The Balrog's page

Thank you for running!
The Balrog will take the Pathfinder's Excellence (Combat) boon.
Boon?: 1d20 ⇒ 17

I posted my Day Job check already (Take 10 for a 16) and put my information on the sign-in sheet.

The Balrog comes up to take a look at the mystical circles and the contraptions.

"Okay, let me see if they did this right."

He casts Detect Magic and examines the contraptions.

"Well done!
So now what?
'Aspis agents have made off with the Sky Key and seem to be holding out in the tower floating above our lodge.'
We're in the tower. We keep exploring these other rooms that haven't fallen apart yet?"

The Balrog casts Open/Close on the door to the northwest room. He likes opening doors at an oblique angle so that the people inside the room don't see who has done it.

"We need a way for Thornrose to join us. Maybe a summons or a lackey to lock the door, or a way to get the key-user out of 'their' room and back to this side without opening 'their' door."

The Balrog walks through the mirror.

"Great, you stay behind and lock it.
We will open the door again from the other side, then if it opens on an empty room I will touch the mirror and see what happens. Open the door after a couple of minutes."

"Okay. But I didn't touch the mirror in the room that I saw. That might have been the Lost Room.
Shane didn't say he was in the Lost Room. He said the portal we needed was the mirror in the Lost Room.
If your plan doesn't work then I will try the mirror in that other room next."

"Razisus, the door opened and I saw another room where you had been. It looked exactly the same but you were not there, nor was the key.
What do you think this means?"

What are the people not locked in F8 doing?

I was waiting for someone else to reply to this so it wasn't just Razisus and me. I would have called out to see if he heard me, but I thought it was appropriate for others to get involved.

"Kreighton Shane mentioned 'a private room'."
And accepting a clue from the GM, he mentioned that Razisus had privacy after closing the door.

"Reaper, close and lock the door. I will then try to open it from this side. Maybe it won't actually be locked for me.

And if that doesn't work, then I will call out and we can try your idea of 'perhaps we try simultaneously opening the door to this room from both sides'."

"Try using the key on the reflection of the keyhole in the mirror," suggests the Balrog.

I'm sure it will seem fairly obvious once revealed, but it's a pretty open-ended puzzle for us to try all kinds of solutions.

I am fairly certain that the rooms being mirror images of each other is somehow meaningful, but it could be that, for example, we need to move the furniture in one room to make it a mirror image of another. Who knows? Let's just brainstorm and try things.

"Yeah, okay," says Lord Balrog, "but I'm not sure that the room opposite it is the only one to care about. This one here" - he points to Room F2 - "is also a mirror image of the one the key was in. And this one here" - room F7 - "would be a mirror image north-south if we moved this trunk."

"That's why I like us being in different rooms to observe. We'll go with your guess first and then if that doesn't work we split up." Split the party!!

"Good idea Reaper.
But let's all go check other mirrors while you are trying one. You stay there for a bit."

So, while Razisus holds the key up to F8, the Balrog will be looking in F4's mirror for the key's reflection. If he doesn't see it there he will go around to other rooms and look.

Lord Balrog quietly casts Cure Light Wounds on himself.
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

"Okay, what do we do? Are we looking for a hidden room that contains a mirror? And we need to work together somehow?"

He takes the string from his Pathfinder's Kit, lays one end on the ground, and starts walking across the entry hall.

"Hey, somebody grab the other end of the string, then we walk across this entry hall at the north and south end with the string stretched between us. We can see if anything happens to the string.

And if not, then maybe we start going into these other rooms and shouting to see if we can hear each other."

I am not sure how to start on this puzzle, but those are my two ideas.

Lord Balrog keeps up the attack on Green, swinging wildly.

"DIE!"

Attack, Flanking: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 5 + 2 = 14
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

The Balrog returns the favor to strike at the one that hit him. He takes a step to flank with Thornrose first, because teaming up on enemies is smart and only a sucker fights fair.

Attack Green with Flanking: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 5 + 2 = 19
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

The Balrog is surprisingly uninformed about his planar brethren, so he doesn't even attempt to identify these foes.

He moves up next to Thornrose and likewise readies to strike any foe that dares approach.

"Let's go to the Chamber of the Sky Key. I heard cool stories about that thing."

The Balrog looks at this research task with disdain.

"Ugh. Fine."

He puts away his whip and starts combing through the maps.
"This one is garbage...
I think a blind ogre made this one...
This one is okay...
These annotations might make sense to a gnome...
These directions are only possible inside the Dark Tapestry...
Here's a good one - Calistrian - shows you all the best brothels."

Knowledge (History): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

The Balrog walks in behind Madcap and calls out to the other Wyvaran.

"Hey, uh, I think you been lied to by the Aspis Consortium. They got a track record of getting their allies killed. You were in the Tapestry? We can help you, but you gotta stop ransacking the place."

