[Private to Nym:
Note you describe yourself as the squishy mage, but you and Meri are prety similar in power levels, and it's probably not a surprise to realise that as the plaers, you are going ot have a higher power level than village NPCs. And as adventurers who have just tackled an ancient evil, you are more skillful that stay at home village guards :p


So noted regarding the Slaad's Gambit, that's not a problem. I'll try to recall it as an option in future too. As this is a big encounter with a single powerful foe, if it does go to combat I'll probably go pretty blow by blow through your own options and turns so your various tactical options shouldn't need to be set up ahead of time otherwise. Though a lot of the dragon's stuff is reactive, so don't be surprised if it has some reactions to you own tactics either!]


There was relative quiet for a moment, with many in the camp looking to Meri. Some as if she were mad, some with hope in their eyes that someone was at least starting to act and find a way through the unreal insanity they had found themselves in.

The bear wwas finally the one to reply to Meri's question, though not in an understandable way. It simply screamed with a horrific cry as the dragon - hovering high on powerful wings, the buffetting still being felt on the ground - grabbed the bear to grip it properly with a second taloned hand. Something tore as the dragon removed its original taloned hand from the bear's back with ugly menace, and then the bear was thrown down to the grass below.

There was a wet thump, and some low moans and squirming, but the mass of fur seemed in no condition to react further to Meri.


The dragon looked around the camp, giving no indication of even hearing Meri. It sniffed once, twince, then three times. It seemed to look directly at Meri - or perhaps passed her?

And then with a powerful set of wing beats, it leapt high in to the air to become lost in the dark blue skies.


So.... that went well. Feel free to roll Perception to get a better idea of what the Draon was looking at - or where it has gone (one roll needed for each), or Inight to work out perhaps why the Dragon was looking, or if it understood anything.

Also any other skill checks are good too.


Farren moved forwards quickly, for some reason going to Many's side rather than Meri's, even though the little beholder was cowering hidden well enough from the dragon.

Someone - one of Geekaar's older retainers, with such a strained voice it was hard to tell which - yelled their master's name. Geekaar did not look anywhere but up in the air, moving backwards with odd certainty of foot and slowness of purpose.

Elias seemed to shake free of his own dumbstruck fear, and moved towards Geekaar. "D-do something!" he demanded with petulance to Geekaar, pointing a finger. However, Geekaar's guards were in the way, and without much concern no hesitation, the guard flashed a sword blade and removed the finger easily in warning.

Elais screamed and feel backwards and the guards that noticed reacted with shocked calls. Elias held his hand to his chest in shock, blood fountaining. Desmine ran to his side, calling him an idiot over and over but clearly shaken. Geekaar still did not look round, nor did the guards. They all kept backing up towards the horses or wagons, it seemed.


That was unpleasant!

Nym seems to have become somewhat oblivious to the surrounding events, staring with an expression of vaguely bemused confusion at the dragon and its actions, and not really reacting at all to the scream of Elias nearby. She looks up at the sky, perhaps attempting to follow the path of the dragon's flight.

Okay, let's try some skill rolls...Insight first, to try and read the dragon's intent and/or thought process as he(?) looks at Meri and then decides to shoot upward...17. Then Perception to try and follow his(?) flight path...25. Can I see if he's(?) preparing to dive back down at us or something, or whether he's(?) actually buggering off somewhere? Slightly worrying that we are having to roll Initiative and yet no combat seems to be taking place. Dun dun dunnnn...

[Private to GM: Of course, it might be that this chap has been sent by the Other, and on seeing Meri the immunity from my Wish has kicked in and caused ol' scaly-boy to drop the matter and leave her (and consequently us) alone.
Incidentally, the reason for announcing my intentions for Slaad's Gambit at the start of combat were because it's an Immediate Interrupt, so if I'd been attacked then it would trigger straight away, so you wouldn't get to actually roll anything against me and tell me I'd taken however-many-shitloads of damage, because I'd already have teleported away by that point and caused the attack to be wasted >:).]

OOC: Just making a few skill checks too here, who knows what's going on inside Meri's head... :)


[Private to The Altweaver: First of all, Heal check to see if the bear is too badly wounded to save: 29 (17 + 12).

Also, Insight check to try to figure out the bear's intentions (as in, did it look like it actually came here with the intent to attack us in the first place, in which case saving its life might not be such a smart move, since I might then have to fight it, having used up my Healing Infusions in saving it so it could attack us!  Irony abounds!):  20 (11 + 9).

Also, like Nym, using Perception to try and spot if the dragon is actually gone or still circling around up there somewhere: 22 (8 + 14).
Will try for a second one too to figure out what it was looking at: 32 (18 + 14).

Dunno if there's a maximum amount of skill checks I can do in one particular 'round' or not...]

So many rolls, and no visible comments from me. Clearly nothing going on here. :D

I mean, sure, I got you both to roll Initiative earlier, which means there's this odd looming threat hovering over you, as if I can now spring a combat on you at any second. Who knows why I would have done that, that mechanically clearly bears no resemblance to your circumstances right now. No looming threats here, no sudden potential for violence out of nowhere...

[Private to Meri: Yeah, bear is far too gone to be saved. It probably just had its spine snapped :( "Good" news, you don't believe it will be alive too much longer so won't suffer, so no point going over to it to help it one way or another :(

Hard to gauge its exact intentions, but since the other bear just ran passed you, and you now know both were running form a dragon, it seems more likely the 'challenge' was some odd form of warning. Which would have made the bear oddly smart, or at least sympathetic, possibly some side effect of the same magical mutation.


