I think we're about to learn Pisca was feigning unconsciousness, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
Now that the Derro has so helpfully placed herself within arm's reach and the other enemies are distracted, he's going to Bloodrage and Haste himself, then initiate a grapple or just pick her up and start smashing her into the ground like he's hammering a nail.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 13, 2024 at 9:59 AM, finished with 33 posts and 4 votes.
[X] Choke on ash, Demon Bitch, Part 2 -[X] Cob expends one Mythic power to use Surprise Strike to make a Piranha Strike Sneak Attack against Elywa as a Swift Action, continuing to inflict the Hampered movement condition. He then continues Sneak Attacking her. --[X] Surprise Sneak Attack Piranha Strike: +24 (+1 Mythic, +2 Morale, +2 Luck, +1 Haste, +5 Sacred, +1 Trait, -2 Piranha Strike), 1d4+8+3d6 damage (bypasses DR); 17-20/x2 --[X] Sneak Attack Piranha Strikes: +23/+23 (+2 Morale, +2 Luck, +1 Haste, +5 Sacred, +1 Trait, -2 Piranha Strike), 1d4+8+3d6 damage; 17-20/x2 -[X] Kori casts a Barbed Chains spell targeting the remaining Derro while canceling his Moment of Greatness spell to double his Bless bonus, with each chain attempting to Trip it before Sir Pisca can be harmed. --[X] Barbed Chains Spell: x2 chains; +16/+16 vs Derro CMD (-2 AC & -DEX bonus from CMD) [+6 (CHA) +2 (Morale) +3 (Luck)], plus each hit requires a DC 17 Will save to avoid being Shaken for 1d4 rounds. -[X] Gorok continues Power Attacking the remaining Ghonatine when it is his turn. --[X] If the Ghonatine attacks Gorok or an adjacent ally on its turn, he expends one Mythic power as an Immediate Action to use Sudden Block to intercept the attack. ---[X] If Bjorn or Eutropia is adjacent to him, he allows Sudden Block to give them an additional attack against the Ghonatine. If they are not adjacent, he instead uses the opportunity to Power Attack it himself. ---[X] If it doesn't attack them, he instead expends one Mythic power to Power Attack it with Fleet Charge. --[X] Sudden Block: Add +1 to the AC of whoever is being attacked and force the Ghonatine to roll twice and take the lower result on its attack. Gorok or an adjacent ally then gets to make an extra attack against it. ---[X] Power Attack (if Bjorn or Eutropia don't get the extra attack): +19 (+5 Morale, +1 Haste, +1 Mythic), 2d6+14 damage (bypasses DR); 15-20/x2 --[X] Power Attacks: +18/+18/+11(+5 Morale, +1 Haste), 2d6+14 damage; 15-20/x2 --[X] Fleet Charge Power Attack: +19 (+5 Morale, +1 Haste, +1 Mythic), 2d6+14 damage (bypasses DR); 15-20/x2 -[X] Sirim uses Wild Arcana to cast an Earth Tremor spell targeting as many enemies as he can safely manage without affecting allies. He chooses between the Line, Cone, or Spread AoE options based on his and the enemy positions. --[X] Earth Tremor Spell: 8d4 Bludgeoning damage to everyone standing on the ground in the AoE, DC 17 Reflex save for half damage (all enemies lose DEX bonus to Reflex saves, -2 Reflex saves penalty on all enemies affected by Kori's aura, -1 Reflex penalty to all Slowed enemies). Medium and Small enemies that fail their saves are knocked prone. -[X] Mina targets as many of the enemies as she can with a Web spell without accidentally affecting allies. --[X] Web Spell: DC 18 Reflex saving throw (all enemies lose DEX bonus to Reflex saves, -2 Reflex saves penalty on all enemies affected by Kori's aura, -1 Reflex penalty to all Slowed enemies) -[X] Pepper will try to find a suitable enemy to target with the Large Fire Elemental, one far enough away from Mina's Web spell to not risk igniting it.
Pendant of the Third Scroll Description: Forged of humble tin this amulet bears the mark of Iori, usually found in the possession of those who take up the path of the wandering sage in his image. According to Triss it's hollow, containing prayer scrolls written in an impossibly fine hand, though she has never tried to take them out. Ability:AgileAmulet of Mighty Fists +1
Cob keeps on stabbing even as you desperately call on the words to summon chains out of shadow to keep the mad one off Sir Pisca. Blood gushes, the thing catcher pulls tight, and the chain pulls down as the reptilian beast charges the Taldan Champion, the reek overpowering like Lamashtu's own cauldron of filth. The mad one loses her balance and tumbles to the floor, unshaken, but briefly stunned into something closer to strategic thought by the embrace of cold stone.
