Karthan moves back towards the tapestry.
"Jorzan, we've need of your talents in here."
"He's a tad busy at the moment," Kelne pointed out on seeing Karthan back so soon, "Trolls, albeit modified ones." He took a look around at the other candidates, coming to the conclusion that if the person they'd sent in wasn't any good with traps, locked doors and the like, there was sod all chance anyone else in the military unit would be.
"I don't suppose it's amenable to being kicked down? No, silly question. Alright, you stay outside the entrance and lob fiery death at them when they get close, or head back in as necessary. I'll take his place."
With that, Kelne strode to the western entrance, pulling his sword as he went, "Jorzan!" he called, "You're on door duty. We've got this." Kelne planted himself some twenty feet beyond the doors, giving himself room to move during the coming fight.
Karthan nods. Looks for the nearest troll, and pulls out the Rod of Extend Spell.
While waiting for Jorzan to make his way to the tapestry, he begins his incant, and from his fingers stream a river of sticky fire.
Ranged touch attack on the troll that looks least damaged.
Fire damage, round 1 of 8.
In the Promenade:
As such they have regeneration 5 (acid and fire) and fast healing 5, plus DR10/Magic AND Silver. They have the ability to turn you into vampire spawn or into a thrall if they choose to, and have all the usual properties you would associate with the undead.
Aylaeth's arrow rockets across the empty space of the ballroom and hammers into the creature, which barely flinches. Being a scholar, the sylph knows full well that acid overcomes a troll's natural regenerative capabilities, but this one somehow heals almost immediately from the damage done by the acid, and the rest of the bolt seems to basically bounce off its thick hide. The creature doesn't even break stride.
@Jorzan, @Min, @Gray, @Ada'an, anyone else currently in the tapestry: In addition to the muffled voices, whose exact speech you still can't make out, there is now a banging sound, as if someone were beating the ground with a club.
Jorzan looks at the door; it has no handle, hinges, or lock. It is basically a featureless slab of iron. Karthan tells you of the magic aura he saw on it.
Belsarious:
Karthan:
Kelne:
Lin:
Aylaeth:
Feral Boy:
Monster:
Maiathreen:
Livain:
Captain Lamorak:
Trollpires:
The trollpires stride across the ballrooms as everyone gets into position. Jorzan seems to be waiting for something, looking for something, but he pulls himself away from his post at the group's request and heads into the tapestry. Karthan steps up and launches a fireball, his magic smashing into the creature and seeming basically to wash right over it; the flames swirl and twist over its body but don't appear to be doing any damage, or at least not yet.
As for Aylaeth's crossbow, that's fine. We can figure out a trade or some such in Stormfare, totally okay.
Livain tastes bile rising in the back of her throat at the sight of the creatures. She swallows her rising panic, suppressing her fear as her blackdragon flight training kicks in along with adrenaline. She swiftly nocks her arrows aiming for the one Aylaeth just attacked. Firing so quickly and accurately that the first set of arrows haven't hit by the time the last shot is taken. All four arrows hitting so hard they nearly bury themselves into the creatures shoulder, the four arrows making a perfect diamond.
At first, nothing. You slam against the wall and just hurt yourself. Kevin stands and looks quizzically at you, his eyes now lantern yellow and glowing. "Wh...what are you doing?"
Your next few attempts meet with similar results; battered, bruised, sweaty, and exhausted you throw yourself at the thing again, this time managing to rock it back and forth, causing Kevin to stumble and fall and your own bare feet to slip and slide. The stone begins to right itself, and with a howl of frustration and pain you literally throw yourself at the wall, banging your head quite badly and leaving a streak of blood on the glass, pushing until your arms burn and shoulders feel pushed out of their sockets.
But it works.
With a sickening lurch the thing tilts, tilts again, falls and shatters. With a silvery rush, the glory of the Inheritor again infuses your soul and fills your heart and mind. You feel your magic return to you, but it unfortunately does not bring your clothes or equipment with it you are still stark naked and unarmed.