The dragon seemed to not understand a word Meri said, even though its gaze looked far too intelligent to be merely animal. So you should be able to speak around it all you like, it won't understand the words of your plans, though it might understand the tactics of them. It seemed to be sniffing around for a new scent, clearly the bear's one making that harder. It also for a moment seemed distaracted by something near Meri - very likely the item in her pack - which also seemed to cause it a little confusion.

However, Farren's movements seemed to confirm something just as the dragon's sniffs focused it. Somehow the dragon became focused on the spot behind Meri, where Many was... as if it could scent Many's own magical nature, and was hunting for Many too...

Luckily, Farren being there has probably confused it, and you suspect its raised up in to the air to get a new position, to try and pinpoint whether its Farren or something else that it is hunting now.


If Meri is looking up to the sky though, she won't get the chance to zero in on the dragon because...


Meri looked to the dull sky trying to follow the streaking shadow, however, her eyes watered. There was some odd optical illusion, that caused her eyes to see strange patterns in the clouds rather than find the dragon. It was as if there was a dark, blackened face in the clouds, feminine in nature, with a green spot on one side for an eye, an unmoving blue spot in the other for a second eye, a red underlight from the fading sun making a mouth, with the white of some purer cloud forming the bright fanged teeth of a grin within those reddened lips.


I'll say your Insight was so good that you will spot that Nym is not seeing the odd thing you are seeing in the sky. No one else is. What an odd optical illusions! :p]


[Private to Nym: Yeah, the dragon just seemed to be interested in MEri for some reason, and was looking pretty much at Meri not anyone else. Hard to tell if the dragon understood Meri though. It seemed intelligent.

More importantly though, when the dragon lifted itself up in to the air, it seemed to keep its eyes focused roughly in that area still... as if it was making sure it was oriented as to where everything was on the ground. So Nym can be pretty certain that yeah, it's only gone upwards in order to come back down with some speed somewhere around the area of Meri!

The existence of the Wish is certainly a good indication of the nature of the dragon. If Meri has some form of proper immunity, you'll know The Other is able to bring something pretty substancial to bear against you! If not, then who knows what powerful entity could summon a dragon out of myth against you all. No idea. :D

Oh, and Slaad Gambit is a cool idea, but I would have let you use it anyway, so really you just missed the opportunity to see safely how many dice I roll for damage :p]

Nym's eyes track upward, following the path the dragon took. She sort of vaguely waves up at the sky as though bidding the creature goodbye and seems about to say something, but then stops and glances around at where Meri is standing, then looks upward again.

"Oh. Are you coming back down again?" she asks.

Meri's gaze tracked the dragon as it launched itself up into the air.  For some reason though, her expression took on a more puzzled look as if she had seen something unusual there.  This look was quickly followed by a noticeably disturbed look, whatever she saw in the sky clearly leaving an impression.
"That's...  That's not good" she muttered quietly to herself.

At the sound of the scuffle by Elias, she looked back, briefly pointing her staff as if by instinct at the guard who attacked him.  Her eyes narrowed at him and she lowered the staff again, backing towards Farren and Many's position while watching the sky for the dragon returning.
"It's still up there, trying to get a better view.  The symbol I'm carrying confused it for a moment, distracted it from its target."


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Out of curiosity, is there any way to tell that particular guard apart from the others?  If they get into a fight with the dragon, then I know one that Meri might happily use as a human shield if needed ;)  hehe.

Also, dipping into Arcana knowledge to see if Meri knows any way of using that symbol or its attraction effect against the dragon: 18 (4 + 14) - Ick, getting the bad rolls out of the way before anything else kicks off at least...]

For no reason, here's a rough map that for no reason has a grid.
/games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1521579501

The edges are forest, the brown square is where Maggrath was carving deer, the 'R' there is Maggrath, the remaining 'R' are Geekaar's other retainers, the four 'S' are the four experienced guards with Maggrath, the four 'S' near Meri are Sarah, Jessah, Gibb and Stark, leaving the last two 'S' as Elias and Desmine.

Geekaar and his personal guards (W) are should hopefully be obvious, the blue circle was the cauldron, the brown circle of shapes are the cushion chairs that don't block movement, and the purple 'Be' is the dying mutant bear.

I've indicated the general direction of the horses and wagons.


Sooo, is everyone happy with that lay out, or do you think you are nearer/ further from anything?

Also, let me know exactly what Timur and Ryn would be doing, and if they are active or not.

Again, all of this for absolutely no reason :p


[Private to Meri: The guards seem pretty interchangeable right now, so probably bets to push them all in to the dragon if you get the chance :p

As for using the symbol, nothing new, but keeping on keeping on seems a good plan. It does seem to be confusing it a little as you surmise. If you need to augment that later, just because it can't understand you doens't mean if you show it the symbol later it won't react. For example, maybe being mad realising what was bugging it before, maybe being mad something like you is befouling a symbol of it's god, etc :) Especially if you were to do anything to the symbol :p

But no, with that roll you don't think there's any way to amplify the effect I'm afraid.]

"Hmm? What symbol?" asks Nym vaguely, still looking upward.

Ryn, meanwhile, bounces over from where she had been snuffling around the edge of the camp and clambers up onto Nym's shoulders.

Ryn's movement had been something I'd intended to have happen anyway, I just hadn't got around to actually saying that yet. Her jumping up onto Nym's shoulders will have switched her from Active to Passive. If I need her to switch back it's only a Minor to do so, so that shouldn't be an issue if necessary.
Nym's still sort of halfway between "normal mode" and "combat mode" - I think she sort of knows that something's about to kick off, so she's ready to let loose as soon as it does, meaning she's not "allowed" to be her normal conversational self. Because that would mean having to notice there's a dead/dying mutant bear thingy on the floor in front of her leaking vital fluids all over the place. And a guy somewhere behind her who's just had a finger chopped off. Mind you, maybe Meri can heal it back on again, or something? It got pretty cleanly cut off, didn't it? So just pick it up, hold it in place against the stump, and magically reattach via heal spell? :D
Also, the thought occurred a few days ago that Nym doesn't have a weapon out right now (she put her staff in her pocket a while back), so I'll need to remember to use a Minor on my first turn to do that. Nym's not in "combat mode" quite enough yet to think of doing that, I don't think. But I imagine she can yank the staff back out of her pocket or unsheath the dagger (which I think is at her waist? Can't remember where she put it, or if I actually ever specified) easily enough. I don't think she uses Minor actions for much anyway.

