Charn -- 617/3/23 to 26 aka June, 16th 2009

[David]

After the party's (Ichi, Maedhros, Torr, Idky, Squattingbeaver, Lowdog, and Yavin) battle with the Demonlord of Gnolls, Yeenoghu, their monk (Ichi) was held by 'Beaver so the demon's charm to kill the paladin (Torr) couldn't be carried out. Yavin tried to erase Ichi's short-term memory, but couldn't strike deep enough to deal with Yeenoghu's command. Instead, he used a moment to increase the likeliness of 'Beaver to dispel the charm, freeing the monk.

The heroes continued on their way to Calvados, traveling along the ridges of mountains that seperate it from Luxor. Later that day the party spy what they first believe to be another pair of nalfeshnee, but (thanks to his memories from the past) Lowdog identify them to actually be winged owlbears from the Calvados zoological gardens. Since it's been raining quite a bit in this region, Squattingbeaver takes advantage of the clouds to call lightning, frying one owlbear and scarring off the other. The party hikes on...

Later that afternoon, three young owlbears (with wings) ambush the heroes, but Maedhros' magic missiles nearly kill one while Ichi and Lowdog stun the other two. As the party effortlessly finishes off the last of the monsters, the owlbear that had previously escaped pounces on Idky with a vengence, believe that he has killed the rest of its family! The poor cleric of Fharlanghn doesn't stand a chance and is savagely rended by the assult. One blow that would have crippled him, however, is averted when the witch's talisman he previous gained discharages and shields him. Recovering from their initial surprise, the rest of the party quickly put down the final winged owlbear...

The heroes hike the rest of that day and the following one without any real incident other than Yavin catches a cold from the constant damp weather. On the morning of the third day they reach the ridge of the river valley containing Calvados. From the heights above they can make out a very green and lush temperate rainforest with a wide, slow river moving through the center. Amid the river are a series of islands on which a large town has been built and the region around cleared for cropland. Curiously, Lowdog notes, these appear to be Flan crops as well as Ninevan ones.

Over the city is the familiar cloud of darkness, but this one is tiny, with the shape of each ship or balloon obvious to those knowing what to look for. Clearly, two of the supporting balloons are also missing, while the heroes spy a few rotting roc carcasses sprawled on the valley below. The darkness over Calvados is far from complete and the heroes can make out a town full of narrow allies, dead-ends, canals and bridges.

The party begins the three mile hike down to the valley floor and Calvados. The rain has been nearly constant, but it clears up a little. That's when the party spies the two gargoyles. This time it's Idky that calls lightning vaporizing one. The other is no match for the party.

Just after this impressive and very visible display, an arrow thunks into the ground in front of the party. Lowdog moves to investigate and is shot in the chest for his curiosity. The party hears strange voices in the copse of trees from whence the missile came. 'Beaver calls out and uses a tongues spell. Two Flan teens emerge, bickering over whether or not the party are humans or demons-in-human-form. 'Beaver allays their fears and the party learns that the undead in this region were mostly vanquished, but demons now rule the area. Many humans survived Sidra's attack and now living in hiding. The party is to wait and the teens will return with their leaders...

Three or so hours later, a small party approaches the heroes. They are lead by a man of mixed Ninevan and Flan heritage who draws from both ancesteries, François Wolffire. With him is a young Flan shaman, Turqoise Rain, and a very fair-skinned Ninevan woman with a mandolin, Narrisa Diamante. Narrisa's companion is an orc-warrior, Dani, who is quite in love with firearms and eager to shoot the heroes! Finally, in addition to the teens, there is a Ninevan woman skulking about behind the party, dressed much like the Flan, Christien. Thanks to his nature's eyes spell, 'Beaver see the whole group coming and repeatedly asks Christien to join her friends rather than hide in the brush.

