From Shore To Sea (Inactive)

Game Master Baerlie

Take 10 on Kn Eng for a 16

Iason examines the aperture once it is pointed out, one hand rubbing thoughtfully at his jaw.

"I think this must be operated by some sort of switch nearby-- if we're lucky, one we can actually access. Etrigan, start looking for something around the periphery," he says with an imperious handwave. The bound servitor snarls softly then lopes off to start a circuit of the pyramid, blazing eyes darting left and right.

Etrigan Perception for a switch?: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

some aids maybe? ;)

Iason flicks a glance around as well to try and aid his servant. Aid Per: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15 Success, bringing Etrigan to a 26

Li tries to help out as well.

Aid Etrigan w/ Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

Success. Brings Etrigan to 28.

With the knowledge what to look for Etrigan, Iason and Li finally discover the hidden switch.

Eshshah claps "Give it a pull."

Clandelve moves over to the lever and pulls it.

Clandelve pulls the lever and the aperture opens. Unfortunately it does not stay open, every few seconds it snaps close and opens again. But what you can see through the aperture is a 10-foot-square vertical shaft that drops 90 feet to a flooded entryway.
it snaps once every round

Kiyomi growls at the opening. Obviously it's not doing what it's supposed to.

Eshshah shrugs "Well that's certainly not what I expected. Any ideas?"

Iason tips his head to one side, considering the snapping aperture. "Hmnn. I wonder if there is any particular way we might force it or wedge it open. Keep it from closing, with a bit of rubble or a beam..."

Another Kn Engineering?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Iason comes up with nothing clever, alas. Frowning, he walks closer to the aperture, studying the open-shut, open-shut. "Hmnn. Etrigan, leave for now. I shall call you back shortly."

The bound servant wordlessly bows, and abruptly disappears with a puff of sulfur and acrid smoke. Iason sketches a circle in the rubble of the ground and chants briefly, calling forth a ball of bright, pure light. (A lantern archon)

Iason has a brief discussion with the orb in a low and rumbly tongue (Draconic), and points towards the aperture. The radiant orb floats that way, dropping down through the snapping aperture.

Doing some scouting/experimenting/paschal-lambing. Iason is telling the lantern archon to fly down to the bottom of the shaft and look around for any signs of foes and to see how deep the water is. The archon has an Int of 6 and the other stats linked, as well as DR 10/evil as it tries to explore and carry out this request. Let me know if I need to be more specific with Iason's instructions.

Iason sends an archon past the snapping aperture, down the shaft, into the flooded entryway.

A large, spherical chamber lies at the bottom of the shaft, its strangely twisted, ribbed walls seemingly grown from the organic shell of some deep-sea creature. Curving, bone-like structures support the high domed ceiling, and stagnant seawater floods the chamber to chest level. To the northeast, a large portion of this organic growth has collapsed, revealing dark bedrock. Of the three spherical passages sprouting from this room, two show similar signs of collapse.

The room is the home to four eels. One of them is larger than the other three.

new map

Clandelve doesn't look happy with the prospect of wading through the deep water, with his head just sticking out above its surface.

The dwarf nevertheless lifts his hammer and surges forward.

Is the only way to engage the eels from the water itself, or could we stay on dry ground and hit them with arrows?

Clandelve, I think the water and eels are at the bottom of the shaft that opens and closes.

Eshshah looks down, "I think that may be our best lead, we need a plan for getting out before we drop down though."

I'm very interested in the answer to Clandelve's question.

After the sphere of light floats back up to make its report, and hovers there waiting further orders, Iason peers thoughtfully back down into the depths.

"Hm. Go destroy the eels, please. They could harm my friends when we descend, and we are seeking out a great evil that is somewhere on his island."

The ball of light bobs in assent and drops back down the shaft. Once it nears the water's surface, it pulses two strobing beams of light towards the nearest eel.

