Agreed. Tough, tough battle, especially without a heavy damage dealer. A shame the game had to end with a TPK, but that's certainly one way to go out.
Thanks for the game, Bigrin.
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Condolences, Shabbezz. And welcome back. We'll see if Angelica wins the day, since Zap's paid the ultimate price for picking the fight!
The javelin continues to hurt Sorshen, but the explosion of fire is too much for him. He collapses.
Zaphomil shakes his head as this Sorshen refuses to die. He casts one of his most potent offensive spells now that the silence zone is gone.
Zaph silently grunts in surprise at being shoved out of the way. He sends another burst of healing energy rather than risk succumbing to the evil Sorshen.
The silence spell prevented Zaphomil from using any of his targeted cure spells, but it didn't stop him from channeling. He raises his holy symbol and sends a burst of healing energy, excluding Sorshen.
With all the resistances Sorshen has displayed, plus her claws that he's currently experiencing firsthand, Zaph tries an experiment to see if she might be an evil outsider. He presents Desna's holy symbol and channels a blast of positive, good-aligned energy.
Zaphomil hisses as Sorshen's claws scrape him. He suddenly feels very covetous of his shard and he shouts, "It's mine!" He takes a step back and casts a spell, conjuring a glowing starknife to attack her.
Zaph activates his shard of greed, giving everyone wxcept for Sorshen haste for two minutes. He tries to think of a quip, but realizes she won't be able to hear it anyway.
DM, could you explain why Angelica's natural 20 didn't hit? Also, Sorshen is in a zone of silence. Did she still cast a spell?
Zaphomil raises his holy symbol of Desna and invokes her blessing on the group, while simultaneously hampering their foe.
PfE excerpt:
While under the effects of this spell, the target is immune to any new attempts to possess or exercise mental control over the target. This spell does not expel a controlling life force (such as a ghost or spellcaster using magic jar), but it does prevent them from controlling the target. This second effect only functions against spells and effects created by evil creatures or objects, subject to GM discretion.
Zaphomil grins, and goes over to Angelica. "Let's make sure she's quiet, shall we?" He casts silence on her sword, then makes a, "she's all yours" gesture.
Something didn't seem right. History spoke of the Runelords as rulers. Though each were prone to the vices of the sins that they represented, they also controlled large swaths of territory. If this was truly Sorshen, what was she doing holed up here doing nothing but pursuing carnal delights? Furthermore, Zaphomil was an adherent of Desna. His goddess favored freedom for all things. He glances over at Orianna, gauging her reaction to all this, since they had pledged to free her. He abhorred slavery and couldn't allow them to risk falling under Sorshen's control. He'd protected them all from mind control, but the spell will not last long. "How far you've fallen," he spits. "Didn't you once rule a nation? And now you're content to languish here, playing with whatever beings stumble into your sanctuary?" He shakes his head. "No. Sorshen might be alive, but I can't believe you're her. She wouldn't be as pathetic as you."
Before the teleport, Zaph casts communal protection from evil on everyone, following up with bless. Zaphomil scowls at the grisly scene of debauchery and cruelty. "I think her heart's in the right place now."
Zaphomil at first looks uneasy, but then he shrugs. "Well, if she knows we're coming, and can't be bothered to come to us, then there's no sense in not resting and replenishing all our magics before we go face her. I've used just about all my channels and most of my spells for the day."
Zaphomil visibly relaxes as the woman turns out to be on their side. He glances at Angelica, who voices a very real concern. He gives her a grin. "Well, that could be a problem, but I've a very useful trick. Desna's the goddess of freedom, so she'll grant us protection from evil influences."
Zaphomil holds up his holy symbol of Desna. "You're mistaken. We don't follow Sorshen. We've been killing her minions since we got here. We met a Helanda earlier, and she mentioned a Captain Oriana. Are you her? She said you armored ladies wanted to, how did she put it? 'Restore the Crimson Throne'?"
"NOO!" Zaphomil calls out as he sees his friend about to be beheaded. He quickly casts a spell to make the woman's sword heat up, hoping she'll drop it.
Sorry to see you go, Jakscar! Take care! (And belated congrats, Angelica.)
Zaph finally slows down enough to look at the statues. "These have to be the fabled Runelords. Perhaps the 'lie' is one that doesn't fit?"
"Each of the Runelords epitomized one of the seven sins. Everyone depicted here is pretty much what my research has indicated, except for the one who looks like he's giving the rose. That's the opposite of greed, if that's who the statue is supposed to be." He shoves his hand into his pocket and covetously holds onto the shard of greed. "And knowing firsthand how that feels, the Runelord of Greed wouldn't be giving things away."
