Over the next days we're hoping Old Man Winter and Grandfather Death don't dump snow before we have become ensconced where we're playing. Assuming we can get there and get to dyin', we may finally have a long, LONG overdue Obits post!
w00t!!
Grandfather Death attempted to off us on the roadways, but we made our successive series of Driving checks to return to our abodes alive and (more or less) well.
Following the tug of the 6th Sihedron Shard, the Candybar Brigade made their way down to E1, crossing "the threshold" into 15th leveldom. The late morning hours came and went, pizza was nomm'd and they finally were ready to rumble about 12:30 p.m.
Crumble's Skill Mastery of Perception and Disable Device easily took care of the DC 32 magic trap and the DC 40 lock blocking entry into E2.
The Flying Polyp, amazingly enough, managed to deal a smidge of damage with its wind blast before Snickers' adamantine no-dachi combined with Abba Zabba's and Kit Kat's fiery magic to swiftly obliterate the critter.
Turning their attention to the doors leading into E3, I played a few audio cues: "Leonard" with some "big worm bellowing/snorting" noises.
They prepared for kicking dragon butt, buffing fairly heartily. Amazingly enough, they didn't take their usual approach of using their scouting gloves to get a gander of the room before throwing open the door.
The tooth-jarring vibrations of the Abysium Reactor in E5 was VERY pronounced here. Bearing right they threw open the door, eating a radiation pulse (but sadly everyone made their saves). Their first reaction was for Abba Zabba to lob his now-2/day firestorm of burning death atop the reactor. When they reopened it they ate another radiation pulse, easily made the saves again. Kit Kat then promptly disintegrated the reactor, with the sonic damage the only element of concern.
The occupant of the enormous pit at the center of E3 roared its displeasure at being so rudely disturbed. Rearing its massive bulk from the fog-shrouded bowels of the pit the mighty Dhole loomed upwards into the room and barfed its slime upon Snickers and Viole(n)t Crumble.
Crumble's player had never previously seen a Colossal miniature before, having only recently first viewed a Gargantuan miniature a session or two past. Her reaction was truly priceless. I'd had it in a barely large enough reusable grocery bag with a wool blanket folded and covering the top tucked just under the mat table. When I clicked the 'monster roar' audio bite, I said " the explosion disturbs the occupant of the pit ", then dropped the mighty "Big Red" Colossal dragon miniature onto the table.
Damned fly spells.
Kit Kat burned a Hero Point to squeak past the monster's fairly formidable frightful presence. The rest either didn't care courtesy of greater heroism or handily succeeded on their Will saves.
In the end Abba Zabba burned a Hero Point to save Snickers' bacon from certain death when he had just been nomm'd by an attack of opportunity bite from the Dhole, which had additionally been successful in its resultant grab, preparing to swallow the Fighter whole.
Zabba's anti-life shell put paid the the Dhole's attempts to eat anyone, while Kit Kat's hungry darkness was itself nomming precious Constitution points off the beast, forcing it to beat a very hasty retreat out of the excruciating darkness.
I was quite disappointed that the Dhole didn't even get an actual attack sequence in with its Greater Vital Strike bite!
They waited to confirm that the hungry darkness had indeed been successful in driving off the dhole. Which gave Mesmalatu an overabundance of time to buff up, having been so rudely awoken from her torpor by the explosion released by the disintegrated Abysium Reactor.
Afterwards, she glided out into E3 from her lair to greet the Candybar Brigade.
Not for a lack of trying did she fail to kill anyone. Two direct attempts to swallow Abba Zabba's soul - the second of which he burned a Hero Point in advance of the die roll to nearly guarantee success (failing only on a 1 or 2). Sadly, the lovely "4" was sufficient to thwart swallowing his soul.
Having failed to generate a sufficiently high Knowledge (religion) total this time around, they left her remains where they were, did a "loot sweep and clear" of the remaining rooms before they bamf'd back to town to sell loot, do some training, blah de blah de blah for a week's time.
The Turinized Mesmalatu has a rejuvenation period of 1d6 hours, not 2d6 days. She rejuvenated within 2 hours, assumed that Our Heroes had gone onwards, resulting in her relocating to her phylactery in F7 to sooth her bruised ego and settle into a much more peaceful torpor after confirming that, as far as she could determine, they had been either eaten by the ghouls in F3 or dropped to their deaths from high altitudes by the platoons of nightgaunts.
The Candybars once more menaced the dungeon with their affrontery - as they had made liberal use of reduce item to abscond with the "spare adamantine doors conveniently lying around the place" when they returned to town for the week.
Now much poorer, but much nastier with Abba Zabba having placed a deposit for his own +5 tome of leadership and influence whilst Kit Kat read hers. Note: Kit Kat now has a 31 Charisma that will advance to 32 at 16th level with a headband improvement slated to bump that up all the way to a 34. Yikes!
Our Heroes returned, with Snickers having finally acquired a long overdue +5 impervious adamantine no-dachi as his primary weapon.
Arriving in F1, a chain lightning from Kit Kat, a volley of sneak attack flaming arrows from Viole(n)t Crumbles' shortbow of mini-gun-ness and a Cleave featuring double-natural-20s the group annihilated the 16 nightgaunts in a matter of seconds.
The ghouls in F3 didn't fair any better despite being immeasurably tougher due to having nat-1'd their initiative rolls, eating two fireballs and two flame strikes. Result: a whole bunch of crispified super-ghouls that didn't get a word in edgewise.
After giving the abbattoir of F4 a once over, they passed on heading west into F8, instead paying attention to the intersection of F5. As they entered this hallway they heard the bone chimes stirring in the air. They traipsed down the hallway four abreast, saw the quintet of advanced gugs and their advanced gug savant, got nibbled on a teensy smidge by an unholy blight - and went into action.
Snickers stepped into blocking position via Lunge and hacked one of the gugs into the prone position, sorely wounded from the truly hideous amounts of damage that a Two-Handed Weapon Fighter (i.e., using the archetype) can do. In addition to eating a confirmed critical, Gug #1 was blinded permanently *and* had been knocked onto its keister by a margin of greater than 10 over its CMD. A bad day for it.
Viole(n)t Crumble, figuring "the boys got this", went to the western wall of F5 and read aloud the writing in Aklo upon the wall. *Schlorp*, off into F7 she went, alone with Mesmalatu and her now-awakened pet Leng Spider above.
Violent's initiative count was 4 lower than Mesmalatu's. She needed a natural 15 to survive the Turinized Mesmalatu's devour soul attack, which she failed by a margin of 10. *Schlorrp!!*
Abba Zabba's status told him that she was 50 feet due west before her end of the spell very suddenly ceased to function. He dumped his first " firestorm of hideous screaming death" into the gugs' dead-end cavern before moving into position.
Kit Kat sealed the gugs into the fiery cave of horrible death that their lair had just become via wall of stone before assuming center position. Snickers positioned to Kit Kat's left, then Kit Kat dimension door'd the trio exactly fifty feet due west into Mesmalatu's phylactery chamber (F7).
