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So, last night my group had one of those amazing moments that just needs to be shared. For your amusement, please find below a tale of roguish hi-jinx and atomic pyro-calypse.
So, having arrived in the Valley of the Black Tower, the group decided to do some scouting. They managed to find and loot the lair of Longtooth the Dragon (slain by the groups pally back in Sandpoint - that story has been told already). They then find the River caves and the secret passage within, and proceed on towards the Giants Caves. They struggled a bit with the Redcaps within, but due to the groups rogue making a couple handy disarm rolls they manage to prevent them from sending a warning to the enemies ahead.
Now... at this point, the groups Wizard, who has a penchant for running into melee range at times, has to leave because he has work in the morning. The rest of the group decides to push on for one more encounter before they call it a night. Some pointed questioning of the Redcaps warned them that there is a fearsome "wee red beastie" that none of them wants to tangle with further down the hall. Curiosity piqued, they proceed on, with the rogue scouting well ahead. As he draws near the entrance to Enga's cave, he quaffs potions of Invis and Haste, and rolls a disturbingly high stealth roll. Enga is unprepared for him. I describer her as "hunched over a pile of refuse, picking through it for edible morsels. Beside her lies a short spear that glows with a blue light." The rogue tells me "I have a GREAT idea! Go with me..." He then stealth's up to the square directly next to her. At this point I think that he is about to discover the hard way that not all Kobalds are what they appear to be, and furthermore that you can not sneak attack a lv 12 Barbarian. He then tells me "Ok, as my standard action, I pick up her spear."
"Uh... what?" I reply, with my usual level of wit and panache.
"Yeah, you said it was lying on the ground. I pick it up. Since I am not attacking I don't break invis. And now for my move action I take off back down the cave towards the group."
So, naturally Enga enrages and gives chase. She just saw her spear take off down the hallway, and she wants it back! The rest of the group, unaware of what has just transpired is gifted with a surprising view of a glowing spear bouncing down the hallway towards them and being tossed to fall on the ground ten feet in front of them. It is followed quickly by a 2 foot tall raging lizard creature wrapped in spiked armor.
Enga is able to double move to the square next to her spear, but has no actions left to pick it up. As she rushes by the invisible rogue, he attempts to back-stab her with a sap. Nothing happens. His sneak attack doesn't resolve and the sap itself doesn't overcome her DR.
"Uh oh" he thinks, "what have I started here?"
Now the groups barbarian decides he will deal with the little creature his way. Charge / Bullrush. 6'4'' Halforc Barbarian in fullplate smashes into the little Lizard Critter and comes to a complete stop, as if he hit a cave wall.
"Uh oh," he thinks "What has the rogue started here?"
The Half-orc paladin decides to smite her and asks if it resolves. I check alignment... "Yep. The light of your goddess shines down and highlights her for you. She is smitten."
The Half-orc druid (yeah, three half orcs... makes trips to town interesting), the last person who gets to act before Enga, steps forward and picks up her spear right before she can.
Disarmed and enraged, Enga attempts to charge / bullrush her way past the Rogue and find something else she can use as a weapon to kill these invaders. The fight bottlenecks with Enga sandwiched between the rogue (using feint to sneak attack... I thought that was brilliant), and the Half-orc Barbarian vital striking up a storm, but unfortunately the Pally is unable to reach his target.
Enga manages to bullrush her way past the rogue, but the barbarian spends a double move to run to the end of the cave and block her in again. Now Enga finds herself surrounded by guys who are tearing her apart.
The pally charge attacks and lands his first strike of the melee. Crit (his dice must be blessed by Iomedae) 88 points of damage. Enge is suddenly at 4 HP.
Enraged and completely devoid of fear, Enga uses the only weapon left to her. She snatches off her Necklace of fireballs, and with a hearty curse in Draconic she slams them onto the ground.
"This is going to be bad guys," I tell them.
Cocky and unfamliar with this particular item, the barbarian seems unworried. He is sitting at 132HP after all and has insane saves.
The pally is stoic and quiet. He knows me well enough to know that when I say bad, I usually mean REEEAAAALY bad.
The rogue, who knows exactly what is going on just asks "What is the DC?"
I decide to do the damage dice first. "Four, Six, twelve, twenty eight... its going to be thirty six guys."
"Oh you had me worried there." says the Barbarian.
"No. 36D6." I reply.
The dice fall. I see a lot of fives and sixes. "144 points of fire damage. DC 14 Reflex for half, guys."
There are three or four seconds of dead silence followed by a muffled "Holy Crap..." from the barbarian.
The rogue rolls a 15, one more than he needed. "Sweet! I take no damage!"
The pally rolls his dice. "25 I take half. 72 points of fire damage. That puts me exactly at 0 HP."
The barbarian rolls. "10. Crap. I'm dead."
"What were you at before? 132? You are now at -12. So you are not QUITE dead."
"Yeah but my rage ends when I fall unconscious. I loose my con bonus and all my extra HP. I am dead." reply's the barbarian.