The heroes get off to a rocky start but discover that a balrog and the succubus, Lilla control the skyship. Recently, however, it appears the balrog lost some battle and now ghouls are again abroad in Calvados as are strange hyena-men that have never been seen before. The five heroes that have come to meet the party are all that's left of the powerful inhabitants of Calvados, the rest having been slain and turned into spooks while trying to free the town of its runestone. Indeed, it would appear that those slain by spooks not only become one, but their body also animates as a zombie! François, Christien, and Narrisa have all lost some of their soul to the spooks and while they are eager to help, can offer little.

The heroes decide togo after the easy-to-reach six spooks, nine zombies, and runestone first. The only question is HOW?

[Van]

Okay, so here are my thoughts (after a discussion with David last night) . . .

As discussed, we find a safe place to bed down for an hour or so to get napped by Yavin.

JUST BEFORE THE NAP:

1) Maedhros casts fly on three people. It'll last 8-13 turns, so there should still be enough left for the fight. This will give some extra mobility, especially to the front-line fighters who need to get to the spooks right away.

2) Maedhros casts strength on Torr, Lowdog, and Ichi (assuming Ichi will lend his gauntlets to Yavin so he can be one of our front-liners against the spooks). He gets 5 second level spells, so two each on Torr and Lowdog should bring them to 18/00, and he can use one on Ichi. He can cast more after the nap, if necessary.

3) Idky casts negative plane protection (he has three) on some of the non-front-liners, just in case the spooks break through. Will last 8 turns, enough to last through the nap and the fight.

4) Idky casts protection from evil, 10' radius, on a couple of the non-combatants to provide some overlapping additional protection in case jujus or spooks break through. Will last 8 turns, enough to last through the nap and through the fight.

AFTER THE NAP:

1) Idky casts negative plane protection and protection from evil, 10' radius, on the front-line combatants to give them overlapping additional protection. Torr won't need the second spell, of course. David: the 2nd ed rules say that this gives +2 protection, but I believe we've only been figuring +1. Which is correct?

2) Maedhros can pass around some more strength spells, if necessary. He can do the same with fly too, if we feel it's necessary. It'll help everyone get around faster.

3) 'Beaver applies hunting paint to augment AC against spooks to any who will accept it.

JUST BEFORE THE FIGHT:

1) Cast as many aid spells as we can spare, but especially on the front-liners and any who will be taking on the jujus.

2) Idky and Maedhros ('Beaver and Yavin too??) can also cast barkskin on a few of the fighters, if they have the spell slots left. It'll give them +1 AC.

3) 'Beaver casts a prayer (not one from the spirits--we want Maedhros' magic missiles benefiting from it too) just before we rush in to attack.

4) As 'Beaver calls up the prayer, Maedhros will use the scroll with fireball and Yavin will lightning breath into the room to soften up the enemies some.

5) Idky will cast faerie fire on the spooks (and any jujus too, if he can manage it) to make them easier to hit.

6) Torr or Lowdog drinks the potion of speed.

7) Francois casts doomblade on Torr's or Lowdog's weapon.

The front-liners and other combatants then rush/fly in . . .

As I see it, here are the front-liners: Torr, Lowdog, and Yavin. With augmentation, we can get Lowdog to a decent AC (prot from evil, barkskin, and 'paint should boost his AC by 4). They'll all have 18/00 strength to enhance their damage and to-hit bonuses. Lowdog and Torr can each take on two spooks, but Yavin can only engage one. So that leaves one loose cannon that could break through. Any thoughts on one of the clerics (Idky maybe?) conjuring up a dust devil before going in and setting it on one of the spooks for a round or two? Would that work?

Ichi and the locals could keep almost all of the jujus busy. If we augment 'Beaver with strength spells and try to somehow improve his AC (protection from evil and barkskin), he could help with the jujus too, using his magic dagger. At the same time, Maedhros will be magic missiling away. Any thoughts on his targets? Spooks or jujus? I'm thinking spooks, because they're the greater danger, and we want them down as fast as possible. Anyone remember if they have magic resistance? Maedhros can also look for a good opportunity to lightning bolt, though that will be unlikely once combat starts. He will also be prepared to down a potion of mass destruction, should it become necessary to use it as a last resort.

