motteditor's page

Humerus, level 15!
Attribute boosts: +1 to Strength and Charisma (to 20/+5), Dex and Con (both to 19/4.5, so no effect).
+1 to everything
+15 hp
Greater Weapon Specialization: Your damage from weapon specialization increases to 4 with weapons and unarmed attacks in which you’re an expert, 6 if you’re a master, and 8 if you’re legendary.

Third Path to Perfection (fortitude): You have made great progress in your personal studies of enlightenment. Choose one of the saving throws you selected for path to perfection or second path to perfection. Your proficiency rank for the chosen type of save increases to legendary. When you roll a critical failure on the chosen type of save, you get a failure instead. When you roll a failure on the chosen type of save against an effect that deals damage, you take half damage.

+5 speed

Skill increase: Athletics to Legen ... wait for it! ... dary!

As Starflit makes the combat far less fun for her poor GM, Tristain hastily flees, and then casts haste so everyone else can do the same.

Lothan unleashes a barrage of arrows at the elder thing approaching from the rear, but his injuries are clearly taking a toll as none of the arrows hit. It responds with a spell, disappearing from sight. It turned invisible

To the north, Al and Kyffin turn their attention to the mutate, though Al finds it much harder to connect with the ooze than he expected. It lashes out with its tentacles, though Starflit's magic keeps it from grabbing. 24 damage to Kyffin, 49 to Al

FYI, I'll be out of town Friday-Monday, so not posting during that time.

Have we been here before. I'm not sure if we were ever here, or always out on the road.

"Yes, I think probably more straight to the point seems better. Considering what we've learned about the Blackfrost Whale, I don't think we have time for props, or even just dinner and a show."

Lore (warfare) (master): 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (1) + 22 = 23 Great. I got Blooms' roll...

Takarias starts to talk about the battle against Tar-Baphon but it becomes obvious all too quickly that word of what happened in Lastwall didn't reach Sovyrian before the elf came to Kyonin. His words only seem to highlight what he's not aware of.

Fortitude (expert), +1 vs. creatures I've demoralized in last 24 hours: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (16) + 19 = 35

"Phaugh! That stinks worse than Timdok's socks after a week of adventuring," Esirelle complains.

The spirits seem to swirl around her, whispering in a language only she can here, as she considers the monstrosity. Then she snaps into action, casting spells. "You should have kept being motionless, disgusting slime. This isn't going to end well for you!" she tells it.

Whispers of Weakness, Foretell Harm (free), cast necrotize (DC 31 Fort)

Void: 12d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 3, 5, 6, 4, 5, 2, 6, 2, 1, 3) = 41
1d4 ⇒ 4 The target's muscles necrotize, rotting away. The target becomes enfeebled 1.

Before you get ready to head to the laboratory, the two elder things hand you three small pentagonal stone chips cut from a pinkish translucent stone. The three chips each have one of the numbers 2, 4, and 8 engraved in Aklo. The archivists are not precisely sure what they’re used for, but they know they somehow are required for a locking mechanism to the vault that holds the Star Stela. See overall map...

Then, steeling yourselves, the seven of you face the rampaging shoggoth -- and somehow emerge triumphant! After which, you had for the laboratory: Two pentagonal structures connected by a long, covered walkway stand in the center of an empty plaza, surrounded by a cluster of domes and spiral towers. Both buildings are constructed from green-and-black marble etched with inhuman engravings.

The larger building is topped with a dome roof with a needlelike spike at the center. An iridescent hemisphere of energy surrounds it and expands to the southwest wall of the smaller building. There are no obvious entrances or windows save for a 5-foot-wide, completely enclosed corridor with a peaked roof that penetrates the barrier and connects to the smaller building. The smaller building is almost identical save that it has an elongated pentagonal door on the north side. The engravings on this building are rounded and worn smooth from time and the elements.

A permanent wall of force effect shaped like a dome protects the larger building. Every creature inside is affected by a temporal stasis effect. This is the product of elder thing super-science and magic from a bygone era. The means to deactivate the effects are inside the laboratory airlock.

The engravings on the outside of the buildings are difficult to make out, but several of you can discern a pattern of creatures with starfish-shaped heads pouring fluids into a large vat. Lothan finds a similar engraving: a disembodied mouth is depicted floating in the vat, and the starfish-headed creatures are flailing their tentacles.

Kilitsi shrugs as Wispil splashes around in the water and the bees take flight, heading into her fur, where they can find safety from the deluge.

