Taresh Mel's page

Thank you to everyone. And happy new year!

Only rolling once, to see if Taresh knows the last thing what Katswiri missed.

"I have traveled a bit, that place is..."
Knowledge (geography): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
"...I actually have no idea, sorry."

Taresh commits himself to the attack and rakes the aberrant mutt with all his wizardly brawn.

Rapier attack: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28 BAB +5, Str +4, Weapon +2
Rapier damage: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 Str +4, Weapon +2

Battleshaping claw: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22 BAB +5, Str +4, Enh +2, secondary -5
Slashing damage: 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 Str +2 secondary, enh +2

No flank, no sneak attacks. Taresh was too far to get Blessing of fervor, and mirror image duration has ran out by now.

Back from Christmas.

Since there is apparently nothing Taresh can do about the falling sky, he might as well return to the combat.

One move closer while drawing the rapier. The second move is spent circling around the critter to avoid AoO and set up flank for Gurgle. Done.

Nikita will probably blast those critters apart.
"I'll try to figure out something about the lenses and their adjustments, and if those empty niches somehow should contain items that are needed to power the thing."
Taresh moves closer and attempts to understand how the apparatus works.

I don't know if it takes an action to figure out which skills are necessary (if any), or if we need to fill the empty slots with something.
Move action to get closer, standard action to ponder things and attempt checks, if necessary.

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20

Yep. Expected those four. But let's try to keep the sun up first. Investigating the theft will be easier when everything is not blasted to dust.
Taresh bows to the zelekhut and runs toward the beacon.

Big. Taresh cranes his neck back and decides to try the diplomatic route rather than taste the chain or hooves.

"We have been tasked by the Scarab Sages to investigate the situation in a library, and Saruna, one of the caretakers of the library, gave us instructions on how to reach this place. The library is under some sort of incursion, and now we find out that this place is deteriorating. Will you allow us to try to stop the deterioration?"

Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26 to identify the big fellow
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (12) + 9 = 21 if that is the proper skill for talking

Looks like the baths had nothing of importance right now. Before the entire place falls on us, Taresh moves right to explore. "Why is the place shaking so much? It's been here presumably for thousands of years, and just when we enter it has a fit! Do we smell bad to this library or what?"

Popping onto the island expecting some sort of guardian and facing none, Taresh stops and blinks for a while. "Fancy," he finally says, trying to remain stoic about a secret librarian's paradise under the desert.

He walks a few steps here and there to flush the last dregs of haste from his limbs, sheathing the rapier. "Are we really on Golarion? That doorway might have taken us anywhere, and this looks a bit too perfect to lie under dry old Osirion. And even in this place they decided something warrants a door."

Taresh saunters over to the southern building and its door, inspecting it for runes, mechanisms, traps, locks, or a plain sign that might tell what it is. This being a library. I wouldn't be surprised if the sages labeled everything. But he does not try to open it yet.

Perception: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (20) + 22 = 42

Taresh squints at the portal, but notices a hidden compartment in the room instead. He quickly ransacks it, then hops through the portal to find to soothe his curiosity about it. "Whee!"

That will take a few rounds, even with haste, so I don't know how many rounds, if any, we will have remaining after entering the portal.
No idea where C1 is.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24
Religion: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Taresh steps back, letting Guy and Katswiri do the honors with the pillar. "Maybe we'll get through this without trashing them. Or getting pounded flat."

Planes to idenfify remains: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

Taresh springs back on his feet. "Let's do this, then. If I'm going to play tag with golems, I'm going to give it my all. You keep the sage jewel, being sages and all." He hands the jewel to either Guy or Katswiri and starts moving towards the final chamber, casting as he goes. "If any of you have those shields of faith left, I'd welcome it. If not, I'll make do."

Bull's strength, long arm, shield, stoneskin, see invisibility go up as Taresh walks, culminating in haste on the entire group before he walks down the corridor and steps into the main room.

"Desna, let me walk out of this room with my own two feet."

Taresh sits on a rock and looks anxious. "We probably can't delay it much further. Do you want to get some last-minute advice or instructions from our dessicated pal upstairs, or is it time to bump our foreheads into a group of golems? Avoiding a fight with them would be nice. But is that an option?" He wipes a drop of sweat from his brow.

Taresh offers the wand to Gurgle. "Be my guest. Unfortunately the images only bind to the wielder, so you'll have to make it work yourself."

