly end it met..."

"Let's ignore it for now and see if other paths might be open, Kimiko. We've enough to contend with as it is without springing some kind of magical trap." Avernus chuckles at his own understatement as he and the others mill about. "Perhaps we should head back to the fork in the hall?"

Avernus looks around, bald bewilderment plain on his horned face. "This place grows stranger yet it seems. Signs of struggle, but how old, I wonder." He looks to each of the others and shrugs with a shake of his head, utterly at a loss.

Is Ling still with us? It's been nearly a full month since her last post.

Avernus nods along with Zamu and Yanyeeku, "I agree. Best to ensure we're not leaving anything troublesome ready to press in on us from behind.

Nothing from anyone else in the gameplay thread for two weeks? What are we looking at here, folks?

Avernus nods, "Whomever has been living here certainly isn't one of the strange melting oni we've encountered before. They seemed to have no need of fire or food. Perhaps if we find this person he or she might know something of our quarry."

Avernus nods as no one else claims the oil and slips it into his own belongings with a shrug. "Well, I don't care to open that door," he nods to the other exit from the room, "and deal with that swarm of bugs again. Let's double back to that other door in the dining area and see what we might find there."

Avernus shrugs and shakes his head. "I could use the oil for this," he hefts his hand-and-a-half sword, "but I imagine that would likely serve someone else better. The other items wouldn't do me much good, I'm afraid."

Avernus shrugs, then nods and begins ripping down the clumsily nailed boards and bits that prevent the door from opening properly. As he does so, he deadpans, "If it is more fleas, giant or otherwise, I'm going to be very grumpy."

Avernus looks at the poorly barricaded door and wonders aloud, "Perhaps this is meant to keep more of those fleas from earlier at bay?"

I don't know what it suggests one way or another =P

"Food? That's new. I doubt the strange melting oni we've encountered so far had a need for it."

Avernus rips the door shut at Ling's shriek, then his brow furrows in confusion as she explains what startled her. "Fleas? Hmmf."