Avandra's glory allows Lam to strike true. The phane is now visibly weakening, although it remains as dangerous as ever.
Theren glares at the phane. "You cannot escape your punishment."
Theren glares at the phane. "You cannot escape your punishment."
As the Phane moves to attack
As the Phane moves to attack
Tavar casts Zealous Sanction at the phane.
Lurean just manages to cast aside the stunning impact of the phane's attack, as do Genryu and Theren.
Save v stun (1d20=11)
Tavar's prayers just fail to affect the phane's willpower and the field is free for Lavender to act.
Lavender takes up a better position and strikes the phane with a devastating string of force missiles.
The phane reels from Lavender's attack and is clearly weakening as it sends further devastating power into the faces of its surrounding attackers.
Wizening Tempest damage v Lurean (2d6+10=18).
Calling on all its resources, it shifts away and sends the weight of ages hurtling towards Lavender.
Lam Shifts forward towards his enemy and swings his fullblade hard Virtuous Strike (1d20+29=34), perhaps too hard.
Lurean, awash in the sea of time, cannot shake it from his thoughs.
Theren disappears in a flash of light only to reappear next to the phane and slash into it.
Theren's attack is too much even for the seemingly unkillable phane. The fullblade stikes true and the creature writhes frantically in and out of time in an attempt to escape. Abruptly, it accepts the inevitable and falls to the avenger's blade with one last call of warning ....
"Morthalat!"
Spoilered for space - nothing especially secretive
I use two surges on myself.
I would be in favor of speeding up the combat. We could try it for an encounter and if it turns into TPK, then we could try something else.
Tavar performs the Fantastic Recuperation ritual.
Whenever you or an ally within 10 squares of you uses a healing power during a short rest, that power restores the maximum number of hit points possible.
Tavar is only down 18hp so will not spend HS.
Snow crunches beneath your feet as you make your way through the crumbled walls of the monastery. Your objective is clear enough. An eighty foot pit has been dug out from the original structure, exposing a seal marked with eldritch runes.
Leading down, a broad flight of stairs has been constructed and from below you hear the hum and whine of some kind of engine, insterpersed with the noise of feedback and some swearing.
Far below, the gaunt figure of a scythe-wielding sorrowsworn deathlord fiddles with a complex machine, directing its power at four pylons spaced evenly around the seal.
"Cursed gnome technology ... even if it had a manual, it would probably be in Giant ..."
At your approach, two flocks of watchful ravens rise into the air and the heads of the undead guardian thralls in the sorrowsworn's service turn to regard you.
Morthalat waves an irriatable hand at his minions. "Hold them off blast you, I'm nearly there."
As you prepare yourselves for battle, Sir Keegan's warning comes back to you.
"My order hid the Sun's Sliver, binding it under a powerful seal hidden in St Alabat's monastery that sits high in the Dawnforge mountains. Without it, you have no hope of finishing Koliada.
Nor are the agents of Orcus the only peril. A mighty invoker bound an angel of prophecy in with the artifact. He must be defeated before you can gain it."
Start me a E4.
Xabulba- spoilered for space:
For battle maps, I use Fractal Mapper, which I got given as an early birthday present last year. I'm notorious for being bad with technology, so I had to find something robust and quick. This was it. It's available from DriveThru RPG and I'm certain can be used more creatively than I do.
Campaign Cartographer is also apparently wonderful, but after fiddling around with it for a couple of days came to the conclusion that home brain surgery was probably easier. And it was doing horrible things to my blood pressure. Not good.
The other thing I've done in the past (in my pre-Fractal Mapper days) was to draw a map, scan it into my pc as a jpg and go from there ... which leads me to Photobucket and the accompanying joys.
I do the following, which is quick and dirty. Load a blank version of whatever the map is up to your account (i.e. one with terrain features and whatnot, but nothing moveable, like monsters or pcs). Keep that one. My maps look trashed very fast, so keeping a clean copy is important.
Open up that clean map and click on "edit".
Go to the "decorate" button.
Pick "Text". Type in whatever abbreviation you've chosen for your pcs - e.g. "Ari" for "Arianwyn"; "M1" for "Spellplagued Foulspawn Manger 1"
Note - I change the text type from the default (Cretino) to Futura as it's easier to read. I also use different background colours for monsters (usually screaming pink), yellow for allies, white or blue for the pcs.