Personal range, warm up the dice and see if UMD works.

Taresh is happy to siphon some use from the mirror image wand before continuing.
How many images: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

"All done. Let's check the area behind Badru and see if there is anything left to find out before dealing with the golems."

Taresh would like to take a look at the room west of B4.

Taresh looks at the bullet-riddled remains of Badru and sighs. Then turns to Katswiri.
"I'll have one shot at uncursing something. It'll take me a moment to prepare. If you want to do something in the meantime, go ahead. And oh, I haven't used this spell before. If you know any means of improving its power, I'd welcome it. I don't know any method of doing that myself, but you sages seem like a knowledgeable bunch, so it's better to ask than to be quiet."
The Varisian sits cross-legged on the floor, digs out a spellbook and begins staring at it intently. There. Let's see if I can pull this off.

If nothing interrupts us, it'll take Taresh 15 minutes to memorize remove curse in his last empty 4th-level slot. He still has one unprepared 3rd-level slot after that. If a caster level check is required, he asks if the others have any means of improving its odds. Otherwise he'll use it. Default CL is 10.

Gotta try to earn my keep. Full attack, using blessing of fervor for extra attack.

adamantine rapier 1: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (19) + 14 = 33 (5 bab, 2 str, 2 enh, 2 mor, 2 sacred, 1 luck)
critical confirmation: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25
damage 1 if critical: 2d6 + 14 + 2d6 ⇒ (1, 2) + 14 + (2, 1) = 20 (2 str, 2 enh, 2 sacred, 1 luck)
damage 1 if not critical: 1d6 + 7 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 7 + (1, 1) = 15

adamantine rapier 2: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31
damage 2: 1d6 + 7 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 7 + (5, 3) = 21

battleshaping claw attack: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28
magical slashing damage: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

If necessary, Taresh autosucceeds at the Perception check and is also covered by delay poison

Gurgle, Katswiri; before silence happens. Taresh has Friendly Switch.

Option 1 If Gurgle would like to move into flank south of Badru, he can sneak attack. Then Taresh can elbow himself into Katswiri's position to also sneak attack, displacing Katswiri one step right.
Option 2 If Gurgle does not want to move into melee yet, Taresh takes the southern position and sneak attacks with Katswiri's assistance.

Gurgle, please pick your action and I will move Taresh based on that.

In either case, this provokes from Badru (displacement may protect), and Taresh makes one melee attack.

Rapier attack: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (5) + 13 = 18 5 BAB 2 Str 2 enh 2 heroism 2 hunter's blessing
Piercing adamantine: 1d6 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (4) + 6 + (5, 6) = 21 including sneak attack
Unlikely to hit, but there you go.

The following assumes Badru doesn't see through our ploy and initiate hostilities immediately.

"I also think it's better for the Sages if there's someone here to share information and knowledge about the archives. Saruna may not like the job or her condition, but she's coping, and eventually when the area has been reclaimed completely, someone might be able to either help her pass on or restore her. In my humble understanding it would be difficult, but the Sages are supposed to know powerful magical techniques, so it is not impossible. So I vote for not destroying her." He takes a breather and starts casting. "Badru on the other hand seems to be living the dream, and that never ends well with undead."

Taresh casts displacement on himself right before the silence affects him or Katswiri (her decision). That should leave 6-8 rounds of it, considering coordination, casting, and movement. The rest of the buffs are saved for the golem fracas.

Taresh nods to Katswiri and prepares for combat. probably nedd to put up a spell or two myself, but will do that after getting hone. On mobile right now.

I wonder if he was like that before deciding to become a doll, or if the process just robbed him of every iota of empathy. At least Saruna was relatable. Taresh is watching the negotiations, thinking about if we're going to end an inhumane construct-bound fanatic or a self-hating mummified sphinx to protect the archives.

Boons are in the air: 1d20 ⇒ 1

"We humbly request permission to enter!" Taresh waits a while for an answer, and if none is heard, tiptoes into the room, checking what the invader might have been and why he thinks "disassembled" is a better term than "eviscerated" or "slaughtered". Is it the nature of the corpse or the methodology involved in extinguishing its life? If there doesn't seem to be anyone to talk to yet, the Varisian decides to look around. "If you can find Badru, go right ahead and ask your questions. I'll check what sort of thieves we might be dealing with."