Looking around from your vantage point flat on your back on the cold stone floor you see you are in a large bedroom, 60' square, and there are big crystals -- each about 10' square and 12' high -- just like the one you were in standing at various random spots all over the room. Crystal shards are scattered all around the floor now as well, since you've just broken one. Aside from the bed, there is a big old potbelly stove in the far corner with a nice fire brewing, and several foot lockers just like the kind you remember from your days in the regular army. There is a sort of fog drifting through the room that obscures its edges. To that end, you cannot tell if there is a door or not.
Kevin looks lost. The green liquid in his twin phylacteries burbles at you.
Maiathreen using the time before the monstrosities arrive to do a bit of defensive casting. He pulls a small shards of what looks like a shield and begins to make esoteric passes with it as he begins to speak in a grating hissing voice. "Poehuhuunihu!"" A strange shimmer appears around Maiathreen almost like a coat of scales as he completes his spell.
Lin felt a nagging feeling, as if she had a thought as to what they these things were but couldn't grasp it before it slipped away. As they got closer she only became more aggressive her low growl reaching a draconic cressendo as she readied herself mentally for the coming battle. As the sound of a crossbow snapping as someone loosed their bolt somewhere behind her only made her more aware of the precarious situation they were in. These things were attacking alone one on either end of them, it didn't add up, these things were far to calm for her liking. "Everyone, stick together, fight in pairs! Don't charge them recklessly! Belsarious, stick close to me and cast anything that may be useful. Brook, Sarish stay out of their reach and keep yourselves and her safe. If you can't do that remember your training. Fight with Honor and Courage!"
With that Lin settled down and lowered her head, she didn't growl anymore, she stared balefully at the creature striding towards her and her allies.
Belsarious begins spellcasting.....
"Shazum en digorious....."
DM
Glitterdust on the trollpies
Even as Lin is speaking, Brook and Sarish move Cassandra to the center of the Promenade along the south wall and taking up positions on either side of her, bookending the young seer and her pet owl.
Knowledge(religion):
As Aylaeth sees the effect, or lack of it, of her acid bolt and notices the fangs on the creature, combined with what they had learned from the Northener Kelne, she puts two and two together and calls out a warning "Ware these creatures! They are likely some foul hybrid of troll and vampiric undead! If so, electricity and cold will hardly harm them and only magic and silver weapons will truly do them harm!"
Cool. Thanks! : )
As he hears the woman's warning just before he heads into the tapestry Jorzan and calls out his own reminder to his companions "Vampires! Remember our preparations!", before he finally steps through. Witnessing her deadly effectiveness, he also tosses his quiver of specially magicked arrows to the flying female archer "Here! Catch!"
Once inside the tapestry the shadowy rogue gets straight to work. Being well aware of the possibility of traps, he carefully approaches the door and uses all his skill to try and determine if there is any way to very carefully open it.
Seeking to help however it can, little Ada'an flutters over and lands on the young rogue's head. "What the..!" Jorzan swears and raises his hands to take it off. But then he feels the little angels's celestial aura wash over him and realizes that it is doing him no harm. Mentally shrugging his shoulders he ignores it and gets back to work. He also listens closely to see if he can determine what the sounds beyond the door are.
Perception: Hero point to re-roll
Perception:
Ada'an perception Aid Another:
Disable Device:
While he works, he suddenly seems to realize something and turns to his shadowy companion. "Hey, you, if you can, pass through that wall and see what is on the other side." Not knowing exactly how much the shadow would know he adds "We are looking for a young boy."
Nodding it's understanding, Zan attempts to pass through the wall into whatever may be beyond it.
Vampire trolls. How simply marvellous. They were going to have to track down a great many coffins to finally end the vampiric threat, he could tell.
"If anybody has special powers against the undead, now's the time to mention it. Otherwise, somebody check if they need Gray in there," he called back into the promenade. He ought to be able to inflict some damage, but he couldn't fight them both at once and Gray's skills wouldn't go amiss.