"Like, there are so many of them. Do you think they have names?"

I'd take that snarling badger. Might help if we fight another evil dryad tree.

"Like, whatever. Bee more chill," Kilitsi says. "We'll take your bees, and you leave the town alone."

That is what you get for being mean. Unless that was directed toward Caraid, which would be more understandable.

I don't know what Aily could possibly be thinking about. That definitely doesn't sound like me at all. Maybe some other skeleton?

"Whoa, boss, where did you get those nice blood cloaks?" he asks, automatically falling into his fighting stance I have stance savant, so I can try to remember to stop wasting an action on entering the stance.

He rushes forward and stomps his foot, creating a minor tremor. Grabbing one of the skeletons, he drives his fist into its skull.

◈ Stride, ◈ Mountain Quake (4 damage, basic DC 32 Fort save, fall prone on a failure), ◈ Flurry to Grapple and Strike
Athletics (master) to Grapple: 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (14) + 25 = 39
If successful, 4 bludgeoning damage
Falling Stone, iterative: 1d20 + 25 - 5 ⇒ (20) + 25 - 5 = 40
Bludgeoning damage (forceful, cold iron and silver): 2d8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 8) + 6 + 2 = 17
Crit? The target must succeed at a DC 32 Fortitude save or be slowed 1 until the end of my next turn.

"Blooms in Darkness, that's the best attitude I've heard all day! I love your enthusiasm!" Takarias says as he starts unfurling a banner with a howling dog emblazoned on it.

"Hey, blood boss, don't get confused," Humerus calls out as he rushes in to help Ceceka. [b]"I don't want to be racist, but I think we we sort of all look alike!"

With too many to grab, he strikes out with his fists, trying to batter the smaller of the two troops.

Mountain Stance, Stride, Flurry!
Falling Stone (foreceful, magical, nonlethal, unarmed): 1d20 + 25 ⇒ (8) + 25 = 33
Bludgeoning damage, cold iron and silver: 2d8 + 6 ⇒ (3, 8) + 6 = 17
Falling Stone, iterative: 1d20 + 25 - 5 ⇒ (15) + 25 - 5 = 35
Bludgeoning damage (forceful, cold iron and silver): 2d8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 5) + 6 + 2 = 14

Starflit and Lothan take down the closest spider, which fortunately falls to the ground with a sickening splat!

As Al and Kyffin rush toward the remaining spider, Tristain tries to blast it with a barrage of magical missiles -- but they have no effect! Failed SR. It chitters and starts to move forward ... but then freezes at a muffled and distant cry of “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” A second later, it turns and flees back the way you came from!

Fight over unless you want to continue it.

If you want to search around, you can find stuff stored in a portable treasure pouch made from webbing that is currently pasted against the wall 15 feet above the ground: a +1 axiomatic greatsword, a minor ring of energy resistance (cold), a black soul shardUE, two potions of cure serious wounds, a potion of heroism, a diamond worth 5,000 gp, and 3,870 gp. All of the coins are minted in the shape of little pentagons.

Also, working on a deadline, so not sure how much I'll post before next Tuesday, though it's definitely easier for me when we're not in combat.

"Wait a minute! You don't think I'm a lady skeleton, do you, blood boss?! Am I ... feminine? I guess I never thought about it, but you don't really have any way of knowing. Not that it matters much to me, but I was a man."

He pauses, scratching his skull.

"Is gender a flesh construct? Not like, you know a charnel creation, but something that you only have if you have flesh?!"

Lothan, Starflit?

"Oh, what kind of contagious malaises? It's not the lurgy, is it? That one's particularly tough to get rid of. It just hangs around and hangs around despite your urging it to move along," Dianora says, continuing to distract the woman with discussion of other maladies.

Medicine (master): 1d20 + 26 ⇒ (13) + 26 = 39

Humerus again sets out, at Aily's instruction, to see what he can learn. He's a little unsure why she said his head is so empty no one could possibly ever think he's a spy, but that thought only lasts for about six seconds before he's focused on talking to anyone else who's interested.

Stealth (master) to Dig Up Dirt: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (4) + 23 = 27

Will (master), mysterious resolve, +1 vs. creatures I've demoralized in last 24 hours: 1d20 + 21 ⇒ (14) + 21 = 35

"Kharya!" Esirelle calls.

Realizing what's happening, she tries to take control of the puppets. "That's not how the show goes. It's like this!"

