Meri, you forgot your save throw against illusion to see if you cn break the CA (and also let the nothic be seen again by Nym and your allies!)

Also, don't forget to use a woundpatch to heal up 5 extra hps!

Also also, don't forget you have +2 to defenses until the start of your next turn. Well, that's more a reminder for me...

Hopefully Nym used the woundpatch and didn't talk herself out of it. It can be applied at the start of the fight to go off during it, so really even if you don't personally have one to apply, Meri can have slapped one on you before the battle?

Anyway, onwards, interesting round!

Meri backpeddled while regaining her composure. The demonic horror had to stagger around the landscape and Meri's traps before it could be certain of perusing its foe. Clearly it was locked on her as a target, but just as clearly its own focus on the hunt reduced its ability to influence anything. The creature became solid and visible again, black crackled skin and dimly glowing bloodshot eye. Perhaps the burning both in its joints and in its eye was less, showing the battle was taking its toll. Yet not enough, or it managed to keep pace with Meri and was in her face as if to stop her before she tried anything new.

The critter managed to run too, but luckily with all the blockages and your own running, it couldn't get the distance well enough to even charge attack. So its right up beside you, but has no attack this turn.

[Secret to Meri: Looking across at the Teachers, the effect was hard to establish. There was clearly something of natural magic combined with the arcana that was making it difficult to tell exactly what the melding effect was, and the fact the chanting seem to have a religious connotation did not help. The basic effect seemed to be to combine the Teacher and the flesh of the dark creeper and the blight. The previous use of just the teacher's own power over the blight had produced the tentacles horror, and the previous invocation had produced a stronger, demon fueled beast. So what demonically powered monstrosity was being attempted was hard to guess. But clearly it was more important than running, of further empowering their minions or fighting in the blight. Just as clearly, whatever was being wrought would bond one teacher and most likely kill the other. Whatever they were attempting, they were not planning on surviving this encounter...

Sorry, needed a hard DC to get full info. For a decent moderate DC success I'll still give you all the above though. Oh, as for the timing, you can estimate about a round from now. THey will probably be finished at the end of this next round coming up, and you'll have to deal with whatever is created the round after that... Note the damaged teacher is now the one doing the chanting, and the healthy teacher closest to you is the one melding with the pillar.]

The chaotic bolt of magic from Nym still managed to find its target, although perhaps the tentacles were starting to get better at reaching out to interrupt. The creature still shuddered, and seemed to be spasming as it moved, the psychic backlash starting to affect it. [Private to Nym: 37hp left!] It moved aside, away from Nym. It was only after its next actions that it became apparent it was not running away...

One of its longer tentacles shot directly out towards the construct while Meri was distracted. The tentacle shot inside rather than around the skeletal structure, and then the blight of the tip exploded, sending several thin streamers around the inside.

Timur sudden;y found the construct lurch underneath him, and for a moment he no longer had control, no matter how he tried to indicate any intentions to the gigantic body. Instead, the construct slowly turned, and then less slowly stomped one foot and then the other foot as it built up a head of steam and charged along the now cleared path to The Trickster.

The wolf was taken by surprise as a skeletal fist smashed him mightily on the snout, crushing his face down in to the blighted water. The Trickster scittered backwards, shaking his head from side to side. The psychic traumas from earlier had shaken the demi god, but it seemed this physical blow had actually wounded his current form. Blood trailed from his snout, and one eye already started to well shut.

No! I have your construct now! And bloodied The Trickster with it. Even worse (for me), I rolled well enough (thank goodness) to have hit Nym if I'd gone that way. But I didn't. Oh well, that was the gamble. Luckily, this power only refreshed when the critter was bloodied, so it can't try to control any of you anymore. Meri, you need to roll a save on the construct's behalf to shake this effect off. Timur isn't being dominated, so if you think there's anything the little guy can do, you can always dedicate an action on him. Otherwise, you have your full set of actions to use. While the construct is dominated, I get to use one action, only at at-will powers or basic powers. However, Charge is a good action to take, since I can move and smack someone. But of course that requires a clear path! Speaking of which...