Best to be sure the creature wasn't going to reach Karthan, he reflected, advancing slightly so as to block the creature's path to the sorcerer, "Karthan, if I could get a haste spell, please." Of those present, he was the best able to deal with vampires, and such a spell would certainly speed him in destroying them.
Identifying who, besides Kelne, should be the beneficiary of a Haste spell.
Flooded with the glory of Iomedae again, tears roll down Justahl's face and he says a heartfelt prayer of thanks. Aching from the strain of bursting their prison, Sir Justahl carefully brushes a path for him, then carefully picks up Kevin, carries him over to the bed and lays him down there.
Then he systematically looks for weapons and/or clothing in the trunks, and peers into the other cells to see if any other people are prisoned there.
Seeing the horrific trollpire, a creature nearly as big and possibly more furious than himself, the monster charges it, punching the thing with all his strength.
The trollpire in the east ballroom grins hungrily as Monster bears down, but then shrieks in pain and rage as the outsider's fist connects just after Livain's arrows pummel it. It slides back a bit to position Monster between itself and Livain, giving it against the aellar archer. It then lashes out at Monster with its claws and teeth, but only manages to land a single slice with its left hand.
Meanwhile, in the west ballroom, the trollpire there charges the last bit of distance between itself and Kelne, then stops short of him, using its superior reach to lunge forward and bite at the warrior. Kelne was well-prepared for this attack, though, and the thing misses badly, its razor fangs slicing through the air where he was a second ago.
@In the Tapestry: As the mysterious and shadowy Zan slides through the rock wall, there is an enormous *CRASHHHHHH!!* from the other side of the door, and a strange feeling washes past you all; like a tiny whiff of sunlight or clear air on a battlefield. As if something good just washed past you here, in this home of necromancy and unclean things.
Zan floats back out in just a few seconds and mutters in its entrancing and yet horrid voice, that sounds like spiders crawling over an unseen corpse. "mmmmannnn annnnnd boooyyyyy...mannny gemmmmssss...much eeeevilllllll..."
You find a trunk with weapons fairly quickly, and can see yours in there, along with a few others of terrible quality, so bad as to be useless. You find a trunk filled with gold coins that all bear the Baron's likeness. You have no idea if they're worth anything, though. Still naked, you have come down to the last four trunks. You move to the next one and open the lid. It squeaks very loudly.
Very loudly.
Too late, you realize this is not a lid making noise, rather it is a creature of some sort squealing with delight at finding such a tasty morsel. The entire trunk is lined with razor-sharp teeth and horrid, smelly, rubbery tongue the size of a small animal slobbers out at you and pummels you in the chest, nearly breaking your ribs. You attempt to back up but you discover to your horror that your hand is stuck fast to the lid, and no amount of strength is getting you free. Kevin screams in horror and jumps up on the bed. "NOOOOO! MISTER! LOOK OUT, IT'S ALIVE!"
@Those in the Tapestry:
As the strange little helmet speaks to him and Jorzan starts and says "You talk?.." Yet as it is far from the strangest thing he has seen he simply accepts it. As he comes to his realizations about the door and Zan returns, he translates Zan's speech for Gray and the as yet unidentified to him Elf. "My...friend here says there is a man and a boy behind this door, the boy must be Kevin and, based on what we just felt, I have a feeling the man is our missing Paladine friend. As for this door, I cannot find any means to open it, and if there was one, I'm sure I would have found it. It must therefore be some form of code word or special phrase. Blast me if I have any idea what it is though! Can anyone think of anything they may have seen here so far that might give a clue as to the password?"
Looking around the rogue then seems to think of something and once again turns to his shadow companion "Go back though, if that is Justhal, he should recognize you. If it is him, find some way to make sure he knows where this door is. Perhaps he can open it from the other side."