The poor gugs all died, although the gug savant had just managed to breach sufficient wall space before he too succumbed to the ravenous fires of Sarenrae's most rabid undead incinerating follower in the local region.
Kit Kat was clobbered by the Leng Spider's "web-stone flail" twice and bitten, although she never rolled less than a 30 Fortitude saving throw against the poison thanks to her (Charisma bonus on saves spell that I can't recall at the moment) spell. Snickers one-rounded the Leng Spider with 4 hits - 3 of which were confirmed critical hits. He bisected the poor thing, drenching them all in spider guts.
Ew.
Mesmalatu, having only just raised her shield of faith during the one round of time that she had before the other three characters bamf'd into her lair, was not nearly as fully buffed as she was accustomed to. She put up a heck of a fight, eating through two full sets of deadly fire seed holly berries, numerous thwacks by adamantine no-dachis and a barrage of boneshatters whilst she did her level best to grease them all by way of two cold ice strikes, a blasphemy that all three of them shrugged off and a hungry darkness that lasted a single round before Abba Zabba blasted it out of existence via sunbeam.
Mesmalatu, reeling, let loose with a furious wall of the banshee. Abba Zabba passed the save without issue, as it Kit Kat. Amazingly enough, Snickers failed his Fortitude save by 5, eating 200 points of death attack damage that Zabba's accursed shield other absorbed half off or there'd have been two deaths claimed today.
Sadly, Mesmalatu's nat-1 of the day was her last as Zabba's second (and last) "suicide vest" of holly berries was detonated, putting her at more than 400 total damage taken in their second encounter with her of the day. They quickly discerned the method of dispatching her - and took full advantage of Kit Kat's blood money and limted wish spells to make permanent the awakened demilich's long overdue trek to the Boneyard.
Using the pertinent tooth gem, the previously looted scroll of resurrection they returned Viole(n)t Crumble once more to the living with all of her stuff.
A long day, 9 hours of session with perhaps 6 hours of realized play time. Well worth it.
The next session will conclude Chapter 5 as Our Heroes throw down with the possessor of the seventh and final sihedron shard - and a twist of my own to the process in all likelihood.
Spectacular! Sounds like great fun and scarily competent PCs :-)
Given a bit of buff time, they will be able to throw down with a kaiju or spawn of Rovagug in short order.
Resist Energy 30, Communal combined with rings of evasion and scary-high save bonuses means that Snickers and Abba Zabba don't find any Reflex DC of 30 or less to be of significant consequence. Slather on Communal Protection from Energy and whatever energy attacks they're prepared for are utterly meaningless for almost any encounter.
If they ever eat a disjunction, they're actually in for a real fight.
"January" 4713 A.R., Into the Nightmare Rift
However, the upside is that "Level E" awaits Our Heroes! Lovecraftian monstrosities galore, including the first reveal of Big Red, my Colossal Red Dragon miniature, which shall be standing in for the Bhole in E3. I fully expect them to reach this room during the next session.
When the next session will be is to be determined as D.C. winters are the nastiest in February.
Will the Candybars at last be eaten? Or will they continue to brutalize, loot, pillage and plunder as they have all before them...
I 'fondly' remember the headaches of running multiple high level PCs. Your group is what 15th level?, and a Colossal Red is a CR 20+. Sounds 'slightly' challenging for the APL. I'm all for it. "Hardship builds character"... Take no prisoners, Turin :D
Wow thanks for the write up!
K-GM, the Colossal Red miniature was used to depict a dhole. I have a few thoughts as regards the dragon they are about to face.
I'm thinking of a certain template I used for a blind sewer dwelling prophetic behir I had done up for the Council of Thieves/Kingmaker mash-up campaign a few years back.
Think "phase creature"... <weg>
By all means, Sir Ham of Ster. The little ones do eat up a whole lot of time, it seems. :)
Wow thanks for the write up!
You're more than welcome, Ghufufin. One wonders if anyone reads these things from time to time.
Then again, sometimes Life Happens. ;)
Today's session very nearly saw Viole(n)t Crumble die again.
I elected to change things up, courtesy of the moon-beasts' 100 yard range telepathy while the Candybar Brigade was spending a good 12 minutes buffing and, disgustingly enough, the devout Fire Oracle of Sarenrae called, via greater planar ally scroll, the Holy Sunlord Thalachos.
In response, Cadrilkasta, lounging around in the luxurious accommodations of F9 bade her Moon-Beasts fast-feed the bound ghouls dangling about the shoggoth vat into the slop to finish the ritual in a hurry.
Needless to say, I couldn't resist going all Kali-Ma! Kali-Ma! Kali-Ma! Shakti-dey! ... mullarum ... mullarum ... sudorum ... via the Moon-Beasts' Aklo-based telepathy.
Our Heroes persisted in their buffing/calling, so Our Villains got themselves a fully obedient shoggoth to play with.
Bathing themselves with their own slathering of buff spells, they also basked in the glory of the herald's holy aura and at-will aid spell-like abilities.
The door opened and in they went, initiatives were rolled ... and the first one on deck was the shoggoth, slithering down the stairs to utter its maddening cacophony.
Nada. zip, zilch, not a failed save. *le sigh*
The moon-beasts' tactics are utterly ineffectual - not a surprise that puny CR 11 critters are attempting to do much of anything against an APL 19 killing machine.
" Boss, we need a new plan. "
The sorceress proceeded to light the shoggoth up with a Vital Strike DC 26 disintegrate, against which it failed its Fortitude save - and survived despite suffering over 200 points of damage from the phaser spell.
Caldrikasta, still lounging at the top of the stairs under her greater invisibility, yawned, stretched forth a claw and attempted to reciprocate the favor against Snickers with her own Improved Vital Strike DC 27 disintegrate against which he most unfortunately rolled sufficiently high to not suck on the business end of 96d6 worth of disintegration, instead of the mere 15d6. More's the pity.
Some stuff happened, including the aforementioned Herald being powerglomped (engulfed) by the Shoggoth for provoking a movement-derived AoO that resulted in a slowly digesting Herald.
On its turn the shoggoth trampled the entire party, easily moving through the 10-foot corridor they were mostly hiding in. Snickers took his AoO and ignored the engulfment via Abba Zabba's freedom of movement while Violet Crumble *and* Abba Zabba both evaded being trampled. Only Kit Kat suffered the malevolent fate of being trampled and promptly engulfed.
Shortly afterwards Violet joined them in the belly of the shoggoth.
Glorious.
After a bomb-stick that dealt all of 10 points of fire damage to the shoggoth, Snickers ran in and laid the smacketh down, putting the shoggoth to within 4 hp of death. Upon extrication, Kit Kat whipped out her lesser metamagic rod of quicken, riddled the twitching shoggoth with a volley of magic missiles that put it down before dimension door'ing out to F1 for a 5-round re-buff and heal-fest, thence to *bamf* back in for 'round 2'.
Once more " Kali-Ma! Kali-Ma! " echoed about the enormous vat whilst the dragon lounged in the big western alcove. Freaking out about the prospect of dealing with another party-nomming shoggoth, blade and fire started putting down the moon-beasts in short order, including a blade barrier from that accursed Herald.