The reason the tentacles teacher-horror had backed up became very apparent, as the construct then turned on its heel. Despite what Timur or Meri may desire, it seemed the body of the construct only had one goal. It flexed its bloodied fist, dug a foot in to the ground, and lowered its stance as if it was on a starting block. And it was lined up perfectly with the changeling sorcerer, ready to charge once more. The tentacled abomination writhed its appendages in anticipation.

Yup, Nym, good thing you can move again because, you know, moving is a good idea right now! Anyway, here's the map, you have two bloodied opponents but also one bloodied ally and a temporarily unfriendly ally. So I think you're going to be fine, but you're not out of the woods yet. You're maybe at that start of a track that leads out of the woods :P

Map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476392009
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Thu 13 Oct 2016.

From what I can remember, every time I was going to use Stormy Emotions I found that Meri and/or the Trickster were in the line of fire (it's Close Burst 2).

I didn't realise the invis effect on the nothic was something that required a Saving Throw from someone else in order to end it...that seems rather odd.

I forgot about the Woundpatch again, lol...I think I was going to find the magic items thread to see what it actually did and then forgot after I wrote out my post. But I can retcon having used one and give myself an extra 5hp back if you like...

Anyway, hmm, things are looking a bit dodgy with that construct now having issues. Hmm...okay, let's see...

Nym looks over at the construct and waves cheerily at it before turning around and unleashing a blast of purple flame at the Blight wall beside her.

So I'm gonna use Burning Spray to try and wreck the Blight stuff beside me to give myself a clear path...um...so if I roll some attack rolls and damage and you can tell me which squares are cleared as a result (if any), and then I can take the rest of my turn and move to somewhere...I don't know where yet because I don't know what kind of a path I'm gonna have...

Attack rolls against the Blighty-squares... (all versus Ref, not that I suppose an inanimate structure can dodge ;))
J7 = 25
K7 = 19
L7 = 22
J6 = 13
K5 = 22

First attack roll was even so +1 AC to me till start of my next turn :).
Damage = 11 Fire (aww, rolled minimum again :P).

Once I know which squares have been cleared (and most of those attack rolls were fairly decent so hopefully I've uncovered at least one of the ones adjacent to me) I'll be able to decide where to move to and probably do some other stuff
 (still got one AP left, after all ;))...

OOC: Posting up here, since I don't think Nym's move action will affect me right now.  Although whether I make that save to regain control of the Construct or not might determine her move action! :)


Meri tapped at her staff, generating a flickering glow around her before turning to face the Nothic as it ran towards her.
Her composure seemed to have returned now, along with her temper, judging by the icy glare she was directing at the fast-approaching creature.

As it drew closer to her she whipped her staff in a downwards arc in front of her, the energy that had been flaring up around her coalescing into a crescent-shaped blast that exploded out in front of her with a loud thunderclap, sending up a spray of water and sparks as Meri quickly jumped back...


OOC: Okies, nice of it to get right up close like that :)
Using Thundering Armour on Meri and aiming to smack it right in the face!
Attack: 23 (16 + 7) vs. Fortitude + Meri gains +1 AC bonus till end of her next turn. (Remembered that this time!)
Damage: 7 (2 + 5) (Thunder) + 1 square push on a hit.

Then shifting northeast to square B3.

Save to try to regain control of the Construct: 15 :)

Everything apart from J6 is hit. L7 (the important one?), J7 and J6 disappear, K7 (because it was a solid lump of red blight before) becomes a yellow half-wall sized lump that you can see passed, but grants partial cover both ways.