Probably not enough time for a Diplomacy check, but if there is:
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

The Balrog moves into the room drawing his sword.

"Hey."

He is ready to cast Feather Fall on the bead as an immediate action if it should start to fall.

The reduction in falling speed may be enough to stop it from detonating?

The Balrog decides to follow the shrubbery and look for the jester.

"Oh, I'm usually real good at that," the Balrog asserts, "real good at talking people into doing things. Except, being as these guys are Aspis, they might panic just looking at me. See, I've got a reputation among them by now. Maybe we need someone who doesn't strike terror into their hearts, unless that is what we are going for."

The Balrog is clearly willing to try Bluff or Diplomacy, but knows he isn't the best, with a +6 to either skill.

The Balrog, now reduced to his usual human-ish size, strokes his chin thoughtfully.

"If we let the Aspis kill the hostages then they have no more leverage... and it would only be a few initiates, who are easily replaced..."

He sighs and shakes his head. "I suspect that might not reflect well on our records or our pay.
Well, we might need stealth. Some way to open the door, and some way to avoid being seen. All I've got on that front is smokesticks that I can see through. Not exactly subtle.
Or, as Valsin said, we could try talking them down. See what they want. Bribe them. Or lie through our teeth. I'm okay at that."

"Hah! Nice hit Madcap!"

The Balrog looks around at the mayhem and smiles.

"Well, should we go break some more things in the Northeast?"

@GM, his Enlarge Person SLA lasts 3 minutes, and I know that time between encounters can be unclear in scenarios, so I am fine with whatever you decide for time elapsed.

The Balrog delivers another blow with his sword, not quite as impactful as his last one but still solid.
Attack, Flanking: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 5 + 2 = 24
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (3, 2) + 4 = 9

Lord Balrog moves in and smashes his giant longsword down on the prone enemy.

Attack vs Red: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Damage, Enlarged, Arcane Strike: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (5, 6) + 4 = 15

"I'm sure you guys had it, but I gotta earn my pay, right?"

@Madcap - no more Inspire Courage at present.

Balrog continues to delay.

It's fine. You all seem to have this well in hand.

"Hey, that's okay, I'll step in whenever you need me to."

The Balrog continues to delay, amazed that all of his fellow Pathfinders have placed themselves so precisely that there is no place he can fit.
Ceasing Inspire Courage to preserve rounds.

It looks like both enemies will have Cover due to his allies, so Lord Balrog delays until after Blue.

I think that's actually a hit, Thornrose. Mikhail hit one on a 15, and this one is Prone.

"CRY HAVOC!"

Hmm... the dwarf's flail should have hurt it. Guess it's time to get big.

Lord Balrog maintains his performance for now, while taking a 5' step and activating his Efreeti Magic SLA. This has a 1-round casting time just like Enlarge Person.

INSPIRE COURAGE +1 is active.

Lord Balrog tries to identify the statues.
Knowledge (Arcana): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
He skipped that day in class.

So he decides to encourage his allies to greater acts of violence.

"Kill, Kill!
Hate, Hate!
Murder, Murder!
Mutilate!"

INSPIRE COURAGE +1, round 1/6

The Balrog hangs his whip at his belt and readies his shield.

"Hey Reaper," he calls to Razisus, "I think it's time to deal some death."

"Let's go south."

I had intended the Bluff check to just be for the RP with Mikhail, and not for any sort of reward, but as it was a failure it makes little difference.

Lord Balrog, undeterred by failure, continues to swagger around the grounds attempting one contest after another with great confidence.

He saunters over the lore symposium. After listening for a few minutes, his patience wears thin and he feels compelled to interject.
Knowledge (History): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9 "Cayden's Mighty Codpiece! None of what you just said is true! Get your nose out of a book and go dig in some ruins sometime." His contributions are... less than helpful.

The obstacle course is a little more his speed, as he completes it swiftly, though not quite as swiftly as Solemnia.
Acrobatics: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19 This will be even easier once I have wings.

At the sleuthing event, he is caught trying to peek from underneath the blindfold.
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
"Come on! This is silly," he protests as he is ushered out of the lecture hall. Fortunately, the Society has a generally high tolerance for rule-breakers, and ejection from the contest is the only consequence he faces.

Lord Balrog skips the trap event entirely, then moves on to weightlifting. He considers using his Enlarge Person ability. It really enhances the Balor similarities, makes for a great visual, and would help him lift greater weights. But, he reasons, I might need to kill someone later today, and it's easier if I can get big. So he does his best without. While not an outstanding effort, it is more than the shrubbery was able to lift, and so he feels good about that.
Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

As Lord Balrog is about to leave the menagerie, there is a sudden commotion from under the nearby craft-services table - and a sudden flurry of red, purple, and the wildly waving black of an axe rushes out and corners him in the menagerie, and a pair of burning, beady eyes, set in a somewhat lean face framed by a neat quadrangular beard, staring him right in the...abdomen.