She begins to sing: "It's time to play the music/It's time to light the lights/It's time to meet the Poppets/On The Poppet Show tonight. It's time to put on makeup/It's time to dress up right/It's time to raise the curtain/On The Poppet Show tonight."

Performance (trained) to Disable: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (16) + 19 = 35

"Sure, I like that idea," Dianora agrees.

Once Yuki's ready, Dianora enters. "I'm so sorry to bother you," she says. "We saw you help that poor man in earlier and I thought he needed help. I had to help my friend here -- she had a bad goiter, you know. Not her personally, of course, but her pet goat -- but I just couldn't stop thinking about you, and thought I should come check. I did learn a little bit of healing at my meemaw's hand -- that's how I know what a goiter is, of course. She had an awful one! -- so ... can I help you?"

Deception (untrained): 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (8) + 16 = 24 That's probably not going to be enough...

Vampires are known all across the world -- and apparently multiple worlds based on your current situation -- for their connection to blood. They need it to survive, and take it from others, willing or not. In a span of six seconds, it becomes quite clear that vampires like Lord Avaric feast on such blood, drinking it to sustain them, and fill them. It's quite clear because about six seconds after Al begins swinging his sword, there is not a single drop of blood left in Lord Avaric -- it is instead sprayed across the entire ballroom, leading to most of the guests (who you might remember are mostly cursed and don't realize they are undead) fleeing in fear, screaming into the night.

Combat, in fact, ends almost as quickly as it began, and you are able to collect Delmaria and return to her father's estate as soon as you are ready.

"Well, that was most impressive," Erich Zann says. "Say, do you have a birthday by any chance? I should hate to miss it and upset you in any way."

"More doppelgangers!" Rova whispers to her companions. "It sounds like they may have taken over the distillery! But fortunately, they seem to be content to stay there for the moment!"

The Tyrant scowls at the camera. "You want to know about me? Know that I'm not going to stand by to see the weak and disadvantaged people of this 'verse be taken advantage of!"

She picks up a nearby piece of furniture and turns to the camera. "This is what's going to happen to anyone that tries." She flexes, and shatters the furniture into a number of very small pieces.

Athletics (expert): 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (19) + 20 = 39

Dianora looks at the other three and then gestures with her head after the one leaving. I like the plan of splitting the party. That never goes poorly or creates more work for the GM.

"Hey! You almost hit me, boss! If I had flesh...!" Humerus says as the arrow goes cleanly between his ribs.

He rushes toward the vampire -- if it wants to try to shoot him, he's not going to just stand back and let it -- and nearly slips, but catches himself at the last moment by grabbing the vampire around the neck.

◈ Mountain Stronghold, ◈ Stride, ◈ Flurry to Grapple and Strike,
Athletics (master) to Grapple: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (1) + 24 = 25 I have a Hero Point to spare, so guess I'll use it! 2 remaining
Athletics (master) to Grapple, iterative: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (14) + 24 = 38
If successful, 4 bludgeoning damage
Falling Stone, iterative: 1d20 + 24 - 5 ⇒ (9) + 24 - 5 = 28
Bludgeoning damage (forceful, cold iron and silver): 2d8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 6) + 6 + 2 = 16

That's too many 20s!!!

Esirelle feels her heart start to race. She's always wanted to audition for a real show ... and never been asked to before! But maybe this is what her visions all ultimately were leading her to. Not piracy, not adventuredom, but finally her real role on the stage.

She takes a deep breath. Spell out, Essie!

I wouldn't say no to a fury cocktail!

Dianora waves to the other captains, grinning at her own antics. You have to wave to sailors! She calls over the bartender. "Is there anything on 'sail' today? A galleon of ale, maybe?" she asks with a smile.

Will switch my spell loadout to try to get a little more stealth/investigation stuff. But probably not until after Thanksgiving.

In the morning, she complains to her companions. "I hope everyone slept better than I did. I had a lot of bad dreams -- real nightmaritimes."

Humerus flinches at Telvir's command, inadvertently crushing the vampire's neck. "Sorry, boss!" he blurts, before proceeding to hit the vampire a couple of times and then throw it across the room.

Submission Hold, flurry to Strike x2, Whirling Throw
Athletics (master) to Grapple for Submission Hold: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (15) + 24 = 39
Critical Success The target is enfeebled 2 until the end of its next turn and enfeebled 1 for 1 minute.; Success The target is enfeebled 1 until the end of its next turn.