I'll let Nym finish her move and further actions before resolving the whole round :)

Edit: I think Meri was in the way for the one I noticed, but you could have asked her to move. As for the construct... well, it actually has a decent amount of hit points so could have taken it :)

And yeah, the nothic thing is weird. I narratively justified it with Nym by saying it was using her own magic against her by taking her focus. It's basically like, for as long as it can impose its will on you, and stalk you, it can stay hidden from others, but if you break free then it can only partially obscure itself.

And please restore 5 more hp, I'd hate for you things to get that tight and then realise later you would have been fine! You've fought so hard!


And yeah, there's no threat from the construct, so Nym can move where she likes.

Oh, and Meri, you did hit, so the thing will be pushed away, so you can move further away if you like without drawing an OA.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:56, Fri 14 Oct 2016.

Okay cool, so I'm actually only one off my max hp now :D. I'm sure that won't last and I'll go back down to being Bloodied the moment something hits me, but for now I'll enjoy it ;).
Right then, so all the Blight next to me is gone apart from K7 which is just a partial blockage and grants Cover? Cool...got me an escape route, which is what I was going for :D. And now let's hope I don't get myself horribly murdered...
[Private to GM: With regard to using Stormy Emotions earlier in the fight - remember as per the private discussion we had on Nym's potential character development, she does not attack allies. If she ever does, that will be a very bad thing because it'll mean her personality is being eroded by the ferocity of her magic. So she's not gonna be including any allies in any AEs, however tough said ally may be, unless things are going badly for her in that sense ;).]

As most of the Blight beside her sizzles out of existence, Nym laughs loudly and skips through the newly-formed gap, following the edge of the nearest Blight formation. This route leads her toward the two Teachers, and she waves cheerfully at them with her staff as she nears them.

"Ahhh, helloooo!" she calls. "I've got a boomy for you! Yaaaaaayy!"

She stomps on the ground a few times and seems to collect herself for a moment, before exploding outward in a huge burst of yellowish snow, which crackles with multi-coloured lightning.

As usual, don't worry about the colour descriptions - they are just fluff. So, I'm using my Move to get to Q4 (sorry Trickster, but I want to deal with these buggers before they summon any more gribbly tentacle monsters or whatever) and then burning my last AP to finally unleash Stormy Emotions. Which I've realised is going to be targeting a lot of squares but I'll list the three important ones first ;). This attack targets Reflex.

Teacher 1 = 18
Teacher 3 = Crit!
Square R2 = 19
Square S4 = 22
Square S5 = 9
Square S6 = 15
Square R4 = 18
Square R5 = 10
Square R6 = 21
Square Q6 = 26
Square P5 = 13
Square P6 = Crit!
Square N6 = 19

Phew! I actually had to copy and paste the map into Paintbush and draw a square around the area I was attacking to see which squares I needed to roll against :D.
Sooo, damage...
To all non-critted targets, 17 Cold and Lightning damage (or 19 if Bloodied).
To the critted targets, 34 Cold and Lightning damage (remembered the extra 1d10 crit bonus off my staff that time :D).
Stormy Emotions also allows me to Push each targt I hit one square and knock it Prone. So if I hit T1 he can go north and T3 can go northeast. I suppose I can't really Push Blight but can it just sort of explode away from me in a giant splatter? That would be cool ;).
And then Unfettered Power goes off on the two targets I critted, allowing me to Slide them each one square and...knock them Prone. Again. Somehow ;). So if T3 even still exists at this point he/she can go yet another square northeast - I'm sure they must be getting fed up of being chucked off the edge of the map by now >:).

Now, I think that's all the complicated stuff done...still got my Minor, umm...well, sod it, let's have some silly fun - since I imagine T1 is still alive after that (since I don't think I'd hit that one previously), I'm gonna use Babble on him/her. Because I can. Attack roll = 15 vs Will. If that hit, then that Teacher can't speak intelligibly or use any effect that requires speech (save ends). So they won't even taunt me now or whatever :D. Mind you, that was only a middling sort of roll so it may not have hit. But eh, I haven't ever used that power yet so why not :D.