Cadrilkasta casually waved a clawed appendage, dismissing the Herald - and with it its holy aura.
Her frightful presence was ineffective, as usual.
A combination of her storm breath (free action breath weapon shots on single targets every round), her own actual breath weapon, assorted quickened spells of her own - including judicious use of dispel magic to dismember their electricity protection/resistances and her naturally high AC kept the PCs from getting any damage into her until the 3rd round, when a true strike-guided sneak attack arrow from Violent Crumble, wearing her gawdsawful snipers' goggles claimed the first bit of damage the party dealt to the blue wyrm.
She endeavored to return the favor in spades of course.
The "we might be in trouble, again" moment for the players came when, overconfident of his abilities, Snickers flew into melee proximity of the wyrm and hacked it. After her first round of bite/claw/tail/wing/wing, she realized that the big bugger was warded by a shield other. On this round she dispelled his resistance to electricity.
Subsequently, her choice was to start off with a quickened dispel magic to strip the shield other, then confirmed a bite critical and sank all four subsequent attacks into him, tearing his guts out and plummeting his corpse to the floor 25' below her. She was liberally applying her free action storm breath to blow down the characters' protection from electricity after she'd dispel'd their communal resist electricity.
It took both Kit Kat and Abba Zabba acting to save the at-zero-Hero-Points Fighter from an expensive demise, delivering a 45 point breath of life and a 150-hp heal.
The rogue delivered her second true strike-guided sneak attack arrow - nothing else she has can easily pierce the mighty worm's AC. This shot she anointed with a dose of drow sleep poison.
Which, as such things are wont to do, reminded the Oracle of a " we are going to die! " package he'd put together at about 8th or 9th level. A 12-dose package of alchemist-altered drow sleep poison that had been altered ... into an INHALED POISON.
Despite a confirmed critical hit bite on her provoked AoO, Kit Kat, suffering 86 hp for her trouble, skedaddled out of the danger zone with a scant 20 remaining hit points. The fighter, now out of her reach, likewise beat a hasty retreat.
Then Abba Zabba popped ' the package ' (benefiting from an extended delay poison, long a part of his daily routine) in the dragon's face *after* the sorceress fired up a limited wish to penalize the dragon's next saving throw by -7. Mind you at this point that the sorceress had 20 hp, the fighter had already 'died' and was only recently restored to 150 hp which would not long survive against the dragon's hideously nasty power attacks and the Oracle himself was a bit below half hp. The dragon had suffered a whopping total ... of 151 hp, considerably below her "blooded" (half hp) threshold.
*POW!!* The massive cloud of inhaled poison packed an effective DC of nat-20-only (13 +24 additional doses +7 limited wish penalty = DC 44). Needless to say, she didn't roll a natural 20. So the Oracle coup-de-grace'd her with the heavy pick he's been carrying around since 1st level.
Glorious! Or cheesy. Either way, a hell of an end to a slobberknocker of a game session.
Our Heroes returned to Magnimar with the final Sihedron Shard. They would inform whatsherface when they're ready to assemble the Sihedron itself.
Not today.
That's their job. It's when the sorcerer/wizards get involved with blood money and limited wish that it gets even tougher. ;)
I don't believe it.
I'm... I'm actually learning more dirty tricks from the players than from Turin.
Still, one hell of a fight, Turin. Hopefully the next wyrm will get to eat Candybar.
Well, I *am* outnumbered, Talking Skull. And my players are 'elite veterans' by this point. Abba Zabba's been a co-player or player with me for nearly 15 years. Kit Kat has been a player since my Savage Tide campaign. Snickers is very savvy and Viole(n)t Crumble is ... unique. She sees things differently even from Kit Kat.
Wyrms are not in the immediate future. I have finished something of a synopsis for Chapter 7. <grin> There'll be two wyrms therein.
Nice fight, but dragons are immune to sleep.
Magical sleep. Not poison-induced sleep.
from an FAQ circa 2010:
Question: Dragons are immune to sleep and paralysis effects. Does this include “unconsciousness” effects, such as from drow poison or a color spray spell?
Answer: No. Both sleep and paralysis effects create specific conditions defined in the rules (although the “sleeping” condition created by most sleep effects is typically defined in the effect, rather than the glossary). Unconsciousness is an entirely different condition, and dragons are not immune to becoming unconscious.
So my original reading for the session of the dragon type's immunity to magical sleep stands. Sucks for the dragon. We even paused the game to look it up first.
Great write up as always Turin! Sounds like an exciting fight!
Can you explain how you can Vital Strike with Disentigrate? I thought it took a standard to cast and a standard to Vital Strike.
The way our rules lawyers read it, it works fine with any single attack that doesn't take a full round and only has a single target.
Arcane Blast, disintegrate, havada kadavra , etc.
Interesting. As always Turin I pick up some devious new idea from your group. Thanks.
Interesting. As always Turin I pick up some devious new idea from your group. Thanks.
Glad to be of help. Whom is on the receiving end, your players or your GM(s)? :D
GM is the case here. I just dropped that bomb recently and I wish I recorded the reaction. Shocked silence followed by bugged out eyes and an immediate demand from a plauer for a housrule. I am not playing an arcane caster so I just chuckled.
GM is the case here. I just dropped that bomb recently and I wish I recorded the reaction. Shocked silence followed by bugged out eyes and an immediate demand from a plauer for a houserule. I am not playing an arcane caster so I just chuckled.
Awesome.
One of the downsides is that the attack is still benefiting from the feat(s) if someone raises a spell turning. ;)
We're slated to play again this upcoming Sunday the 12th, kicking off Chapter 6 with a bang, so to speak.
1st Rova, 4713 A.R.
Reforging Festival Day
The Sihedron Squad, aka the Candybar Brigade, took full advantage of six months' downtime to train their hit points to maximum, commission assorted magical items and party.
During the discussions with the Sihedron Council the previous day, they dropped a DC 42 Diplomacy check on Lord-Mayor Douchebaggious to push the onlookers' distance out another 50 feet. Which helped quite a bit. Said Sihedron Heroes quickly put paid to any foolish notions about the Sihedron being used by anyone other than those that shed blood, sweat, tears and a few lives to retrieve and reassemble the Ioun Macguffin. While disappointed, not even the second-to-top shelf representatives of the Pathfinder Society nor Lord-Mayor Douchebaggious were getting their grubby paws on the Sihedron.
Thousands thronged throughout the city, with the choicest view of the Ritual being viewed by the VIPs and Magnimar's upper crust, catered by one of the best chefs de cuisine in all of Avistan and Garund, a lava gnome by the name of Devril Machbelustre. While rather withered in appearance, based on the generally vibrant colorations of skin and hair, he leads a happy life with his forest gnome wifeling and seven children, all attending and contributing to the festivities.
Balloons floating overhead are sporting the banners of the major players of the noble houses of Magnimar, along with the Pathfinder Society and the Golemworks.
