In case it matters, the 4hp hit I took from the nothic was enough to knock me into Bloodied status. Really glad I thought of using Elemental Shift, holy shit, otherwise I'd be on 8hp right now...
Oh yeah, and the Thunder damage thingy that Meri gave me earlier, if I remember rightly deals five points of Thunder damage to any enemy ending its turn adjacent to me, which so far hasn't happened.

Nym shakes her head as though trying to clear it of the various effects that keep assaulting it, stepping on slightly wobbly legs to stand close to the Trickster. She is giggling faintly to herself and unleashes another fiery blast at every nearby enemy she can reach.

Moving north two squares to M16 and unleashing another Burning Spray on the 3x3 grid to my northwest so as to hit all three bad guys there and none of my allies :).

Attack rolls (all vs Ref)...
F1 = 24
F3 = Botch...
N1 = 15
Blighty stuff in square K13 = 24

Damage = 14 fire (or 16 Fire to any Bloodied targets)

First attack roll was odd so for the first time so far in this entire game I actually get to make the Saving Throw it grants me, as I actually have an effect on me that a save can end...woo, 11 :D.

And I botched, soooo...unless I use the coin effect O do now have th Push everyone within five squares of me one square...hrmmm...okay, yeah, I'll do that...so let's do the following (assuming all targets in question are still actually alive ;))...

Eastern nothic that's not marked on the map can go east
Trickster can also go east
Fume F3 can go west
Nothic N1 can go northwest
Fume F1 can go north

That should give Meri's construct a tiny bit more manoeuvrability this turn :D.
Aaand I think I'm done :D.

The miasma in front of the visible one eyed horror explodes in fire by Nym's actions, causing Meri's carefully delivered summoned thunderous discharge to blow the miasma clear and leave nothing between the horror and the attack. The thing is staggered backwards by a combination of Nym's explosive magic venting itself in the aggressive assault, and Meri's own magical blast.

The little pinpoint of light that had been in the fog winks out of existance with an answering explosion. It seemed direected towards Nym, it's attacker, but the strands dissipate harmlessly by the time they arrive at the sorcerer.

However, the second pinpoint of light in the miasma grows brighter and more powerful. At the urging of the one eyed horror, the miasma heads directly for Nym, wrapping its tendrils of fog directly around Nym. There are dancing patterns of flame, and once more the fog tries to make Nym feel the burning death she inflicted upon the blight. There are some sparks and a blue glow, and Meri's magic tries to interfere, crackling and slicing throw the fog and severing what tendrils it can.

The first fume - before you blew it up Nym! - had an effect to give 5 damage to anything that attacked it. Since you have five resistance, then... that means nothing :D However, the other 'fume' is now attacking you directly for the first time. It rolled a hit, and so even with the resistance, you take 5 psychic damage. Still, it will take 5 thunder damage in return. Well, maybe a little less. You know, insubstantial and everything...

Meri, Nym went first and blew up the fume, so I redirected the attack to the nothinc 1. I assume that's ok? So It's now bloodied and angry, but most importantly very bloodied :D

Meanwhile, the explosion of power that had struck the horror near Meri seemed to startled it. It had just released itself from the residue of Nym's magic, and for the first time hesitated in its action. It appeared that it couldn't work its will as easily on Timur nor the construct, and so once it thrust the miasma towards Nym, it made its own move towards Meri, claws outstretched... if it had claws. Despite the lack of fog now, the creature seemed difficult to focus on. Which was worrying, given the speed of its moves towards the artificer!

The second horror also seemed startled that Nym had shrugged off its mental influence so easily, especially at its ability to remove itself from other's view seemed to rely upon using Nym's own magic against her. The creature hesitated for a moment too, but seeing the link could not be restored, the thing stalked away.


By the blight pillar, the Teachers seemed to realise that the battle was perhaps not going as they had first thought. Two of them continued the ritual, while two others looked towards the fighting. One began chanting in a strange tongue, while the other began gesturing towards the centre of the combat area...


Yay, one evil fume wisp thingie dead, one making the mistake of engaging Nym directly in combat to go! Also, both nothics seem to be worried, one running away and one making a mad dash for Meri. So that's good.

Don't worry about the teachers, I'm sure they're just pointing out to each other how cool you are, just, you know, in weird alien ways...

So, both nothics failed in their new mental assaults, so both have concealment for -2 to attacks this turn. And nothic 2 is no longer invisible to Meri, etc, but is currently behind cover that blocks line of sight, so you'd have to blast around him or go fetch. HE failed a stealth roll, so you both know which of the two squares he's on. The fume 3 is insubstantial but otherwise can be splatted like anything else.

Map here: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1475866546

Wow, I'm so glad I changed my resistance or that last hit would've downed me :O. Hmm, can the Trickster try and finish that fume off with a flanking attack before I take my turn? He shares his Initiatve with me, right? That would free me up a bit...although even if that fume wasn't there I wouldn't be able to get within line of sight of any of the Teachers due to the obstacles blocking the view...hrmmm...pity I can't teleport. We really need to get over and stop whatever those buggers are doing, but whatever I do this turn I'm not gonna be able to get to a place where I can see them.
Well, for now, can the Trickster still try to attack that fume before I do anything since he acts on the same turn as me? He might be able to finish it off so we might as well exploit the Flanking bonus he's currently getting...

The Trickster can attack, but won't be able to kill he fume this turn no matter the damage he rolls. So make your move assuming that critter won't go away.

While you can certainly try to stop the Teachers, remember things don't stop when they die. The nothics are normal creatures and part of the cult, and the blight carries on being 'alive' once empowered, so you still have three critters to deal with one way or another on this side of the battlefield.

As this is the last battle, you might expect you are getting @1000XP worth of challenge one way or another, so don't stretch yourself too thin or stress trying to be clever and finish them off quickly. They might be less powerful than the threats they can summon, but they are also more numerous just now so mght take more time (and hp) to take down. Dealing effectively and aggressively with their tactics and allies is possibly a better strategy - even if you're dealing with larger chunks of XP as a threat - to wear them out, rather than rushing to them, having new threats going off anyway, and being flanked between old and new dangers.

