045: All alone on the road to perfection

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> With all still and silent at the Arcadian outpost, Rosemund gathers the team together to leave it behind--hopefully this time empty even of ghosts.
<El-Cideon> roll 5d100 inaccuracy
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 5d100 inaccuracy and gets 139."12 [5d100=11, 37, 61, 5, 25]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | '
<El-Cideon> You are suddenly falling--all of you plummeting towards nothing. This world is well lit, albeit from no apparent source, so you can see for evidently miles that there is nothing around you but empty space broken only by the occasional wisp of cloud. There is no ground beneath your feet or anywhere in sight, but with a lurch of your stomach you still feel a pull towards your feet as you rocket...down, somewhere...
<Franceska> "I knew easy flight would have a hidden disadvantage," Franceska grumbles, trying to slow her fall somehow.
<Steph> "This was a terrible idea!" yelps Stephanie, flapping her arms like wings.
<El-Cideon> Ron retains an admirable calm as Rosemund screams in sudden surprise and confusion. "Gravity is self-determined here," the modron relates, suddenly stopping and leaving the rest of the team to shoot past him.
<Franceska> "Hooooooooow?!"
<Steph> Stephanie lunges out to try and snag onto Ron!
<Julia> "I don't like this!" Julia cries as she plummets towards an eventual doom.
<El-Cideon> OOC: well Ron shoulda made a WIS check first, like you should!
<Steph> roll 1d20+2 wisdom? I'm totally wise as fuck
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+2 wisdom? I'm totally wise as fuck and gets 7."12 [1d20=5]
<Franceska> roll 1d20+2
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+2 and gets 6."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20-1 Roseeeeeyyyy
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20-1 Roseeeeeyyyy and gets 17."12 [1d20=18]
* Julia tries to stop, or at least reverse her direction!
<Julia> roll 1d20+2
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+2 and gets 6."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> Rosemund, still screaming but now in something a little less like terror, veers off in another direction. Everyone else only drops faster and faster as their minds scramble to cope with the strange laws of this new world!
<El-Cideon> OOC: anyone who failed, roll again. +6 on successive attempts
<Steph> "Up is down, up is down, up is down," chants Stephanie.
<Steph> roll 1d20+6
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+6 and gets 22."12 [1d20=16]
<Steph> OOC: Actually +8, but yeah.
<Franceska> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+8 and gets 9."12 [1d20=1]
<Julia> "Mind over matter, mind over matter!" chants the necromancer, trying to follow the last glimpse she got of Rosemund before she was left behind.
<Julia> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+8 and gets 24."12 [1d20=16]
<El-Cideon> Up is suddenly down! Stephanie reverses direction instantaneously, which may be quite a shock given her velocity. Julia also demonstrates admirable self control...but Fran is still falling, falling.
<Franceska> With an uncharacteristic curse, Franceska turns into a large owl and stops her descent the old-fashioned way.
<El-Cideon> With some experimentation, Rosemund weaves her way towards her wayward teammates. "Oh, Franceska, you will have to figure it out eventually!"
<Julia> "Her way does seem safer," Julia says, her heartrate slowing. "What do we do when we have to land somewhere?"
<El-Cideon> Ron rejoins the group. "Conceptualize 'down' as within yourself and you should go nowhere," he advises. "If you are already at the center of gravity you have nowhere else to fall."
<El-Cideon> "Do it very carefully?" Rosemund guesses.
* Franceska painstalkingly flies up towards the others.
<Steph> "This isn't working at allllll!" screams Stephanie, trying to stop herself. If she just thinks of herself as the center of the world...
<El-Cideon> Stephanie shudders to a halt, possibly still with her last meal intact.
* Julia heads towards Stephanie and falls to a robe-billowing stop that leaves her looking a little ill. Maybe they can plan in peace without falling all over the place now? "Flying doesn't really live up to the hype," she says, reaching up to try and fix her hair.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund wobbles around in the air, taking some time to get the hang of motionlessness. She looks around the empty vistas available on all sides of you. "Wow, there is a great of deal, well...where do we go?"
<Steph> "I think I'm going to throw up," gasps Stephanie, but she decides she has to avoid doing that at all costs, lest gravity and her dinner combine to ruin her face, along with her stomach and her day.
<Julia> "I have no idea," Julia says, peering hard into the distance. "You'd think with no horizon you could see forever..."
<Steph> "Please don't tell me we're lost!"
<El-Cideon> "Only in theory, Julia, because only with eyes capable of discerning infinitely minute detail would that be possible," Ron points out.
<Julia> "Or a telescope. Maybe we should have gone home first after all?" Julia ponders.
<Franceska> Finally making her way all the way over, Franceska alights upon Rosemund's head and gestures into a random direction.
<Steph> "Isn't there a spell for this?" laments Stephanie.
<El-Cideon> "Which direction was which when we came here?" Rosemund wonders. Ron instinctively realizes which way was "down" as per your original orientation, but has no notion of what that signifies in relation to your target on this plane.
<Julia> "Well, if Thing was here he could ask dark abyssal powers for advice on where to go," Julia admits, before leaning closer and saying in a quieter voice, "I've never relied on it though because I think the dark abyssal powers would try and get me killed."
<El-Cideon> Rosemund just starts floating towards Franceska's chosen vector with a shrug. "We are sure to find something eventually!"
<Julia> Seeing no argument against that, Julia follows along.
<Steph> "That's... probably not true," whispers Stephanie back to Julia, in the wake of Rosemund's comments. "I guess we give it a day or two and go home if we don't find anything. We need some kind of... super compass..."
* Franceska wonders how they might be able to sleep while floating in nothing.
<El-Cideon> "Have no concern," Ron advises, following along. "I am able to find my way back to any place that I have been."
<Julia> "What a handy fellow you are!" Julia beams in approval.
<El-Cideon> "He does have four of them," Rosemund points out, before veering off to one side to fly right through a cloud bank (naturally bringing Franceska with her on what proves to be a slightly moist adventure through opaque nothingness). She promptly returns to announce to the others: "I always wanted to do that. I have discovered that clouds are just big bags of water!"
* Franceska grumbles, but endures her trial with dignity.
<Steph> "Well, duh! They're made of rain!"
<Julia> "It makes sense since they drop rain everywhere," Julia muses, privately discarding her own imaginings of fluffy wonderlands.
<El-Cideon> "When I was very young I wondered about people living on clouds," Rosemund goes on, "but I see now that this is not possible."
<Julia> "Fish and frogs can live in them," Julia says. "Sometimes they fall down on outlying villages that are inevitably cursed."
<Steph> "But what about storm giants? I thought they did live on clouds!" Stephanie frowns. "Nothing makes sense."
<El-Cideon> "Fish and frogs?" Rosemund repeats incredulously. Ron points out, "It is more probable that the organisms in question were suctioned into the air by a vortex and their aerial habitation is very short-lived."
<Julia> "Oh. I thought evil wizards put them there to curse rural people for a lack of respect or something," Julia says with a frown matching Stephanie's.
<El-Cideon> "There is no reason this could not also happen," Ron acknowledges. "Evil wizards can do a great many things."
* Franceska nods from her perch.
<Steph> "Woah. Wait. You mean there's a chance wizards aren't responsible for that, and it actually just happens," replies Stephanie, unable to believe it.