A combination of city guards, noble retinues and Violet's "babblefish" (the grodair they rescued in Chapter 3) keeps the masses largely in check. The babblefish is spectacularly popular with children, winding up with a throng of several hundred kids entertained by a creature that nearly embodies 'short attention span syndrome'.
Amidst the roped-off area some 50 paces across a wooden stage squats, supporting the mass of the Reforging Altar and the seven people that would complete the ritual.
Mayor Douchebaggious blathered on about himself and how much of a driving force he was in the Sihedron Heroes' acquisition of the Shattered Star, blah de blah de blah, at the beginning speechifying of the Reforging Festival.
Once the knucklehead finishes blathering to a fair bit of corrective heckling by the Sihedron Squad and a few of the other NPCs, Sheila Heidmarch takes the stage. She tells a far more accurate portrayal of the Candybar's efforts and losses in the hectic quest to collect the Shattered Star, including having crushed the Yellow Sign performers that had become such a drastic nuisance in the twilit district beneath the very Irespan all those gathered are atop of.
Aram Zay (Master of Spells - Pathfinder Society), Jyronn Imikar (head of Magnimar's temple of Abadar), Bevaluu Zimantiu (caretaker of Magnimar's shrine to Desna), Kreighton Shane (Master of Scrolls - Pathfinder Society), Leis Nivlandis (Stone Seer Master - Pathfinder Society), Toth Breacher (founder of Magnimar's Golemworks and the only council member on par with the Candybar Brigade) and Kiara Arvanxi (half-elf white-haired bonded {wand} witch 13th, recently married and with child) ascend the platform and take their positions about the shrine, Shards in hand.
In a clearly well-rehearsed ritual, they simultaneously place the shards into the shrine and as one pour the entirety of their spells for the day into the shrine. With each pulse of magical power, a prismatic glow emanates from the shrine accompanied by a droning susurrus. With each pulse of seven spells the light brightens and the drone thrums louder. An hour passes as the lights and buzzing become painfully brilliant and near-deafeningly loud.
Suddenly, with a gasp from the crowd, guards, guests and pickpockets, an actinic rainbow lances straight up into the sky with a glass-shattering thunderclap that roils and echoes for miles about. The masses roar their approval and applause.
Sheila Heidmarch begins to whisper to Kit Kat, "That went about as well as... " when the western horizon rapidly darkens. Moments later the Irepsan itself rumbles and shakes, aeons-old facades and crumbling edges begin to crumble, flake and plummet 20 stories to the waters below. The crowd murmurs and backs a few paces fearful of something that has never happened during the entirely of Magnimar's known history: the Irespan is shaking in the early throes of an earthquake.
Seconds later a cottage-sized shriezyx bursts forth from its dormant slumber only a bit more than foot beneath the top of the Irespan. Shrieking in rage, and winning initiative, the Turnized-lite monstrosity made full use of its Great Cleave feat to hew down 36 innocent bystanders in a spray of appendages, blood, entrails and the screams of the slain. Only Devril Machbelustre survives the ordeal (having survived the blow), caked from head to tubby toes in his wife and childrens' assorted bits and pieces. Screaming as his mind reels with the horror before him he attempts to scoop up the mangled chunks of loved ones. The lava gnome had been happily retired...
Our Heroes, having slathered themselves in assorted long-duration abjurations and "buff" spells (including a series of 'minutes'-long spells when Sheila gave the signal that the ritual would soon be concluding), spring into action. Kit Kat triggers her contingent nereid's grace with but a word, recognizes just one fact about the beast: Kill It With Fire - then hastes herself, her allies and all of the Council NPCs *except* Lord-Mayor Douchebaggious. Screw him, he can get eaten alive feet first.
Snickers moves up, the shriezyx nat-1'd its attack of opportunity while Snickers nat-1'd his own charge attack against it. Violet Crumble, her Knowledge check informing her that this monstrosity probably has tremorsense to 20 paces, uses her newly-made staff to fly 15 paces straight up so that she can perforate it mightily.
Abba Zabba drops a quickened fireball and a flame strike onto the ginormous shriezyx before Kit Kat follows that barrage up with a quickened fireball of her own.
Shrieking in agony and fear, the frightened critter burrows through the Irespan, halting when it reaches the belly of the bridge some twenty yards below.
In true Reckless Fighter Guy fashion Snickers performs a falling 'charge attack from higher ground' on the beast and confirms the critical hit that put it to 90 negative hp. He makes the Reflex save to catch himself at the bottom of the tunnel by his fingertips while the halves of monster kersploosh into the water 200 feet below along with all of its insides.
Throwing a Knowledge (nature) check of 41 unassisted, Kit Kat immediately recognizes what that sudden cloudy darkening of the western horizon means: a volcanic eruption not too far out to sea. Our Heroes take dramatic advantage of the 14 1/2 minutes' time available to them, using the scroll of miracle from Chapter 5 to beseech Sarenrae for aid in this dire moment on behalf of the hapless sheeple citizens at the moment that the tidal wave attains its highest crest. The previous minutes they pooled their Fame and Prestige into coordinating an evacuation away from the shoreline, getting EVERYONE coordinated in the effort to save as many lives as possible. The threatened area of the city is effectively evacuated tens of seconds before the crest threatens to crush half of the city's population into water zombies.
A beam of pure sunlight reaches down from the heavens, touching the Irespan. As the beam descends completely into the stonework, a silent, golden pulse of reassuring warmth washes outward. As the first wave sucks the remaining water from the harborage the golden
warmth forms a protective barrier that encloses the entire city in a warm dome of golden light. The tsunami waves batter ineffectually against the barrier, stronger than even the mightiest mortal's wall of force.
The tsunami recedes and the waters return into the harbor, carrying with them mechanical wreckage and an oily sheen reminiscent of far too much lamp oil atop the water's surface to be safe. As the NPCs split off into groups to patrol the shoreline before giving the word that the waterfrontage is safe for citizens' return, our Heroes are tasked with returning to inspect the Irespan.
An hour passes when they notice a near-hurricane form about the vicinity of the Irespan. A horror of ancient myth emerges, her brown hair concealing her torso in strategic places while the snarling ring of wolves' heads snap and sniff the air. Tentacles carry the aberration ashore in the lashing surf, reminiscent of those of a cephalopod.
Violet Crumble riddled her crappy flat-footed AC with three iron-pointed bits of feathered wood, putting the scylla to "bloodied". Snickers ran adjacent to her. Abba Zabba double-moved to destruction firing range. 'Sorshen' (Kit Kat) moves up after dispelling the magically controlled weather.
Then the monster recognizes 'Sorshen', bows and apologizes for bringing potential ruin upon the Irespan in Thassilonian. Kit Kat fails the opposed Bluff vs. Sense Motive check, speaking in really funnily accented Thassilonian. The equivalent of a 21st century 'Murican attempting to speak Latin to an actual Roman Senator.
"What witchery is this?! Xin's bauble will be the death of us all!!"
The scylla nibbles on Snickers for 40 points (split between himself and Abba Zabba courtesy of shield other) before Snickers lops her heads clean off. They loot the corpse of valuables and return to Heidmarch Manor to close out the day and hear about what everyone else had to deal with.