Also Meri has many leader type thingies that you can't get access too if you leave her behind.

Hmm yeah...I just feel like the longer we spend messing around with the other things, the more time we're giving to the Teachers to finish their ritual or whatever they're doing that's probably gonna summon some kind of horrible boss thingy or something, which will just make things even worse when we're getting pretty battered as it is...hmm well, might as well go for what I can hit, then...

Despite looking increasingly the worse for wear from the various attacks being aimed her way, Nym seems almost oblivious as she unleashes another burst of fire in front of her (this time, the flames seem to be a weird shade of brown with little greenish flickers).

Okay, so seeing how I'm in a flanking position for the first time ever on this character, I'll take advantage of the +2 as I chuck yet another Burning Spray into the 3x3 grid immediately noth of me (so as to catch fume F3 but miss the Trickster). That's also gonna catch a couple of Blighted squares as an added bonus...

Attack rolls (vs Ref)
Fume F3 = 16 (including +2 for CA)
Square M14 = 25
Square M13 = 15

First base attack roll was odd so no AC bonus.
Damage roll = 16 Fire (or 18 if Bloodied).

Then, if the fume is still there, I'll Shift one square north.
If it isn't, I'll move four squares northwest so as to be in position to deal with that nothic next turn if Meri hasn't finished it off, or move toward the Teachers if she has :D.

Sorry, I just checked and teacher 2 is only being blocked by yellow stuff, which is partial cover. Only the red squares block LOS, and you can shoot them too to get rid of them. But I still feel the resources needed to instantly kill teachers are better used insta killing their summons :) Especially now you know the attack roll you would have had!

Still, if you want to reroll your attack against the teacher or reposition go ahead. I hadn't appreciated you were counting the yellow blocks as full cover.

Meri glanced back towards Nym and then back to the one-eyed creature stalking her.
Grinning at it, she raised a finger.
"Hang on, be with you in a minute" she said to it before turning and darting back towards Nym's position, circling halfway around the Construct before stopping.

Once there, she triggered another release of blue mist from her staff, which coiled around Nym, seeping into her wounds and closing up the worst of them...


OOC: Moving to J15 and using healing infusion on Nym.  (Regain healing surge value + 4 HP) :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Not too sure whether the combined attacks of Nym and the Trickster will be enough to destroy that fume (or if she's targeting the Teacher instead).
If the fume is still there on Meri's turn, she'll use Thunderclap Armour to cause that thunder shield around Nym to flare up and blast it.
Dice rolls for that if used:
Attack: 20 (13 + 7) vs. AC
Damage: 11 (6 + 5) (thunder damage) + target gets pushed 2 squares away from Nym on a hit.
(Not sure if that attack benefits from Nym's flanking bonus here, since it technically originates from her square).

If the fume is dead by then though, she'll use her standard on Total Defence to try and block any attacks the Nothics or Teachers aim her way for now while hopefully drawing the Nothic into a less concealed position if it still tries to follow her.
(Total Defence boosts all defences by 2 for that turn if I read it right?  Been studying D&D combat tactics a bit more lately due to getting my butt kicked too often! :)
Flavour-text-wise, I imagine it visually as a kind of weaker non-damaging version of the thunderclap armour that emits from her staff as she tries to parry and deflect attacks with it)

Forgot to mention before, but she'll activate "Trip the Trap" if any enemy moves adjacent to her.]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 13:05, Sat 08 Oct 2016.

Don't forget the woundpatch effect when receiving healing! And Meri, I forgot about it when you healed yourself, so retcon its effect if you wanted it.

[Private to Meri: The concealment on Nothic 1 is because of its powers, not because of its positioning. same with nothic 2, it has superior cover, it has partial concealment from a failed combat power use - as well as all the cover/concealment from being behind the red thing ie :)

Total defense is good, don't forget your second wind grants you the same bonus and also lets you use a healing surge... though I don't think you'd want to use that yet, give I think you healed up well enough.

And fair enough on the trip the trap - go ahead of roll that, it will be the nothic's intention to go after you with its claws unless you are too far away.]

OOC: Well not quite injured enough to use a Woundpatch on myself there.  But will use one on Nym just now (is that mine or one of her own that gets used up there?)


[Private to The Altweaver: Rolls for Trip the Trap:
Attack: 23 (15 + 4 + 2 + 2) vs. Reflex
Damage: 8 (4 + 4) + Target grants Combat Advantage till end of Meri's next turn on a hit.

Using up all my dice karma over here.  Thinking either Kaelynn or Swift Fox might be in for a rough time in their next battles...

Didn't know Second Wind had a defensive bonus.  Since I'm out of infusions now though, I'm saving that for when I REALLY need it...]
This message was last edited by the player at 13:49, Sat 08 Oct 2016.

One of hers unless you were beside her.

[Private to Meri: Yeah, second wind is like the 'you've made me bleed my own blood, grrr' kinda puase in the fight where you get me kick ass. Or just you're on the back foot for and taking a moment to recover. But either way, a cool secondary benefit for giving up ypur standard action to heal!]

I don't have any Woundpatch stuff marked on my sheet - either I never took any or I did but forgot to add it. Still, at least I get Healing Surge value +4hp back from the Infusion without needing to spend a Surge, so that's pretty cool :D. That puts me back up to 27/42 so I'm no longer Bloodied :).
Regarding my own combat roll, I had indeed been thinking that the yellow stuff blocked line-of-sight. But even if I had known that, I've still got to get rid of this Fume that's in my face and may as well take advangate of the Flanking bonus while I'm at it, so my actions this turn will stand. I'll decide next turn whether to help Meri with the nothic (if it's still there) or head up to mess with the Teachers. Since the other nothic is milling about behind obstacles whre I can't get it for now, I may as well ignore it till it actually comes out rather than wasting turns trying to run around to a spot where I can actually hit the bugger. I feel like it's always going to be less of a threat than whatever the Teachers are trying to conjure up, given that they're needing several turns in order to complete said conjuring, so getting over there and kicking the crap out of them before they can finish would seem to be something of a priority ;).