[Private to GM: Ooh, something else I just thought of - if the situation arises, I want to try my Seed of Chaos power, triggered when myself or an ally uses an Action Point to attack (after said attack is resolved). I don't know which of the two of us (Meri or me) are likely to use any Action Points (I tend to forget about them), but just in case she does before me, I want to use that power :). All that would happen is I roll 1d6 and depending on the result there will be a minor good thing that happens to the ally or a minor bad thing that happens to whatever target they just attacked. Hmm, presumably if the triggering attack was against multiple targets, the Seed of Chaos would affect all of them. I'll have to check that but might as well wait till it comes up :).]

"Tiamat's symbol" replied Meri in a low voice.  "Kobolds and Dragonborn could sense its presence, and it seems dragons too.  Suspected that, but obviously no-one ever tested the theory until now."

She raised her staff in a defensive stance and glanced back at Many with a brief flicker of a worried look...


OOC: Timur is passive for now.  His active ability is only really useful when I'm firing alchemical stuff around, so he'll likely remain passive unless I intend to do a lot of that.

[Private to The Altweaver: She'll mostly be aiming to keep it away from Many if possible, even if that involves using herself as a shield.  Might be a bit ouch!]

[Private to Nym: So noted regarding the seed of chaos power. Can I suggest you don't forget about action points nor inspiration nor anything else you possess, and use it all when it's your turn :p  Front loading seed of chaos and the slaad's gambit is a good start though! Regarding minor action, remember I'm allowing recovery / drinking of a potion to be only one minor action, not two. So those minors can be more useful than normal. Especially now you and Meri have a linked inventory, and Nym can 'accidentally' take whatever stuff Meri has and vice versa!]

Meri being both a mage and having the Heal skill (along with Alchemy) definitely means I'm happy for some creative healing to occur on occasion :) Plus you seem to be in the good books of various nature demi-gods and spirits, so that always helps.

Anyway, I think not having a weapon drawn will be pretty low on the list of things not done to prepare for a dragon potentially attacking you all. I didn't realise it was my birthday already, but thank you all for the presents :p


Next post will be the first combat post. Did I say combat post, I meant the next updating of the game where the dragon has apprently run away and you all get to just carry on as normal.

Your good combined perception rolls earlier will mean the dragon won't get a surprise round, not that we're in combat or anything. So I'll slot your previous initiative rolls and everyone else's in to initiative order, remove your familiars from the map, make the map prettier, and post it and the first game actions.

That will porbably be tomorrow evening or Saturday. As you are both relatively close together with 9 and 5 respectively, you'll probably find that you will both get to act as you please, and co-ordinate if you like. We can take the rounds slower since the dragon - as you will find - is an unsurprisingly tough opponent. Not that you will be fighting it or anything. So working through your own turns OOC and so forth is fine.

Okay, that's cool. I'll see what I can come up with regarding Nym sharing her knowledge with Meri about this guy, although chances are he's acting some way before either of us and will probably get to show off all his lovely and wonderful abilities before I get a chance to describe them :P. As far as tactics are concerned, though, I don't really like to metagame so while there are one or two useful things I can do that would involve Meri, I would prefer for Nym to explain them (or just go ahead and do them anyway :D) rather than me.

[Private to GM: Bah, when do I ever get around to using potions? Okay, I think I have a few times...but looking at my inventory I don't have any right now so unles Meri does, I don't think it's gonna come up in this fight ;).
But in checking that, I did happen to glance over the stats of my Wyrmtooth Dagger and remember what they are. Soooo...think that's probably gonna come in fairly useful this fight >:).]

OOC: Still not sure if blue dragons resist lightning and thunder yet, I'm fairly sure they at least have some lightning resistance (if I'm remembering rightly that blues are the lightning/storm-based ones).  So I suspect I'll be falling back on alchemical weaponry until I've used them all up.  Really wishing I hadn't used up my fire trick scaring deer now...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Fri 23 Mar 2018.

Since Thunder is more of a physical force, then you can perhaps feel a little safer to try it out! And hey, do not underestimate how much less screwed you are right now having dealt with the deer. They could have done some major damage and caused lots of fun confusion pulling your focusand actions. And then the dragon would have appeared :D Still yeah, fire would be good right now. Stupid no good choices, may aswell act for the consequences you feel will be for the best...

As to the dragon showing off all his powers before Nym can say anything, how could you ever think such a thing...?

There was an ominous quiet, aside from the slight wimpering of Elias. However, it felt as if everyone was focused on the sky, in one way or another. Geekaar and his group were still ignoring everything relse, at least the town guards and Geekaar's abandoned retainers noticed Nym and Meri were discussing... something.

[Private to Nym: And as Nym looked up in the sky, a small dot that might have been nothing then seemed to be something then seemed to be definitely something, then seemed to be definitely something moving quickly and becoming larger as it 'fell' to earth. However, there was an odd sensation in the pit of her stomach, totally alien. It was completely unpleasant and felt imposed. And seemed to stop her acting for a moment. And yet, somehow deeper, there was some pther stirring, like when she had managed to 'hatch' the small seed from The Shadow. As if something with some kinship was approaching.

The sleek, blue shape diving toward the ground was mesmerising... and then a ball of lightning spat from the creature's opened maw, and then it did not seem as mesmerising.


There you go, narratively you can have your Dragonfear to explain your low initiative roll and the fact the dragon has so many actions before you can act! Or have something else. The other emotion is more a nod to the primal, elemental core of Nym, and the fact that this creature is also far closer to some ancient source than normal. :) ]

[Private to Meri: The vision of the terrible woman was still written in the sky where the dragon had disappeared. As Meri looked up, the grin became wider - the teeth shifted, and a strange white tongue darted out of her mouth as if in impish mockery. Except the tongue kept extending, her lips unravelled, her face fell apart, and her two pupils elongated grotesquely. In a moment, the vision was now of five chromatic heads - the depiction of Timat - each laughing as the vision faded.

Except for one head, the blue head, which darted towards Meri...

And then it was clear that it was not a vision, but the dragon suddenly returned. It's sleek snout, beady black eyes, wide nostrils, and gleeming teeth filled Meri's vision as if came down - and then there was an explosion of light that filled her vision instead...

Low initiative counts against fast moving dragons are terrible things! :D]

And then, suddenly, the camp was filled with a ball of glowing, jagged light. Farren barely had time to dive towards the cowering, hidden Many before the immediate area around Meri and the spilled cauldron exploded with lighting. Retainers and guards screamed. Samel, being at the edge, somehow manayed to dive out of the way, but the older retainers were not so fortunate.

And then the blue dragon was in the air, beating powerful wings over the devestation it had caused, hovering over the heads of Sarah, Jessah and Stark as they writhed in pain. Young Gibb had fallen over screaming, and simply scrambled to his feet, tripping and trying to rush around the pillows and away from the beast.

The dragon barely paid attention to the fleeing guard, nor the terrified ones below. It instead scented the air for a moment, as if to admire the stench of ozone. However it was clearly scenting for something instead as the sniffs became more nuanced. Something was wrong though.

Then it took a giant breath, chest expanding. It flicked its head to the left, towards where Maggrath and the more experienced guards were. And then it breathed out. Lighting, far more chaotic, streamed from its mouth like a physical shafted, tearing apart the blanket and those on it - the air filled with fresh screams.

Somehow satisfied, the dragon looked back. It sniffed again, and swapped its attention between Meri and Farren. Although a further scream from Gibb drew its malevolent gaze and there was a rumble from its chest like terrible laughter.


Welcome to combat! I mean..the opportunity to make fromeds with Mr Dragon. Start by rolling Diplomacy on telling him how hice his Lighting is :p Ok, not really.

Combat map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1521892309

So, funny story, all the initiative rolls for almost everyone were low, aside from most of the people who would delay anyway! It is currently Nym's initiative count at 9, but I've hinted at any actions those acting after Nym's will make, so Meri, please feel free to also make all your actions too.

So the first attack was a lightning ball that exploded in a 5 x 5 grid centred in the square between the dragon and Meri. It doesn't hang around.

The dragon should be obvious, and is see through because it's in the air. It has a number (currently 5) attached to it. That's how high up it is, and all your attacks need to add that number to calculate range. 4th edition doens't worry about diagnoals, etc, so it's pretty easy to work out if you can hit it or not otherwise.

Don't worry about the odd ring around the dragon, I'm sure that will never be important :p

Funnily, all the damage rolls were pretty low, so while everyone expect Samel and Many (hiding under Farren) in the camp got hit, and the three on the blanket near the deer, no one is bloodied yet. So that's nice.

Also, for reasons I will reveal to Meri alone, I'm using DM fiat and saying she automatically takes half damage from that initial attack without me rolling anything (half damage being the minimum). That's 7hp, which isn't too bad! See, this is going to be an easy fight!

Have at it!

[Private to Meri: Ok, so Farren clearly protected Many so Meri will know Many's alright for the moment. Farren seemed to be keeping Many protected for the moment - mechanically, Farren second winded to heal up and also give himself a defensive boost.

The last of your good Insight on the dragon from earlier will give you this final piece of info. The dragon seems to have picked this side to get a second co-ordinate on pinpointing its new prey. The lightning blast was clearly to clear the way - hence why you personally (and Farren, and therefore Many) - were deliberatrly only on the edges of the blast. It seems as if it was then downwind of the deer carcass, and so it brutally almost murdered everyone around the carcass just to get rid of that scent.

This is not a nice creature :p

However, it does not seem to feel threatened, and so in no hurry. And hence, it seems to have temporarily allow itself to ponder Gibb. Most likely there's some primal fleeing prey instinct it would be happy to indulge if it can.

This is not a nice creature!

So, there is a chance to do something with Many while it is distracted. If it's using scent to look for Many because it doens't seem to know exactly what it's looking for, and is diatracted by Meri's symbol, there is the opportunity to try and swap the two out. Maybe that would work. Certainly, even if it doens't fool the creature, Many is small enough that if he can get in to your backpack or Nym's robe, he would be safe in the little pocket dimension as long as both items as in tact.

Obviously, there are numerous ways to try and accomplish this, if you want to try it. Simply tanking the dragon and keeping Many hidden - or trying to come up with new magical scents - is another.

Good luck whatever you choose! :D]

Oh, and the double initiative count for the dragon isn't a mistake... it gets to act twice, in a very specific way. One of the few good rolls it had here was initiative :)

OOC: Just to check (in case it becomes necessary to know), if there are folks directly below it like that, would they still get caught in an area-effect attack, or does the area of effect on those work vertically too?

Got Meri's first move planned out, but I'll stick with Initiative order and let Nym act first here in case she changes something. (She usually does, in spectacular fashion!) ;)

All area effect spells work in a cube (so the lightning ball attack was actaully three blocks high too). However, the dragon is 5 squares away from the ground so unless you have something HUGE then they should be fine. You can fire upwards and miss people too.

Yes, do not neglect the third dimension! Now, let's see what we can do...

Nym seems to watch in a sort of daze as the dragon swoops in and attacks. But as the lightning breath hits and causes further chaos and destruction throughout the camp, some part of her seems to finally come to a decision on what to do. She looks up at the dragon and smiles brightly.

"Oooooh, look! Dragon! Raaarr!" she calls, and skips over to stand beside Meri. Her attention, meanwhile, is on the dragon and she points a scolding finger up at it. "No, no, no..." she says. "You're naughty. Stop the zappy stuff. It's very rude. You shouldn't be rude..."

She gives a sort of shimmer, but nothing happens to the dragon. Instead, she seems to crackle with a faint hint of lightning herself, part of which then seems to split off and surround Meri in the same fashion. Nym then, almost absently, reaches to her waist and draws out the fang-like dagger she bought so recently at Blackwood Village. She now points this at the dragon and as she does so, a rush of energy courses down Nym's arm and she laughs as a surge of her own lightning energy (this one sort of greenish in colour) launches upward. As it does, Nym gives a sort of flick of her other hand and a tiny speck of ever-changing force, like a seed that can't settle on its colour or material, follows the lightning and streak toward the dragon.

Okay...so first I use my Move action to get to the square just northeast of Meri.
Then a Minor to use Elemental Shift, changing my Wild Soul to, of course, Lightning and sharing that with one adjacent ally (guess who :P). So we now both have Resist 5 Lightning for the rest of the Encounter and since my Wild Soul type has changed, it also means my arcane powers ignore that same amount of Resistance in anyone I attack. I don't know if Mr Dragon has more than Resist 5 Lightning but if he does I have another trick I can use later. Note that Meri only has the Resistance herself, not the ability to ignore it in enemies.
Anyway, that's the Move and the Minor. I'll then trade my Standard for a second Minor to draw my dagger. And then use an Action Point to cast Pinning Bolt. Doing so means I can also trigger Seed of Chaos, which will resolve after the attack.
So...attack roll for Pinning Bolt is...dun dun dun...hmm, okay, a not-terrible 23 vs Ref. If that hits, a rather pitiful 13 Lightning damage and Mr Dragon is knocked Prone and is also Slowed till the end of my next turn. Note that the damage calculation does take into account the fact that I'm using the dagger instead of the staff (which has an extra +1 damage bonus I remembered not to add on here ;)).
And then Seed of Chaos triggers (regardless of whether or not Pinning Bolt hit)...I roll a d6 and depending on the result either I will have a nice thing happen to me or Mr Dragon will have some kind of debuff...okay so I rolled a 4. What does that mean...Ha, cool, Mr Dragon now grants Combat Advantage till the end of my next turn. It doesn't specify he only grants it to me so go go go everyone, enjoy your +2 to hit plus any other bonuses you may get for having CA over someone :D.
Aaaand that's my turn. Woot! Stuff! :D

[Private to GM: I have slightly tweaked the wording for Slaad's Gambit in my character sheet to make it more clear - I'd logged into the Char Builder to check someone else and thought to check. I may have a problem triggering it, though, sinc Mr Dragon is currently more than five squares away. Unless he's about to fall down, of course >:). But if he does attack me and he is within five squares at the time, I will teleport so that I'm around a different side of him to where I am now, but not near anyone else, if possible. If I can teleport across to the other side without being inside the auraa or whatever that is, that'd be cool. But I can only teelport my Speed, so that might be an issue ;). Note that Slaad's Gambit does trigger before the attack against me is rolled (that was part of what I checked when I looked it up).
Phew! That was a turn and a half! Think I've done everything right, remembered all the little bits and pieces, and amended my sheet accordingly. Hopefully ;).]
This message was last edited by the player at 10:28, Sun 25 Mar 2018.

The dragon roars, perhaps more in surprise and anger than pain, though it is clear Nym's power has an affect.

The lighting crackles around the dragon's wings in dancing mockery, entangling and spiking the creature. It can't, for a moment, keep flying, and jolts down to the ground.

The guards below it gasp and duck, and the dragon smashes in to the ground with a crashto the earth. Thereis a collective gasp rom everyone else, as the once impressive dragon is left scrambling on the ground, tormented by the lightning it supposidly was master of, and frustratedly trying to regain its footing from where it has been humbled.


Oooh, very nice set of moves there! The dragon does have lightning resistance, and unfortunately it is higher than 5. Still, it's now 5 less, which is not nothing. Also sadly, its fly speed means that when the prone condition hits it just safely descends without fall damage, and so Nevermind, the slow condition should take effect first. Its speed is reduced to 2, so it will fall 3 squares, take falling damage (only 1d10, but it's not nothing), and therefore actually falls prone! And being prone, it may or may not lose part of its first 'free' action next round. Not too shabby! Oh, it granting combat advantage and also being slowed absolutely does not hurt either!

More importantly though, you've focused its attention on you, and also probably rallied all the guards that otherwise might have, you know, run away because you didn't reassure them about the mythical dragon. Still, maybe now they can spot why you weren't worried about it :P

So Meri, it's in the same position just on the ground and entangled in some guards (unless otherwise stated in your powers, you can aim to miss them). It is granting combat advantage for +2 to hit (melee or not thanks to Nym), but will have +2 to its defenses against ranged attacks unless you are adjacent to it.

[Private to Nym: As you can see you did knock it out of the sky to be within 5, and tanked agro. So yeah, most likely the gambit will trigger! 6 squares is still enough to put you at about 8 o'clock around it, so i presume this is ok?]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Sun 25 Mar 2018.

OOC: Yep, I had a feeling she was gonna change something.  My first attack was going to be a ranged one :)
Okies, slight tactical change, let's see if it actually does have any Thunder resist...


As the dragon dives, Meri's eyes widen slightly as if she saw something odd in the sky again.
She raised her staff instinctively at the lightning assault, sparks cascading along the metal.  Drawing back the weapon, she prepared to strike out, a crackling silvery arc of energy spiralling around the length of the staff, from one of the tips to the other.
Nym's attack got there first though, and she seemed to change her mind, allowing the gathering energy to dissipate in a shower of silver sparks.

While the dragon is occupied trying to right itself again, she half-turned to look back at Many waving a hand and beckoning to her pack, while on her shoulder, Timur helpfully undid the flap, holding it open for the beholder to fly into in an obvious invitation.

Turning her attention back to the floored dragon, Meri drew back her staff again, a rumbling crackling purple energy gathering around it.
Instead of aiming this at the dragon though, she pointed the staff towards Stark, sending a beam of purple energy towards him.  This wrapped around him and exploded outwards with a loud crash of thunder in the dragon's general direction.

Without waiting to see if that attack struck home, Meri spun her staff around to point the other end downwards at the ground.
The small metallic rune-etched bands around it clicked open, exposing blue crystalline components inside.  These began to glow ominously with the same purple energy, growing brighter and forming into drifting patterns vaguely reminiscent of arcane runes around the staff.
Quickly, Meri jabbed the staff down at her feet, releasing a surge of the purple energy which enveloped her, leaving a purple aura whirling around her, emitting a cracking and faint rumbling like a storm cloud.

"He's under my protection" she called out to the dragon.  "You get one warning.  Leave here and live!"


OOC: Okies, rolling out the scary intimidating display early on here :)
First attack is a Thundering Armour use on Stark (Assuming he's the "St" adjacent north of the dragon, if not, I'll edit the name).
Gives him +1 AC till the end of Meri's next turn and smacks the dragon with a thunder attack:
Attack: 29 (18 + 9 + 2) vs. Fortitude
Damage: 13 (8 + 5) (Thunder damage) + Push effect, aimed 1 square southwest - Wooo, max damage too :)  Hadn't used that d8 in months, must have been saving that up!

Then spending an AP to use Thunderclap Armour on Meri until the end of the encounter.
Gives her resist 5 thunder, and any enemy ending its turn adjacent to her gets 5 thunder damage right in the face.  Also unlocks the Thunderclap Armour at-will attack, giving me a much-needed extra weapon :)

Also, giving the dragon a little bit of advice! ;)
(Not sure if it can even understand her, but, oh well, at least she can say she tried to warn it off now...)

Will also trigger 'Trip the Trap' if it moves adjacent to Meri at any point.

Just checking, even if an attack does no damage due to resistance, do any effects from that attack still apply?  Like Static Shock's damage penalty or Lightning Sphere's combat advantage.

EDIT: Added in the +2 from Combat Advantage :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Trying to signal to Many to hide in her pack now too :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:10, Mon 26 Mar 2018.

Yes, effects will still trigger as long as the attack hit. If the damage is resisted that's okay as long as the other effects weren't dependent on damage being done (I don't think I've ever come across a power yet where that was the case). So if I'd had low enough damage on my Pinning Bolt that it had all been resisted, the dragon would still have been knocked Prone and Slowed.
You seem to have forgotten to add on the +2 to your attack roll against Mr Dragon - don't forget he is currently granting CA to everyone. So your 27 vs Fort was actually a 29 ;). I should probably lay out breakdowns of my roll totals as well but I keep forgetting in between switching through about three different windows when composing my posts. Still, that's easily less than half the number of windows I have open when hosting combat in my own game :O.

[Private to GM: Regarding the Slaad's Gambit, since Meri has now shoved Mr Dragon southwest I suppose it's better to teleport to be directly south of him instead now, since going northwest will put me only a few squares away from those other guys up there. Oh, also, the specific trigger for it is when I am hit by an attack, so I suppose you would still roll to hit and then I only blip away if you roll enough to hit me (but before you roll damage or apply any other "on hit" effects). I was a bit thrown off by the fact it says "Before the attack, teleport your speed". Maybe that refers to the attack that I make. Either way, he can't hit me unless he has a big boom AE that can hit both my starting and finishing square. So I definitely don't want to end up in that aura-circle-thingy ;).]

As Nym said, as long as the attack hits, damage isn't important by default for any other effects on a hit. Also note, that a power that has a separate 'effect' line as well as a hit line has that effect always trigger.

Wow, so poor dragon, being slowed limits it to 2 squares, being prone limits it to half movement too... it's not really going many places until it can shrug some stuff off!


To match Nym's lightining, Meri had called the thunder. Stark did not know how to react when the thunder aura surrounded him, and only as the struggling dragon was exploded backwards by the magic - and Meri herself surrounded herself with the same force - did Stark understand.

Seeing the two powerful mages standing side by side defiant at the dragon, and seeing the dragon itself snarl and spit lighting helplessly against the arcane retribution galvanised the town guards.

Gibb had changed direction in more panic as the dragon had fallen and moved around, but came to a bewildered standstill as he realised the dragon was being battered by Meri and Nym. He even laughed at the sight, though still half in terror.

Across the way Desmine had hastily tried to bandage Elias. The man waved his fellow guard away, gesturing to the fallen retainers as he rushed to young Gibb's side, putting himself in harm's way.

Desmine meanwhile scrambled to Nym's side - yelling at the two injured retainers to get up and get behind the cushions as Samel had done. Mortified, Samel at least helped pulled her kin Darasee across, while the guard Desmine had managed to recover a halberd on her hasty rushing, and used the butt to push Sirrecco over.