<El-Cideon> You fly and fly for what must be hours without any break in the exceptional airiness of the plane. Finally you do see something--about to two o'clock by your current directional reckoning, and up a ways, is a far-off speck that from this distance resembles...a spire of some sort, on top of a floating rock?
<Julia> "Oh, speaking of wizards. I know a wizard's tower when I see one!"
<El-Cideon> "Should we ask for directions?" Rosemund asks dubiously, perhaps recalling earlier talk of disreputable arcanists and frog curses.
<Julia> "To be honest I'm not sure. Wizards do like their privacy... we could probably take him, but what would be the point?"
* Franceska points in the direction of the tower!
<Steph> "Let's just go ask!" exclaims Stephanie. "We'll ask him if he's got a batch of frogs!"
<El-Cideon> Rosemund rolls her eyes up to take direction from the bird sitting on her head. "Well, we will just ask very politely," she resolves. Drifting closer, you can see that a roughly spherical hunk of rock serves as the base for two narrow towers joined by a single floor at the base. Though the towers have windows, there's no obvious entrance save at the base of the structure--a dark cave is set into the rock, broad enough for a small barge to come and go if one was at hand.
<Steph> "A cave? Why is there a cave? On the Plane of Air?"
<El-Cideon> "Maybe that is the front door?" Rosemund guesses with a shrug.
* Franceska takes off to fly into the cave and finally transform back into her true form.
<Steph> "What a poor sense of design," mumbles Stephanie, but she heads in, anyway.
* Julia very carefully with much stopping and starting approaches the cave in an attempt to land without breaking her legs or falling over and scuffing her clothes.
<El-Cideon> No doubt with more practice you'll be able to make more graceful landings than the stumbling halt you manage here. And once you've landed you're able to enjoy the familiar feeling of ground beneath your feet once again! The cave interior is about a hundred feet wide and maybe a quarter that tall at its highest point. At the far end a stairwell circles up an open, airy shaft, to the right is an open service area with oven, food stores and a simple cot, and to the left is what looks like a boat, albeit knocked on its side and with a hole bored through the hull for something to nest--as the scattered collection of bones on the floor outside might also suggest, this place yet retains inhabitants of a sort. Angry, draconic shapes, little more than pairs of wings moving around sets of claws and stingers, rush from their nest in the ruined boat and launch themselves upon the intruders!
<El-Cideon> OOC: init
<Steph> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+8 and gets 14."12 [1d20=6]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+2 Rosey
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+2 Rosey and gets 20."12 [1d20=18]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+3 Ron
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+3 Ron and gets 20."12 [1d20=17]
<Julia> roll 1d20+2
<Franceska> roll 1d20+1
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+2 and gets 17."12 [1d20=15]
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+1 and gets 13."12 [1d20=12]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+1 alpha wyvern
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+1 alpha wyvern and gets 17."12 [1d20=16]
<El-Cideon> roll 4#1d20+1 wyverns
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 4#1d20+1 wyverns and gets 54."12 [4#1d20+1 = 21, 17, 7, 9]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Wyvern 1 (21) > Ron = Rosey (20) > alpha wyvern = wyvern 2 = Julia (17) > Steph (14) > Fran (13) > wyvern 4 (9) > wyvern 3 (7)'
<El-Cideon> The swiftest of the draconic brethren rushes Rosey!
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+11+2 charge stinger
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+11+2 charge stinger and gets 32."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d6+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d6+5 and gets 6."12 [1d6=1]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+12 fort
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+12 fort and gets 16."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> roll 2d6 CON ow
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2d6 CON ow and gets 7."12 [2d6=1, 6]
<El-Cideon> Gasping in shock as poison takes hold in her system, Rosemund takes a step back to quickly chant away the worst of her injury while Ron opens fire on her attacker!
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 27."12 [1d20=14]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 16."12 [1d20=3]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 24."12 [1d20=16]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 13."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> roll 3#1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 3#1d8+3 and gets 20."12 [3#1d8+3 = 5, 10, 5]
<El-Cideon> OOC: note, Rosey's also activating her fast healing here. Julia, you're up alongside two of the enemy
* Julia promptly waves a hand at the remaining cluster of wyverns and induces a swarm of black tentacles to erupt out of the ground in their midst!
<Julia> roll 1d20+19 grapplan
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+19 grapplan and gets 25."12 [1d20=6]
<Julia> roll 1d6+4 damage to any that gets
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d6+4 damage to any that gets and gets 5."12 [1d6=1]
<El-Cideon> The brood mother evades the grasping tendrils to swoop in towards Stephanie, but its remaining offspring are caught before they can move!
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+14+2 charge stinger
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+14+2 charge stinger and gets 21."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> OOC: AC, that's a miss, yes? If so, your go
<Steph> OOC: Yup
<Steph> Stephanie stares daggers at the huge beast before her, and with a flick of her wrist, a burst of flame springs up behind it, whilst she lays into it from the front! OOC: Flashing Sun, Distracting Ember to provide flanking
<Steph> roll 1d20+16
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+16 and gets 20."12 [1d20=4]
<Steph> roll 1d20+16
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+16 and gets 25."12 [1d20=9]
<Steph> roll 1d20+16
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+16 and gets 27."12 [1d20=11]
<Steph> roll 1d20+11
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+11 and gets 16."12 [1d20=5]
<Steph> roll 1d20+11
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+11 and gets 21."12 [1d20=10]
<El-Cideon> OOC: all hit
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 and gets 34."12 [1d6=6][1d6=2][6d6=2, 3, 5, 4, 2, 2]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 and gets 30."12 [1d6=1][1d6=2][6d6=2, 6, 3, 5, 2, 1]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 and gets 40."12 [1d6=4][1d6=4][6d6=3, 5, 2, 2, 6, 6]
<Steph> roll 1d4+7+1d8+6d6
<Steph> roll 1d4+7+1d8+6d6
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+7+1d8+6d6 and gets 28."12 [1d4=1][1d8=1][6d6=4, 2, 5, 1, 6, 1]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+7+1d8+6d6 and gets 31."12 [1d4=2][1d8=3][6d6=4, 1, 2, 6, 3, 3]
<Steph> OOC: oops, 1d4s are +5
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Wyvern 1 (21) > Ron = Rosey (20) > wyvern 2 = Julia (17) > Steph (14) > Fran (13) > wyvern 4 (9) > wyvern 3 (7)'
<El-Cideon> OOC: more than enough >.>
<El-Cideon> The leader of the gang collapses in a cloud of blood and shattered scales!
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran
<Franceska> It's hardly the ideal spell for the occasion, considering the environment and the flying enemy, but Franceska tries to impale the wyvern which attacked Rosemund all the same!
<Franceska> roll 10d6 ref dc21 half (it gets +4 to its save)
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 10d6 ref dc21 half (it gets +4 to its save) and gets 35."12 [10d6=1, 4, 6, 4, 5, 3, 3, 5, 1, 3]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+6+4 ref
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+6+4 ref and gets 12."12 [1d20=2]
<Franceska> roll 1d20+16 I have spellcraft
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+16 I have spellcraft and gets 24."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> A spire of rock juts from the cavern floor to spear the wyvern's wing! As it howls in fury, its remaining brethren struggle to free themselves from the tentacles.