OOC: Ah yeah, checking back, I made 5 of them, and Goodwin and Celindara each took one, and I still have 3 in my inventory.
Can always use one on you if you're in a situation when you need to use Second Wind then if we can co-ordinate that well enough :)

Feeling a little wary of ending my turn too close to Nym though... Can't think why...  ;)

No, don't encourage Nym to run off more!

And there's an interesting thing when you say the hiding nothic being less of a threat than something the Teachers can conjure up...

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/8e...b9aea49534dba42c.jpg

Also, feel free to retcon having the woundpatch. I did advise you to take it when we discussed your healing options, and didn't realise you'd ignored that.

The Trickster had perhaps not been his old self, clearly taking the threat of the Teachers and their unfun perversion of nature to heart. Still, when he bit down on the glowing centre of the miasma, he sucked it all up, then spat it out on to the ground where it looked decidedly less floaty and menacing. Though it only seemed partially the worse for wear.

Nym's spray of flame once more burned both blight and miasma, not fully destroying it but reducing it. Still, it started spinning the rising mist to restore itself. Then Meri came along, and though her actions all seemed centred upon Nym, one of them produced a shockwave of lighting that blasted the miasma across the battlefield. It tried to strike a weak tendril back across at Nym, but it seemed as if its spark was all but gone. Finally the mist that had been around the battlefield disappeared as the pinpoint of light twirled, pulling all the material it could towards itself, growing vibrant and small.

That little thing took a lot of damage, but it's all but dead and... well, you'll see. Anyway, so the Trickster didn't do too much damage, but did knock it 'prone', and Meri blew it away from Nym. Oh, and lots of damage - even if halved - also happened. So yeah, consider it dead, even though for the moment it's sitting coalescing and waiting for the end, really. And you'll get full XP for the kill, you won't have to share any with The Trickster over it.

The one eyed horror seemed shocked at Meri's cheeky action when she ran away, and stalked with sure footed malice towards her, seeking to strike her the moment her attention was diverted. Of course, Meri was not one to leave herself vulnerable, and the moment the creature got within striking range an explosion of blue signalled the tripping of one of her small traps. The thing missed with the swiped claw, and hobbled backwards crippled and clearly very injured.

Yay! Nothic 1 is now very close to dead, and is also granting combat advantage. Also, I laughed quite louding at the 'just one minute' bit :)

Anyway, now to stop being cryptic regarding the whole teacher / nothic stuff...


Across the battlefield, the twin actions of the closest two Teachers were coming to a close. The one of the right, chanting strange ever more echoing words, reached up in to its face, and pulled deep inside. Its skull - the creature that the Teacher truly was was - was pulled free by that bifuricated arm and held aloft as if to be visible to something high in the sky. The ruins of a blight mouth, and its true skeletal mouth, then spoke loudly in a few final words. [Secret to Meri: Meri's ears caught the last one, uttered in a chilling tone, all to well. Tharizdun. The name The Shadow gave its evil twin. The name in the crumbling book.]

With one final, swift action, the Teacher's clawed hands then crushed its own tiny body. There was a baleful scream as the body of the sacrificed teacher and the ruins of its tiny true body fell dead and inert. But the scream had not come from the Teacher, nor its comrade. Instead the scream came from where the second one eyed horror had disappeared. Behind the mound of blight, a ruby red fire exploded then faded in black smoke. The Teacher had given its life to summon.... something...

However, the strange horror of that distracted from the second Teacher. It did not seem to care about the death of its fellow, and carried on silently gesturing. Only as it took to the air on gosimer threads of blight, and was pulled across the battlefield by others, was its destination apparent. One of the small islands near Nym started to shift and compress in to itself. The top sloughed in to the central mass, and the edges pulled back in to the whole. The bulb of blight pulsated as the teacher flew close, and then suddenly at its final urging it formed a giant spike that struck the teachers body. As the body jerked, the little white skull emerged. Not dead this time, the small skull eagerly burrowed in to the spike, and soon it and the thin white tendrils of its underside vanished. The spike curled up, as if to consume the old body, oozing around it and absorbing it. Then the spike sprang up again. For a moment it did nothing but undulated as if caught by a breeze.

So, umm, yeah. Two teachers are dead. Well, one is, the other one melded with a huge blight spike that's currently on the map near Nym. The spike is about 20 feet tall if not more, you know, as if were it to fall over it would hit around 2 - 4 squares around it. So up to you if you keep that area around it clear or not next turn :p

And oh yes, what did that first Teacher do...

To distract from that, there was another blood curdling scream from behind the area the one eyed horror had disappeared behind. This one seemed less pained, and more... jubilant?

A black, taloned and clumsy arm slapped on the top of the mount, and then another, and with odd ease the mindwarping creature emerged to stand tall on top. Its brown trunk like skin was blacked and blistered, red glows visible beneath some of the joints. Its single eye was blood shot and glowing red too. A tiny mouth, perhaps hidden before, was now permanently open in a sloppy, slavering grin. Wisps of true black, thick smoke wafted from it as it breathed and looked down on the battlefield.

With casual ease it leapt down in to the midst of its foes. Everywhere it looked, the single eye seemed to burn in to the brain of the watcher. Whereas before the other horror had tried to find the fears of those it looked to, this one seemed content to inflict the dark joy of its new power on its foes. The Trickster seemed particulrly attuned to divine powers, and so the corrupted blessing the one eyed horror enjoyed sent The Trickster staggering backwards, snarling and shaken.

Timur lost control of the construct for a moment, and it staggered backwards from the creature. Even Nym's eyes were forced to water in sympathy, and a dizziness hit her that caused her to stumbled backwards closer to the blight spike the teacher had formed.

The horror turned its full attention to Meri, and she seemed to be hit as badly as The Trickster. Perhaps it was the closeness of the other creature she had wounded. It seemed to take the empowerment of its fellow in stride, and amplified the assault on Meri's senses with its own glare...