Idky, as usual, will be pretty useless in the combat, so he should hold back and be prepared to cure light/aid as necessary. If he is controlling a dust devil early in the fight, he'll send it where it can do the most good, first engaging the loose spook.

One last thought . . . Maedhros can lend his fire robe to one of the fighters. They can activate it just as they go into battle. It won't increase AC, but it'll cause damage to the enemy if they get hit.

Further thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

[David]

GREAT set of ideas, Van! VERY cool and well thought-out! 8-D

Protection from evil in either form gives the person it is cast on +2 and everyone else in the area a +1.

Yavin suggests that 'Beaver cast ward spirit on the area we prepare to launch our attacks from. That way we have time to set around and cast spells instead of being jumped.

If Lowdog wants to drink the potion of speed...

And, you can't wear robes and (most) armor. But for this party, luckily, that really just effects Torr, Lowdog, and 'Beaver.

As I see it, with prayer, barkskin, protection from evil, warpaint, aid, and strength plus Ichi's gloves, Torr and Yavin will be:

Torr: AC -8 with +7 to hit and +10 to damage (with x3/2 attacks, some for x2 dmg)
Yavin: AC -9 (since he will use 'em all!) with +6 to hit and +8 to damage

[Eric]

Great Idea's!

One worry!!! The fireball and lightning breath. the people have been in the room and seen the stone, If the lightning or the fireball touch the stone it will absorb the power and make everything stronger.

What Beaver can do to help is;

-Before we enter I will cast ward spirit so the spooks will not be able to pass first liners to jump the casters.

- I can help with Str spells before hand also.

- Warpaint (if Torr will accept it , Have to try everything once) will be +4 to AC not +2

- I will only be able to fight the Juju's because of the ward spirit but I will.

I think drinking a potion of mass desruction is a really good idea. There are alot of bad guys and they need to go down as quickly as possible.
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I could also cast this on the front line fighters. I would believe that my future wife could also cast them too.

Protection from Spirits -- Ran: touch, Dur: 2 rnds/lvl, Area: person touched, Cast: 1 rnd. This spell prevents contact between
the protected individual and any spirit, including "touch" attacks. Spells, missiles and special attacks by a spirit against a
protected target are at -2 to hit and +2 on saves (c.f. protection from evil).

If it stacks with Prot from Evil then even better but if not this is a 1st for me and 10 foot radius is a forth for you i think. It does take from cure lights but I have seven firsts so useing 3 of them to give better chance is worth it.
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Invisibility to Spirits -- Ran: touch, Dur: turn/lvl, Area: one target, Cast: 1 turn. This spell renders the target undetectable to all
spirits. If the recipient attacks a spirit, the invisibility is broken with regard to that particular spirit; the recipient remains
invisible with regard to other spirits. Attacking a non-spirit does not break this spell.

This could go on Myself, idky, and Ichi before nap. We are the only ones that will not be doing damage to the spooks, so the spell should never break. This will last 90 minutes it is third level so I could get 3 people before the nap, I need to save the rest of thirds for a prayer and (hopfully not) death doors.

[Van]

I had forgotten about the stone absorbing the lightning bolt. However, the bolt was aimed directly at it that one time. Not sure if the fireball's blast would count, since it's an area of effect. And the runestones are usually floating in the air, so Yavin can aim his lightning breath low to miss it. So it probably won't be an issue. <crossing fingers>

One thing to keep in mind about the invisibility to spirits . . . the friendly spirits traveling with us said that as long as they can see 'Beaver they won't succumb to the pull of the runestones. So it may not be a good idea for him to have that cast on him. Protection from spirits certainly, though.

Maedhros is willing to use the potion of mass destruction, but only as a last resort. Once he uses it, he's down and out for the rest of the battle. And even after the battle, he won't be available to provide healing for a while. But if it gets really hairy, he'll do it.