<El-Cideon> roll 2#1d20+12 CMB vs what CMD?
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#1d20+12 CMB vs what CMD? and gets 27."12 [2#1d20+12 = 13, 14]
<Julia> OOC: 29
<Julia> roll 1d6+4 damage
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d6+4 damage and gets 10."12 [1d6=6]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+5 STR check the escape from stalagmite, remind me the DC?
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+5 STR check the escape from stalagmite, remind me the DC? and gets 11."12 [1d20=6]
<El-Cideon> Rosemund hefts her weapon and steps forward to try to club the pinned creature that assaulted her into oblivion, directing Ron to finish it if she doesn't and otherwise turn his bolts toward the trapped beasts.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+14
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+14 and gets 21."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+9
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+9 and gets 18."12 [1d20=9]
<El-Cideon> roll 2#1d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#1d8+5 and gets 22."12 [2#1d8+5 = 12, 10]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Ron = Rosey (20) > wyvern 2 = Julia (17) > Steph (14) > Fran (13) > wyvern 4 (9) > wyvern 3 (7)'
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 28."12 [1d20=15]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 32."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 25."12 [1d20=17]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 16."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13 crit?
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 crit? and gets 17."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> roll 4#1d8+3 2x hit + crit
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 4#1d8+3 2x hit + crit and gets 40."12 [4#1d8+3 = 11, 9, 9, 11]
<El-Cideon> Three bolts thunk home as the benighted creature tries to struggle free!
<El-Cideon> OOC: Julia's up as one tries to escape
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+12 CMB
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+12 CMB and gets 32."12 [1d20=20]
<El-Cideon> The wounded wyvern successfully slips its bonds and wings its way to airborne safety!
* Julia promptly zaps it with a ray of enfeeblement!
<Julia> roll 1d20+7 ranged touch
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+7 ranged touch and gets 8."12 [1d20=1]
<El-Cideon> OOC: :(
<El-Cideon> OOC: Steph then Fran
<Steph> "Grr!" Stephanie rushes at the pinned wyvern to finish it off!
<Steph> roll 1d20+20 charge!
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+20 charge! and gets 34."12 [1d20=14]
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 and gets 45."12 [1d6=5][1d6=5][6d6=6, 6, 5, 3, 4, 3]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Ron = Rosey (20) > Julia (17) > Steph (14) > Fran (13) > wyvern 4 (9) > wyvern 3 (7)'
<El-Cideon> A savage howl as Stephanie adds another kill to her name!
* Franceska tries to dispatch one of the wyverns trapped by Julia's tentacles with magic missiles, not going anywhere near that mess herself.
<Franceska> roll 1d20+18 UMD
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+18 UMD and gets 28."12 [1d20=10]
<Franceska> roll 5d4+5
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 5d4+5 and gets 18."12 [5d4=3, 4, 1, 2, 3]
<El-Cideon> Battered by missiles, the remaining wyverns can only struggle to free themselves!
<El-Cideon> roll 2#1d20+12 CMB
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#1d20+12 CMB and gets 40."12 [2#1d20+12 = 25, 15]
<Julia> roll 1d6+4 damage
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d6+4 damage and gets 7."12 [1d6=3]
<El-Cideon> Rosemund tries aiming her own beam of magical energy--albeit this searingly bright instead of dark and necromantic!--alongside the click and whir of Ron's crossbows.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+10 ranged touch
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+10 ranged touch and gets 17."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> roll 5d8 damage
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 5d8 damage and gets 18."12 [5d8=1, 7, 3, 3, 4]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 19."12 [1d20=6]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 21."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 26."12 [1d20=18]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 10."12 [1d20=2]
<El-Cideon> roll 3#1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 3#1d8+3 and gets 22."12 [3#1d8+3 = 5, 8, 9]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Ron = Rosey (20) > Julia (17) > Steph (14) > Fran (13) > wyvern 3 (7)'
<El-Cideon> "There are times when I almost feel sorry for our enemies," Rosemund admits as one more is dispatched.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Julia
* Julia casts false life, content in the knowledge that the last wyvern is no threat to anyone.
<Julia> roll 1d10+10
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d10+10 and gets 13."12 [1d10=3]
<El-Cideon> OOC: Steph then Fran
* Franceska awaits Stephanie making her way through the tentacles with a sort of horrified fascination.
<Steph> "Julia, that spell's... really kinda wrong, you know," says Stephanie, grimacing at the sight but not making any rush to run into the squirming mass.
<El-Cideon> "Is not the effect of utmost consequence?" Ron points out, evidently not comprehending Stephanie's discomfort.
<Franceska> "It must be why necromancers are feared throughout the land," Franceska affirms.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran if Steph's taking no action
<Julia> "It's efficient and kept us from being overrun," Julia says with a shrug.
* Franceska eventually takes pity on the poor wyvern and tries to end it with magical missiles.
<Franceska> roll 1d20+18 umd
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+18 umd and gets 36."12 [1d20=18]
<Franceska> roll 5d4+5
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 5d4+5 and gets 20."12 [5d4=4, 3, 2, 3, 3]
<El-Cideon> It writhes and howls as it's battered, making a last feeble attempt to break free!
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+12 CMB
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+12 CMB and gets 21."12 [1d20=9]
<Steph> "Well, yeah, I get that! Just... do you have... tips? On how to get through it? I bet any day now, some evil necromancer's gonna want to use it on us, you know?"
<El-Cideon> OOC: damage, Julia?
<Julia> roll 1d6+4
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d6+4 and gets 5."12 [1d6=1]
<Franceska> "Maybe we could get some boots that teleport us away?"
<Julia> "There's a spell called grease..."
<Franceska> "No!"
<El-Cideon> Ron trains his crossbows on the poor creature to put it out of its misery.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 30."12 [1d20=17]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 14."12 [1d20=1]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 14."12 [1d20=6]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 11."12 [1d20=3]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+3 and gets 10."12 [1d8=7]
<Steph> "Yeah, I know that one. It's icky."
<El-Cideon> This proves just enough to finally subdue the ailing monster, which shudders to a pitiful halt amidst the field of tentacles.
<El-Cideon> OOC: free act
* Julia dismisses the tentacles and has a look at the alpha wyvern to see how it compares with a typical example of the breed...
<El-Cideon> Julia notes that this one is distinctly larger than its brethren!
* Franceska sidles up to Stephanie, whispering, "I really think we should look into some way of short range teleportation, if we end up fighting a necromancer one day."
<Steph> "Oh, yeah! Like this?" suggests Stephanie, concentrating, then twisting her form into a mass of shadows that runs through Franceska before coalescing behind her.
<Julia> "Just a moment," Julia says, taking out her handy wand of desecrate and casting it over the corpse! (DC is 20, I have +20 to UMD)
<El-Cideon> Panting, shaking visibly as poison still runs through her, Rosemund digs through her pack for some basic healing supplies to try and whip up something that will purge her of the remaining toxins.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13 heal check
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 heal check and gets 29."12 [1d20=16]
<Julia> That done, she kneels down and pops one of her smaller black onyx gems into its mouth and casts animate dead to bring it back to shambling unlife as a zombie!