"Nope. Not yet. We need a soul focus before dealing with the golems, right?" Taresh doubles back into the antechamber and checks the door, then tries to open it and check what's beyond.

"Swell. That's historical indeed." Taresh lets the sages do what they want, then moves to peek in the next opening in the corridor.

Strangeness. Posting on ganeplay increases post count but doesn't show posts, at least to me. Will check later if it gets better

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17 to investigate

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24 to try to get an idea

Peeking in through the first western opening. What wonders shall I see?

"Now that the hole is plugged, even temporarily, let us continue." Taresh takes a peek at the opening to the east.

Taresh evaluates how much rubble the group could shift in the 15 minutes it would take for Guy to prepare, whether it would help, and whether a second or third stone shape in addition to the rubble would help, all complicated by the fact that the third stoneshape would come from himself, and that would reduce the people carrying stuff by one, and so on...

"The ant haul spells slapped on us have suddenly become very useful. I wonder if I could actually do it by myself."
Taresh's own carry strength is 18 thanks to traits and feats, with pound limits tripled by ant haul.

Knowledge engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22

If it looks like a reasonable option, Taresh goes to work. If the hole is too large, he'll wait until we find a better option.

"Whatever breaches through rock can breach through whatever obstacles we can set up. It's only if the thieves are exploiting a hole left by some long-gone creature that sealing becomes useful. In any case, I don't have anything strong enough to seal that, unless adding a second stone shape to Guy's would do the trick. It might be a good idea to check if the thieves are still here and nip the trouble at the bud."

Perception to search the area: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (18) + 22 = 40

The Varisian rubs his moustache happily, then attempts to surmount the barricade.
First try to move steadily. Take 10 on Acrobatics for result of 20
Acrobatics w. Dex+4: 1d20 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 8 + 2 = 21 If take 10 fails

If Taresh gets over the barricade, he hands Daosvaria one end of the rope and has her deliver it to the other side so others might use it as a guide while Taresh holds it steady from the other side.

"Thanks. My turn." Feeling the encouraging wave flow from Guy, Taresh sets to analyze and disarm the trap. He starts by reading a scroll of cat's grace and flexes his fingers to test that the spell is working correctly.

Perception w. Heroism: 1d20 + 22 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 22 + 2 = 41

Disable Device w. Heroism and Dex+4: 1d20 + 18 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 18 + 2 + 2 = 31

Taresh nods at Guy's words. "We press on. If this is advanced abjuration magic, the webs might come back if we dawdle too long. I also don't want the entire collection to vanish on my watch."

He descends the stairs with a sword in hand.

"Let's keep moving before everything is gone, maybe we'll catch whatever is taking things."

"So much for that." Taresh pokes the elemental mess he tried to make. After seeing that Katswiri is still immersed in the translation, he looks at the others. "I'm going to take the opportunity to pick up a couple of spells." He finds a quiet corner in the complex, digs out a spellbook and starts flipping through its pages.

Memorizing unused spell slots. Displacement and greater magic weapon to 3rd, mirror image to 2nd, grease and long arm to 1st. Cast greater magic weapon to the rapier straigth away.

Taresh nods to the group, then sets forth towards north in front of the others.

Taresh nods. "I'll do my best. Guy, I'd welcome assistance. We'll try to summon an ice elemental."

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20 plus possible assistance

Taresh listens to Katswiri's report on the mummification materials. "We'll see about Badru when we meet him. This turf belongs to you Sages, and you probably have a better grasp of what to do with their legacy."

"Once you have decided on whether to decode the information or not, let me know and I can try to help." If we want to crack the code, either assume that Taresh is providing an automatic aid with Linguistics +15 or ask him to run a parallel decoding operation, your call which one.

Taresh looks at the loose stone. "It'd be a very small trap. But better safe than sorry."
Perception for traps: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (20) + 23 = 43

"The way I see it, Saruna has been pretty decent to us. If we have to off one of the apprentices here, I'd probably rather take out Badru." He sighs. "I'm not sure these sages are decent people, doing all this to their followers. Anyway. If nobody else can do it and we need to hurry, I can do the curse removal on the stone when we have it. It will take me a moment to prepare, but I'd like to fill up a bit on my preparedness anyway."

Taresh could take 15 minutes to prepare some empty slots, including a remove curse for the sage jewel work if we don't want to wait for an hour to purify it slowly.