Desmine then gave a taut nod in Nym's direction, fumbling her halberd as she looked to the dragon in determination.

Beside Maggrath, the two injured guards pulled the cook away from the burning carcass to check on her, while the other two guards - the odd twins - rushed forwards. It seemed that halberds were the preferred weapon for wagon guarding - allowing reach across to attackers - and so the twins managed to stay back and viciously stabbed at the creature. One hit only scale, but the other managed to bite in to a wing's membrane, digging in.

The creature bellowed again, sepentine neck swishing left and right and maw snapping at nothing with sparks flying. However, with a powerful movement of tangled wings the creature attempted to free itself from both its fall and its foes.

The buffetting of air was enough to knock back everyone close - the twins, Elias, and a bemused Stark who had stood still even as Jessah and Sarah had rushed passed him to grab the weapons. Jessah had attempted to put a halberd in to the man's hand when he had been knocked sideways on to the pillows, and her eye rolling at him standing around doing nothing had widened to confusion.

However, the dragon took the moment of confusion to reorient itself. Finding the direction of those that had humbled it, it did not show that it had understood Meri's words at all, but perhaps her stance as a challenge. It spat another gob of lighting at her that exploded at the ground right by her instead, and once more there were cries of pain and terror.

The dragon then rolled itself painfully to its powerful feet. The twins tried to move for their weapons quickly. The less successful of the two had one small piece of fortune, when his hesitation in grabbing his weapon saved him from the dragon's claw as it smashed down on the earth around the halberd. Unfortunately, he tried to take advantage of the situation and pull the halberd from between the dragon's toes, and his hand was torn open on a talon as the creature flicked its arms clear.

The other twin was more successful, grabbing for his own halberd and feeling nothing but the nashing jaws of clanging off the armour of his back.


While the dragon was distracted though, the reminder of its might was still echoing in the explosion at the camp.

Many had luckily taken to Meri's promting with all haste, aided by Farren as the revenant realised what Meri was doing. Unfortunately, though Many escaped it time, it left Farren compltely unprepared for the explosion. He tumbled backwards, barely covering his face as lighting blew him backwards.

Sarah, too, had been caught out by Jessah stopping and Stark's fall. She too was blown backwards, wounded greatly - though both Jessah and Stark were caught in the blast, and could not help their friend from crying out at their own agony.

Desmine at least saw the blast coming, the guard twisted to try and escape the worst of it, grunting in pain as the lighting earhted itself along her armoured back. However, Sirrecco has instinctively raised himself in indignation, all thoughts of the dragon forgotten in his fall. The expression on his face would have been comical in another time, but instead it was transformed in to a contorted mask as he was slammed painfully backwards again to writhe on the grass.

Darasee had it worst though. Samel's hesitation meant the woman was still clambering over the cushions, and indeed was almost being held aloft in to the blast. Samel was thrown backwards as her elder kin was taken full force by the lighting and spun like a rag doll in its wicked thorns. Darasee didn't even scream, blacked out - or worse - by the pain. It was Samel instead, physically unhurt - who screamed all the louder.

Farren scrambled over to the body, as if some instinct was in him. He looked to Samel helplessly. "Help me help her!" he yelled through bloodied lips. Samel didn't understand at first, and Farren simply gripped Darasee's head, as if willing the dying woman to come back to life. A moment more, and Samel understood and scrambled across, muttering hurried words in a foreign tongue. Still, whatever she had done, Darasee's body jerked and her eyes flew open.


Across the clearing. Geekaar finally seemed to be shaken out of his pause. And also, it seemed he was also shaken in to acting. With a dismissive wave, he gestured for two of his guards to go across to the injured retainers. And with that, he pulled on his remaining to guards to continue falling back.


As for Nym, the moment the blast struck the ground near Meri, the wild mage simply...vanished...


Whew. Lots happening. Look at the map if you don't believe me!
/games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1522092549


Too many NPCs, not enough good dice rolls to start killing them all. Yet. Ok, fine, I rolled two crits one of which killed an NPC but then I rolled some really terrible low rolls against the twins who should have been torn apart. So it's actually not fair all things considered. Especially as Farren can just go do a proper Heal on an NPC, even an NPC without healing surges and get them alive again. :(

Anyway, Nym avoided damage this turn for ... reasons. Meri, you will take 12hp damage (should be 17) unless you can beat a 20 versus Reflexes (I don't believe you can, but maybe you can get another +3 from somewhere), in which case you'd only take 3 (should be 8)!

You've actually pinned the dragon quite effectively this turn, and its taken quite a bit of damage, all told. Keep it up before it gets wise to your tricks!


[Private to Nym:
Since Meri hasn't moved, you are free to work out where you would teleport to, and just tell me where you start.]

When the lightning hits, it's almost as if Nym's magic reacts before she does - she sort of half-glances toward the dragon and gives a little squeak as the lightning streaks toward her...but then in a faint swirl of colour she is gone, reappearing on the other side of the dragon from where she had been standing, Ryn still on her shoulder. As she appears, the swirl of energy which apparently caused her teleportation then condenses briefly into a ball of translucence, a wavering in the air not entirely dissimilar to that of the way the air ripples in the heat. But then it suddenly snaps out, like a lash of intangible force acting almost of its own accord as it whips toward the dragon's head.

Slaad's Gambit attack roll...hmm, 19 vs Will. If that hits, 18 Psychic damage. If not, 9 Psychic damage (since it's halved on a miss). Also, Nym teleported six squares away, so I'll have her go straight diagonal southeast which puts her on the pale square just outside the dragon's aura-circle-thingy, directly south of whomever is the circle marked "2" on the map.
So that was my out-of-turn action, taking an Immediate Interrupt on the dragon's turn since he tried to attack me. So there goes another Daily but it was worth it to not get horribly zapped, I think ;). Are there any more turns to go or shall I post my next move now?