<Julia> roll 20d12+40 zombie hp
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 20d12+40 zombie hp and gets 172."12 [20d12=5, 6, 11, 7, 3, 8, 11, 1, 5, 6, 5, 12, 3, 5, 12, 12, 6, 5, 3, 6]
<Franceska> "Can you take someone with you like this?" Franceska asks, brushing imaginary whisps of Stephanie off herself.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund shortly looks much stronger on her feet, still a little pale but with something more like her usual robustness.
<Steph> Stephanie looks crestfallen. "No. But at least I will be free to kill the necromancer responsible?" She turns to Rosemund then, and rushes over. "Are you alright, darling?"
<El-Cideon> "I am just fine!" Rosemund insists. "But you may trust that I would ask you for help if I could not help myself," she promises.
* Franceska casts a dark look at Stephanie's back, before resolving to find some defense for herself.
<El-Cideon> The wyvern pack leader shambles back to unlife as an animated corpse under Julia's command!
<El-Cideon> Meanwhile, once the tentacles finally dissipate, Ron ambles around diligently retrieving his spent crossbow bolts, those that didn't break in the impact.
<Julia> "Go and wait outside," Julia instructs her freshly animated wyvern with a smile before putting her wand away and turning to the others. "I doubt he'll fit inside the tower, so shall we go forward?"
<Steph> "Um. I actually dunno. Won't this guy be mad we killed his pets?" says Stephanie, awkwardly. "It's like we charged into someone's yard and killed his dog!"
<Julia> "Well we should have thought of that before charging into his yard?"
<El-Cideon> Rosemund looks around, strolling over the to the kitchen area. There's an obvious look of disrepair about the visible furniture. "It does not look like someone has lived here for a very long time," she observes. "Do you think those were pets once that became feral?"
<Franceska> "We can just stay here long enough for me to recall the spell that tells me which direction we should go, and then we can ignore the matter entirely."
<Steph> "But... but it was a big tower! Floating in the sky!" protests Stephanie, before deciding to search out a way up.
<El-Cideon> The stairs wind up (though one could easily fly up the central shaft if so inclined), and terminate at a heavy metal door.
<Steph> Stephanie attempts to open the door, having learned nothing from previous painful attempts.
<El-Cideon> Stephanie does not in fact spring any diabolical traps this time...but it doesn't open either. Soundly locked from the inside!
<Steph> That, she can handle!
<Steph> roll 1d20+20 disable door? is that possible?
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+20 disable door? is that possible? and gets 28."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> This door is soundly defeated! The metal portal swings open with the creak of hinges far too long without oil and reveals an open foyer about thirty feet wide. Just enough light filters in through windows to illuminate solid construction of pale stone. To the left and to the right are two heavy wooden doors banded with metal. Immediately across from you is a pool set into the ground, with an altar of sorts on the other side; there is a statue of a well-dressed woman with an enigmatically smiling polished mask--obviously removable--set over the face. Settled into the pool before the statue, resting atop a pile of old, warped bones of no obviously consistent species or body type, is a gelatinous puddle of green goo that rears up in interest as soon as the door opens!
<El-Cideon> OOC: more init :/
<Steph> roll 1d20+8 oh no
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+8 oh no and gets 14."12 [1d20=6]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20-5 it is not fast
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20-5 it is not fast and gets 10."12 [1d20=15]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+2 Rosey
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+2 Rosey and gets 13."12 [1d20=11]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+3 Ron
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+3 Ron and gets 10."12 [1d20=7]
<Franceska> roll 1d20+1
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+1 and gets 18."12 [1d20=17]
<Julia> roll 1d20+2
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+2 and gets 13."12 [1d20=11]
<El-Cideon> roll 2#1d20-1 ???
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#1d20-1 ??? and gets 17."12 [2#1d20-1 = 10, 7]
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Fran (18) > Steph (14) > Rosey = Julia (13) > Ron = blob = ??? 1 (10) > ??? 2 (7)'
<El-Cideon> OOC Fran's up. Steph's at the door, I'm assuming everyone else followed up behind her
<Franceska> OOC: I'll wait on Steph
<Steph> "It's... it's an ooze! Can I even stab these things?" complains Stephanie, deciding she will give it a go anyway and jumping at the creature.
<Steph> roll 1d20+16
<Steph> roll 1d20+16
<Steph> roll 1d20+11
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+16 and gets 33."12 [1d20=17]
<Steph> roll 1d20+11
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+16 and gets 22."12 [1d20=6]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+11 and gets 30."12 [1d20=19]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+11 and gets 30."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> OOC: everything hits. It is of course crit immune
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 (half SA damage)
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 (half SA damage)
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 (half SA damage) and gets 34."12 [1d6=1][1d6=2][6d6=1, 4, 4, 4, 6, 4]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6+6d6 (half SA damage) and gets 34."12 [1d6=6][1d6=4][6d6=1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 1]
<Steph> roll 1d4+5+1d8+6d6 (half SA damage, the 1d8 is negative energy)
<Steph> roll 1d4+5+1d8+6d6 (half SA damage, the 1d8 is negative energy)
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+5+1d8+6d6 (half SA damage, the 1d8 is negative energy) and gets 34."12 [1d4=4][1d8=2][6d6=4, 4, 6, 2, 5, 2]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+5+1d8+6d6 (half SA damage, the 1d8 is negative energy) and gets 29."12 [1d4=4][1d8=3][6d6=1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1]
<El-Cideon> Steph slices and dices and flings scraps of goo all about the foyer! Albeit with something less than her usual effectiveness.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran, acting now?
<Franceska> OOC: Pass again for now, sorry
<El-Cideon> OOC: Rosey and Julia are up. Julia, make a fort save
<Julia> roll 1d20+4 (+2 vs poison/sleep/stun/paralysis/disease, +4 vs negative energy)
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+4 (+2 vs poison/sleep/stun/paralysis/disease, +4 vs negative energy) and gets 6."12 [1d20=2]
<El-Cideon> Rosemund tries for a repeat performance, raising her hand and firing off another beam of light from the doorway--
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+10 ranged touch
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+10 ranged touch and gets 14."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> --only to find that, despite being dead on target, her beam of light dissipates before striking the gelatinous mass! Meanwhile, Julia can *feel* her arcane energies being siphoned away merely from proximity to the blob! (OOC: you have lost one spell charge of the highest level you have available. Which for reference is what?)
<Julia> OOC: 5th level
<El-Cideon> OOC: okay. Go ahead and act
<Franceska> Sighing in resignation, Franceska sends five magic bolts into the blob, certain to splash more of it onto Stephanie.
<Franceska> roll 1d20+18
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+18 and gets 27."12 [1d20=9]
<Franceska> roll 5d4+4
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 5d4+4 and gets 15."12 [5d4=3, 2, 1, 1, 4]
<Julia> "It's draining my magic!" Julia yells, quickly backing out through the door and shouting, "Zombie! Get back here! I need you to kill something!"
<El-Cideon> Similar to Rosemund's effort, Franceska finds that her magical efforts avail her naught against this foe!
<El-Cideon> Rather than clump up with everyone else at the door, Ron ambles into the foyer and then flies up twenty feet into the air to fire at a safe distance.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 14."12 [1d20=1]
<El-Cideon> Unfortunately, he strikes nothing but hard stone! Raising a pseudopod in obvious interest, the blob surges out of its pool to try and pursue Julia--unfortunately for it, Stephanie is in the way!