Falling Stone (foreceful, magical, nonlethal, unarmed): 1d20 + 24 - 5 ⇒ (4) + 24 - 5 = 23
Bludgeoning damage, cold iron and silver: 2d8 + 6 ⇒ (6, 3) + 6 = 15
Falling Stone, iterative: 1d20 + 24 - 10 ⇒ (19) + 24 - 10 = 33
Bludgeoning damage (forceful, cold iron and silver): 2d8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 1) + 6 + 2 = 11

Athletics (master) vs. Fort DC to throw: 1d20 + 24 ⇒ (12) + 24 = 36
I throw it 30 feet on a success and do damage (it lands prone on a crit success); on a failure it remains grabbed, though only until the end of my turn
Bludgeoning damage: 3d6 + 4 ⇒ (6, 3, 1) + 4 = 14

Downtime options

Hooli decided to turn her attention back to the curse, and heads to the Great Willow to see if she can find answers there. Which she does!

Nature (trained): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

Aily's spirit ripped apart making her want to scream, but she doesn't. Instead she moves slowly to Caraid to request more healing.

And honey I know you'll be there to relieve me / The love you give to me will free me / If you don't know the thing you're dealing / Oh I can tell you, darling, that it's sexual healing...

Earlier

"You know, I once developed immunity to 27 different toxins," Timdok comments as he fights the spasms in his arm.

"Was one of them iocaine powder?" Esirelle asks, urging Timdok on -- and providing a distraction -- while Cerulean does her work. She does it well, as always.

Later

Esirelle sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes. "It didn't go so well for you last time. And YOU, Isabella, should know better!"

She focuses on the king. "His brain, people. That's his weak point. Explains why he's trying to challenge us ... again!"

Esirelle seems to slow as time bends around her, but not enough to stop her from casting again!

Whispers of Weakness, cast synaptic pulse (DC 30 Will from all enemies within 30 feet)

"Not the buns!" Hooli cries, racing ahead of the others to the shop to investigate. She doesn't mind hair that much -- when you have fur like a kitsune, you get used to it to a degree -- but the buns are good enough that she doesn't want them disrupted.

She looks and sniffs around to see if there's anything else she might be able to find in the rafters. +8 Perception, scent

"We wonder what kind of magic items they are? And if they're in the cult's hands, aren't they already in the wrong hands?"

"My mind is focused on one task -- eating sweets later!"

"Well, for Gorumites, they sure ate well," Dianora says. "Popcorn's one of my favorites! Oh, and look, they even left us a stove to cook it on and heat up the coffee!"

She pauses.

"Not the safest setup, though. No wonder they kept dying so easily. Not very bright. We can probably help."

Will cast safe passage, going across the room. Let's go all the way across, then hit the area to the south?

Assassin Lore to RK: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (3) + 16 = 19

Dianora didn't bother to pay much attention to her rivals. Why would she? She never considered them rivals, after all.

199/203 hp

"Well, then, let's plan to kill some red mantises. Did you know female mantises kill their mates when they copulate? I'm not saying we have to have sex with them, but ... well, most of us are women. Sorry, Kimmich. I'm just saying, we have a good chance here," Dianora suggests.

She looks around. "Probably fighting outside this room will be easier. Perhaps we should find somewhere else to make our stand?"

She downs her invisibility potion. "I'll cast bless once we see them, and then get into the fight."

That gives me invisibility for 10 minutes. I'm hoping I might have a round before combat starts to cast bless from my scroll, but without knowing exactly when they'll appear, I don't want to do it too early.

Esirelle will almost always have to Refocus after combat -- or she will move VERY slowly.

"Everyone fights for what matters most to them, and there's no reason to think that's the same for the giants. After all, we don't all fight for the same thing," Esirelle responds as she begins to return to normal time.

"That ring is something of value, though, regardless of who or what you fight for. I could use it, but Farina could too."

The guards are caught completely by surprise as Kyffin summons a fiend from their perspective... and launches an attack. Tristain retreats and casts haste as Al fires an arrow into one of the two guards -- just barely hitting him as he has to fire around Al. The wound almost immediately starts to heal, however.

The guards are quick to respond to the violence, attacking Al and Kyffin with practiced skill. Kyffin takes a couple of minor cuts 7 hp but Al's still expecting to negotiate with them and is caught off guard. He takes a few minor cuts, but is just starting to defend himself from the blade when the guard slams his shield right into his head. 36 hp total

Entire party is up; Starflit has two full rounds and the surprise round.