Light ray 1, vs touch ac: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21
Light ray 2: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Damage 1: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Damage 2: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Sooo. The archon is going to stick around for at least five more minutes (6-minute summon, minus however many rounds the scouting took), and can blast those light rays twice every turn, from above the water. I'm sure the eels get improved cover, so their AC is probably decent, but that's still going to be a lot of touch attacks potentially coming their way (50 rounds, x 2... 100 attacks at least). I'm pretty sure that nobody wants to sit around while I type a dice post featuring 100 attack and damage rolls. I also don't want to be That Summoner, so if you'd all rather we climb down, or some of us climb down, to get into the fight, I'm okay with that? I don't want to combat-hog but conversely the archon could whittle down the eels substantially to make it easier on us. Anyone have a preference/suggestion? Including our GM, since a fight of 100 attack rolls is really tedious to GM, I'm sure.

Yes, the water-filled-pit is at the bottom of the shaft. I reread the aquatic fights rules. It's possible to fight the eels with arrows from above, but as Iason already noted, they get improved cover (+8 to AC). The iris closes once each round at initiative 0 so it's safe to shoot through it. The shaft drops 90 feet down so depending on the range of your weapon there might be a negative modifier as well. The small eels can't hit anything that's more than 5 feet away. The giant eel can hit things up to 10 feet away with it's tail. Btw, the small eels have electricity resistance (what type of damage is the light beam?)

If you decide to let the archon do the job, I can just waive the attack rolls, the light beam has a range of 30 feet which is far outside the eel's range so they can't hit back in any case. And that's also the case if you decide to use ranged weapons from above.

As a heavily-armored dwarf not wanting water combat, I'd just as soon have the summoner take this combat.

"Light beams: A lantern archon can fire beams of light to damage foes. These light rays have a maximum range of 30 feet. This attack overcomes damage reduction of any type."

(Untyped physical damage, in other words; not electric.)

Iason cracks his knuckles absently as light strobes up from beneath in regular, rhythmic pulses-- two bursts every six seconds, in fact.

"I've no desire to go splashing around with eels in their natural environment. My celestial guest should be able to take care of those creatures," he says with a dismissive handwave. "I suppose if we wish to hasten it with arrows we might, but I suggest we let the blessed entity deal with the beasts, or at least weaken them, before exposing ourselves to harm. In the meantime we must figure out how to descend, and, as Mistress Eshshah has pointed out, to reascend."

He considers this dilemma calmly while the archon continues to strobe-pulse below. "Etrigan could likely climb the shaft walls while carrying a rope. Several ropes. Or we could secure a climbline from up here before we descend. For the descent itself, I could cast a spell to make us fall gently."

"I'm not sure a rope would survive the iris closing. Can you see if Etrigan can pound a piton in just below the iris to attach a rope to?"

I have zero issue with letting the archon take care of the eels.

"Perhaps not," Iason shrugs to Eshshah's words. "Easy enough to test, though. As for Etrigan... I will need to wait a few minutes before I call him again. He and that adorable globe of heavenly light I summoned would not get along well with each other," Iason says with a thin smirk.

In the meantime, he gets out his rope and dangles it down the shaft a bit, to see if it can handle the aperture closing and remain intact.

if somebody is trained in disabling devices

Iason dangles one end of the rope into the shaft and the iris snaps close.
Melee: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (5) + 20 = 25
Damage: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 6) + 6 = 13

The iris cuts off a piece of the rope.

No DD here.

Iason pulls back the severed rope with brows arched. "Well, no dangling a climb line through it, it appears."

Eshshah tries to keep a straight face "We'll say a eulogy for the rope."

After a pause she follows "It's quite possible we'll find another way out somewhere... Lets stop wasting time, all this staring at the chompy eye is making me anxious."

Kiyomi looks puzzlingly at the opening, with no idea what to do to keep the party from falling to their deaths if they try to climb down.

Iason peers down and watches the last strobes from the archon complete. The ball of light flies back up and circles in a fashion that may mean 'job completed'.

"Very well. In a worst case scenario I can probably call up a giant bat to ferry us out," he muses. "I'll wait to call Etrigan again until we are at the bottom. Stand close together, please--"

Feather fall on the party, and juuump? Assuming we waited long enough for the archon to get rid of the eels, here.

Sounds good to me.

Li jumps! Firing as he falls at anything moving in the water.