Idky may also keep one third-level spell in reserve as well for a death's door. Good idea! I hadn't thought of that.

If protection from spirits won't stack with the protection from evil, then I say 'Beaver should save his first-levels for healing. Idky doesn't have many other useful fourth-level spells (aside from cure serious), and this would give additional overlapping protection (+2 for the recipient and +1 to everyone within 10 feet). Come to think of it, Idky should probably save a cure serious or two, just in case.

Ichi could probably use Maedhros' robe for the fight. Jujus are resistant (but not immune--half damage, I think) to fire damage, but every little bit helps. They also take half damage from blunt attacks too, as I recall. Bummer. Come to think of it, they're also immune to electricity. We've tried lightning bolting them before. So they're not going to be taking much damage from our initial attack. We need to make sure any who face them are in decent fighting shape.

Here's a question for David: I was thinking about having Maedhros use enlarge on someone, probably Ichi. According to the 2nd edition rules, that would increase him to 170% of his normal size and he would also do 170% of his normal damage. I have a sneaking suspicion you don't handle the damage that way, so I wanted to check. Since we already plan on augmenting Ichi's strength, would enlarging him make any appreciable difference?

[David]

A couple of things...

First, if you do a ward spirits that will also keep your FRIENDLY spirits at bay. Since you're doing a "real" prayer anyway, that's not a big deal, but we need to "leave them" somewhere safe so they don't get sucked up by the runestone's power. Also, while protected by a ward spirits a shaman can't cast any spells above 2nd level (since it's spirits who grant them!)...

Second, protection from evil and protection from spirits most certainly DO stack! They're each unique identifiers, so it's all good.

Finally, I do play as "by the book" as the laws of physics and reason allow! 8-P Since, Maedhros is 7th level, that's +70%. Such a person will do +70% more damage, although this bonus does NOT apply to damage for skill, magic, or strength (none of which change with the spell!). If cast on Ichi, his 2d10 would be nearly like 3d12. If cast on Lowdog, his scimitars would do roughly 2d6 each while Torr's sword would do roughly the same.

Now, what if we stack all of this? Maedhros enlarges either Lowdog or Torr who then drinks a potion of speed and receives a doomblade spell. That's be 2d6 x2 or about 4d6 base damage per hit.

Not that I want my teenage PC aged any more than he already has been, but compared to Lowdog, Torr has a fantastic AC (protection from spirits alone will get him to -10 == 20+ required to hit for nearly anything!). Lowdog wears dragon leathers and has 17 dex, right? So he's like AC 3 or so even with level? With warpaint, prayer, protection from evil, and protection from spirits that will get him to -6. Since we're dealing with SIX spooks, that might make all the difference in the world for staying on one's feet (sure, we each get a "buy" on the first level-draining hit, but after that the attacks will add up FAST).

Now, the counter argument is to NOT put all our "eggs" in one basket and, in addition, Lowdog would benefit from the enlarge with BOTH his weapons, so either way is good.

Thinking about it, we have Torr taking two spooks with his AC -10 (hps aren't much of an issue until we're down to the zombies), Lowdog taking two spooks with his AC -6, Yavin taking one spook (do you want a door-stop or combatant here? I think the zombies aren't half as deadly as the spooks! The gloves would give Yavin adds and the ability to do real damage...!) with his AC -9. A dust devil will only last a round or two and they take three to cast, so someone (Idky?) will probably have to "holdoff" the spook for a bit while the other three handle their foes. Meanwhile, Ichi and anyone else who wants to get into combat will have to deal with the nine zombies...!

François offers to spend the first three rounds continually doomblading Lowdog and Torr (it will only last for 2 hits or 2 rounds, whichever comes first!) and then joining the melee with his flaming scimitar.

Christien will melee, but will only fight the spooks again if there is NO ONE else who can cover them.

Narrissa will use magic missiles (three per spell) to kill spooks.

Dani will have to watch -- he guns won't hurt the spooks or zombies.

Turquoise Rain will cast any spells that Squattingbeaver needs help with.