[Secret to Meri: The dark joy hit Meri's psyche hard, and a face was full in her view. However, it was not the one eyed horror's face, and the dark joy was not an attack. It seemed an answering joy in Meri, and the red flame burned blue in her mind. The face was The Shadow's face, only it was clearly not his face, for there was the impression of an evil joy that The Shadow had never worn. A black hand lifted up and offered Meri the clear diamond from the portal room. Or perhaps it was asking her to use it? Except it wasn't clear, it was blue due to the flame burning all around it. And its facets were not the facets of a gem, there were the shape of the continents of this world. And Meri knew for certainty she only needed to say the word, speak one simple wish, and The Other would crush the world swiftly in its terrible, immense hand, and offer her the pieces back. She could build the world anew as she saw fit... ]

That bit about the second nothic aiding the attack was flavour only, the nothic 1 missed with its claw attack earlier. Sadly, because that irritating fume was still alive, Meri's plan to turtle up wasn't used, and so I believe 20 hits your will? If so, 8 psychic damage and you're staggered back 2 squares to where you are on the map (that's after the 5 reduction I'm afraid). Nym took half damage, so including reduction that's only 1 hit point damage and pushed 1 square back to an unfortunate space too near that evil teacher spike blight thingie. The only good news is that one of the other level up benefits the nothic got was an action point, but I spend that giving it extra movement to scramble over the rocks and do its big supervillain landing. So that's good. Oh, also you appear tobe surrounding it and its fellow. So that's good too :)

Anyway, so back to that damned fume that you guys deserve to be rid of!

The Trickster was the first to react. He got himself back under control, and as a challenge to the glowing demonic horror, he padded across to the twinkling miasma of blight and snapped it in to its mouth.

There was a moment where the miasma glowed red, and the eye of the horror glowed red too. Its jaw hung slightly lower, and some celebratory saliva dripped from its mouth as it looked with challenge to the wolf.

There was clearly mental and physical pain as the wolf swallowed the demonically empowered blight, the miasma itself having focused itself tightly to a painful point. Still, with a final loud smallow and even louder belch, The Trickster opened its mouth wide to reveal nothing of the blight left. It looked to Meri and Nym and blinked in smug satisfaction.

So I took the liberty of having The Trickster act first and get rid of that thing. Still, between the demonic nothic attack, the fume's psychic backlash at being attacked, and a nasty ability the demonic nothic has to let a dying critter close to it make another attack, The Trickster took quite a bit of damage there. He's not bloodied, but he's closer than I ever expected him to get!

Still, not an issue. Anyway, you've got these two surrounded, one's almost dead, and the blight spike isn't doing anything yet, so probably not an issue. Map here:
/games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476020179

Go do some quick wiping out of evil!

Oh, wait, one last thing...


Over by the final two Teachers, it seemed the ritual was reaching its conclusion too. One of the Teachers stepped back, and in a similar way to the first teacher, began chanting black words ina dark tongue, some supplication.

If Meri had looked across, the reason for the familiarity of the small pillar would have become apparently when a face tried to push out of it at the top. The face had three eyes, two mouths, and was clearly trying to scream. The dark creeper's leader has seemingly found the teachers, and reported of its encounter and failure. And clearly, the Teachers had decided to use the failed leader in ways that its use of a blight-protecting cloak earlier clearly showed must have terrified it. The other teacher did not seem to regard the face with any emotion though. Instead, it wrapped its hands around the pillar as if giving the trapped creature the most sincere and warmest of hugs. And slowly, the teacher's body started to be absorbed in to the blight while the dark creeper's mouths opened wider in terror...

See, nothing to worry about. No teacher / dark creeper combined abomination with demon power being birthed here!

.. good luck ...

Ohh bloody hell, lol...I knew things were gonna kick off if these guys finished their ritual thingy but I didn't realise there was more than one on the go at once :O. Well, at least we did pick to go after these guys ourselves - imagine what would've happened if it had been the wolves or something - they'd probably have been wrecked! Well, let's see what I can do in the meantime...

Nym, after stumbling back from the most recent attack, shakes her head briefly but continues to seem largely oblivious to what's happening, instead clearly enjoying herself as she laughs and giggles to herself, swirling her staff around in the direction of the newly-mutated Nothic as she unleashes some more (now violently pink) fire in its direction, somehow missing the Trickster despite the proximity.

Without really pausing to see whether her latest attack has had any effect, Nym then dances away, the gems in her headpiece glowing ominously as she prances merrily around the large Blight-spire to a spot where she can get some kind of view on the two remaining Teachers.

"Present...I've got a present for you..." she mutters, almost is if to herself, before suddenly raising her voice, and her arms, as a large ball of chaotic energy, constantly swirling and changing, forms and gathers itself at the end of her staff, before with an almost casual flick she sends it on its way, the glowing lights from with each of her headpiece gems merging with it as she does so.

"CATCH THE PRESENT!!!" she bellows. "WHEEEE!!!!"

Right, let's see if I can't deal some hefty damage to some of these bastards...doing quite a bit this turn so I'll try and lay it out nicely...

Burning Spray on nothic N2 (positioned so as not to hit the Trickster, naturally), attack roll = botch. Bleh.
Okay so no damage, obviously, but I have to Push everyone one square. So...
Meri goes west
Construct goes south
N1 goes southeast
N2 goes southwest
Trickster goes southeast

Hmm, oh well. I'll be back to help with those guys after I've had a go at stopping the Teachers.

Move to L8.

Minor action to activate the Daily in my headgear - maximise up to four dice on my next damage roll and empty all seven gems in doing so.

Spend an Action Point to chuck a Chromatic Orb at...hmm, do I risk T3 who has cove and therefore a -2 to hit, or shall I just go for T1...hmm but T3 is doing something dodgy with that...thing with a face, whatever it was. Yesh, I'll risk T3...
Attack roll, including the -2...ooh, 22 vs Ref. Well, that doesn't sound too bad :D. Sooo...let us see what that does...well, the damage total is maximised so that'll be 40 damage (or 15 if I missed), plus the following effect based on the 1d6 I'm about to roll...
Okay, got a 4, that's Turquoise. So the damage type is Lightning and I get to Slide the target four (my Dex Mod) squares...umm, well, can I just shove T3 four squares so he goes off the top of the map? Is there enough space in that direction? There aren't really any handy threats I can shove it into but I suppose Sliding it might break its grip on the Blighty-face-thingy...which is...good, I hope?

...