Yes, the eels are dead.

You jump through the iris, one after the other, and Iason's feather fall spell lowers you safely to the ground.

You can now see the spherical chamber at the bottom of the shaft, with twisted and ribbed walls like an organic shell of a sea creature. Stagnant seawater floods to the chamber to chest level.

A portion of the growth has collapsed, two of the three passages sprouting from this room show similar signs of collapse.

With the archon gone, Iason takes the time one minute to call Etrigan forth again, in a ritual that includes a lot of speaking in Infernal. At the end of it Iason's skin is dotted with sweat (well, more sweat; the slow transformation into a fishman has already made his skin slimy), but the hellish servant is back on this plane again.

"Well, we have the one passage, it seems. Shall we?"

Etrigan dislikes being in the chest deep water and scrambles out of it in short order with a little hiss.

Iason scans the room for any magic before they start down the one intact passage.

Li advances with Iason, keeping his bow out of the water.

Eshshah nods and quickly heads down the passageway as Iason begins detecting magic.

Do you have a light source?

Iason scans the room for magic auras, but does not detect any. So Etrigan, Iason, Li and Eshshah start to move down the open passage.

More bony growths support this circular passageway. The concave floor is slippery and uneven, and the water level drops to knee height.

Iason taps his wayfinder into light, although his servant doesn't need it to see and was already plunging ahead.

Iason follows sedately at the rear, pausing to wring out water from his once-fine clothing. Siiiigh.

Etrigan listens eagerly for any sounds ahead that promise him a fight.

Etrigan perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

The tunnel diverges ahead, although one passageway has completely collapsed. The rocks reflect light with an oily sheen.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28

Li sees nothing untoward.

Cannot make the DC

"Scout a bit ahead, Etrigan," Iason drawls. "I'm sure there are more of the fish-people lurking around down here."

Botted roll for Mollok, cuz he's got a great Per

Mollok Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (10) + 20 = 30 Eyyyy

The tiefling, who has been quiet for a while, puts up a hand. "Hold, friends! There's something hiding there-- gray oozes!"

Iason's brows arch. Kn oozes (dung)?: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Probably he doesn't know anything about these oozes.

Mollok points out the oozes on the floor. Iason knows that ozzes are weak creatures who grapple passing individuals and squeeze them to death.

Kiyomi growls at the oozes, and then tries to find another way past them.
percep: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

[ooc]Sorry, was out of contact much more than expected.

"Shall we do more arrows and such from afar? I don't think oozes are known for being especially fast."

"Arrows from afar are a wise plan," says Li, hefting his trusty greenwood bow and heading in a retrograde direction.

There is no other easy way past them so you decide to attack the oozes with ranged weapons.

Round 1
Iason
Eshshah
Kiyomi
Mollok
Li
-----
Ooze blue
-----
Clandelve
-----
Ooze red
-----
Etrigan

Eshshah will begin casting summon monster 1.

Sorry, was unavailable during my trip much more than anticipated, but am back (though not up in combat)!

Kiyomi will stay back, as she has no way to attack at range. If the oozes come near, she'll start kicking them.

Knowing that oozes are slow, Li takes careful aim and releases two quick shots.

Ranged Flurry, 1st shot, with Point-Blank Shot and Deadly Aim: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (20) + 8 + 1 - 1 = 281d8 + 3 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 1 + 2 = 12
Ranged Flurry, 2nd shot, with Point-Blank Shot and Deadly Aim: 1d20 + 8 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (18) + 8 + 1 - 1 = 261d8 + 3 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 3 + 1 + 2 = 10

Not rolling the crit because although Li doesn't know it, oozes are immune to critical hits.

That's 22 points of damage.

Iason draws his sling and begins a less-impressive volley than Li's.

Sling: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Assuming Li just continues to pepper it with arrows and we stay back at range, we should be able to safely dispatch them I think

Though I'm not up in initiative yet, I'm right after the ooze, so I'll go ahead and add to the barrage.

Clandelve draws his own longbow and adds weight to the volley of missiles falling on the ooze.

longbow atk: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 171d8 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7
longbow atk: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 221d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5