"The Mother will punish you, runt!" she screams in a voice not wholly her own and for a moment Cob hesitates, his blade still slick with drow- blood, but then he screeches back:
"Heroes kill and heroes chop! Cut the foe-man into slop!"
Your head swims with the reek as Gorok parried first one swing of the fetid claws than another, metal sparking of spurs of bone. Lamashtu had killed gods, she had killed Curchanus. Shrieks of pain like you had never heard before in your life fill your ears, griffons you know without knowing how, and you know they are dying or worse, and yet you do not die. Blood oozes under your armor where the blast of bruise-purple magic had struck you, but you still live to watch the priestess' eyes, all three of them, widen in surprise and horror as the earth begins to shake.
"No! You'll bury us alive!" Bjorn looks up at Sirim with eyes that seems to bulge out of his face.
He pays no mind to the bolt now poking out of his shoulder, the only one to land. But his warning is already much too late, even as he and Gorok hew through the beast with viper swiftness and impossible strength, tearing it limb from limb as the earth fractures under the feet of the servants of the demon queen as though the Pit itself was welcoming them home.
Elywa takes 32 Damage -> Now at 52/130
Derro Acolyte is knocked Prone, but not Shaken Akorian is Nauseated
Elywa Casts Reached Slay Living (DC 20) -> Akorian Fortitude: 1d20+8 = 20 (Success)
Akorian takes 22 Damage -> Now at 43/65 Every single bolt fails to hit... barring one that does not get through the DR Bjorn Attack... 56 (Crit)... 42 (Confirm)... 142 Damage
Gorok also hits three times... 98 Damage Total
Ghonhatine Two Dead
Sirim is no half-trained wizard fumbling his chants nor shaman of the deep wilds drawing too deep of the fickle powers, but a master of magic even in defeat, even in the hands of fiends. Its little wonder what he can be in the hour of his triumph. Two of the drow collapse outright against the stone, lines of blood dribbling alongside profane pictographs... as the spider takes advantage of the crack in the earth to flee seemingly against the will of its mistress.
"After them!" you shout... or try to at least, the reek of the dead monster still in your lungs.
Mina instead rushes over to Sir Pisca to heal him, but the princess isn't going to let the enemy escape unchastized. The sword in her hand glows like a brand of fire pulled from the stars even as the blood of the last derro sizzles off it, and starlight-bright the crown upon her brow.
2 Drow Crossbowman unconscious
Elywa and the Giant Spider fleeing through the hole made by the Earth Tremor
Derro Acolyte killed
What do you do?
[] Chase the spider, Pisca will be fine a few moments until you can kill the cultist atop it
[] Split up
-[] Write in how
[] Write in
OOC: So yeah, poor Kori almost went to see the Azlanti gods a moment there, but he made his save so now he is the only one wounded as Bjorn continues to blend all in his path.
@DragonParadox, the Ghonatine stench ability is a Poison effect. Kori should have been immune to the Nausea effect because everyone is protected by Delay Poison.
So, maybe using Earth Tremor here wasn't the best idea...
Then again, giving Elywa a means to flee might have kept her from doing something desperate. She just cast a 6th level spell, so she might have options we would prefer to avoid.
@DragonParadox, the Ghonatine stench ability is a Poison effect. Kori should have been immune to the Nausea effect because everyone is protected by Delay Poison.
How far away is Elya and the spider at this point and who all go before her in initiative, is it literally just Cob and the Princess?
Do have a feel for how fast the spider is (was it hit with Sirim's slow?)
Ideas:
Barbed chains has a range of 50 ft at CL 6, so hopefully we can get close (maybe Gorok can pick up Kori, move, and Fleet Charge if need be?
Cob could probably teleport if need be, and use a sneak attack that reduces movement speed?
Cob could also throw (cheap) dagger at the felling spider with a hampering sneak attack as a quick action with his surge ability? It has a range of 30ft
Edit: If we can't get in range for the chains to try a trip (which also might not work well against the spider's many legs), then the medium range Bonshaker (Sr: Yes) might whip her off the fleeing Spider's back - on a failed (fort) save the target can be moved by up to 5 feet, so I'm hoping that the spider running away and pulling her back will separate the two. DP would have to allow a "this is how it would play out in real time even though the game's mechanics don't really deal with this".