A6 Knowledge (religion): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
A7 Linguistics (neither language): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26 Taresh looks at Katswiri. We're going to be here for a while.
A7 Knowledge (geography): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18
A8 Disable Device: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36
A8 Perception: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (2) + 22 = 24
A9 Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (19) + 12 = 31 This is a strange place.
A10 Knowledge (arcana): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29 Taresh looks very concerned about this room.

Taresh draws a span of his rapier out of the sheath, showing the dark luster of the blade. "Adamantine. Magical." The weapon clicks back to the sheath.

"These glass golems. Do they need to be fought to absorb this blessing of theirs, or is there a non-destructive way to gain it? Golems can be troublesome things." Taresh snaps his fingers. "And what sort of protections Badru has at his end of the complex? More undead probably?"

Taresh racks his mind to think what he might have heard about soulbound constructs.

Do we have a chance of knowing anything about Badru with skills at this point, or is the information too vague?
Removing shield of faith and remnants of mirror image.

"What sort of undertaking is the creation of this imitation sage jewel? And why did Badru send those mummies here now? Does he want something from you, or has he just suddenly decided that only one former student should reign here?"

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28
"Greetings, honored guardian." Taresh bows with his hands held together in front. "It seems you are in good terms with these fiery fellows, considering we are all just happily waiting and talking to each other. If they cannot withdraw, their presence unfortunately will wither and burn the writings stored here, and" he turns to look at the statue, "such loss would be undesirable in the presence of Thoth. I implore you, have the elementals withdraw for the time or allow us to save these relics of the past."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27 (if some other skill would be more suited, please use any relevant bonus)

Before Guy can heal him, Taresh bows to the priest. "No need for that, dear fellow. Mummies didn't get a chance to touch me. It was thanks to your magic that I dared to engage them in the first place, so you contributed plenty to this impulsive rush of mine!" He sheathes the rapier and steps closer to guy, clapping him on shoulder giddily. The remaining mirror images ape the gesture.

The 108/90 HP discrepancy is because of the extra 18 HP from false life.

Perception: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (13) + 22 = 35

Bless, bull's strength and shield run out. Aura of heroism deactivates. Mirror image and shield of faith run for at least 10 minutes, don't know if they last.

Seeing an opening, Taresh takes it. His left hand turns into a paw of a mountain lion as he steps left and stabs the mummy once, twice, and then rakes it across the body with his claws.
5-foot step, swift to battleshape claws, blessing of fervor for two rapier attacks, one claw attack vs flanked mummy.

Rapier 1: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+1 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2
Piercing: 1d6 + 7 + 2d6 ⇒ (6) + 7 + (6, 1) = 20

Rapier 1: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (1) + 14 = 15 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+1 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2
This one misses.

Claw: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+2 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2 secondary-5
Slashing: 1d4 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (4) + 6 + (2, 1) = 13 It might hit with flank

The mummy's fist is slow but unstoppable...
3 mirror images, 4 hits Taresh: 1d4 ⇒ 2
...but fails to connect with the man, dispersing an image instead. 2 images left

Taresh steps aside from the mummy's furious swipe, but the undead is distracted by the flickering images around the Varisian and the wrapped fist merely snuffs out one of them.

Miss by 5 or less, destroys a mirror image

Feeling the righteous burning within himself, Taresh presses his attack on the red mummy, striking twice with the sword. After a low feint, his heads suddenly sprout bull horns which he uses to rake the mummy when rising back up readiness. The horns vanish as soon as he falls back to stance, giving the mummies no time to grab Taresh by the horns.

Full attack. Blessing of fervor to extra attack. Swift action to battleshape a gore attack and use it as a secondary attack during the full attack

Rapier attack 1 vs red: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+1 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2
Piercing: 1d6 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 but probably misses
Rapier attack 2 vs red: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (20) + 14 = 34 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+1 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2
Critical confirmation: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32
Piercing: 2d6 + 14 ⇒ (6, 6) + 14 = 26 str+4 wpn+1 hunter's blessing+2
Gore attack vs red: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16 bab+5 Str+4 wpn+2 heroism+2 hunter's blessing+2 secondary-5
Piercing: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 Str+2 wpn+2 hunter's blessing+2

If the unexpected fury of the assault is enough to drop red, Taresh steps into its vacant spot to get the last mummy into flanking position (though he expects his fellows or the elementals to drop it promptly).

Surprising 26-DR damage! AC currently 23, 3 mirror images remain. Edit: the gore also likely misses