Holy shit, 40 damage :O.

Yeeaaahhh, eat shit you Blighty tossbags! >:D

Meri stumbled back, catching herself from falling over, but not reacting beyond that.
Her gaze was fixed on the mutated Nothic, her eyes widened as if in shock.

It was Timur who acted instead, regaining control of the Construct and swinging a massive bony fist at the weakened Nothic as they were both jolted and sent reeling by the blast of Nym's power.

The same shockwave seemed to snap Meri at least partially out of whatever trance she had gone into, although she merely backed up a few steps, raising her staff into a defensive position, still watching the mutated creature.
Her movements noticeably lacked the confidence they had possessed only a few moments ago though, and it was clear something had shaken her.

Anyone looking in Timur's direction would have noticed him glance over to her briefly, and one of the Construct's arms made a slight gesture in the direction of Meri as if pointing to something on her...

[Private to The Altweaver: "You're not alone in this world now, remember?"]


OOC: Not to sure if Nym's rearrangement of the battlefield moved Nothic 1 out of the Construct's melee range or not.
If it has, will move it adjacent to Nothic 1 again and attack it:
Attack: 27 (18 + 9) vs. AC
Damage: 11 (5 + 3 + 3)

If the Construct didn't need the move action, I'll use it to move Meri back to D14.


[Private to The Altweaver: If you're curious, the Construct's gesture was Timur trying to point to where Meri's backpack was, reminding her of Many :)]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:19, Mon 10 Oct 2016.

Well that was certainly a spectacular set of actions this turn. Let's resolve them all then do something evil in response, shall we?

After the explosive chaos that was Nym, there seemed to be a pause as everyone worked out what had happened. Had Nym just exploded in to nothing but a wave of force?

For Meri who had been used to Nym, her action was quickest and the lesser horror was caught unawares by a giant skeletal fist simply reaching down to crush it with a giant blow. The demonic horror saw the danger, and somehow with a gesture and hiss it tried to empower its fellow.

The lesser horror tried to push against the huge fist, and there was the sound of some small pops and snaps. The lesser horror glowed red... and then in an instant was crushed in to a brown, sticky mess by the full weight of the blow.

The demonic horror took steps backwards, away from both Meri and the construct. However, if it cared about the death of the other, it did not show it. And its step backwards seemed odd. They were not fearful or cautious, instead they were...expectant? It turned its gaze from its foes, and looked instead towards the tall blight spike. The blight spike that had started to writhe.

So yay, nothic 1 is splatted! The demonic nothic managed to empower the other briefly to make a basic attack when it was dying, but the construct is still very hearty. Still, seems like you might have just traded one foe for another.

Let's wait a moment to reveal that, and see what Nym is doing :D

Although Nym had appeared to the other foes and The Trickster as if she had just exploded, the real explosion was not there. Nym's chromatic orb span and became chaotic lightning. The chanting teacher stopped chanting but otherwise was so shocked by the sudden attack that it had no time to warn its fellow.

The explosive force took the thing full in the side, and it was ripped cleanly away from the small pillar. The creature flailed as it was tossed casually in the air and smashed in to a mound of blight twenty feet away. Both cretaures turned with rage and fear in equal parts to see the sorcerer having come so near, apparently not phased nor distracted by the assaults manufactured by the sacrifice of their fellows. And then their gaze looked passed Nym, and towards the blight spire behind her...

Very nice hit! There's nothing off the map, but you've pushed them three squares away. You would have killed it too (that sort of damage should kill anything normal of your level), except its insubstantial except to psychic damage. So only a 1 in 6 chance of an autokill. Still, it's instantly bloodied, with no cool bloodied powers triggers. You've also disrupted their plans for the next two - three turns, as their going to do something else this turn, then will take a turn to set back up, then another turn to try to finish the ritual. So that's them rendered ineffective for a while.

Anyway, let's go back to that blight spike!

The blight spire started to come alive. The twenty foot monstrocity on top of the bulbous blight mount undulated slowly at first, then begane to dip the tip of itself left and right and backwards and forwards. It seemed as it if was trying to look to each combatant in turn, or perhaps it was simply playing a child's game of figuring out which to attack.

And then it shattered in to a writhing mass of thin, black tentacles. After all, why decide? The central mass of them whipped back and forth erratically, whilst the longer ones reached with a more languid feel to wrap around mounts and snake around the feet of those close by. The thing seemed to be nothing but tentacles, as if the teacher's head had fully converted to blight.

One longer tentacle snapped towards Nym, wrapping itself around her throat for daring to attack its fellows as she had. However, it barely applied any pressure to her. Instead, it felt sweaty, and for some reason Nym could almost hear her own voice telling her how good it would be to keep blasting at everything. Her body seemed to resist, and instead her muscles locked.

So, I think this is the first time any blight stuff has actually been used directly to make you do stuff! Luckily, it failed to hit so that's that (and the tentacle monster can't try on you or anyone else for a good long while), so instead you're immobilised (Save ends). This is a charm effect, so any bonuses you might have against that can be applied. Or did Meri get the charm bonuses for saves? That just means no movement, so you can still do any attack stuff with a move action, plus your minor and standard. Healing up or prepping potions with your move might be an idea?

The dark tentacles also seemed interested in the construct. Another reached across to wrap around the construct, pulling its bulk closer. However, it could not otherwise find the purchase on the construct to damage nor detail it - at least, for now.

The demonic horror however took advantage of the spectacle to charge directly for Meri, slashing at her with its blood red nails and raking her shoulder.

After all that mind bleepery, the nothic is going for some good old fashioned claw attacking. 11 damage I'm afraid Meri!

The teachers seemed satisfied, if still concerned, and both gave small disdainful nods to Nym. With waves fo their hands they raised blight walls in front of the changeling, obscuring themselves and their plans form further view.

Ok, so some very thin red walls have gone up between all the other points in that area. These red walls are far easier to climb, slightly easier to destroy, and destroying them completely clears that square (rather than just degrating the wall size). You can also push through the walls, but voluntarily covering yourself in active blight might not be the healthiest of ideas!