There they discover that poor Kiara Arvanxi had been chowpounced and torn into two, then digested in the fiery bowels of a trio of mechanical horrors that swam ashore amidst one of the mid-level NPC patrols. They return to the Manor with the one bit of her that wasn't eaten in the horrible battle.
Kiara's husband runs into the tent, understandably distraught at the news of his wife's heroic death.
Borrowing Kit Kat's ring of inner fortitude, Abba Zabba uses blood money to perform a resurrection on Kiara Arvanxi's remaining bits, reassembling her Fifth Element style. Fittingly, they'd only found her hand grasping her beloved bonded wand. He collapses at zero Strength, although the plethora of 3rd - 10th level casters in the immediate area fairly quickly got him back on his feet none the worse for the wear.
The Sihedron Squad advances to 16th level; are awarded with their individualized wayfinders of infinite doorways; gain some pertinent information from Mr. Golemworks and have both direct bearing and estimated distance (20 miles) to the newly-risen Isle of Xin. They will rest the night, then depart Magnimar having graced themselves with as many benefits of the Twelve Monuments as they can gather in order to attempt to maximize the advantages they bestow for 24 hours.
Next session is slated for 2nd May 2015.
Our best guesstimate is that hero points have thwarted at least 2 TPKs at ~12 avoided messy demises. Even so the death tally stands as follows:
- Abba Zabba - none, which is a situation that must be rectified;
- Kit Kat 2;
- Snickers 3;
- Viole(n)t Crumble 1;
- and Ritter with 2, though he hasn't been present since Chapter 4.
Since some numbskull allowed the Divine Protection feat to see print, Abba Zabba is really really hard to get rid of. At least he doesn't have Stalwart. His ring of evasion is bad enough.
It'll be interesting to see how they handle things on the Isle of Xin.
Oohhhh....
Groovy.
I miss high level play.
Good thing I'm sitting in at a level 20 Way of the Wicked game tomorrow. With a drow noble Fighter 10/Duelist 10.
Shenanigans will ensue, I am sure.
Noice. Congratulations on hitting 20th! I look forward to hearing/reading about said shenanigans. :D
|
Not sure congratulations are in order for me...sitting in with a PC for the end of the campaign (and bon voyage for one of our crew), but thanks.
Highlights included:
Dodging a high 30s touch polar ray from one of the final spellcaster npcs (dodge ac with combat expertise was about 44-46, iirc)
Stabbing several NPCS to death via rapier, including an "eye patch for you" triple damage crit card on one that already had just one eye.
Melee'ing a solar with near impunity (granted he tore into the alchemist more than I but still would have a hard time putting serious hurt on my pc)
Most important: having a lvl 20 pc whose only "spell" was a single divine favor 1/day, and use winged boots.
Stabbing things just make for a more streamlined and fun PC, I'm finding.
Now to twin out a single-hit high damage fighter type...perhaps a titan mauled two-handed fighter with all the vital strike deats?
Not sure congratulations are in order for me...sitting in with a PC for the end of the campaign (and bon voyage for one of our crew), but thanks.
Highlights included:
Dodging a high 30s touch polar ray from one of the final spellcaster npcs (dodge ac with combat expertise was about 44-46, iirc)
Stabbing several NPCS to death via rapier, including an "eye patch for you" triple damage crit card on one that already had just one eye.
Melee'ing a solar with near impunity (granted he tore into the alchemist more than I but still would have a hard time putting serious hurt on my pc)
Most important: having a lvl 20 pc whose only "spell" was a single divine favor 1/day, and use winged boots.
Stabbing things just make for a more streamlined and fun PC, I'm finding.
Now to twin out a single-hit high damage fighter type...perhaps a titan mauled two-handed fighter with all the vital strike feats?
Stabbity death dealing is refreshingly simpler after years of GMing and/or playing spell lobbers. Even simpler than riddling one's foes with arrows.
Did you mean "twink out" or " twin out" ? ;)
The Vital Strike feat chain is crucial to "smash 'em with one blow" builds - just ask Gargadros. Well, my version of him at any rate.
Perhaps Barbarian (Titan Mauler) 6 (to wave around a hammer of thunderbolts in a Giantslayer game perhaps?) before multiclassing over into Two-Handed Weapon Fighter? The Mutation Warrior archetype may serve your purpose better from sheer, insane Strength when you've downed your latest dose of Hyde Beer.
Highlights included:
Dodging a high 30s touch polar ray from one of the final spellcaster npcs (dodge ac with combat expertise was about 44-46, iirc)
Stabbing several NPCS to death via rapier, including an "eye patch for you" triple damage crit card on one that already had just one eye.
Melee'ing a solar with near impunity (granted he tore into the alchemist more than I but still would have a hard time putting serious hurt on my pc)
snrk hehehehehehehehehe. Nice!
Now to twin out a single-hit high damage fighter type...perhaps a titan mauled two-handed fighter with all the vital strike deats?
That's certainly an effective build. I would also ask you consider the Titan Mauler Barbarian, but mostly for Furious Finish. Nasty spike damage, and the fatigue can be a small price to pay, depending on your feats and equipiment.
Take that "ignore 1 thingie that makes me fatigued or exhausted/day " human racial trait and you can smear all kinds of bad guys in a right hurry.
*Splortch!*
NEXT!!!
O.O <-- googley-eyed foes.
Take that "ignore 1 thingie that makes me fatigued or exhausted/day " human racial trait and you can smear all kinds of bad guys in a right hurry.
*Splortch!*
NEXT!!!
O.O <-- googley-eyed foes.
Gets worse with a wayfinder with a pale green prim Ioun stone inside. Then it becomes 3/day, to better facilitate smearing bigger, meatier baddies.
28k or 30k plus the wayfinder. Worth every copper.
Speaking of madness, mayhem and copious amounts of the old ultraviolence, the Sihedron Squad will be laying the smack down upon countless hordes of clockworks this coming Saturday.
Will they prevail as usual, or will they make a basic survival mistake given what they've learned and die from asphyxia? ;)
Doubtful, very doubtful. I'm confident that between Kit Kat's Starsoul bloodline and the rest of them having acquired necklaces of adaptation during the preceding 15 levels, the gases will not bother them.
On the other paw, I wonder just how well prepared they are with large scale electricity-based destruction? Hrmmmm ....
<grin>
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2nd Rova, 4713 A.R.
The Sihedron Squad paid Jyronn Imikar 780 gp to wind walk them to the volcanic island 100 miles out to sea after slathering a life bubble on Snickers and Abba Zabba courtesy of Kit Kat's custom unlimited use mnemonic vestment and spell books stashed in her handy haversack. Other assorted defensive spells were deployed of sufficient duration to last longer than the 2 hour trip.
They were deposited at the southeastern end of the main body of surfaced land. Choking hot smoke, rivers of lava and distressingly thick ashfall covered the island. Only Abba Zabba's gaze of flames penetrated more than 5 feet through the obfuscation. If it wasn't for the life bubbles and fire resistances, several party members would have had to contend with asphyxiation from the choking smoke. The burned Oracle of Flames guids the group to the blackened crystalline remnants of Xin's looming palace.