Once again the shadow nods passes though the wall. Once on the other side, if it should recognize the man as his master's companion, through sounds and gestures it does it's best to indicate where the door is on the wall it just came through.
While he waits, the shadowdancer starts thinks as best he can and starts running through words to see if they will work "Ormir, Kevin, Cassandra, abracadabra, open sesame...."
Intelligence check to guess password?:
As the huge ape-like creature roars and barrels into the troll abomination Aylaeth's eyebrows raise at the force of it's blow. Yet the creature seemed on it's last legs, and, whatever it was, it seemed to be on their side. She would not let it fall if she could help it.
Signaling Tora'an with her knees the mighty pegaus lord quickly wings over to land on the other side of the undead monstrosity, sneaking in a savage bite as he does but his teeth snap shut on nothing but air.
Meanwhile his magus rider uses her arcane abilities to increase the power of her quarterstaff and then strikes out with a series of fiery, electrified blows. However the creature, surprisingly quick for it's size, manages to evade all but one of them.
Tora'an fly to 21-22/AL-AM
Tora'an bite w/ flank: ; Damage:
Aylaeth Spellstrike w/flank:
Aylaeth melee attack 1 w/flank:
Aylaeth melee attack 2 w/flank:
Spellstrike damage(melee&magic+electrical+fire):
Oh also, from the description in the Shadow Companion text, it seems to indicate that only the shadowdancer can understand the shadow. But if you want to houserule that everyone can that A-Ok with me as the way you describe his voice is awesome! ; )
Damian looks left, then right. He can see the entry to both ballrooms. In the west, he sees Kelne dodging sharp claws from a beast just out of sight. Lindorevia is there bearing down to assist him, while the half-orc sorcerer Karthan is weaving some spell together. To the east, Aylaeth leaps forward on her pegasus, electric energy crackling from her staff, while Livain launches a flurry of arrows at whatever creature is fighting the beastly monster controlled by the boy. He makes his decision and expertly maneuvers Keythan to the west ballroom, taking position for a punishing charge. He feels the voice of the Inheritor speak through him as he rounds the corner, his booming voice carrying through both ballrooms. "Take heart, valiant warriors! Our quests are blessed by Iomedae, our swords and shields bearing her will forward! We will prevail, for we are blessed by the gods! Ride, friends, ride!" He presses his hand on the surcoat showing Iomedae's sword, the symbol shining with holy light like a beacon.
While he waits, the shadowdancer starts thinks as best he can and starts running through words to see if they will work "Ormir, Kevin, Cassandra, abracadabra, open sesame...."
As Zan floats eerily back through the wall, Ada'an begins rattling off an endless stream of words and phrases, everything he can remember from his brief exposure to the tapestries back in the Promenade. When none of them works, the little angel makes a frustrated noise. "It's as if we're supposed to just say GLORY TO ORMIR! or someth-" He cuts himself off as the door suddenly makes a hideous grinding noise, and begins to open, but very slowly.
Weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater can ignore some types of damage reduction,regardless of their actual material or alignment. The following table shows what type of enhancement bonus is needed to overcome some common types of damage reduction.
Karthan finishes weaving his spell, then ducks back into the tapestry.
Standard: Cast Haste
Move: Move 60' (single move action) to get back into the tapestry.
People who are hasted:
+1 to Hit
+1 Dodge to AC
+1 to Reflex Saves
+30' of movement
one additional full BAB attack on a full attack action. Round 1 of 8.
Fire damage on Trollpyre #1, round 2 of 8. If nothing else, the constant fire damage from Karthan's Flaming Acid Arrow should be hindering that troll's fast healing...unless it's got some sort of damned buff giving it energy resistance [fire].
Min puts away his lifebow and readies his mothers holy blade as the door slowly opens grinds its way open. He nods to Jorzan and the others as he waits to see if there was light on the other side. "I can lead and make sure nothing awaits us on the other side." He still didn't know the various abilities of his new allies but he couldn't hesitate to take the lead and scout the darkness.