DP confirmed the Spider got hit with Sirim's Slow spell and Cob has been inflicting the Hamper movement condition on it each round. Assuming it has a normal speed of 30, and since movement speed fractions get rounded down, it now has a speed of 5.
Also since it has been Slowed, it can only take a single Move Action or Standard Action each round.
So that means it can move 5 feet per round.
And this is before factoring in the Difficult Terrain from Mina's Ash Storm, which also slows movement, but it can't be slowed to less than 5 feet, IIRC.
Six crossbow elves, the spider and its rider as well as the abominations that seems to be, surprisingly smart enough to follow after getting pummeled by rocks
They are all down since they fell which means that whoever goes down there is probably going to be eating the abomination attacks, other than that new round
Six crossbow elves, the spider and its rider as well as the abominations that seems to be, surprisingly smart enough to follow after getting pummeled by rocks
They are all down since they fell which means that whoever goes down there is probably going to be eating the abomination attacks, other than that new round
It's about 35 ft down into some kind of larger cavern, everyone is close enough to get there in one move action since you guys did not go for the archery just used a spell on them.
Six crossbow elves, the spider and its rider as well as the abominations that seems to be, surprisingly smart enough to follow after getting pummeled by rocks
They are all down since they fell which means that whoever goes down there is probably going to be eating the abomination attacks, other than that new round
It can, other than the fact that it still falls at normal speed.
Pepper didn't take his turn?
He's not got the ability to see through ash, but before the new turn started, can he get over to the hole and throw a fire elemental down there if there's enough space that it won't nesciarrly burn our party?
I think I want him to target the Spider, since it probably won't have SR.
If he targets the abomination, then that's just more blockage between us and Elywa, but if the elemental goes after the spider, that might cause the abomination to move away from the entrance.
Edit: Oh, the cavern they are escaping to is bigger than I thought, good.
He's not got the ability to see through ash, but before the new turn started, can he get over to the hole and throw a fire elemental down there if there's enough space that it won't nesciarrly burn our party?
They may have fallen down fast, but they are still slow and further hampered down by debilitating spells. I think we didn't get to cast the Web, since the landscape changed before Mina got her turn. Do it next round?
Unless there are more holes leading down below they aren't escaping far, not with our movement speed difference. And we mostly need to kill off Elywa; the rest aren't much of a threat and can't self-organize even if they manage to slink away.
Get that abomination busy and go introduce the spider to ~200 damage Berserking Oracle crits.
Elywa and her crew just fell 35 feet. That means they all took at least 3d6 damage. That's not a huge amount, but every little bit helps.
I don't want our people to immediately jump down after then. That's a long fall and I don't want to tempt fate. If Bjorn and Eutropia want to jump down, more power to them. They've got a lot more HP than any of our people. Also, getting back up could be a problem. Not after combat, that's what rope is for, but once anyone is down there getting back up in time to help fight on this level is out of the question.
Cob is first in the initiative order out of everyone, so him tossing a Fungal Stun Vial down into the enemy group is the fastest we can act to potentially hinder all of them, including Elywa who is going to be able to act soon herself.
Then comes Eutropia and Bjorn. I assume they're both jumping down after Elywa.
Kori is next. Inspired Spell Barbed Chains is his best bet to help against Elywa, IMO. It will give him three chain attacks, while ignoring SR and potentially inflicting the Shaken condition. Getting tripped while fighting against Bjorn or Eutropia should be pretty bad for her. And if he doesn't think they need help with her, he can instead targets a few abominations.
Gorok and Sirim are on Archer cleanup duty, along with Pepper, and I assume the other two Ulfen guards. There are still six of them at full strength, and the Ash Storm and Slow spells only have about 30 seconds remaining. Between the five of them, they should be able to put a serious dent in the archers, if not wipe them out entirely, before the spells wear off. Especially if they get help from the rest of the party in following rounds.
Sirim doesn't have many spells prepared that could be helpful against the enemies down in the hole and he only has a single Mythic power remaining (same with Mina, and Kori after this round). I would like them to each keep one to help with a surprise plot twist. He's not actually a terrible melee combatant, however, so he should be able to help with the archers without issue.
With Bjorn and Eutropia down in the hole fighting, Mina's options for providing spell support are somewhat limited. A Web or Glitterdust spell would be good, but those would affect allies as well. A Searing Light spell probably won't beat Elywa's SR, but it will hit pretty hard if it does.