[Eric]

Dani will have to watch -- he guns won't hurt the spooks or zombies.


I'll have to look and make sure I don't need 2nds for the fight but if not Rain and I could bless about 6-7 bullets of his.

[David]

Hmmm...good idea, Eric.

My only problem is I'm not sure if I like the idea of a shaman calling up spirits to bless a bullet. Since it's a weapon TOTALLY unknown to the spirits and completely alien to the culture, I'm uncertain. Any other thoughts? Is it just me that feels this smacks of post-Modernism?

[Eric]

I do agree with you... BUT (theres always a but) spirits bless many things they know nothing about. A spirit from the stone age does not know about metal weapons but he would still bless the weapon if a shaman asked him to. A spirit from a tribal culture may know nothing about crossbows but would still bless the bolt?

The real question is where do we draw the line?

And the last BUT... Some of the spirits on this world do know what bullets are and would be very happy to bless them if they were being used to help destroy the rune stone that was sucking them into the abyss.
I think the line needs to be drawn in the sand saying that a blessed bullet needs a purpose and a target, unlike the arrows just there waiting for a target. A shaman would not need a target for HIS blessed arrows.

[Van]

Based on what David just said, I think it would be to our benefit to enlarge Torr, Lowdog, Yavin, and Ichi. Maedhros gets 5 1st-level spells normally, but he's also got a 1st-level spell adder and three magic missiles stored in his spell bank. So he'll still have five magic missiles (4 missiles per spell) left to use during the fight. That should be plenty.

The advantage of this is that it will increase the damage our front-liners deal to the spooks and will make Yavin a more effective doorstop. His to-hit probability will be boosted by (hopefully) 18/00 strength, aid, and prayer (that's a total of +5, right?), lowering his THAC0 to 11, so he could actually be a decent combatant as well. It will make Ichi more damaging to the jujus, who will only be taking half-damage from his attacks as it is.

Idky is not the best choice to fight a spook, because his AC is dog crap. But we could possibly boost it with protection from evil, protection from spirits, and warpaint. That will bring it to -1. I'll have to check, but he might be able to use magical vestment on himself to lower his base AC, which could give him a final AC of -4. Not too shabby, I guess. He'll also need to absorb a negative plane protection and a couple strength spells and cast shillelagh (there goes a cure light) on his staff to make him a viable combatant. Oh, and will barkskin work with magical vestment? If so, he could have AC -5. That's a lot of spells to throw on him, but it could be done. He does have one of the higher HPs in the party now, so he could probably go help with the jujus once he takes care of a spook or gets relieved by Torr or Lowdog.

As far as Dani is concerned, Maedhros says: "He's got arms, doesn't he? Give the orc a magic weapon and send him to fight jujus!"

[Eric]

So at this point we agree on,

Torr = prayer, barkskin, protection from evil, protection from spirits, aid, strength, Negitive Plane protection, Enlarge
• Will fight two spooks
• First charge

Yavin= warpaint, prayer, barkskin, protection from evil, protection from spirits, aid, strength, Negitive Plane protection
• Will Block doorway
• Will lightning breath
• Will fight one Spook

Lowdog= warpaint, prayer, barkskin, protection from evil, protection from spirits, aid, strength, Negitive Plane protection, Enlarge
• Will fight two spooks
• First charge

Ichi= prayer, barkskin, protection from evil, aid, strength, Invisibility to spirits, Enlarge
• Will fight three juju’s
• Will hold line of juju charge

Beaver= Warpaint, Prayer, invisibility to spirits
• Will cast ward spirit
• Will cast prayer
• After Spooks are dead will drop ward spirit
• Will help with juju’s after spooks are dead

Idky= warpaint, prayer, invisibility to spirits
• Will play primary healer
• Will cast Aids before we go in

Meadros= prayer
• Will fireball room
• Will try to lightning bolt if possible
• Will cast MM ALOT

Christien= prayer, Negitive plane protection
* Will fight last spook /w Dani

Dani= prayer
* Will fight last spook /w Christien

François=prayer
* Doing doomblades

Narrissa= prayer
* Doing magic missiles

Turquoise Rain= prayer
* Assisting with protections from Spirits.
* Falling in love with Beaver.