With a strangled, gurgling cry, the trollpire in the west ballroom falls to the ground. There is a terrible *POP* from behind its breastplate, and a thick green liquid, glowing like a Will-o-Wisp, begins leaking out all over the floor.
Belsarious steps forward towards the trollpire in the east ballroom, weaving his spells and casting an old favorite of his.
The creature yowls in pain as a cloud of glittering dust bursts all over it, just missing Kelne, but impeding and blinding the trollpire.
AC: 12 (Nekkid)
HP: 75 + Grappled (+Con damaged)
Eyes widening in surprise as he is unable to free his hand, Sir Justahl (having picked up his warhammer, thinking to smash the other prisons) swings down on top of the animated chest like hammering a nail.
WARHAMMER +2,----------+14/+9--------1d8+6 ------- 20/x3--------- Silver, Axiomatic [law-aligned, +2d6 vs chaotic]
Power attack #1: for a possible crush damage.
Power attack #2: for a possible crush damage.
In the Tapestry
Although he could see perfectly well in the darkness, the pragmatic rogue was happy to step aside and allow the bigger and better armoured Elf to take the lead. Not sure what to expect but anticipating the worst, as the Elf puts away his bow, Jorzan draws his, nocking it with one of the extra daybreak arrows that the others didn't pick up before the teleport.
As Karthan's magic settles over her body, her eyes widen as she feels her muscles tense and time slowing around her. She could see the large northman deftly defending against the troll creatures attacks, in a slow fluid motion, and while the creature was distracted with the man she quickly began moving around the pair in an attempt to flank the creature from behind.
As she rushes past the creature, it strikes out at her with its claws and despite its superior reach, the blow glances harmlessly off her leather barding as she moves past. When she got behind the troll creature she quickly spun around and slashed it across the back with her magically imbued claws and successfully tore some flesh out of its side. But strangely her claws weren't as effective as she previously hoped...
-->
The boy places two fingers in his mouth and lets out a loud, piercing whistle as he moves toward the middle of the room to retrieve his sling and club.
"Eats mah dust trollpire!"
will be targeting the other trollpire with a hex on my next turn....
Maiathreen rushes toward the creature using his wings to augment his speed in the west ballroom as he sends energy into Servais causing fire to erupt along the blade.
In The Tapestry: As the thick metal door finishes its agonizingly slow opening process, you all hear a surprised yell that is definitely recognizable as Sir Justahl, and then the sound of a hammer hitting thick, leathery flesh. A loud snorting gurgle can be heard, along with a slidey, snot-like sound that shivers in the air. As you step through the door, you see several large gems, each about 10' tall and 5' square. There is a potbellied woodstove against one wall by a bed, and tapestries on all the walls. Several treasure chests, or hope chests, perhaps, line the wall to your right.
You also see a stark-naked Sir Justahl, wearing naught but a grimace and holding only his magicked warhammer, with one hand stuck to a creature that looks for all the world like a treasure chest of some sort loaded with massive fangs and several slavering, slobbering tongues. He has just smashed the thing with the hammer, and it returns in kind, clobbering him with a disgusting pseudopod. A small boy then jumps off the bed against the wall to your left and runs over to the melee, yelling as he goes. "You leave him alone! He's gonna help me! I hate you! I hate you! RRRRRRRRRGH!" This boy has glowing, lantern-yellow eyes and appears to be stitched together with strips of leather. In addition, there are two alchemical phylacteries, each one-quarter filled with a viscous and sickeningly-glowing greenish liquid, stuck in his chest with several huge needles. He also has fangs and tiny claws, and it is the latter that he brings to bear on the chest-thing, slashing it with surprising accuracy and damaging it, to everyone's surprise.
The boy turns as you all charge in, his eyes wide with surprise. "Who are you guys? You aren't who I normally see!"
Karthan:
Gray:
Min:
1d20+10
In The Promenade: