As a reminder, the king's "power" does not seem to emanate from his words like casting spells but from his sceptre and his will.

Kahan and Flint might know this as a lich's phylactery.

I was not aware of how much knowledge Kahan would actually possess of Liches. Let me edit my turn then.

Flint comments to Kahan "If that Scepter is the King's phylactery, we need to destroy it in order to kill the Lich permanently...otherwise he'll keep coming back.  Just leave me clear to hit him with a lightning bolt" Flint moves ever so slightly to Kahan's side to keep a clear shot into room 8.

"Borimer! Naj! Aim for the staff!" Kahan yells after his spell is finished.

Borimer backs towards the hole in the eastern wall while swinging his ebony blade at the lich king, but its two dimensional nature spoils the attacks.

*i'm assuming that hitting the scepter is the same -10 ac as the lich
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Thu 30 Aug 2012.

Trying to hit the sceptre is a called shot suffering a penalty to the roll, not a bonus to the armor class (but yes, it is also the same dimension as the main enemy as far as armor class is concerned).

The standard -4 penalty to called shots will apply.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:32, Tue 04 Sept 2012.

Malissin has kept quiet, slinking around and following behind Kahan, his guilt apparent on his face for bringing this lich over.  He will wait for the others to finish their attacks, but is ready to jump in when the spells die down and there is room.

Naj steps forward, raises his two handed sword and tries to slash the king anyway.  "I never meant it to come to this," he says.  "We were trying to defend and help you.  We fought next to you."

Sometimes I make sure your character has the knowledge so that you don't think I've cheated you out of an otherwise resourceful move.  Particularly when the rulebook is not so clear.  Think of the knowledge as me rewarding you/your character for an imaginative/resourceful way to play the round that just won't work.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:57, Tue 04 Sept 2012.

ROUND 2
Flint begins moving into position.

Kahan begins casting.

Borimer is retrieving his sword.

Malissin stands behind Kahan.

Naj swings but misses.  He swings again and misses yet again.

The lich king strikes out...and misses Naj.  He swings again, and hits him with a clawed, skeletal hand.  (13 hp dmg.  Saving throw made, no aging for Naj.)  With a willful push of his sceptre, the lich king touches Naj...(saving throw missed)...  Naj and all his belongings suddenly disappear.

The king laughs.  "Now the elf will be imprisoned for all time."  He spins, scanning the area and seeing Malissin, the other elf in the party, and also his next target.

Kahan finishes the spell, and the crown on the king's head begins to glow with a red hot heat.  The king does not seem to be bothered by it this round, as his attention is on Malissin.

Flint lets loose a lightning bolt from the northwest corner of the room that travels directly south.  (Lightning bolts are 80 feet long and rebound, by the way.)  The lightning bolt travels from Flint's hands and hits the lich king.  (Saving throw made. 8 hp dmg.)  It then hits the south wall and rebounds north, hitting the lich king again.  (Saving throw made. 12 hp dmg.)  The lightning bolt then continues to go north and hits Flint.  (Saving throw made. 13 hp dmg.)  It then hits the north wall and rebounds back south, hitting Flint again.  (Critical miss on saving throw...rolled 60, which is no effect if no shield.  25 hp dmg.)  The lightning bolt then continues to travel south and hits the lich yet again.  (Saving throw missed.  24 hp dmg.)  It bounces off the wall but sizzles and dies before it can hit the lich a fourth time.

Total damage to lich king:  44 hp dmg.
Total damage to Flint: 38 hp dmg.  (Please check to see if Flint is still alive.  Dead is when he goes past -10 hp.  Until then, he can be bandaged to be brought to 0 hp, or healed.)

Flint collapses to the ground, a victim of his own lightning bolt.  On the other side of things, his attacks seemed to have weakened the lich king immensely.


OOC: If only they had Darwin Awards for PCs... :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:27, Wed 05 Sept 2012.

This message was deleted by the player at 17:50, Wed 05 Sept 2012.

Borimer grabs Chianta and then rushes the lich king with a flurry of attacks.

Malissin steps in front of Kahan, pulling a throwing dagger from his sleeve as quick as can be.  He throws the magic throwing dagger at the approaching lich while acting as a shield to protect Kahan behind him.

"Malissan, try to lure the lich away. He will attempt to kill you first because you are an elf, like Naj." Kahan instructed, rushing over to heal Flint.

Using a CLW if it will stabilize him, if not, a binding kit.

ROUND 3

Kahan rushes over to Flint as Malissin distracts the lich king.

Borimer swings, hitting the lich king.

The lich king strikes out, hitting Malissin on out of two attacks with his clawed hand.  The touch chills Malissin.  (14 hp dmg.  Saving throw failed.  Malissin ages 25 years.)  The elf gets a streak of white in his hair, though his elf longevity saves him from being overly damaged by the aging effects of the touch.

The lich king swings his sceptre hand at the only other person standing nearby:  Edmure.  He hits Edmure, and the blind consort of Syrissa disintegrates into a pile of dust in front of your eyes.  Everything he held is disintegrated.  (Disintegration spell.)

Malissin's dagger flies out but misses the lich king.

Borimer strikes out again, and once again Chianta finds its mark.  The lich king flops to the ground, its body sizzling and then disappearing, leaving only his sceptre and his crown remaining with some tattered clothes.

Kahan casts cure light wounds, and Flint is revived back to consciousness.

"We must destroy the staff, now!" Kahan insisted, picking up the Lich King's robes, wrapping them around his scepter and holding it out to Borimer. "Don't hold back. Chianta will hopefully possess a strong enough enchantment to destroy the phylactery, but it will be tougher than your average stick."

Flint gets up slowly and comments "Whoa....what a rush!"

He then turns to Kahan and says "Kahan, wait!  Do you think there is any hurry on destroying the sceptre?  Perhaps we should try to identify it first and make sure it's his phylactery and not something we need?  Isn't one of the missing items we seek (ARTIFACTS OF THE FIVE PILLARS) a sceptre?"

"Thank you by the way"

"The sooner we destroy his phylactery, the sooner we can be rid of him. Do you have any ways of figuring out what his phylactery is, other than destroying all of his possessions?" the priest asked, looking over the scepter to see if it looked like one of the artifacts. He'd seen several of them, perhaps he could identify them from simply knowing what the others had in similarity. "He might not even have a phylactery, now that I think about it. Doesn't a lich have to intentionally imbue an item to become one? Perhaps the king wasn't technically a 'lich', just a body that was inhabited by an unholy spirit." he mumbled mostly to himself, pulling out his holy symbol and making a few motions in the air.

"Yes, exactly.  All the more reason for us to take a moment and figure out if it must be destroyed.  Let's at least try to identify the crown and scepter."

"I can't heal people like you my friend, so if you leave the scepter here" Flint motions to the ground "I'll see if I can identify these two objects while you check on Borimer, Naj and Malissin.  I promise not to to touch or activate them without both of us here."

Flint wearily casts some spells over the crown first and then the scepter...."I don't know if this will tell us much, but it's worth a try at least."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Thu 06 Sept 2012.

Borimer readies himself to chop up the lich king the moment it moves back to life. He talks over his shoulder to no one in particular.

"Just say the word and I'll see about ending that scepter's usefulness."

*nice flint pic :)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:23, Thu 06 Sept 2012.

Malissin gathers up his thrown daggers, being careful not to disturb anything else in the process.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous? If you destroy the physical item, where would the magical energy go. And besides, would it make sense for the lich king to carry his phylactery with him?"

Mallisin shields himself as far away from the staff as possible.

OOC: hi, I'm new. Quick recap: has this room been searched for traps and secrets already?

"At this point, I'd rather deal with a bit of magical interference than a lich resurfacing. But as I said before, I am not even certain if he was, in fact, a 'lich', as we know it. Of course the only people I know who would have any actually useful information on the subject haven't been born yet, or already died in this past..." Kahan replies, shaking his head as he looks down at the pile of ash that used to be Edmure. "As much as I hate to admit it, we do still need to rest to regain our strength, especially now that our numbers are so thin." he adds.

Malissin does have a point that may have been overlooked regarding a "trap."

Here is a description of room 7 for the new guys:



In Thread 4, msg 112, Chrisman told you that he put the statue pieces in the circles and set a magical trap on the cloth note in the palm at the center of the room to try to get Esylia with it.  He said it has another of the codes on it.  No one has yet set off the trap or discovered what the code is.

FYI, I'm not exactly sure what you guys are doing next (if you've decided), so let me know.  Destroy the phylactery?  Rest?  Pursue Esylia?

OOC: I am still doing the following (hence I asked about results in the OOC thread)....however, since YOU are calling the scepter a phylactery I guess that removes any doubt about WHAT it is:



OOC: Flint is carefully casting a Detect Magic on the two items to ascertain if they are both magical. Then, if we are going to rest (since this spell takes 8 hours) cast an Identify on the scepter.  Combined with Ancient History proficiency I am hoping we can learn SOMETHING about it....
This message was last edited by the player at 02:11, Fri 07 Sept 2012.