[X] Choke on ash, Demon Bitch, Part 3
-[X] Cob throws a Fungal Stun Vial down the hole, targeting Elywa. If Elywa is not Stunned and is still alive after Eutropia acts, he will expend one Mythic power to Shadow Teleport as a Move Action then another to use Surprise Strike as a Swift Action to make a Sneak Attack against her. If he isn't needed down below, in the following rounds Cob will help Gorok deal with the remaining archers. --[X] Fungal Stun Vial: Creatures who fail a DC 20 Will save and are within 10 feet of the flash are Stunned for 1d2 rounds, or Confused for 1 round if between 10 and 20 feet of the flash. --[X] Surprise Sneak Attack Piranha Strike: +24 (+1 Mythic, +2 Morale, +2 Luck, +1 Haste, +5 Sacred, +1 Trait, -2 Piranha Strike), 1d4+8+3d6 damage (bypasses DR); 17-20/x2
-[X] Kori casts a Barbed Chains spell targeting Elywa, with each chain attempting to Trip her. If he judges that Bjorn or Eutropia don't need help with Elwya, Kori instead targets a single chain to make a Trip attempt against two different abominations. In the following rounds, if he doesn't need to help down below he will assist Gorok in dealing with the remaining archers. --[X] Barbed Chains Spell: x2 chains; +14/+14 vs CMD [+6 (CHA) +1 (Morale) +3 (Luck)], plus each hit requires a DC 17 Will save to avoid being Shaken for 1d4 rounds. -[X] Gorok begins systematically killing the remaining archers, Power Attacking them while they're still heavily penalized and blinded. --[X] Power Attacks: +18/+18/+11(+5 Morale, +1 Haste), 2d6+14 damage; 15-20/x2
-[X] Sirim assists Gorok in deal with the remaining archers by using his Binding Darkness ability to Entangle them or his Cloying Shade tendrils to inflict Negative Energy damage on them, whichever proves most helpful from one enemy to the next. --[X] Binding Darkness: +9 Ranged Touch Attack bonus to Entangle target for 2 rounds
--[X] Cloying Shade: +9 Ranged Touch Attack; 2d6 Negative Energy damage -[X] Mina targets Elywa with a Searing Light spell from her staff. If Elywa is already dead, she instead targets the spider, and if it is dead she instead moves to use her Healing Hex on Sir Pisca. If she does use Searing Light, she instead heals Sir Pisca in the next round. --[X] Searing Light Spell: +3 Ranged Touch Attack bonus (Roll twice using Hermean Potential), 4d8 damage, CL 8th versus Spell Resistance
-[X] Pepper will target one of the remaining archers with the Large Fire Elemental.
Considering how badly Cob has already carved up Elywa over the past two rounds and the damage she would have taken from the fall, Eutropia probably isn't going to need any help dealing with her.
Elywa should be down to about 42 HP after the fall.
Even without including attack bonuses from Flanking or Sneak Attack damage, Eutropia's attack line should look like this with her current buffs and the Smite Evil effect it seems she just activated.
+26/+26/+21 (1d8+2d6+16) 17-20x2
Two of those three attacks landing should finish Elywa off, if Eutropia can line her up for a full attack.
Wow, fight is going better than expected, I thought there would be more back and forth at first, but no complaints.
Cob once again proving to be a total menace that he made the boss enemy flee, lol. Even if she survives she will never truly live knowing that a goblin of all things nearly killed her and drove her to run away.
Wow, fight is going better than expected, I thought there would be more back and forth at first, but no complaints.
Cob once again proving to be a total menace that he made the boss enemy flee, lol. Even if she survives she will never truly live knowing that a goblin of all things nearly killed her and drove her to run away.
This fight would have been much tougher without the Ash Storm + Ashen Path combo, though the combined effects of Archon's Aura and Slow also made a huge difference. Gorok and Cob have both laid down a ton of damage for their level, too. All in all, a very good showing for a 6th level party.
But we would have been turbo-screwed without Bjorn and Eutropia.
The problem is that Elywa is going to get her action before everyone but Cob and the princess.
And I'm worried that Elywa has some sort of teleport ability - (the spider was fleeing, not her), and we don't have anyone to ready a counterspell.
Also, I don't think Cob can spilt up his turn where he throws a vial, others do stuff, then he moves/swift actions.
I think he should throw the vial, and if it stuns Elywa then he should save Surge Points, and if she succeeds the save, then he should try and teleport in.
Also, and I know this is more work for you, but I think your plan should have each person doing a "If Elywa is alive then [stuff focused on Elywa], else [other stuff].
I admit to not looking at the abomination's stats, but I doubt any of our party here is likely to die if any (or indeed all) non-Elywa foes survive to another round, so I'm fine risking a few hits in order to focus on her.