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+15 attack vs Steph
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+15 attack vs Steph and gets 29."12 [1d20=14]
<Steph> OOC: you bastard, that hits
<El-Cideon> roll 2d6+9+2d6 acid also free grapplans
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2d6+9+2d6 acid also free grapplans and gets 26."12 [2d6=5, 6][2d6=1, 5]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+19 CMB
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+19 CMB and gets 35."12 [1d20=16]
<Steph> OOC: What is with this thing just hitting me
<Steph> "Fuck, it burns! It fucking burns!"
<El-Cideon> The blob latches onto Stephanie, suddenly finding something more immediately appetizing than magic!
<El-Cideon> OOC: you are grappled by slime :(
<Franceska> "We should run away!"
<Steph> "You coward! Come here and stab it!"
<El-Cideon> From either side of each door, there is a terrible battering crash as something strikes the wood--
<El-Cideon> roll 2d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2d8+5 and gets 15."12 [2d8=8, 2]
<El-Cideon> roll 2d10+7
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2d10+7 and gets 13."12 [2d10=4, 2]
<El-Cideon> OOC: Steph
<Steph> Uninterested in remaining a meal for a strange... thing... Stephanie vanishes from its grasp in a whorl of shadows, reappearing just outside it's reach. She continues to flicker afterwards... OOC: Shadow Jaunt to teleport, activating displacement.
<El-Cideon> The blob slumps to the floor, denied its meal for now!
<Franceska> "I don't see you stab it! I see you running away! After Julia!"
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran/Rosey/Julia. I'll move Fran in init
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Steph (14) > Rosey = Julia = Fran (13) > Ron = blob = ??? 1 (10) > ??? 2 (7)'
<Steph> "Tactical withdrawl, bitch!"
<Franceska> "Rosemund, let's withdraw tactically!"
<Steph> "No! When you do it, it's just withdrawing!"
<El-Cideon> "Um." Rosemund blinks in confusion at the failure of her magic. "Someone has to keep hitting it until it dies!" she argues, maneuvering around the other side of the monstrosity to allow Stephanie someone to flank with.
<Julia> Seeing her wyvern flapping clumsily towards her, Julia smiles brightly. "Yes! Go Battersby! In there there are things to kill!" she encourages it in its slow flight.
<El-Cideon> OOC: it has reach, so Rosey eats an AoO
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+15
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+15 and gets 21."12 [1d20=6]
<Franceska> "What are you doing?! I can't drop a wall on it now!"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+14
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+14 and gets 30."12 [1d20=16]
<Steph> "Why don't you tell us you can do these things?!"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+5 and gets 8."12 [1d8=3]
<El-Cideon> "I was trying to help Stephanie!" Rosemund protests as she lays into the creature.
<Franceska> "This is the first time I felt the need!"
<Julia> "Cast haste on my zombie Franceska! That'll help!" Julia calls.
<Julia> From outside at a safe distance.
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Steph (14) > Rosey = Julia = Battersby = Fran (13) > Ron = blob = ??? 1 (10) > ??? 2 (7)'
* Franceska stares back cluelessly in Julia's general direction.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran/Julia, taking any specific action? Julia needs to make another save if she's still in the room.
<Julia> OOC: I ran outside and will not go back until my zombie goes in and kills the bad thing
<Julia> OOC: otherwise I'm doing nothing
<El-Cideon> OOC: nods. Zombie can jump in next round!
<Franceska> "Nuts." Grimacing, Franceska once more takes hold of Stephanie, controlling her arm as a puppeteer along with Ron's and Rosemund's!
<Franceska> OOC: Mass snake's swiftness, everyone gets in an attack
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+14 Rosey
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+14 Rosey and gets 28."12 [1d20=14]
<Steph> OOC: But I'm not actually next to it. Oh well, make do.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+5 and gets 9."12 [1d8=4]
<Steph> Stephanie flings her dagger at the monster!
<Steph> roll 1d20+18
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+18 and gets 26."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> OOC: hit
<Steph> roll 1d4+2+1d8 this is not effective!
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+2+1d8 this is not effective! and gets 10."12 [1d4=2][1d8=6]
<Steph> OOC: +1 to that.
<El-Cideon> OOC: in fact just assume everything hits unless you roll a 1
<El-Cideon> Ron rains a hail of bolts on the blob while it surges forward to singlemindedly continue eating away at the first creature that stabbed it.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 29."12 [1d20=16]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 28."12 [1d20=15]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 26."12 [1d20=18]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 26."12 [1d20=18]
<El-Cideon> roll 4#1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 4#1d8+3 and gets 31."12 [4#1d8+3 = 10, 6, 4, 11]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+15 blob vs Steph
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+15 blob vs Steph and gets 18."12 [1d20=3]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13 belated extra attack for Ron!
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 belated extra attack for Ron! and gets 24."12 [1d20=11]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+3 and gets 10."12 [1d8=7]
<El-Cideon> roll 2#2d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#2d8+5 and gets 39."12 [2#2d8+5 = 20, 19]
<El-Cideon> roll 2#2d10+7
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 2#2d10+7 and gets 36."12 [2#2d10+7 = 19, 17]
<El-Cideon> The blob's material coherence starts to waver under the rain of bolts, but it's not out of the picture yet! Meanwhile, each door in the foyer splinters under the weight of assault--to the left side stands a hulking brute of fired pottery, to the right an imposing specimen pieced together from a patchwork of misshapen lumps of flesh.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Steph
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Steph (14) > Rosey = Julia = Battersby = Fran (13) > Ron = blob = flesh golem (10) > clay golem (7)'
<Steph> "Who makes these things?!" sputters Stephanie, stepping into try and finish off the disgusting, acidic ooze.
<Steph> roll 1d20+18
<Steph> roll 1d20+18
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+18 and gets 31."12 [1d20=13]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+18 and gets 25."12 [1d20=7]
<Steph> roll 1d20+13
<Steph> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+13 and gets 19."12 [1d20=6]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+13 and gets 26."12 [1d20=13]
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6
<Steph> roll 1d6+8+1d6
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6 and gets 12."12 [1d6=2][1d6=2]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+8+1d6 and gets 17."12 [1d6=5][1d6=4]
<Steph> roll 1d4+5+1d8
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+5+1d8 and gets 13."12 [1d4=1][1d8=7]
<Steph> roll 1d4+5+1d8
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d4+5+1d8 and gets 13."12 [1d4=1][1d8=7]
<Steph> roll 12d6 SA
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 12d6 SA and gets 41."12 [12d6=1, 6, 2, 3, 2, 1, 4, 2, 4, 5, 6, 5]
<El-Cideon> The blob shudders and finally dissolves into specks of green protoplasm on the floor!
* El-Cideon changes topic to 'Current planar traits: subjective gravity, air magic enhanced, earth magic impeded | Steph (14) > Rosey = Julia = Battersby = Fran (13) > Ron = flesh golem (10) > clay golem (7)'
<El-Cideon> OOC: Rosey, Julia, zombie, Fran all up
* Franceska wishes for the clay golem to impale itself on a spike suddenly growing out of the floor!