[David]

*chuckle*

Torr's would be happy to LEND Dani his magical flaming mace. It's bonus vs undead should MORE than make up for any non-proficiency penalty. And at +4 to damage, it'll make quite a dent in either the spooks' or the juju zombies' hit points.

Torr also suggests either Christien and/or Dani act as the temporary spook-guard instead of Idky. We've got some armor somewhere, don't we? Even if not, they don't cast spells and we could use Idky's magic. Sure, give Christien a negative plane protection so she has a "grace" shot before losing levels (note, no comment about Dani from Torr). But keep our cleric able to do what he does best -- heal and cast supportive spells!

I don't know why I didn't think of it! Englarging both Torr and Lowdog would make BOTH of them do more damage, especially augmented by François' doomblades. Similarly, Ichi will have an easier time with the zombies. Yavin, however, won't gain a lot (+1d6 dmg) and will be harder to transport if (when?) he falls. Over five rounds, he'll probably hit two or three times. Let's say three -- that's +3d6 dmg. A single magic missile would do 4d4+4 with no chance of failure...!

So that's
Towering Torr vs two spooks
Large Lowdog vs two spooks
Yawning Yavin vs one spook
Christien and Dani vs one spook (until Torr or Lowdog can get clear to help 'em)
plus
Enormous Ichi vs three juju zombies (he'll need to split his attacks to keep the undead on him and not attacking the other spook-fighters)
and
Maedhros doing magic missiles
François doing doomblades
Narrissa doing magic missiles

Does this mean that Idky, 'Beaver, and Turquoise Rain will try to take the six remaining juju zombies? Do we have enough magical weapons? After a couple of rounds, François should be able to join with his flaming scimitar, so one of 'em can fall back and start casting other spells. Once Torr or Lowdog takes on the last spook, Christien and Dani will be free to help against the juju zombies too. And a dust devil could still be used to keep juju zombies busy for a couple of rounds.

Quite frankly, I don't think we need to worry too much about hit points -- it's a spook's fantastic ability to drain levels that's the real problem!

[Eric]

Beaver says "narissa since you can cast magic missiles you must be a wizard, can you stone skin? Ive seen other wizards do it. I think only elfs can't cause Meadhros can't".


Just FYI I will try my best to show up on time but I have a meeting at the hall at 6. I will sneak out early but all the officers are gone to our national convention right now so i'm acting vice president and have to be around more then normal. Worst case half hour late.

[Van]

Eric: I just want to make sure that we all know that the game is moving back to Wednesday now. I'm sure you remember that, but I just wanted to make sure.

Everyone: I may actually be there a bit late this Wednesday. It depends on how long it takes me to finish my linguistics exam. Based on how the midterm went, I'm guessing I'll be done in a half hour. If I'm not there on time, I'm fine with just finalizing our plan of attack based on what we've been discussing here and just engaging. I'll get filled in when I arrive.


Van

[Van]

You know, here's an idea . . .

If we're going to have 'Beaver cast ward spirits on our "prep area" anyway, why not do the battle in two parts? After we've prepped, Maedhros and Yavin fireball and lightning breath as planned. That should get the jujus to rush out to engage us, but the spooks won't/can't. We finish off the jujus, do our final preparations to take on the spooks, then we run in to finish them off based on our other plan.

I like this idea, because it addresses the problem of having the jujus overwhelm our second fighting line, since we won't have enough other fighters to engage all of them if we have to take care of spooks at the same time. And then we can buff enough additional folks to help handle the spooks once the jujus are taken care of.

Can we ask the locals what they think of that? First, is there an area directly outside the runestone room where we could fight such a battle? And second, will the jujus leave the runestone room, or are they like the spooks and bound to it?