That's powerful turn's worth of actions Nym! Can't wait to reveal the resolution. Ok, there might be one evil thing that will also happen, but the direct results are pretty spectacular!

Meri, I'm waiting on confirmation of you shifting, or since the nothic is pushed away, whether you want to move further back/along.

[Private to Nym: Regarding the stormy emotions, I said have Meri move first. This isn't in terms of character, I know Nym wouldn't be in her right mind about saying that, but it's about the fact you players get narrative agency too. You can let Meri ahead of you in the turn order to move out of the way by delaying as a player (not character) action. Narratively, you can justify it by saying Meri knows Nym's powers well enough to spot the potential and makes herself scarce. Or Nym's magic makes her pause, or Wuffles whispers to Nym, or anything like that.

As you'll see, holding on to the encounter power until now was a good idea as quite a lot of cool stuff happened. But don't feel you have to ignore valid player mechanical actions. I like 4th edition precisely because many of those player mechanics feel like narrative tokens for storytelling, rather than always the mechanical result of character actions.


Oh, and regarding the babble attack, ironically the teachers seem to have really low defenses against psychic damage and will attacks. Narratively it makes sense, they are sensitive psychics so that sensitivity makes them vulnerable. Just it also means stuff you think might not work works spectacularly well!]

OOC: Will change my move to G4 then.
Was trying to get closer to the Teachers' position, but at the same time I'm not too sure I want to get too far away from this thing, since it seems to have a longer range than me with that psychic attack.
Kind of doing "hit + run" tricks on it for now.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:21, Sat 15 Oct 2016.

Time to resolve some stuff!

Meri might be falling back, but clearly her will was strong once more. Timur managed to wrestle control of the construct back, and with a yank the dark tentacle was ripped in two. The horrific tentacled mass jerked back, perhaps pained more by the loss of a minion than the loss of an appendage. For the moment it took its attention away from Nym.

The demonic horror also seemed caught wrong footed by the recovery of the artificer, blasted backwards and fires dimming. It showed its rage by simply charging after its foe heedless of the injury, slashing a claw at her but missing due to the extent of its injuries. It also put Meri close enough to see the Teahcers were deep in to their ritual, and this time it was almost complete. The closest to Meri was half merged with the pillar now, the struggles of the creeper trapped inside subdued. And the other Teacher's chant was already reaching its finale, the Teacher reaching inside its face to pull free its true form. reaching

Even with a charge :( Also, just realised I've been using its pre-transformation hp score not its higher one. Doesn't make much of a difference, but it might be a little less almost dead than previously thought.

Nym's magic suddenly became a constant, physical presence on the battlefield. Wall of blight were smashed apart, blight towers toppled. The cold spray of blight and water became a storm cloud, and somewhere in the middle of it Nym appeared, bringing the end of the storm.

The Teacher's hands became stiff and its mouth slurred as it uttered the last symabbles. The was a small crack from its skull and then lightning struck the thing full in its bodies, both real and blight. Instinctively the creature tried to stretch its form to avoid the damage, but it seemed as if the sorcerer's full focus was on the chanting thing. There was a great explosion, and the teacher was blasted backwards once more, but this time in a mist of blight chunks and sparkling bone shards.

But had the attack been on time?

As the falling rain of blight and water came to an end (splashing off of Meri's blight resistant cloak), the central pillar became visible once more. It had been smashed sideways, and what was left of it - still a sizeable chunk - squirmed like a miserable worm.

The Teacher was only half visible, part of its real face already stretched strangely inside the body, most of its limbs trapped. It could not gesture to the blight around it to come to its aid, even if there was enough remaining to command. It started to speak the words, as if to finish the ritual itself, but then Nym's little joke struck its vocal cords. It started waffling nonsense, the echo and chill of its previous unintelligible words clearly missing. The babbling was cut mercifully short when the spike of a creeper limb came from inside the pillar and jammed the Teacher's jaw shut.