Add everyone you need to add.
Save as a copy. You now have two versions. The one with the pcs and whatnot on it, and the clean one in case things go wrong.
Once the thing has saved, copy and past the link.
When the monsters, pcs and whatever move around, just go back into your edited version and re-edit it. I redraw the text boxes in the new location and cover the old ones with text boxes coloured to match the background so they effectively disappear. Save as original this time (so you still only have two copies, but this one has the new moves). Rinse and repeat.
This all sounds a lot more complex and sophisticated than it is, but I hope it helps a bit.
Email me at revrosey at googlemail dot com if you need more.
Cawing ominously, the raven swarms swoop among the companions, launching the first assault. Genryu and Lurean bear the brunt, but the jabbing beaks and scraping claws offer a threat to nearly everyone.
Swarm of Talons (Ref) v Genryu (1d20+30=37, 3d8+4=16, 1d8=1).
Swarm of Talons (Ref) v Lurean (1d20+30=35, 3d8+4=21, 1d8=6).
About to move, Theren gets a face full of feather, beak and claw.
Swarm of Talons (Ref) v Theren (1d20+30=46, 3d8+4=21, 1d8=1).
Morthalat barely glances up at your approach.
"Just go. Don't bother me now. You have no idea how long it's taken me to get this temperamental brute working."
The tone is almost paternal as he twiddles once more with the mysterious engine, pushing his spectacles incongruously up his nose.
As the ravens swoop down, he nods approvingly. "Kill them or drive them off. Meddlers."
Theren seems to fade slightly as he throws himself off of the stairs and dashes towards Morganthalat.
Plummeting from the stairs, Theren sprints past the ravens and thralls to finish next to Morthalat who brushes off the attack and barely deigns to notice his arrival.
"I told you not to interrupt me," he snaps, glaring through his glasses at the elf.
Most of the thralls wait patiently for their foes to descend, but three of the more optimistic move to surround Theren and hack happily at his virtually impervious armour.
As Lurean prepares to attack, the raven swarms flap dangerously around him.
Lurean leaps through the feywild away from the crows. "This is rediculous." Turning to face the creature, "You are mine!"
The thrall collapses under Lurean's furious assault and the warlord's blade hums with concentrated power as it takes on a particular venom for humanoids.
Ravens flock and peck around Tavar as the cleric makes his move.
Morthalat looks irritably at the incoming heroes. "You do realise you are interfering in Orcus's business? I don't take kindly to this sort of interruption."
Genryu flashes away and appears next to Theren
"HMPH"
A swirl of wind and a rise of wrathful sprits surround the old wardenn and mark his enemies.
"Ancient one! Flesh of ironsand, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end." Genryu lets an incantations flow from his lips. As it ends the old goliaths form is replaced with that of a towering stone beast.
Tavar swings his mace at S1
Attack = 34
Damage = 13 radiant
If the bird goes down Tavar will jump down the ramp moving to 9E, his Cat Tabi shoes preventing falling damage.
"Interfering with demons is our calling fool."
Tavar's divine light does nothing to deter the flocking ravens.
Brushing off the ferocious ravens, the old goliath chants, leaps and destroys two thralls while overturning both Morthalat and the engine.
Morthalat rages as the engine topples. "That is delicate equipment and it's taken me weeks, weeks, to set up ..."
His words are cut off by an explosive noise as the Engine takes its own revenge for the rough treatment, sending out a shower of sparks that slam into Genryu and Theren and obliterating another thrall.
Seemingly restored by its outburst, the engine hums placidly again as the lightning plays merrily around the pylons and the symbols on the seal glow slightly.
Morthalat himself seems more menacing close too. Surrounded by mournful whispers, Theren and Genryu are dazed by the unexpected horror of the sorrowsworn.
No move.
Lavender opens, as he is wont to do, with a spray of light engulfing the ravens but leaving his allies untouched.
He then appears on the excavation floor and gestures, enveloping himself and all of his allies in a faint purple glow.
Lavender's attack hits S2 with a little help from his previous lifetimes and the deva vanishes, only to reappear in the middle of the battlefield, well able to survey the turns of events.
Even as a few birds fall around him, Lam is assaulted by many more.