"Oh damn... wait... you are a half-orc. You have Orc Ferocity. So does the Pally!"
So the Pally and the Barbarian are left standing there staring at each other. Both of them are smoking like a B-B-Q. The barbarian is missing all his hair and bone is showing through his ragged flesh wounds. Between them is a breast plate and buckler both glowing white hot, and a greasy black smear - all that is left of poor Enga the Kobold Barbarian.
Meanwhile the rogue pops out from behind the pally where he hid to avoid the effects of the blast.
The pally looks at the barbarian, grunts, and slaps his holy symbol of Iomedae, channeling a heal for 30 points, bringing them both back to positive numbers.
The rogue then complains that his cloak got soot on it.
Thus ended our epic evening. The Wizard who missed it all was actually overjoyed, because he would almost definitely have been in range of the blast and would likely have been turned into paste.
Oh for bonus points, we had the barbarian roll a d100 to see what he would have been reincarnated as had he died.
92.
Kobold.
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Awesome! I'm not sure it would actually work like that, but as long as nobody died, it all works out in the wash. I believe she'd only be able to drop one of the balls on her action, rather than the whole necklace. Otherwise, what prevents someone from throwing the whole necklace at someone, forcing your baddies to make a save or take 36d6 damage? Moreover, even if this could be done, wouldn't they get multiple saves from the multiple explosions? That'd mitigate the explosion some.
Hah! Nice.
Best use of threat - very nearly but not actually kill the PCs and then you can all have a good laugh about it!
Awesome! I'm not sure it would actually work like that, but as long as nobody died, it all works out in the wash. I believe she'd only be able to drop one of the balls on her action, rather than the whole necklace. Otherwise, what prevents someone from throwing the whole necklace at someone, forcing your baddies to make a save or take 36d6 damage? Moreover, even if this could be done, wouldn't they get multiple saves from the multiple explosions? That'd mitigate the explosion some.
I think as a suicide action it's perfectly acceptable. Heck, I witnessed it from the player-sde of the table when were were in the middle of getting TPK'd and one of the players decided to do as Enya did - and I thin did even more of a bang (considering this was in AD&D!)
Utterly... unbelievably... brilliant!
Clap... clap... clap...
The saddest part of this tale? That's NOT the worst use of the necklace I've seen!
Our earthbreaker-wielding full-blooded Shoanti barbarian took on Enga 1-on-1 and came out victorious, and the gnome (yes, GNOME!!!!) pyromancer took ownership of the necklace, much to the entire party's dismay.
They attacked the entire tribe of ogres on the surface.
And he flow over them.
And dropped it.
And dropped a 10d6 fireball on it.
So he got to roll 46d6. Happy pyromancer!
(And yes, technically it's a separate save for each ball, but still, epic story!)
Digital Mystic: Awesome!
Of course, dropping a fireball on a tribe of ogres doesn't get you much. They're 10'x10' creatures, so unless they're really crowding together, a 20' radius fireball will catch only 16 of them at most. So at best, he'd have killed only 1/3 of the tribe.
Of course, dropping a fireball on a tribe of ogres doesn't get you much. They're 10'x10' creatures, so unless they're really crowding together, a 20' radius fireball will catch only 16 of them at most. So at best, he'd have killed only 1/3 of the tribe.
Oh, you're absolutely right. I think he dropped all of 6 ogres the way I had them spaced on the map.
But his sheer joy at the number of dice he got to roll (he's 6'4" and couldn't quite get them all in his hands at once) more than made up for poor (but spectacular) tactical decisions.
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Awesome job!
In a situation like that, I would simply raise the DC of the save if you dropped multiple orbs at once. I find one higher DC is faster than lots of low DCs.
My party is in the same area, and my rogue had a solo encounter with the kobold after he got cut off from the party by stone giants attacking the rest of the party.
She handed his *ss to him. Easily. He didn't run. I don't know why. He never runs.
So now the party is standing in the entry to the dungeon and has NO clue where the rogue is. The rogue is now a prisoner of the kobold. Dunno what she's gonna do with him. Probably set him up for roasting. OoC, the party knows he's still alive and where he is, but I stamp on using OoC very harshly. So, our next session should be interesting.
Ideas?
Well it is JUST possible that Conna will help the PCs retrieve their lost friend. However, it might be more fun to allow him to escape on his own, if he is creative enough to work out some sort of plan. Perhaps an escape artist check, combined with some planning, might allow him to acquire either Enga's necklace, or her spear. Either one might go far to evening some of the odds up a bit, or at least giving him enough bargaining power to work his way to freedom.
Great write up DM!
One of the best fights I've had:
The bad guys were using 4 aurochs to try to pull down a bridge. The group used Grease under the aurochs to buy themselves time, then fought the defenders of the bridge. THEN I had the mythic chimera land on the bridge to fight them. One of the most epic fights we've had.
Point? Having the PCs distracted by having to have them protect someone/something during a fight is epic awesomeness, as long as you don't play that card too often.
The players must learn that when things seem to be under controll, chances are you are missing something. Be afraid!
Especially if the GM is smiling:)