<El-Cideon> "Oh my!" Rosemund exclaims in surprise at the new targets. "Light shine upon us all and help us destroy these abominations!" (OOC: +2 morale bonus to STR/DEX, +5 speed for all. Except Ron because morale bonus)
<Franceska> roll 10d6 ref dc 21 half
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 10d6 ref dc 21 half and gets 38."12 [10d6=2, 3, 3, 2, 6, 2, 5, 6, 4, 5]
<Julia> The giant zombie wyvern storms into the room, but with the ooze destroyed it has to reorient to find a new target, taking a bit of time for its decaying body to do so.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+2 what is ref save
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+2 what is ref save and gets 13."12 [1d20=11]
<Julia> Meanwhile Julia peeks in and starts summoning up another undead since all her other spells don't really work on golems.
<El-Cideon> Seeing one target pinned in place, Ron trains his crossbows on the fleshy monstrosity by the other door.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 30."12 [1d20=17]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+13 and gets 27."12 [1d20=14]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+8
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 16."12 [1d20=8]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+8 and gets 15."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+3
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+3
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+3 and gets 4."12 [1d8=1]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+3 and gets 9."12 [1d8=6]
<El-Cideon> The bolts *thunk* into the monster's thick flesh, with little obvious affect. "Ordinary bolts minimally effective," Ron observes. "Switching to adamantine rounds." Meanwhile, the bolt-studded golem lumbers forward to swing at Rosemund.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+10
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+10 and gets 24."12 [1d20=14]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+7 STR check for clay golem to break free
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+7 STR check for clay golem to break free and gets 26."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> OOC: DC for that?
<Franceska> OOC: 25! Success! It takes damage!
<Franceska> roll 3d6
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 3d6 and gets 15."12 [3d6=5, 4, 6]
<El-Cideon> With a hollow roar, the trapped golem wrenches itself free, fragments of pottery tinking to the ground all around it.
<El-Cideon> OOC: Steph
<Steph> Stephanie drops her blades, and moves to flank the golem with Rosemund- this time, attacking with the adamantine maces that she thought would be a waste of time!
<Steph> roll 1d20+17
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+17 and gets 37."12 [1d20=20]
<Steph> roll 1d20+18
<Steph> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+18 and gets 28."12 [1d20=10]
<Steph> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+13 and gets 29."12 [1d20=16]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+13 and gets 23."12 [1d20=10]
<Steph> OOC: forgot rosey's bonus.
<El-Cideon> OOC: all hit, but they have reach, so it gets an AoO as you close
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+10
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+10 and gets 27."12 [1d20=17]
<Steph> OOC: that's that, then.
<Steph> roll 1d6+7
<Steph> roll 1d6+7
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+7 and gets 12."12 [1d6=5]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+7 and gets 9."12 [1d6=2]
<Steph> roll 1d6+4
<Steph> roll 1d6+4
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+4 and gets 10."12 [1d6=6]
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+4 and gets 9."12 [1d6=5]
<Steph> roll 12d6/2 (SA
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 12d6/2 (SA and gets 25."12 [12d6=5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6, 6, 5, 1, 4]
<Steph> OOC: Oh, god, I'm an idiot
<Steph> OOC: I would've only been able to attack twice, sorry
<Steph> OOC: So one on-hand and one off-hand attack, there
<El-Cideon> OOC: reroll the SA, I'll take the first of each pair of attacks for the base damage
<Steph> roll 6d6/2
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 6d6/2 and gets 11."12 [6d6=6, 1, 1, 6, 5, 3]
<El-Cideon> Stephanie whittles away chunks of putrid flesh, but the creature remains standing for now!
<El-Cideon> OOC: everyone else is up!
<Julia> Battersby throws himself at the clay golem, and is promply joined by a quartet of zombified ogres flanking it all around!
* Franceska will wait until everyone is in position, including Julia's monstrosity, and then she'll take hold of her allies once more!
<Franceska> OOC: Mass snake's swiftness, extra attack for Ron/Stephanie/Rosemund/Julia's scary monsters
<Julia> roll 1d20+21 battersby charge
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+21 battersby charge and gets 25."12 [1d20=4]
<Julia> roll 4#1d20+11 ogres flanking
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 4#1d20+11 ogres flanking and gets 107."12 [4#1d20+11 = 27, 30, 28, 22]
<Steph> roll 1d20+20 extra attacks, oh boy
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+20 extra attacks, oh boy and gets 24."12 [1d20=4]
<Julia> roll 1d20+19 battersby swiftness
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+19 battersby swiftness and gets 39."12 [1d20=20]
<Julia> roll 4#1d20+11 ogre swiftness
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 4#1d20+11 ogre swiftness and gets 81."12 [4#1d20+11 = 19, 16, 30, 16]
<El-Cideon> OOC: 22 and above hits clay golem
<El-Cideon> OOC: 18 for flesh golem
<Steph> roll 1d6+7
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+14+1+2 Rosey
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d6+7 and gets 8."12 [1d6=1]
<Steph> roll 6d6/2
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 6d6/2 and gets 9.5."12 [6d6=2, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2]
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+14+1+2 Rosey and gets 23."12 [1d20=6]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+9+1+2 Rosey
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+9+1+2 Rosey and gets 19."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+5 and gets 12."12 [1d8=7]
<Julia> roll 2#3d8+12 Battersby
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 2#3d8+12 Battersby and gets 55."12 [2#3d8+12 = 28, 27]
<Julia> roll 5#2d8+9 ogres
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 5#2d8+9 ogres and gets 96."12 [5#2d8+9 = 20, 15, 22, 20, 19]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+17 Rosey's extra attack
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+17 Rosey's extra attack and gets 37."12 [1d20=20]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d8+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d8+5 and gets 13."12 [1d8=8]
<El-Cideon> The clay golem falls to the hurricane of clubs all around, while joint effort between Stephanie and Rosemund finally puts down the fleshy horror! After that, the only horrors in the foyer are the ones under Julia's command.
<El-Cideon> OOC: free act
<Julia> "Well, that was bracing!"
<Steph> "Seriously. Who builds them? And can we get them to make some for us?"
<Franceska> "Is every wizard living alone on a tower in the middle of nowhere demented?"
<El-Cideon> "Ah, wizards usually?" Rosemund guesses. "Maybe we can buy some."
<Steph> Stephanie blinks, then, and decides to scrape up some of the weird goo left behind and store it in a vial.
<Julia> "I could probably make something like the flesh golem if you really wanted..." Julia says, pleased at the chance to be helpful.
<Franceska> "Why would you want to buy wizards?"
<El-Cideon> "Well, Franceska," Rosemund syas, "it takes a very unusual and probably not very healthy person to voluntarily shun all human contact."
<El-Cideon> She shakes her head. "I meant buy golems!"
<Franceska> "How horrifying!"
<Steph> "But let's go for iron golems? They're clean. Cleaner."
<El-Cideon> "Ah, regardless, perhaps we should be more careful searching through these other rooms?" she suggests. "Maybe Julia's friends would like to go look first, while they last!"
<Franceska> "I second this brilliant idea."
<Julia> "Yes! You, ogres! Go run around and smash anything that looks animate!" Julia commands, the zombies perhaps recalling some of their habits in life take to the task with gusto, grunting and groaning as they swarm through the door the clay golem came from.
<Steph> "Good idea. Hey, what's up with this mask?" says Stephanie, walking over to peer at it.
<Steph> "But don't smash it if it's valuable! Tell them that, Julia!"