100 feet from the sealed archway they find a trio of half incinerated somewhat dessicated aboleth carcasses simmering in the rippling heat that surrounds them. Crumble slices off several aboleth steaks - seasoning, cooking and eating one of these steaks on the spot - and scoops some of the ichor into a jar for later 'examination'.
After attempts to knock, ask the door to open and other shenanigans, they resort to the old fashioned ways of getting a door to open: disintegrating the layer of protective force followed by a pair of shattering blows from Snickers' adamantine no-dachi. A volley of crystalline spikes from the door results in flesh wounds for Crumble and Zabba, bounces off of Snickers' mithril full plate and perforates Kit Kit's smaller lung with a confirmed x4 critical hit dealing her 95 hp. They pass around pixie sticks before remembering that the Sihedron can be passed around for all the fast healing they could want.
As a trio of axiomites swirled into numerological being Abba Zabba fires off his retrained nastiness with all things holy word - in the form of Spell Focus (Evocation), Spell Specialization (holy word) and Varisian Tattoo (Evocation), along with having retrained into the Force for Good trait. Two of them are promptly banished by the word whilst the third is toyed with by the party before they light her up, then sent her home by way of sneak attack arrow and decapitation.
They proceed to establish their door "knocking" routine: Snickers spends 7 rounds' chopping down the force and hewing through the crystalline substructure. Once they hack through the foyer door, they enter the immense throne room of Xin.
Two dozen honor guard clockwork soldiers stand in two rows from door to throne. Xin's burned corpse, the glowing embers on the stubs of his legs and arm flare with anger as Emperor Xin rails at "Sorshen" for returning to finish what she started. The Emperor schlorps into one of his beloved soldiers while but five more of the honor guard creak and whirl to life.
Snickers charges the nearest active clockwork soldier and hews it for roughly half of its hp. Kit Kat lobs a quartet of ball lightning spheres onto the rearmost four of the six foes.
The nearest soldiers move to engage the mighty warrior with their enchanted greataxes and Vital Strike mayhem on their programmed minds, missing or simply are not able to encircle him quite yet. Xin's possessed soldier targets the big man with a greater dispel magic, stripping five spells off of him. Sadly, one of these five was not that annoying shield other.
Viole(n)t Crumble riddles two of the clockwork soldiers attempting to surround him with sneak attack arrows from the benefit of her innate underground camouflage ability, putting them down mere seconds after engaging Snickers. Abba Zabba strolls in to right behind Snickers and rips loose with a stormbolts, obliterating 18 clockwork soldiers.
Xin's possessed didn't survive the subsequent round as he didn't get to do anything else before the remaining PCs put that soldier to rest in pieces.
Viewing through the clear crystal floor beneath their feet, they are awed at the sight of what must surely be an entire regiment of clockwork soldiers in the seawater beneath their feet. Schools of luminous fish dart through the murky water. The cathedral-like ceiling looms a hundred feet overhead. A single door adorns the right wall while three doors evenly spaced line the wall to their left.
Shattering protective force and more mundane crystal, Xin's smaller audience chamber is behind the first door to their left. Shattered crystalline "tubes" held the vengeful wraiths of those that died so hideously in aeons past.
And to their credit, they promptly demonstrate Snickers' greatest weakness: having an unenhanced Constitution score. The dread wraiths slay him on the spot, draining him to a husk with a 0 CON in the opening round via Spring Attack.
Which proved just as promptly to be the wraiths' undoing as, making full use of Kit Kat's telepathic bond to coordinate their efforts, Zabba's firestorm floods the entirety of said audience chamber with the cleansing flames of Sarenrae. Kit Kat a moment later sealed the entrance with a wall of force through which Snickers ensured that the wraiths met their permanent demise.
After liberal use of blood money, Kit Kat's ring of inner fortitude, a resurrection and two restorations, Snickers was returned to the land of the living without permanent negative levels and his full 16 Constitution score. The Sihedron's fast healing took care of the rest.
Working clockwise around the throne room, the main level Archives is next. This time Snickers chops down the force layer to permit Crumble and/or Zabba the use of their gloves of reconnaissance. They note both the glowing gem atop the spindly legged table and the orrery. Two no-dachi blows later shatters another crystalline doorway.
Suddenly the spindly-legged table scurries forth, weaving between the characters, to present the glowing 20 carat sapphire to "Sorshen". Wincing she freely takes the gem in hand. Luckily for her the trap the soul upon the jewel is already occupied by a mighty qlippoth which will perform a single service for her when released before seeking its return to the Abyss.
The table returns to its position in the archives and sets into place. Zabba claims the orrery while the Sihedron Squad scoops up the valuables and especially the two scrolls.
Taking the scenic route, they crank the orrery's light level to maximum and catch up on the bits of backstory they can. They recon the room with the spellwell of generosity, recon the Lissalan temple, then lastly the giant banquet hall.
Our Heroes slather themselves with a few more spells before bashing down the door into the banquet hall. They can hear something "in" the ceiling above, but aren't sure as to what.
Kit Kat dispels the screen and everyone resists the trio of symbols of insanity. The three Shining Children of Thassilon floating above them flare with shocking brilliance in the oppressive gloom of the palace's interior.
The gnome is blinded, albeit still stealthed. Snickers, being the primary visible target is tagged with an almost-ineffectual fiery ray and shrugs off a pair of sunbeams.
Abba Zabba once more unleashes the terrible power of his holy word, sending all three of them back whence they came. He repairs the blinded eyes of the gnome before they make their way to the chamber with the spellwell, trigger the trap and move over to the Lissalan temple chamber.
They hack down the barriers, understandably fail to notice the well-hidden living runes and resist the statue's efforts to persuade them to grab the robe as a gift. Zabba calls over the mount he had summoned not too long before and brings it into the room. It promptly fails its saving throw, yanks the robe off with its teeth and as promptly dies from the suddenly revealed symbol of death. They sadly don't take the bait and figure out the robe of powerlessness for what it is. They "rub out" the living runes as their last accomplishment of the session.
A brief reconnoiter up the spiral stairs lets them know that they have another massive chamber with eight doors. The players groan at the prospect of dealing with another eight brutal rooms. We wrap the session in media res, as they have sufficient spells to press onward.
In-game time it has been a mere 3 hours since they departed Magnimar.
Not one but two updates! I must have been mad to miss them! A great read and hooray for unnecessary slaughter!
Not one but two updates! I must have been mad to miss them! A great read and hooray for unnecessary slaughter!
Since when is wanton slaughter unnecessary? ;)
Wowza Wowza Wowza!
That was sweet :-)
The doors behind them haven't shut ... yet.
Gotta love it when the players are WTF'ing on flavor text alone. Great work, Brandon Hodge!
2nd - 3rd Rova, 47013 A.R.
One wonders if there was originally a scripted 'timer' that would make things go seriously south if the players dragged their feet too terribly long.