Technically teacher 3 still had 1hp left at the end of all that, but given you maxed out a daily power with your limited helm ultimate, AND then scored a crit on the poor thing, I reckoned you'd done more than enough to blast that thing off the map in a more permanent way :) Edit: Nm, you did win that cleanly, you forgot to include your bloodied bonus to your critted damage too. Edit 3: Oh, and yes, you can suck its soul magic in to your helm since you killed it.

Technically the creeper teacher worm thingie is still alive, and under the effect of babbling. But given there's now enough XP still on the battlefield for you to level up, then I don't need to go ahead with my alternative plan for a blocked ritual. So the worm thingie is helpless and will remain so, come back to it to take out any unresolved teacher / creeper leader issues at your leisure.

So that was pretty awesome! Your perseverance paid off, without any Meri / ally death! Now the evil backlash :p

The moment its fellows died, the tentacles horror reacted. However, it was not ruined nor destroyed, for it had a teacher still somewhere inside. Instead, as much as emotion could be judged, the reaction was rage.

The thing had been moving around the battlefield without haste, form sprawled around. However, now it whipped itself in to a tight ball. All the longer tentacles shot out in complete focus, wrapping aroudn the closest blight protrutions. With a speed belying its form, the thing pulled and rolled itself with ease through the gap Nym had formed. Only once it was close to the sorcerer did it explode in to a writhing mass of unfocused tentacles once more. Nym was surroounded by whipping and angry appendages, and clearly the thing would only need a moment longer to make its anger apparent. It's assault on Nym was only briefly halted by a final discharge of magic in the creature's face when it closed in on Nym. Although the thundering sound and blue flash seemed more like the magic of Meri than the changeable magic of Nym.

The Trickster was caught wrong footed, and leapt over blight walls and skidded over blight land masses to try and aid his friend.


Ok, so there's a fun move action called squeeze that lets creatures move through spaces smaller than them. And there's a fun ability certain oozy creatures like teachers or dark tentacles masses posses, where they can squeeze without any of the associated move restrictions or attack/defense penalties. So that's good, right? :p

Anyway, technically I probably could have charged an attack too, but I don't like charging or running over difficult terrain, even though the rules seem to allow it. So for the moment I won't do that. If ever you guys want to do that, it's not against the rules, andthen I shall be happy to have monsters do it too :)

Nym, unless you shift you will take an OA from it to go anywhere, but you probably have the hp to take that. While within 2 squares of it, clearly something can happen. And while wihtin four squares of it, it can hit you with an attack. Also, while The Trickster is technically flanking, the tentacles have an ability to let it ignore being flanked, so no attack bonus I'm afraid :(

I've tried to decrease the transparency of the tentcales so you xan see there is a clear channel to the Trickster is you want it. So you could always try to remount him as a move action and have a bit of manoeuverability.

Oh, that critical on the normal blight square seemed too good not to pay off, so it's now a shallow pit. It simply counts as difficult terrain in the opposite direction unless you can float / swim across :D Yes, the tentacles have a swim speed. I am a monster.

Edit: Meri, just to highlight that from where you are standing, there's a blight pillar at K4 that's blocking LOS to Nym but not to the tentacled monster. However, the surrounding yellow(ish) blight is providing it partial cover for -2 to any attacks. That works both ways of course!

Edit 2: I'd deducted the 5 thunder damage for Meri's thundering armour effect on Nym, but hadn't highlighted it as a thing narratively! Done now...

Map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476535215

Nearing the end. The nothic has a little more hp than previously thought (Sorry again) but now it and the bloodied tentacles are the only creatures left on the battlefield. And the tentacles can't co-erce anyone anymore. So victory should be within your grasps, especially given you have both managed to heal to decent levels if I understand correctly?

Good luck!
This message was last edited by the player at 13:24, Sat 15 Oct 2016.