"Knowledge is half the battle, my friend," Daehalya reassures Nicky. "See, look at what you've discovered!"

She's so busy paying attention to him that she doesn't pay much attention to the landscape around her.

Athletics (trained): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

Sorry, Al, I think I was hoping there'd be confirmation that my accounting was right. Also, I may have forgotten there's not a flat check or anything in 1e since I only have one and a half games of 1e at this point (I still play in one, but it goes VERY slowly).

Round 6
In the hall, Kyffin and Ultor continue fighting one-on-one as Tristain can do nothing but bleed bleed damage, plus 1 Con damage. The warpriest cuts brutally into him, but whatever deity he worships seems to protect him much like Kyffin and Al's deities protect him and some of his best cuts fail to land two hits, but didn't confirm. "I will EAT you!" he snarls, focusing his full attention on the half-orc. But his rage throws off his aim as he's busy speaking instead of biting and he only lands two claws against him. 32 hp total, plus bleed, plus 1 Con damage; need two Fort saves

Inside the room, Al falls to the ground, but Lothan reclaims his bow and opens fire. Al feathers her with two arrows, and she turns and coos at him. "These aren't the pricks I was thinking of love. Come, let me show you!" she starts to move toward him, but Starflit's blast barely hits her. She lets out a cry as her form crumbles to ash! You got her HP exactly!

Party is up.

Hey!

"Are we playing mimes and mummers?" Dianora asks. "I never quite understood the game? Wouldn't it be easier to mime something if you could also make noise. Like, a Gorumite priest."

She puts on a deeper voice.

" 'Oh, look, I'm a Gorumite. I love fighting stuff. If there's nothing here for me to fight, I fight with my thoughts, which is hard, because I've mostly got rocks for brains.' "

Despite her mocking words, she doesn't speak loudly enough to wake the kokogiaks.

Dianora gives Kimmich a professional nod before heading back to town. "Something to think about while you're waiting. There was a really happy dog once, got adopted by a couple wealthy Irrisenis. It was a real wags-to-witches story."

In town, she works on preparing some timely distractions. Both final phases, 24 Religion.

Dianora eyes the vials. "That could work, maybe. I worry they'll see right through them, though." A smile splits her face as she looks up to see if Crystal laughs at her joke.

Still chuckling, she shakes her head as she goes to make her final preparations for the voyage.

"Ah, it's good to be back home," she says as they arrive at the new location. "A real cold welcome. To Glacier's Rest then?"

"What does a rich man call a Calistrian prostitute?" Dianora asks, out of nowhere. "Easy! Assuming Achaechek answers my prayers in the morning, I can get us there -- or close -- in less than an hour."

Dianora gives a smile.

"Sure do, that sounds like something we can handle. I think they call folks like that iron-tongued 1, if I remember correctly. Though that never made a ton of sense to me. If his tongue was iron, it'd be awfully hard to speak. And you probably couldn't taste anything, which would be a real shame. Nothing like a good piece of cooked heart to really whet the appetite," she rambles.

Ordulf's words may be deadly -- but Dianora's could be no less so. The only difference was his apparently tried to kill you, while hers made you just wish you were dead.

"Anyway, not sure why it made me think of that, but can you tell us anything about Glacier's Rest, or Hagreach? Anything we need to worry about there, or places we could get supplies if we need?"

1: An aphorism I wrote for Gorum: Iron-tongued: This descriptor -- kin to silver-tongued and acid-tongued -- is used to describe people who always manage to say the right thing to start a fight, though few openly connect the phrase to Our Lord in Iron.

As Tristain makes sure the wall will support everyone, Starflit again casts her spell, getting back several answers.

1. The best bar will depend on what you are looking for, but it will be difficult to find one with both books for Tristain and broads for Lothan. The best bet may be the Bawdy Librarian, which was named for its proximity to a bookseller. It's on Uzumaki Street in the heart of the city.

2. She waits in the fitting room to make her grand debut.

3. The bedrooms on the second floor allow guests to make a secret rendevous with none the wiser.

4. The curse lifts and the vampires remember themselves for what they truly are, and behave accordingly.

VAMPIRES!" one of them hisses at Tristain, sounding like he suspects he's talking to someone who bonks his head against the wall for no reason at all. "And who needs guards here? They can defend themselves if you provoke them! Which you shouldn't do if you don't want to become one of them!"

They don't know where anyone is, but suggest you might try the ballroom upstairs