Note, the aura is round just to give a general feel for it while looking ok. This is fourth edition, so you need to square those corners off if you want to really think about the area it can effect with... a thing.

Actually, you've already seen it. If it gets whacked with a melee attack, it can buffet you all down with its wings in the 6 x 6 area around it :)


Anyway, yes, the dragon has taken the rest of its turns (I sort of had you reappearance delayed to speed things along) as has anyone else in turn order (which is just Geekaar, his guards, and Farren. So go ahead!
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:17, Tue 27 Mar 2018.

Okay, cool. Let's see what else I can hit the bugger with (did Slaad's Gambit hit, btw?)...
[Private to GM: Oh, something else I noticed in my sheet that I should mention - if I get hit by a melée attack I can trigger (as an Opportunity Action) the Encounter Power granted by Ryn's current form and deal 5 Poison damage to the attacker. Well, it can trigger if either myself or Ryn is hit, but she's probably gonna be staying Passive for the whole fight so doesn't count ;). So if Mr Dragon does manage to land a melée hit on me then he can take that as a free hit from me (no attack roll needed, from the looks of things) :D.]

Nym dances back a little, laughing as she puts a little more distance between herself and the blue-scaled menace. She seems almost oblivious to the danger of the situation and seems to stroke the dagger through the air as she spins in a circle, leaving a faint line of light which shimmers for a moment and then seems to ripple inward with a brief flash before it dulls to a faint sort of shimmering, multi-coloured glow which seems to both clash and harmonise with the faint crackle of protective lightning that she had previously conjured around herself.

She finishes the spin facing the dragon once again, and channels another huge surge of power, this time along both arms as she holds the dagger in two hands, pointing it straight outward at the dragon. She giggles as the energy ripples forth, building at the very tip of the dagger into a large, swirling ball of multicoloured light which seems to reach some kind of critical mass before shooting forth toward the changeling's foe.

"Wheeeeeeee!!" she laughs, watching the orb shoot through the air, changing colour and form as it goes before apparently settling on one right before the point of impact.

Woo, more Dailies! So, first I'll move away a bit more, let's say a couple more squares southwest (sorry, I just realised I said in the previous post that she teleported southeast - I meant southwest, oops!) and then a couple west.
Then I'll burn Chaotic Defense (Minor Action), which requires a d4 roll - on a 1-3 I get a specific bonus, on a four I get all three bonuses! Sooo, let's dig out a d4 and see what I get...woot, I rolled a 4! So, I gain 2d6+4 Temp HP (will roll in a sec), +2 to all defences till the end of the Encounter and each creature that attacks me takes 2d6 damage till the end of the Encounter. It doesn't say for that last one exactly when the damage is dealt (ie before or after any attack/damage rolls are made) but it's some more free damage against Mr Dragon if (or more likely, when ;)) he decides to go for me...
So, I'll roll my Temp HP...okay, two threes, so that's a total of 10 with the +4 :). I've made the necessary annotations to my sheet in case you need to check them, adding in the Temp HP and also the additions to my defences (only my Forst is below 20 right now, that's ridiculous...but necessary in this particular fight, I feel ;)). Not sure how you want to manage the automatic damage hits that will go off if I get attacked - I can roll some in advance or something?
Anyway, that was just my Minor action. Still got my Standard, and in case it wasn't obvious from the narrative description I'm using the wonderful Chromatic Orb :D. So let's see if I can get a nice big attack roll with this so I get some extra effect from whatever element I roll (and hopefully not roll Lightning since I know he'll resist some of it even though I ignore five points of it).
Attack roll...here we go...hmm, 20 (12+8) vs Ref. Normally I'd be quite happy that that was a hit but since I know this guy is fast I suppose it may not be. If I did hit, that'll be 32 damage (10+9+4+9), or 13 on a miss. Now to roll a d6 to see the specific damage type...okay, rolled a 2, that's "Red", so Fire damage (again? Aaww). So if the attack roll was a hit, the damage is Fire and also deals 4 Fire damage to everyone adjacent to the dragon...which looking at the map is no-one, thankfully ;). If I missed then it just deals the miss damage and no extra effect. Bah, that's about the most boring damage type I could've rolled against this guy, given the various status effects and stuff I could inflict with, like, pretty much all of the others (as long as the attack actually hit, I mean). Oh well. Burn, you scaly blue bastard!

Oooh, and I just realised, I've been forgetting my Chaos Burst - depending on whether my first attack roll on each of my turns is odd or even, I get a thing. So since the Chromatic Orb roll was a 20 that's even so I get +1 AC till the start of my next turn (which I won't write on the sheet since it's not lasting for the whole rest of the combat). Must also remember Unfettered Power if I ever crit or botch, too. It's been so long since we fought something, I'm forgetting all the cool stuff I can do, and that's without all the extra stuff I've added to my toybox since our last battle :D.
Right, what else was there...oh yeah, since I'm ending my turn now, the Slowed condition and the granting of CA will now wear off Mr Dragon (booooo). Hopefully we can wreck him soon because I think I've now blown all my best attacks.

[Private to GM: So noted! Aren't all these powers fun :)]

The psychic attack did indeed hit, as did the Chromatic Orb! That's some nice damage being stacked on here!

I'll ask you for rolls at the time when I need them. Flavourwise I have no idea how they are trying to spin a defense that damages someone even if they shoot at you with a ranged attack half a map away. I'll just say they hear the noise right by them if they focus on you for an attack.


And wait, you haven't reduced his resistance by 5, you personally just ignore 5, right? Not sure why I thought anything different.


Anyway, map hasn't changed, and I reckon Meri you can go next - the other NPCs will be waiting after Nym's display to see what you do :p