Last session the Sihedron Squad elected to ascend the stairs from Xin's throne room into the Hall of Golems, the main part of Xin's workshops.
Guess how long it took them to bring down a 277 hp Xin-haunted clockwork dragon? G'wan, guess.
If your answer was "before it got off a second round", you win a cookie. The combination of the Sihedron's daylight and the powerful illumination shed by the flamma horacalcum, they saw it as soon as they crested the top of the stairs.
Two stormbolts from Abba Zabba and KitKat, a sneak attack trio of Elemental electricity of scorching rays from Viole(n)t Crumble and a "I'll take the falling damage to score a braced skewering when it falls on me" from Snickers destroyed the dragon, which despite the no-save-for-half-damage destruction detonation triggered by Xin's haunt did nothing more than slow the party down for about a whole minute, two tops.
Abba Zabba wears the flamma horacalcum on his chest like a giant piece of gangsta bling, only having to stash it very briefly in the first starmetal vault (D1).
The Sihedron Squad makes short work of the rest of the level, only the Homunculus Mass gave them any pause for concern in C4. Most of the time the oracle and sorceress let the rogue and fighter messily demolish the generally meager opposition that lay before them. KitKat claims the iron golem shield guardian amulet from C6. They pillage the Hungry Treasury of C7. They note the spellwells of evocation and enchantment in C8 and C9. They demolish the inevitables and axiomites in C5. The advanced retriever dies as fast as everything else.
They return to town via wayfinder of infinite doorways, requisition a few more bits of consumable magic, deposit their loot with the Pathfinder Lodge and return via a different wayfinder of infinite doorways after resting the night in town and advancing to 17th level.
They figure out the method to the madness of the Skymetal Nexus and the vaults' benefits from having an ascendant arm in operation that corresponds to a given starmetal vault. They clean out the first five vaults and we wrap the session there in media res.
They've looted almost every item of consequence from Xin's Palace, including the ghost iron scimitar which will be sold to the highest bidder. At 162k gp and beer money for just the one weapon, I can't say that I blame them. Only the horn of blasting is missed - and that because they're using the "trap" in C2 to give the group a greater heroism for an hour. Given the CL of everything else in the place, I ruled it as a CL of 20th.
The next session will resume with the Sihedron Squad about to enter the Siccatite Vault (D6).
As far as I am concerned, the scripted delay in Xin's infusing of his reliquary, his/its Sihedron Vulnerability SQ and the targeting of "his" Sihedron are completely unnecessary on round 5 don't really "jive", for me.
Xin's shade has seen these intruders utterly demolish and loot what remains of all that he held dear in just over a single day's time. They've given him a bonafide focus, hot and sharp: either crushing them, or bringing them into his service in true BBEG villain style. The Sihedron is his baby, the last thing he'd do is attempt to disjunction it - if anything, he wants it back! His mind is unstable, so I'm leaving that to the players to attempt to exploit, but I'm not handing it to them on a horacalcum platter either.
As an aside regarding foes' SR virtually always being equal to (CR+11), when PCs packing spell resistance get it at (CL+12) - technically comprising a CR = character level - is a minor irritant.
Lastly, the Clockwork Reliquary relies entirely too much on its SR to protect itself at this level of play. 17th level PCs, such as mine, are packing at least a +26 to beat SR without the Sihedron's Zeal arm in ascendance (+34 total). A bead of karma, Allied Spellcaster (base CL 18th), certain traits and feats ... yeah. They're going to utterly ignore its spell resistance, practically speaking.
I'm adding the BBEG's INT bonus to its hp/HD - then maximizing all of its hp - and as an insight bonus on all of its saving throws to give it a fighting chance against these monsters - which it loses the saves bonus if the unstable mind SQ comes into play. I'll also have the abysium pulse and djezet blood firing on alternating rounds in sequence with its skymetal plating rotation: abysium pulses time with odd-numbered rounds.
Amazing write up as always thanks Turin it sounds like the final fight should be an exciting one. Have you managed to get your hands on the fig for the BBEG it looks quite impressive.
Amazing write up as always thanks Turin it sounds like the final fight should be an exciting one. Have you managed to get your hands on the fig for the BBEG it looks quite impressive.
I have indeed, Ghufufin. Missus Turin found it on a sale somewhere, saying "I don't know what this is, but it looks COOL!" "
"Yes, dear, that's the BBEG of Shattered Star. You'll get to fight that thing."
...
"Oh. It was nice knowing my character, I suppose."
Laughter ensued. :)
Eagerly looking forward to the big fight, Turin! You always manage to come up with a twist your players don't expect.
Will the PCs hang up their choice bits of uber-magical bling after this, or are they going to continue risking life, limb, and lucre in "Chapter 7?"
Eagerly looking forward to the big fight, Turin! You always manage to come up with a twist your players don't expect.
Will the PCs hang up their choice bits of uber-magical bling after this, or are they going to continue risking life, limb, and lucre in "Chapter 7?"
That will be up to the players to decide. The way "Chapter 7" is envisioned, whether they're working for Xin or not is immaterial. The players want to take their characters all the way to 20th and play a couple of sessions at 20th, so if they still want to do so, they'll have to continue onwards.
If they work for Xin, they lose the Sihedron. If they whack him, they'll (probably) still have it.
Said to Missus Turin last night: "Good work [Missus Turin]. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill your character in the morning."
Today the Sihedron Squad, formerly the Candybar Brigade, concludes Chapter 6 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path. Will they be messily dispatched by Xin's Clockwork Reliquary? Will they crush all that they see before them and take their stuff? Will they survive the day with any remaining Hero Points?
About 12 hours' time will tell the tale.
3rd Rova 4713 A.R.
Picking up where the Sihedron Squad left off in D5, the noqual vault, our heroes buffed up and *bamfed* into the siccatite vault (D6).
Therein Snickers was first and obliterated the advanced iron golem that resembled Xin with a combination of a 5-foot step, Lunge and a full-round attack using his trusty boots of speed.
Tossing the siccatite bars into a bag of holding, they tip abysium to abysium and *bamf* once more.
They went into the abysium vault (D7). Abba Zabba snagged the Sihedron, flew up to the ceiling above Belmedra and nuked her back into the Abyss with a single holy word.
The banishment effect denied them the half-dozen Large starmetal blades as loot. The 240 pounds of raw abysium follows the rest of the swag into assorted extra-dimensional bags.
The doors open and they beat a hasty retreat into the reliquary workshop, Snickers and Viole(n)t Crumble scuba-swapping her necklace of adaptation to thwart the unpleasant details of inhaling irradiated dust particles. They barely noted the hissing of steam, clanking of gears and chugging of hydraulics amidst the crawling Thassilonian runes skittering hither and yon all about them.
Entering the workshop Abba Zabba's gangsta bling illuminated the schematics of the reliquary, its ability to command an entire army of linked clockwork constructs ... and its probable susceptibility to positive energy due to Xin inhabiting it as a 'ghost' rather than as his venerable old self.
Booting open yet another set of ginormous doors, they view the flamma horacalcum's final vision - the assassination attempt by the rune giant Shasthaak.