Map here to see what I'm talking about:
/games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476127245

Hey, doesn't that tentacle thingie look scary! :p  The tentacles are not actively attacking you, and aren't blocking your movement. The central two by two monster is the actual 'monster' you need to aim for, and you treat it like a normal monaster. You might notice I've created two zones though, one two squares around the creature and the other four squares around. The frenzying tentacles are in the two squares, and the longer ones are in the four. It's up to you what you think both those zones might mean :) Clearly it had to move to attack the construct though, so, you know, you might guess that's its melee range for the four squares or something :)

Anyway one enemy down, two slowed right down, one being all clawing but otherwise not too scary, but one new horrific one revealed. Game on!

Hmm, well, that's certainly...interesting. I didn't really expect to one-shot that Teacher since I would expect an average non-Minion of around our level to have more health than that, but I felt like hitting it as hard as I possibly could (and that was the hardest it's currently possible for me to hit in a single chunk of damage unless I critted and got to add an extra 1d10 to the already-max damage) to at least mess with them and stop what they were doing - I reckon Lightning was probably about the worst result I could've got on the d6 though. Oh well, Chromatic Bolt isn't exactly gonna be leaving my line-up any time soon, so I'm sure I'll have other chances... >:)

Nym looks around, seeming somewhat dazed and unsteady. She still seems about as freakishly cheerful as she always seems to in battle, but whatever the Blight-tentacle has done to her she seems momentarily unable to move. Instead she raises her staff and points it at the writhing spire that is the central mass of this new foe.

"Ooh, that was a silly, naughty thing..." she mutters. "You're silly. Have a thingy..."

She channels a bolt of chaotic energy (this one much smaller than the one she so recently threw at the Teachers) toward the heart of the creature.

So, normally I write out my whole post and then do the rolls and stuff in the OOC bit at the end...but in this case if I roll odd on this attack roll it'll let me make a Saving Throw, which might free me up to move around and do...something else >:). And if I don't roll odd, I get to ping off and hit the nothic anyway (as well as getting my AC bonus). But let's see what happens...

So that's a Chaos Bolt at the northwestern of the four squares comprising the centre of the tentacle thingy...attack roll is...hmm, only 16 vs Will (15 Psychic damage if it hits, ignoring 5 points of Psychic resistance if present). But base roll was odd (yay!) so here comes that Saving Throw...arse, only 8. Oh well.

Hmm, so I'm stuck for at least the rest of this turn...what can I do...hmm, ohh okay, I've got about one vaguely-useful thing I can do right now...

Nym, still looking rather confused, absently reaches a hand inside her pack and pulls out a potion, chugging it quickly and apparently almost without being aware of it, releasing the empty bottle to fall into the sludge at her feet the moment she's finished it.

Using my one healing potion to spend a Surge and regain 10hp, putting me back up to 36/42. Then I end my turn, so I get another Saving Throw...ohh, really? Botch, lol. Well, fortunately there are no ill effects for rolling a Natural 1 on a Saving Throw....

OOC: If you mean the amulets from Celindara, Meri got the one that gives a bonus to saves against Charm, Illusion, and Sleep. :)


Meri staggered back with a pained yelp at the sudden attack.
On the plus side though, the shock of the attack seemed to have snapped her out of whatever trance she had sunk into and she quickly leaped back a short distance, whipping her staff in an arc in front of her to discourage immediate pursuit.

As she drew the weapon back, her eyes narrowed in concentration.
Her gloves immediately started to glow a bright fiery red before erupting into flames.  The staff began to glow red where she was holding it, then the fire left the gloves, lancing towards one end of the staff and lingering there, heating the metal to a bright yellow glow.

Spinning the staff around, trailing smoke and flame, Meri pointed the burning end at the Nothic and unleashed a quick arc of lightning that leaped across the space between them.
Unlike normal lightning though, this one was a fiery reddish-orange in colour and caused a splash of searing flames wherever it struck.

Quickly turning the staff downwards, Meri jabbed the glowing end into the water, cooling it off in a violent hissing burst of steam before raising the weapon back into a defensive stance again...


OOC: Okies, time to take off the kid gloves...  (Or in Meri's case, set them on fire!)

Shifting 1 square to C13, then using the Forgemaster's Gloves special to add extra fire damage to her next attack.
Next attack in question is a Static Shock, targeting Nothic 2:
Attack: 22 (15 + 7) vs. Reflex
Damage: 8 (3 + 5) (lightning) + 5 (fire) + -2 penalty to it's next damage roll before end of Meri's next turn.

Tempted to say "feel the burn" or something equally witty, but Meri is "somewhat irritated" right now and not particularly focused on one-liners ;)

Never getting another saving throw on a botch would be an evil thing to do! I believe in 5th edition, when rolling death saves, a 1 actually gives you two death strikes? I'll need to re-read.

Anyway, since you technically have another minor/move (drinking a potion only takes one minor not two), you can query the teacher's hit points, can't you?

Oh, and because of you both not being too tanky, and because there's only two of you, I tend to go with slightly lower level creatures but more of them to give the same feel of a battle and the same XP payout without just having you punched by tanks all the time.  I mean the occasional Alynn or flying dagger is fun, of course! :D If you face only one or two creatures, as may have happened in this choose you battle senario, then you can worry about them being over-levelled :) So hopefully that also means one shots with big splashy effects are a bigger possibility.

And ah, yeah Meri, that's amulet is the one. Lol, you really needed to be tanking the saving throws Nym's been making recently! :p One illusion and one charm so far...


The mound of tentacles shudders as the chaotic bolt dances around its own chaotic appendages and lands with a satisfyingly solid thumb in to its central mass. The quivering of it shows the blow did damage, although there is still such a mass of tentacles whipping arouns its hard to see exactly how badly it is hurt. The thing definitely directs a further psychic impulse to Nym, but once more her muscles lock rather than do anything. Or perhaps it was trying to lock her down further, but if so it was still only her legs that could not move.

Just some narrative reaction and reason for the double save fails, the creature isn't attacking you this turn, but 16 did hit its will! So yay, 15 hp down...something more than 15 to go :p

The nothic did not follow Meri for the moment, snarling at the flame and fire. However, its eye burned in response and its gaze seemed to look directly through Meri...