<Julia> "I'm afraid they're not really intelligent enough to discriminate. Setting them on anything that moves taxes them already," Julia says apologetically.
* Franceska casts Detect Magic to see just what it was that blocked her spell here earlier.
<El-Cideon> There is no sound of obvious combat or other traps being sprung when the ogres rampage through the other room. As for Franceska, the only magic she immediately detects is the mask itself. Stephanie sees that it could easily be lifted from the statue if desired.
<El-Cideon> OOC: also K:P applies to anyone wondering at it
<Franceska> roll 1d20+16 spellcraft
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+16 spellcraft and gets 22."12 [1d20=6]
<Franceska> roll 1d20+10 K:P
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 1d20+10 K:P and gets 24."12 [1d20=14]
<Julia> roll 1d20+13 planes
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+13 planes and gets 27."12 [1d20=14]
* Franceska scowls. "It looks like a demon mask. Stephanie, if you put it on it'll probably add something extra to you."
<Steph> Stephanie frowns. "Something I'll like?" she asks, picking it up.
<Julia> "No!" Julia blurts, rushing forward to snatch it away. "It'll make you ugly and twisted!"
<Franceska> "No."
<Steph> "Oh, good! I mean, it's good that I didn't try it on," replies Stephanie, letting Julia take it away. "Fucking wizards."
* Franceska frowns, asking Rosemund, "Would you try to put on a demon mask after I told you about it?"
<El-Cideon> The face sculpted beneath the mask is an abstract horror of too many eyes and orifices in the wrong positions...but at least nothing awful immediately happens to Stephanie on removing the mask?
<Julia> "We could put it on one of the ogres to test if you really want to test it, but I don't think they're originally beautiful enough for it to care..."
<Steph> "A bitter woman must have made this! A deeply jealous, bitter woman!"
<Franceska> "Demon princess."
<El-Cideon> Rosemund shakes her head vigorously to Fran's question.
<Steph> "Demons have those?"
* Franceska nods to herself. "Yes. And they are all deeply jealous and bitter."
<Julia> "A demon princess, so yes..." Julia shrugs. "Hmm. Battersby! You were a beautiful and glorious dragon, and I don't mind having my undead look all horrible and fierce, how about we try that?"
<El-Cideon> "As a rule, titles belong to whatever demon can enforce their claim," Ron notes.
<Steph> "Goes for more than demons," muses Stephanie, shaking her head and moving to follow the ogres in their trail of destruction.
<Franceska> "Since demons work on hate, the more hate one has, the stronger one gets. So it all makes sense, and if the demon mask possesses that zombie we are running away this time so I can drop a wall on it."
<Steph> "Maybe we should just burn the mask?"
<Julia> Unable to resist the prospect of experimenting with undead, Julia leans up towards Battersby before stopping. "Actually, Friday was a succubus, that's as beautiful as it gets. I wonder what would happen if we put it on her? Would it be better or worse?"
<Franceska> "Worse, since that zombie is near our home."
<Julia> "Mmmm, alright then!" And then she plants the mask atop Battersby's long snout before quickly stepping back. "Ogres, get back here!" she calls, just in case.
* Franceska pulls Rosemund away.
<El-Cideon> Stephanie finds what was obviously once a workshop or laboratory of some sort, though most of it is covered dust and in obvious disrepair. Broken glass beakers, the stains of spilled fluids...time has taken its toll on this room, but a few shiny things remain intact: there is a small, spherical diamond resting on one desk, alongside a stoppered vial of some clear gray substance that writhes like the wind, a glistening pair of purple gloves, and on one shelf what looks like a perfectly preserved eyestalk in a bell jar.
<Steph> Stephanie is quick to plunder the interesting things, even the eyestalk. Maybe it's from a beholder?...
<El-Cideon> Far from obviously twisting into further decrepitude on bearing the mask, Battersby actually looks to regain a little of his lost draconic splendor! His remaining scales are a tad shinier, at least.
* Franceska shudders, and pulls on Rosemund's hand to take them after Stephanie, looking for magic all the while.
<El-Cideon> OOC: K:D if you want to try and find out, Steph?
<Julia> "Oh. That was underwhelming. Feel any different, Battersby?" she asks that last in draconic, not really expecting an answer.
<El-Cideon> Battersby merely flaps its wings placidly.
<El-Cideon> Meanwhile, Franceska finds the gem, the vial, the gloves, and the eyestalk all radiate magic.
<Franceska> roll 4#1d20+16 spellcraft
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 4#1d20+16 spellcraft and gets 104."12 [4#1d20+16 = 33, 26, 21, 24]
<Julia> "Well, you can keep it for now," she sighs, going after her friends. Just like adding those live wings to her undead succubus, it didn't amount to anything truly illuminating.
<Franceska> "Oh, this is a truly nice diamond!" Franceska exclaims, examining it closely.
<El-Cideon> "Is it?" Rosemund wonders. "Should I hang onto it for use in spells if, ah, if someone dies?"
* Julia is readily on hand to identify anything Franceska finds herself unable to!
<Franceska> "No, it is meant to be eaten! Ah, and-- that vial is truly horrible! It stops you from being human!"
<El-Cideon> OOC: Fran failed on the mask but got everything else so far
<Julia> roll 1d20+16 mask, which is actually back with Battersby anyway
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+16 mask, which is actually back with Battersby anyway and gets 19."12 [1d20=3]
<El-Cideon> "Query, Franceska," Ron asks. "What is negative implication in not being human?"
<Steph> Stephane decides to explore the room opposite the foyer...
<Franceska> "Humans are clearly the best."
<El-Cideon> "According to which specifications?" Ron continues to inquire.
<Julia> "We're well known to be versatile and good at anything we try!" Julia agrees before following after Stephanie to check out the other room.
* Franceska nods in agreement with Julia, before giving the eye a look of distaste. "Why you would want to have a beholder eye attached to you I'll never know. Wizards!"
<Julia> "I'd stick it onto one of my minions in a heartbeat, if they had any..."
* Franceska tilts her head. "But they would no longer be able to wear a fashionable hat!"
<El-Cideon> Stephanie and Julia find the other wing is a bedroom. Like the laboratory, this is a tall, airy room to let in the natural light of the plane. The canopied bed in the center of the room currently plays host to a corpse. Who or what it might once have been is unclear--decay has taken its toll and practically mummified the body, and even aside from that some of the limbs are twisted and horridly elongated. Elsewhere in the room the furniture is mostly decrepit and broken, but there is a fancy dresser intact against one wall, and on one shelf is a staff topped with an emblem of a hungry pair of jaws.
<Franceska> "The gloves are nice," Franceska muses, following the others into the next room while still on the lookout for magic.
<Steph> Stephanie quickly moves to ransack the dresser!
* Julia goes to see if she can have a word or two with the corpse...
<Julia> OOC: DC 22 will if not true neutral
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+11
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+11 and gets 16."12 [1d20=5]
<Julia> "Who were you?" Julia asks the corpse. Never hurts to get an introduction, and she doesn't really have much to ask.
<El-Cideon> Stephanie finds most of the clothes motheaten, but a couple things stand out as intact (and, Franceska sees, magical): a bolt of cloth in sunset hues, a shirt patched together from leathery swaths of skin, and a white cloak with the emblem of a spider on the back. The staff is also magical, Fran sees.