The graveknight arose and whiffed the AC 42 sorceress mightily (determined by a random roll between the two humans) with his single Improved Vital Strike attack.
Predictably, Snickers did his usual and hacked the graveknight rune giant into grisly salsa. A disintegrate from Kit Kat took care of the permadeath and the Gargantuan +4 human bane longsword slid first into its sheath, thence into another extra-dimensional storage space.
They strap the fourth spellwell onto Snicker's back, load up on the now-customary assortment of 'buff' spells and boot open the last door, entering the Dead Heart of Xin.
A hundred feet tall, the gigantic chamber features the most elaborate Sihedron rune upon the floor about a head-sized blue crystal - the same one featured in one of the earliest visions.
The clockwork reliquary looms ahead of them, aglow in the light of Zabba's gangsta bling with Xin's image superimposed atop his bones.
Kit Kat/"Sorshen" moves behind Abba Zabba and pokes Snickers, granting him a pretty useless displacement. With but two words from Xin, a quartet of elder crystallis stand up from the very floor, two blocking the path from the "lobby", the other two flanking-ish behind the group.
The crystallises exhale petrification clouds upon the group. None of the heroes fail a saving throw, although Crumble burns a hero point to reroll a natural 1 Fort save against being turned into a crystal statue.
Xin floats along above the ground and closes before the blossoms of death open, bathing the entire group in glorious abysium radiation. Zabba's delay poison lets him ignore the stuff for now while Kit Kat's ring of inner fortitude means she ignores the CON drain when she is successful.
With a paltry DC 22 save, the entire 8 1/2 round fight yields a whopping total of three points of CON drain each to Crumble and Snickers. Thanks to blood money, the drain doesn't even linger overlong in downtime to come.
I added Xin's INT modifier as bonus hp/HD to reflect the "perfected design" of the physical body of the reliquary as well as a bonus to all of its saving throws. Were he to succumb to a madness-induced malfunction, the saves bonus would go away, placing his save bonuses in the precarious spot that they are in as-written.
Additionally, I added Xin's INT modifier to the save DC of the reliquary's djezet blood ability. Due to the liberal slathering of spells by the party, the sorceress and oracle need only a natural 4 on the d20 check to succeed. Despite four attempted uses (three connecting), not one of these saves failed, depriving Xin of a foe hating that -10 penalty on its saves for a day.
On top of all of this, I timed the reliquary's metal plating rotation in synch with the abysium pulse and djezet blood abilities: the pulse fires when the noqual plates are out whilst the blood is used when the horacalcum plates are out.
Lastly, I gave Xin 3 villain points - the only foe in the entire AP I gave them to.
Despite having the ghost iron scimitar in his possession, Snickers didn't want to lose his full-round attack actions against Xin's reliquary. As a result, the one serious chance they walked into the final encounter of accelerating Xin's madness was one they never got to take advantage of. Not that it mattered much.
Zabba went next, using his gangsta bling to give himself a time stop which, fortunately for Xin, lasted only two rounds. Luckily for Xin but not so much so for Xin's mooks Zabba set a stack of 2 fire seeds of fiery death amidst the three foes.
The two "blockers" in the doorway were utterly incinerated by the fire seeds while Xin's reliquary took all of 28 hp.
During the rock-em-sock-em fight over the rest of the day, Xin used everything he had in his attempt to slay "Sorshen" and regain his Sihedron. Both of Zabba's firestorms filled most of the chamber at an altitude of 5 feet above floor level, causing Xin no end of grief whilst minimally hindering the PCs.
Xin used his trio of quickened telekinesis SLAs to attempt to take back his reassembled artifact to no avail. His repulsion was felled by a greater dispel magic from "Sorshen" that also suppressed his constant SLAs for 2 rounds.
On round 6 Xin saw a prime opportunity to disjunction the lot of them. The rat bastards "Sorshen" and Abba Zabba burned hero points and made liberal use of the Sihedron to thwart this, despite Xin in turn burning a villain point to counterspell the counterspelling.
All in all, it was almost Xin's turn when Abba Zabba, burning his next-to-last hero point after burning 3 temporary hero points from some magical elixir or another than the group each came into the final encounter with, delivered the final blows. Xin at that moment was reeling from "Sorshen's" caustic eruption that she'd burned her last temporary hero point to shaft his Reflex save by 7, slathering the BBEG with ongoing acid damage. Zabba's one-two punch: two heal spells, against which Xin failed his second Will save, falling into a ginormous pile of swag as his long overdue soul was send to the Boneyard.
At least the curmudgeon should finally know some peace and quiet.
Whew.
Well done! Both to the Candybar brigade, and to you as well, Turin. 8 1/2 rounds is a long time, especially in high level play - test of endurance for everyone involved.
Think you tuned up Xin just right, Turin. Wonderful job and write-up!
Thanks, Talking Skull.
The closest "Sorshen" got to being messily deceased was when Xin tore into her during a hasted quintuple claws plus a rend earlier in the fight. Twice he got into full attack range with her, twice bringing her to ~50 hit points.
The players have been training their hp to maximum at every opportunity.
Snickers, as has become his custom, kept attempting to call the BBEG a pansy chicken for moving out of full-attack range, whether by fly or (when he lost his constant SLA's excepting see invisible for 2 rounds) his climb speed to quickly extricate himself out of Zabba's firestorm. 22d6 fire damage is no joke, not when it stays in place for 11 rounds. I told Snickers that he really should invest in the Antagonize feat and its associated skill(s) if he wants to really pull that off.
If memory serves, an example of how tapped out the spellcasters were when the battle with Xin was concluded is how many of her spells/day she had remaining: 2 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3 each 3rd - 5th level, 4-6 6th level, 2 or 3 7th level and 2 8th level. Zabba's remaining spells/day were a bit lower than that. Keep in mind "Sorshen" has a 34 Charisma while Zabba has a 32 Charisma. They cleared out the entire top floor, the seven starmetal vaults and Xin's entire workshop in part of a day of game time.
Now that the group is 18th level Kit Kat's first 9th level spell known is wish. She plans to scribe a scroll of same and take the first four or five 25,000 gp diamonds she can purchase to drop a +4 or +5 inherent bonus onto her Wisdom score (4/day from base +Cha bonus & 1 from said scroll). In so doing for the first time her Will save bonus will actually exceed her Fortitude and Reflex save bonuses.
What's even more entertaining is that, taking a month of time and 4k gp, she can repeat this process so long as they have sufficient gp to pull it off. I've not heard if Abba Zabba plans to similarly select miracle as his first 9th level spell. It wouldn't surprise me if he did.
Making matters even more entertaining/complicated is that the group has a pile of artifacts asides from the Sihedron: the guardian key major artifact; two (2) philosopher's stones, the four surviving spellwells, the timeglass, the spindle of perfect knowledge and the flamma horacalcum. I've let the players know that there are definitely some parties that would purchase them, which would give me an excuse to ramp their WBL up to ~20th and be done with worrying about loot until the end-game of Chapter 7.
They're almost certainly going to keep the Sihedron and the flamma horacalcum.