"BALROG!?" The sudden arrival echoes. He switches his axe to one hand, and pulls out an iron icon shaped like a serpent's head, which he brandishes in the other. "What is your business upon this plane without prior sanction or summoning!? What nefarious Abyssal deeds seek you here?! Confess! CONFESS!!!"

The Balrog pulls out his whip and sword. While neither weapon is exactly Flaming, the eldritch violet flames of Arcane Strike are evocative. He draws himself up to his full (unenhanced) height.

"Well, now. It's nice to be recognized. Since you asked, most of my nefarious deeds involve Paracountess Zarta Dralneen and would shock you to your core."
Bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Beat that and you can tell it is a blatant lie. He actually has a track record now of making terrible rolls on that Bluff check.

"But, in my spare time, I enjoy sticking a thumb in the eye of Asmodeus." He turns his head and spits after he says the name. "Overrated has-been."

The Balrog (aka Lord Balrog) is good at a few things, but his best skill is being frightening.

He enters the menagerie, snarling at the beasts and cracking his whip. Arcane power races up and down the length of it. "Back! Back! Fear me!"

He paces, cracking the whip some more and roaring.
"Know your master! Behold my power! I AM THE BALROG!"

Intimidate: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Relatively satisfied with his performance, he moves on to the talking circle.

"So there I was, at the Passion of the First Siege of Absalom. They didn't put me on the stage, a real shame I tell you, because the cast they had were a bunch of stiffs. Just no respect for the craft, you know?
Anyway, this Charvion Eater-of-Bones guy was there with some arcane device or other, but when it gets good is when the attack began and the goblins showed up. Goblins! Hah. Me and this halfling Xavier, we were carving our way through them like a hungry Urgathoan at a funeral.
'What do you call an arena full of dead goblins?' 'A good start'! Hah!"

Perform (Act): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

The crowd seems not as pleased with Lord Balrog's performance as he is.
"Sorry. Dead crowd. I guess that Urgathoa crack hit too close to home?" Losers.

The Ifrit saunters in like he owns the place.

An imposing figure, he carries a whip in his hand and a sword at his side. Eldritch energy crackles up and down the length of the whip. His skin is a fiery red, with black horns coming from his forehead. His armor is a chain shirt trimmed with black and red leather.

"Lord Balrog, reporting in."

He looks around, hoping to catch a glimpse of his favorite member of the Society, Paracountess Zarta Dralneen.

Player Aldizog
Character The Balrog
PFS # 108731-8
Faction Dark Archives
Day Job Perform (Act) Take 10: 10 + 6 = 16
XP Standard

Fun party tricks include turning into a flaming demonic giant with a whip and sword who can see through smoke and can rally his comrades by being more frightening than whatever is trying to scare them.

Also goes by Lord Balrog on occasion, as he was officially made a Lord of the Tullian family in recognition of (as he tells it) nearly single-handedly saving Absalom from a demonic assault.

I don't think Daji's player has been on the boards in a while, but you should have his info from the first part.

Do you intend to recruit another 1-3 players and run Part 3?

Player Name: Aldizog
Character Name: The Balrog
Class and Level: Ftr2/Brd1
PFS#: 108731-8
Faction: Dark Archives
Day Job: Perform (Act), Take 10: 10 + 6 = 16

"Let's drop them on the shore and scuttle their boat. Don't want them running too fast for reinforcements, but don't see the need to kill them."

The Balrog snarls at them and loots the fallen.

@GM - Your own post from 12/23 said that I hit Blue when he crossed over to our boat. That should have been 10 HP of damage. Please check.

The remaining blue sailor tries to jump onto The Laughing Crow...

... and he makes it across and takes a strong strike from The Balrog... and then appears to be having trouble staying standing.

So I hit Blue with an AOO for 10 damage as he jumped across, and your text implied he was Staggered by that.

The Balrog tries to finish off the enemy with his whip.
Attack: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 6 + 1 = 17
Damage: 1d4 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 1 = 8

The Balrog drops his sword, draws his whip, and strikes at the caster. Unsure how whip reach increases with Enlarge, but it is at least 20' if not 30', so either way hits the enemy.
Violet flames crackle down the whip's length as it lashes at the foe.

Whip, IC: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 6 + 1 = 24
Damage, Arcane Strike: 1d4 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 3 + 1 = 7

Have Whip Mastery, so armor or natural armor bonuses don't prevent the damage if the attack roll is good enough.

The Balrog slashes at Red and maintains Inspire Courage.
Attack, IC: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 5 + 1 = 14
Damage: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (2, 6) + 5 = 13

He also prepares to strike at any who move through his reach.
He has Combat Reflexes, and a 14 Dex when Enlarged, so that is 3 AOOs per round.

You might try PM'ing them, but a quick check suggests that neither has been active on the forum for a few weeks.