Wheeee, much death :D. And you're right, I did forget the +2 damage on that crit against the Bloodied Teacher...but given the circumstances it fortunately didn't really make any difference in how exploded the thing ended up being :D.
I just looked at the list to the right of the map - lol at the mass of things affecting whatever's left of that Teacher and accompanying humourous messages :D. So presumably that Teacher is the red smear mark in the top right corner of the map. Aaw, what a shame...
[Private to GM: The Stormy Emotions point was in reference to your suggestion that I hit the Construct (since not only s it currently an ally but it's got little Timmy sitting on top of it making it so), not that I get Meri to dodge ahead of time ;).]

Nym, giggling almost uncontrollably now, waves her staff wildly at the furious tentacled mass that now looms before her.

"Aah, raarrr!" she shouts in a childishly ecstatic sort of voice. "Aahhh, you're funny!"

She flails her staff some more and unleashes yet another blast of fire, this one seemingly undecided as to what colour it's going to be as it flickers chaotically across a section of the battlefield in front of the changeling, then takes a rather wobbly step backward.

Since I'm now completely out of any damaging Encounter and Daily powers, I might as well use up the rest of what I've got. So, first of all I'll use my Minor to use Changeling Trick against the tentacle thing - I roll Bluff versus its Passive Insight, and if I win I have CA against it till the end of my next turn. So, Bluff roll...21.

Then I'll use Burning Spray again, aimed north of me so it tags not only the northeastern square of the tentacle beasty, but also happens to target the remaining charred lump of a Teacher lying on the floor.

Attaak roll versus tentacle monster = 25 vs Ref (or 27 if I got CA from Changeling Trick).
Attack roll versus Teacher = 19 vs Ref (since it's Close Burst I don't get a penalty to hit for them being Prone, do I? That's just Ranged attacks).

First base attack roll was even so +1 AC till start of my next turn (I'll probably start using some kind of shorthand for this soon, since I imagine it's been long enough now that you'll remember what it is?).

Damage = 15 Fire (assuming both targets are Bloodied and not just the Teacher).

And then I'll just Shift one square east. I know I can still be hit but eh...maybe the Trickster can finish it off or something. I'm good for hp anyway, for now, and we're nearly done, so...

Meri backed away and stopped again, raising her staff as she waited for the Nothic to catch up to her.
She ran a finger along the length of the staff, brushing against several of the smaller crystals set into the shaft as she did, creating a glowing 'path' along it.
This began to glow brighter as she turned the staff diagonally in front of her, holding it in a defensive position.

The explosion of Nym's magic caused her to glance back briefly with a surprised look, but when she looked back at the Nothic, her expression was back to her previous defiant smirk.
"Looks like it's just you and me for now.  I think I'm going to enjoy this..."

As she spoke, the glowing along the length of her staff suddenly intensified, creating a bright crackle of energy arcing from tip to tip, forming into a tightly coiled spiral.
Without warning, Meri suddenly jumped backwards and jabbed one end of the staff towards the Nothic.
The spiral of energy separated from the staff and rushed towards the creature, forming into a jagged silvery wire-like form that tried to coil around it...


OOC: Okies, using up my last non-At-Will trick.  As Meri says, time to finish this! :)
Shifting 1 square to H4, and firing off Spike Wire at the Nothic.
Attack: 20 (13 + 7) vs. Fortitude.
Damage: 11 (6 + 5) (force) + If it hits, then until the end of Meri's next turn, any attack that hits the Nothic will do +4 extra damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:25, Sun 16 Oct 2016.

Actually the bloodied thing did make a huge difference, it went from me being 'nice' and killing the teacher, to you totally earning it :) [Private to Nym: Sorry, didn't realise you meant the construct. Fair enough, though if something occupies such a large footprint, you can always play it that the construct was out of the way, and just accidentally got in the way at the last moment!]

The tentacled monster was caught off balance by the mad, laughing sorcerer. Its short tentacles were fried off before it could use them, and Nym was out of its immediate reach. The Trickster snapped at the shorter tentacles when the creature was distracted, and backed off too. However, in its case it stumbled on a small patch of blight, and the tentacled horror smashed a longer tentacle from behind across its back.

However, whatever mind was inside the tentacled mass appeared to have had its burning rage extinguished by Nym's sorcerous fire. It instead moved away and round, climbing on top of one of the blight spires as if looking for something else. What it found was Meri, and while it might not be fully focused on her, it was also clear it may well take the opportunity to take its revenge on her instead as it passed through.

Luckily, the tentacled mass already tried to attack Nym and rolled a 1 - hence having its short tentacles just burned off - and so can't attack Meri until next turn. Also, perhaps its no longer interested in you lot. Perhaps there was a mission far more important you lot have spotted, and Meri will just be a brief stop on the way somewhere else...

Meanwhile, Meri's attack on the nothic tied it up in a sharp tangle of spiky magic. The creature was clearly doing more damage to itself than good as it tried to pull free, and its flailing, constrained claws failed to find the artificer for the moment.

For the love of goodness, out of four attacks only an OA hit! :(It's not like I need to pull any punches, a) where would ever be the fun in that, b) you both have buckets of hit points. This is so unfair :p

Anyway, the nothic is still alive, but will now take +4 damage next turn :) And you're not quite out of non-at will abilities. I believe you still have your artificer +2 free action bonus you can give out, your knack for success for +2 to an attack...eh, well that's rnough to be going on with if you want to be a little extra sure of your next hit and that +4 damage bonus, or if you think you can take out the tentacled horror before it tried to take you out!

Both creatures are one good hit away from death, but for me the good news is both need a good hit... so go ahead with your low attack or low damage rolls, please :D

Or, you know, good luck. Either way. Almost there!

Map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476642865

Lol at the latest addition to the mass of negative messages afflicting that Teacher :D. Surprised the bugger isn't dead yet, actually. Oh well, I'm sure that can be arranged sooner or later...probably not this turn, though.

"Ahh, no, no no..." says Nym in a mock-serious voice. "No, no, you're not allowed to run away. Silly thingy. Here is a thingy. Yes, another thingy. All of the thingys!"

And she unleashes another bolt of chaotic energy toward the half-burnt tentacled monstrosity.

Just gonna chuck a Chaos Bolt at the tentacl thingy. Attack roll is...hmm, did I get CA from Changeling Trick last time? It lasts till the end of this turn, if so, in which case my attack roll is 18 vs Will (otherwise 16). Damage is 15 Psychic (including +2 for Bloodied-ness) and sadly the attack roll was odd so I don't get to ping off and try to hit the nothic as well, nor do get an AC bonus although that doesn't seem to have mattered for the majority of the fight anyway (since most of the things that were trying to hit me seem to have been targetting my Will).
There's not really much else I can think to do right now, not that Nym is really in any mind to do anything other than blast all the things!!! So I think it's now just a matter of generally blasting stuff until it stops moving. Which, to be fair, is basically the gist of my general tactics anyway on this character, considering the rather specific nature of my power set :D.

OOC: Well Knack for Success can't really attack anything on its own, so I don't tend to count it as an attack power :)
Also, probably a good thing Nym didn't hit the Nothic, as she'd have spoiled Meri's fun! ;)


Meri glanced back at the huge tentacled monstrosity edging its way towards her then looked back at the Nothic with a grin.
She whipped her staff up as though about to strike at it, but then suddenly darted towards the creature, shooting out a hand and 'vaulting' over it to land on its far side where she lashed out with her staff in a deadly arc, trailing sparks...


OOC: Maybe as well use Knack for Success here for a double-shift as a free action to move to F4 (hence the flavour text about doing a sort of "fence jump" move over the Nothic to its opposite side) :)

Once there, will fire off a Static Shock at it.
Attack: 25 (18 + 7) vs. Reflex
Damage: 13 (4 + 5 (+4 from previous round's effect)) (lightning) + -2 Penalty to Nothic's next damage roll till end of Meri's next turn.