<Franceska> roll 4#1d20+16
* Hatbot --> "Franceska rolls 4#1d20+16 and gets 123."12 [4#1d20+16 = 34, 25, 30, 34]
<El-Cideon> "Alvya de Thanys," whispers back to Julia from beyond the veil.
<Julia> She doesn't recognise the name, but if she evers hears it again maybe she'll have context! "What was the purpose of this tower?"
<El-Cideon> "Home. Respite. Veneration through experimentation."
<Franceska> "Just what is with the demon love in this tower?" Franceska laments, scrunching her nose.
<Julia> Oh, good point! "What does the alabaster mask of Aldinach do?"
<Steph> "Yeah I dunno, Franzy. I've had these nightmares where they come onto me and it's fucking weird. But I guess it does it for some people."
<El-Cideon> "Enhances experimentation. Resists experimentation."
<Julia> That's not very good... oh! "What's your greatest possession within the tower?"
<El-Cideon> "Do not worry, Stephanie," Rosemund promises. "If any fiends loiter about you with unpleasantly suggestive glances, I shall send them packing."
<Franceska> "I guess some people are idiots," Franceska is forced to agree, studying the veil in sunset hues with a clinical eye.
<El-Cideon> "Lady's mask," the corpse calls back. "I gave her an angel. She gave me her blessing."
<Julia> "What defences do you have here?" she asks her penultimate question. "Any suggestions for the last question?" she asks her friends in an aside.
<Steph> "Ask her what killed her, duh!"
<Franceska> "Who killed her?"
* Franceska shrugs, then. "A more neutrally-phrased question about the manner of her death?"
* Julia asks that as her followup after hearing about the defences.
<El-Cideon> "Golems. Wyverns. Guard slaves," the corpse answers.
<El-Cideon> For the final question: "Excessive veneration."
<Steph> "Hah!"
<Julia> Latter are probably dead. "Suppose you can have too much of a good thing," she muses straightening up. "Well, shall we see what's further up?"
<Steph> "Yes, yes. Tell me what all this stuff does! Is it all demonic crap?"
<El-Cideon> For her own part, Rosemund pauses to focus on the mask that no one has yet to properly identify.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+15 spellcraftins
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+15 spellcraftins and gets 19."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> OOC: :(
<Franceska> "Only some. Quite a bit more is creepy, but the rest is quite intriguing," Franceska responds, summarizing her knowledge briefly as they take a look through the rest of the tower.
<El-Cideon> "I suppose we should," Rosemund acknowledges, tagging along. Further up the stairwell are two more doors, to the left and the right. Both are closed, and the leftward door has the look of heavy security.
<Steph> Stephanie wanders over to inspect the secured door!
<Steph> roll 1d20+13
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+13 and gets 28."12 [1d20=15]
<Steph> OOC: perception, yes
<El-Cideon> Stephanie does not detect any apparent traps.
<Steph> roll 1d20+20 let's open the door!
* Hatbot --> "Steph rolls 1d20+20 let's open the door! and gets 31."12 [1d20=11]
<El-Cideon> This is a vault! There's a pile of coins and gems strewn about the floor in haphazard fashion.
<Julia> "Oh, I really am glad we made this detour. Truly!" Julia wipes a pretend tear from her eye.
<Steph> "We're incredibly lucky, aren't we?"
<Franceska> "It will go a long way towards making me forget the horrors we have run into."
<El-Cideon> "Despite all of the horrible things that tried to kill us?" Rosemund asks.
<Franceska> "That, in comparison, hasn't been all that different from our usual jaunt through the planes."
<Steph> "Usually we're actually planning to go to places where there's heaps of cash," points out Stephanie. "But this time we just stumbled into it!"
<Julia> "Since one of those horrible things is now a dutiful minion I think we can chalk that up in the win collumn as well."
<El-Cideon> "I suppose that is true," Rosemund admits, cautiously looking into the other room. This appears to be a simple barracks hall, though it is now quite devoid of inhabitants living or dead.
<Franceska> "It occurs to me," Franceska muses, "that if she gave an angel away to a demon, she might have another locked up. And no matter how long it takes, they probably can survive? Or there could be air elementals, given where we are."
<Julia> "Quite possibly! Though how one might react to how evil you are and the presence of a large zombie wyvern after centuries of captivity will be interesting to find out," Julia says.
<El-Cideon> "I do not know," Rosemund says with a frown. "The stairs end here."
<Steph> "Franceska's not evil! She's just surly and bitter about her life decisions!"
<Franceska> "We will naturally force her to sign a contract stating that she is in our debt and will not try to murder me, of course, whatever her delusions."
<Steph> "We will?"
<Franceska> "Do you want an angel trying to kill us?"
<El-Cideon> "We will not!" Rosemund emphatically announces. "We have not made a policy of extorting prisoners for their freedom before and I shall not endorse this behavior now."
* Julia looks to see if it goes up further without the need for stairs. "Why even have stairs here?"
<El-Cideon> That appears to be it for the place. "Speculation," Ron starts. "Guests from other worlds could be unaccustomed to subjective gravity?"
<Steph> "Eh, it's more comfortable, honestly?" muses Stephanie.
<Franceska> "Maybe there is a secret doorway?" Franceska asks, deferring the arguing until they actually have someone to coerce.
<Julia> "Oh, that's what I should have asked!" Julia snaps her fingers.
<Steph> "Can't you just go ask her again?"
<Franceska> "I can try tomorrow. We need to stay until I know the spell that guides us on, in any case."
<El-Cideon> "So we are going to sleep here?" Rosemund wonders awkwardly. "Well," she admits stifling a yawn, "It has been a long day and I am becoming tired."
<Franceska> "I can just set up the hut in the barracks?"
<Julia> "At least we could rest our legs while flying around. So much better than on Earth!"
<Steph> "That's true." Stephanie purses her lips. "So... are any of you guys thinking of taking the plunge?"
<El-Cideon> "Hm?" Rosemund asks, eyeing Stephanie curiously.
<Franceska> "The plunge?"
<Steph> "The draught, I mean. What you said about it? Death, or empowerment?"
<El-Cideon> "I do not want any of those awful things!" Rosemund declares.
<Franceska> "Ah, quite. It will probably be an improvement in your case, Stephanie. I did consider trying the diamond, since it seems to have no real drawbacks."
<Julia> "I'm already planning for death and empowerment, so I'll pass," Julia says.
<El-Cideon> "Are--are you sure, Stephanie?" Rosemund asks uncertainly. "I do not know that you should risk your life for such things!"
<Steph> "I'm not! But I'm going to hold onto it for a while. When I'm stronger, maybe." She clucks her tongue. "And richer, in case, you know."
<El-Cideon> Rosemund nods, obviously relieved.
<El-Cideon> Night passes in the safety of Franceska's house within a house. No further horrors emerge from the corners of the tower to harass the party overnight!
<Franceska> Feeling far more refreshed than staying the night surrounded by corpses might suggest, Franceska casts Find the Path just outside the tower, to try and get her bearings for their destination. Ron should be able to keep them on the right path afterwards, long after the spell runs out.
<El-Cideon> Franceska's spell directs her in a distinctly downward direction from her current location, and informs that in all other respects the party was moving away from Azure all day.
<El-Cideon> ~