Something in Timur's gesture had betrayed a flicker of thought or emotion regarding Many, and the mindwarping demonic horror had caught the scent. With a slack jawed chuckle it looked through Meri, and her mind could not help but see the single eye as Many's eye, the burning fire and lighting surrounding the little beholder instead of her foe. After all, it had not been so long ago she had done exactly that, no trickery required.

The eye of the creature was all she could see, its body hazy and even the world around difficult to focus on compared to her foe.

[Secret to Meri: The nothic scored a hit with its warping gaze, the same thing it tried briefly on Nym. Luckily her and you damage reductions mean you only take 5 psychic damage form the gaze. Less luckily, it is now invisible to everyone but you - it's still on square E14 - and you are also granting combat advantage. You need to save out of that, which will also end the invisibility. Luckily, this is an illusion effect, so you get your amulet bonus! Less luckily, until you save out of it, the critter will do 1d6 more with its nasty claw attack. So, you know, save out of it sooner rather than later, or heal up quickly!

I'm not saying I would have let you auto save on the saving throw if you'd come up with a good James Bonds style bad ass line ("that was flaming shocking" in your best sean connery would have sufficed) but hey ho, we'll never know now! :D]

Meanwhile, the tentacled mass appeared to move away from Nym, either to avoid her blasts or because it thought - wrongly - she was now neutralised. The wave of its tentacles also seemed to hide the demonic horror, as Nym could no longer see it.

The tentacled mass also continued to pull itself forwards using the leverage of the construct. Finally, the construct's ability to resist the pull on the slippery ground was overcome, and the skeletal construct was pulled forwards in to the mass of tentacles, a few pops and cracks heard as the longer tentacle around it tightened.

The Trickster moved in to the mass, trying to help the giant construct - or more likely the tiny homunculus currently helpless at the top of the thing.

And over at the edge of the battlefield, unseen, the two Teachers came back to the pillar, and tried to recover from their shock and get back to their ritual.

Ok, luckily the construct is only pulled and dealt some damage, not grabbed, so it can move away or attack next turn. Though that might not be a good idea given Meri's current position. Sadly the trickster missed attacking it. More importantly, I'm a bad man who's just put your two allies right in the two square box around the tentacles. Who knows what fun will happen :)

Oh, the teachers have got back in to position as in standing around the pillar, but aren't doing anything yet. So you've got at least one round, more likely at least two, before anything happens there.

Map here:
/games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476210957

Gp get 'em! Unless you're Nym, in which case go stand there and blast 'em :p

I can only get a hp report on something I've Bloodied with an attack that turn, and I had Bloodied the Teacher on the previous turn (and would've have been able to get its hp total after doing so as I'd used my Minor to activate the max-damage-granting power on my headgear).

Meri got the mental amulet because my mental resists are relatively good - I got a bonus to Will for being a Changeling and have really good Charisma, so my Will is pretty good but my physical resists aren't great so I took the any that gives +2 to saves against poison and stuff...ooh wait..ahh, crap, lol, that amu gives +2 to saves versus Immobilise as well so I could've actually got free last turn and had my Move to actually move and do some more stuff. Oh well, bit late now, lol.

Looking at the map, it looks like you accidentally removed the nothic or something, since there was no mention of it disappearing. I'll assume it's still standing next to Meri or thereabouts...

Nym waves her staff around some more, seeming to have temporarily forgotten how to walk and instead seems content to shoot forth another bolt of chaotic energy into the heart of the writhing mass of tentacles.

Another Chaos Bolt at the tentacle thingy...Attack roll is a mediocre 16 vs Will. If that hits, 14 Psychic damage (again, ignoring 5 points of Psychic resistance if present). Base roll was, once again, odd, so I'll take yet another Saving Throw and remember the +2 bonus this time...ugh, okay even with the bonus that's only a total of 4. Sigh...well, if I hit the tentacle thingy and if I managed to Bloody it, I'll use my Minor to see its hp. And then I get my end-of-turn Saving Throw...ffs lol, 9 with the bonus :P.

Once again, Meri seemed oddly shaken by whatever the Nothic had done to her, seemingly slow to react.
Instead of attacking, she backed away a short distance, holding her staff in a defensive position.

As before, it was Timur who acted first, drawing back the Construct's fist and swinging it hard at the core of the tentacled thing.
Once again, he glanced across at Meri.  The blue glow in his eyes seemed to grow stronger for a moment.

Meri blinked and shook her head then.
Swinging her staff in an arc, she sent another quick spark of lightning at the Nothic, although in a more half-hearted way than her previous fiery assault, as though some deeper part of her was almost afraid to attack the creature.
At the same time, one of her hands dug into a pouch at her belt and scattered a shower of small metallic objects over the ground between her and the Nothic...


OOC: Okies, moving Meri back to A12.
Seems the Nothic finally found a weak point...

Meanwhile, the Construct is attacking the tentacle thing (being pulled close to it like that saved me a move action at least) :)
Attack: 17 (8 + 9) vs. AC - Hope this thing has fairly weak armour, being made of squishy Blight!
Damage: 15 (3 + 9 + 3)

Then using an AP to have Meri fire off a Static Shock at the Nothic.  (Getting plenty of use out of them in this one!)
Attack: 23 (18 + 5) vs. Reflex
Damage: 9 (4 + 5) (Lightning) + -2 damage penalty till end of Meri's next turn on a hit

Then using a Minor to target square D13 with a shower of the four-sided caltrops creating an Area Burst 1 sized zone around there that persists until the end of the encounter.  (Hopefully including the square the Nothic is in).
Anything entering that zone or starting its turn there will be slowed (save ends).

Saving throw: 17 (15 + 2)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 16:16, Wed 12 Oct 2016.

It was maybe subtle, but the lack of nothic got referenced. I figured since you'd been at the other side of the effect, you would know as a player what was going on when it disappeared from your view! Also, the nothic says 'invisible to Nym' under its description on the right hand side.

The Teachers:

The wave of its tentacles also seemed to hide the demonic horror, as Nym could no longer see it.