"We've got the speed spell for a couple minutes, so let's use them to catch up to Jakscar!" Zaph says, starting to move at his enhanced speed in the direction where the captain went.
When the maiden swings and misses, Zaph reaches into his pocket. Feeling the shard there, he activates its magic and speeds up his allies. "Okay, let's dance."
Zaphomil puts one hand up against his neck, to staunch the bleeding a bit, while his other hand goes up and he channels healing energy. He excludes the gray maidens so they receive no benefit from Desna's healing.
Zaph fights through the pain of the sudden attacks, deciding to use his magics to try to aid their offense instead of just patching wounds. Casting his spell cautiously, Zaphomil invokes a prayer to Desna to turn the tide of the battle.
Zaph converts a spell to healing energy and moves into the room, touching Jakscar to heal him of the serious wounds he'd received.
Zaph winces as his allies take some heavy blows from the warrior women. He raises his holy symbol and channels energy, making sure to exclude the injured enemies.
Zaph scowls as he sees the torture room. "I like this lady less." He casts detect magic and surveys the room.
If there's not an immediate threat, Zaph casts detect magic and surveys the room for magical auras.
"Not sure. My wand of lesser restoration might help."
I'm on Discord now, too.
Zaphomil touches Angelica's arm. "Let's stop fondling the dead thing, shall we?" he says, trying to put some levity in the rather disturbing situation. Turning back to Shabbezz, he gestures to the wands. "I think they'll come in useful. After all, you've made good use of your attack wand. Desna has graced me with the spell of flight, so I can make use of the second wand. It occurs to me that it would have been an easier fight if I could have cast it more than once. It's a useful spell. I might say we'll want to keep all three." He pulls out his own wand. "Speaking of useful wands..." He taps it on Angelica a few times.
Hoping that Angelica can hold on for a few seconds without another burst of healing, Zaph sees the opening that Jakscar found and tries to hit it with his crossbow.
Suddenly extremely concerned by the damage that Angelica has taken, Zaph again switches to channeling positive energy. His skill and training makes sure that the sinspawn is excluded from the healing burst.
Satisfied with the healing he provided, Zaph switches to offense again, loading a bolt and shooting at the sinspawn.
Zaph runs under Angelica, making sure that he incorporates as many of his allies in the burst while excluding the sinspawn.
Zaph loads another bolt in his crossbow and shoots at the sinspawn.
Zaph's gnomish constitution throws off the poison. He steps back, loads his crossbow again and shoots the spider on him.
Zaph, tired of this spellcaster's tactics and invisibility, targets the area where Shabbezz points with a dispel magic. He makes sure not to include Angelica in the area, lest he accidentally dispel his own fly spell.
Zaph tries to help Jakscar with the boar by sending a crossbow bolt its way.
Surrounded by a dretch and an angry boar, Zaphomil weighed his options. Seeing Angelica run out of the cloud and search the ceiling for the source of the chanting, he calls out, "Have you spotted it yet? I can let you fly up there!" He pushes past the two threats and runs up to the burglar. He casts a spell that will let her defy gravity.
Zaph sends another burst of holy energy that will harm evil outsiders, then moves to get out of the putrid cloud.
Zaph coughs but keeps it together long enough to move out of the fog if he can. If not, he moves to where both summoned creatures are within thirty feet of him. Then he channels a burst of holy energy, but this time the energy doesn't heal, but harms the outsiders.
Zaph stays with Shabbezz, ready to assist where needed.
Zaph weighs their options, and decides to agree with Angelica. "That's fine. No party crashing for us."
Zaphomil is certainly curious, but also skeptical. "Sorshen and a party? How long has that been going on? I wonder it it's even real." Using his gnomish expertise with illusions, he follows Angelica to the room and peeks inside, looking for the subtle clues that all this was illusion.
"Check out the whole floor before moving up to the next level? It's been what we've done thus far, and while I can't say it's been always successful for us, I suppose we should stick with it here as well." Zaphomil shrugs and moves down the hallway after the scouts, if they also go that way.
Zaphomil looks crestfallen as it appears their ally has been taken. "I know of a few spells that could aid us in locating her, but I've none of them prepared. So we'd have to wait a day in order for me to request them from Desna. Therefore, in the meantime, perhaps we should see about going back to where we were and finding the source of the troubles in this place? It might be Sorshen, true, but hopefully there will be a means for us to treat with her, or perhaps even defeat her. I mean, we do have the shards with us."
Zaphomil looks around at whatever magical means might be able to send them back so they can help Helanda.
Seeing that the fight was progressing in their favor, Zaph tries to help out and conserve his spellcasting. He draws his starknife and begins harassing the sinspawn, to help Angelica's attacks.
I should have just attacked:
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