Also, since you did successfully save last turn, then you may stop being immobilised for the start of next turn onwards. I figured you'd free yourself quickly actually, I should have stuck to my guns regarding reducing these sort of effects, so immobilised turning to slow, etc. But I figured this was a more powerful end of level boss so the immobilised would be scarier. With so little people around, I think it's just too annoying!


The tentacles monstrosity seemed to realise lose interest in Nym for the moment, most likely because of her continued resistance to its attempted mental take over. It instead tried to focus all its fury on the creatures assaulting it. However, its frenzied arms were unable to strike the creatures effectively, because Nym's second chaotic bolt caused it to try and block that magical assault instead. It was unsuccessful, the chaos of Nym's magic bouncing around the chaos of the tentacles. There was another satisfying thunk.

The Trickster had been unable to strike a blow around the whipping tentacles, and so backed away to look for a new opening. Timur, with brute force, had no need for such hesitation and the construct simply pushed the tentacles in to the creatures body with force, blight squishing left and right as a huge chunks of tentacles were ripped out at the root. The thing, after a hesitation given Nym's position, moved away form the construct and towards The Trickster, clearly not wishing to allow such a swift creature the chance to get some momentum for darting attacks.

Yep, 16 and 17 respectively hit the creature, and now it's so close to bloodied that it may as well be bloodied, except you don't want it to be bloodied yet, so actually this is better! :p Oh, and Meri, remember you have your artificer tricks to boost attack rolls. In fact, if you need 1d6 more fire damage at any point, you can recharge your gauntlets too I believe?

Also, I can't believe how badly I botched my attacks. I was going to batter your allies in to bloodied (well, at least one), and instead I think I just tickled them or something? :( Anyway, umm, maybe that 'bad' luck didn't continue...

The demonic horror was staggered by the blasy of magic from Meri, and then found its counter attack surprisingly blocked by Meri's caltrops. It hobbled backwards to a small blight outcrop so it could find sure footing, as the caltrops had sank in to the blight water, perfectly camouflaged. For a brief moment, the creature was visible again. [Private to Nym: Nym, the nothic will briefly be visible at D15.]

The thing instead tried to regain the advantage and momentum of the fight by playing back upon the weakness it had found in Meri. Capitalising on her hesitations, the creature gave its full and unrestrained attention to her, the weight of its mind and powers coming down on her psyche like a hammer blow and it warped reality until only Meri and itself existed, locked in a powerful mental duel.

[Secret to Meri: To Meri, the thing looked exactly like Many, crying due to the caltrops cut on one of his eyestalks, his eye looking betrayed, hovering as if ready to run right in to the danger of the tentacles mass rather than be close to the artificer.

Also, it's currently on D15

Meanwhile, in Meri's backpack, there was a small sound. "Nyuh! Nyuh! Ah'm me!" There was also some jostling and pressure, as if a small ball of eyes was rapidly bashing those eyestalks on Meri's back through the leather of her packpack to get her attention.]

Yeah, nothics (Ie DMs) can be mean in that way! Also, I rolled a 20 so auto hit with max damage. Still, your caltrop idea has made sure the creature couldn't max hit you with a claw attack, and also that save meant it couldn't have done full damage.

Anyway, unfortunately that eye psychic attack thingie recharges when you save, so it's invisible again, you grant CA again, and you are in claw danger again. And evilly it made its save so it's not slowed anymore. Although the captrop are still in play to make sure it can't charge you, nor get directly to you, so you should be fine for dancing out of its way.

Anyway, max damage is 17 psychic damage, which means resistance and static shock damage reduction kick in. Sadly, that still means 10 hit points of damage there! How's Meri doing (character or player)?

In good news, if she's still alive, her opponent is bloodied now, with no extra tricks unlocked for being bloodied.


So damage is being handed out, but so are the beats, and also some cool tactics around. So keep on keeping on you two, but maybe make with the heals and start digging in to those resources.

Map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476297791

Oh, I didn't realise the nothic had gone invis...I must've missed that. There's a lot to keep track of right now ;).
Wish I'd remembered my Saving Throw bonus the first time, lol...I'd been planning to move around and use Stormy Emotions to hit both the tentacle thingy and the nothic at the same time. Oh well, it means I can still use it on something else, I suppose...like those Teachers who are probably up to whatever they were trying to do...
Mind you, even though I can move now, since the nothic has buggered off and gone invis there's not really much point in my moving anyway, for the moment.

Nym seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself now, waving her staff around and yelling "Pew! Pew! Pew!" excitedly as she shoots off another bolt of energy into the writhing mass of tentacles...

Since the only ay to hit the nothic right now is to tromph all the way over there and use an AE, I figure I might as well stay put and hit the tentacles with another Chaos Bolt, and ping off to take down the Blight walls if I manage to roll any evens...
Attack roll against tentacle thingy = 24 vs Ref, base roll is odd so no chaotic pinball :(. Damage = 11 Psychic (aww, lowest result I could've got :(). Well, if that Bloodies it then I'll use my Minor to see its hp, I suppose...

I must admit I thought you were going to use stormy emotions far earlier when you had two nothics nd a mysterious pillar to blow up, all nicely lined up :)

You could always have delayed to see if Meri shook off the invisibility effect, but thingd are perhaps spread out a little for the moment anyway.

Meri seemed to hesitate again, although this time her look seemed one of surprise rather than fear.
Shaking her head, she peered at the creature with a more determined look.

Suddenly she darted backwards and began to run back towards the rugged Blight mounds at the rear of the area, circling halfway around one of them and seemingly taking a moment to compose herself before looking in the direction of the Teachers...


OOC: Okies, using run action to move Meri to B4 and using Second Wind to make her a little bit less half-dead :)

Also, if I can see the Teachers from where I am, can an Arcana check tell me anything about that ritual they're trying.  Like what it actually does, how long it'll take, and more importantly is there any way to disrupt it (apart from the obvious method of killing them before they finish I mean)?
Arcana check is: 20 (7 + 13) - Hope my dice karma isn't running out on me...

EDIT: Ah ok, Woundpatch used...  And while I remember, did Nym retcon taking one?

Saving throw: 13 (11 + 2) - Scraping through :)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:16, Thu 13 Oct 2016.