Will use move action to bring the Construct up to K10, going by its middle square.  (Tried to factor in the difficult terrain in the way, so let me know if I miscalculated).

Yeah, this battle has mostly been a reflexes and will thing. Actually the main flailing tentacles multi-attack is against AC, as is the nothic's claw attack, but that one last turn I just blew the roll so an AC bonus wasn't needed :) We'll see how much AC Meri needs this round, shall we? Also I factored in your CA last time, but I think you hit anyway. Hadn't realised it was end of next turn, that's cool.

Oh, and the teachers are quite hardy, so it's been only taking half damage. It was the fully healthy one to start with, it was its friend that you piled damage on. So yeah, it's taken 30 damage of which only 15 'counts', so it's not actually bloodied yet. That's academic, as its basically helpless and dead and you can deal with it OOC as you see fit. But that's why it's not even bloodied yet.

Nym's chaotic bolt was still as hard to predict, but this time the tentacles mass was hampered by the sheared tentacles Nym has seared off. The chaos bolt struck centre mass, and the dark horror writhed in agony. Perhaps it was feeling the deaths of its fellows. However, sheer spite and terror in equal measure seemed to keep the thing alive, even though small areas of blight and tentacles were starting to peel away and fall off.

Yeah, you were just 2hp shy of killing it! Now, in this case, since you've just been burning at wills, and since I wanna give you one more little story beat, I'm going to take this good fortune and evilly run with it! Wahahahhaha! Never stop me! Never!

Meri meanwhile managed to use the brief distraction to deal with her other foe. The nothic was still struggling with its magical binding, and in no position to dodge or deflect her wrath. The horror spasmed as the lightning cooked it, however rather than glow the redness under its skin faded. And then more, the glow seemed to retreat, darkening in the joints of it, pulling in to its centre. This tug seemed to be a physical thing, and its eye started to sag and twist. It rolled and the slack jaw gave a moan of pain before the eyesocket of its trunk became a vacant, horrible thing. It managed to rip apart the magical bonds, then twisted as if still bound, legs buckling.

With some final strength, it raised a claw, but only to dig its still sharp claws in to its cindering chest. It tore out some red glowing mass, and with one last gesture of relief, collapsed.

The fist sized glowing lump fell in to the blight, boiling it away and creating a small crater.

Yay! Demonic nothic dead! And a totally safe (no, seriously, it's just an unpolished gem / ritual component / crafting component) thing. First loot of the battle  - a 500gp Smoky Red Heart. Pick it up when you have a moment :p

The tentacled horror seemed impatient to be moving forwards, and more to get Meri out of the way than to hurt her, the thing flailed a longer tentacle in her direction. However, the tentacle struck in such a way that it wrapped around her waist. Taking advantage of its good fortune, the horror constricted around her painfully, and then pulled Meri high up to its central mass many feet above the ground.

For a moment the white skull of the teacher was visible deep in the mass. Its dead, empty eyes looked with some conveyed malice. And then, underneath Meri, one of the small tentacles that had fallen off managed to lift itself and merge with the blight, becoming a small spike. The tentacle then unravelled, and as Meri was dropped towards the spike the horror fell forwards to land on the ground, rushing off in the direction of its real interest.

Lol, sorry, that worked out too well. I didn't mean to be all 'yay, you killed a foe, now be yanked around and dropped on your head!' So you take 10 damage from the tentacle attack, then a further 8 damage from the fall. The blight spike is just flavour, since landing on blight is probably not too damaging. You'll also land prone.

I don't believe you've got any powers to stop yourself from falling / taking damage, as you need training in acrobatics to try and reduce the damage. If you can reduce the damage to 0, you won't be prone.

Good news though, technically it will strill provoke an OA when moving, and it's nicely pulled you in to position. So go ahead and make a melee basic attack with your staff :)

Also, the move with the construct seems solid.

The Trickster ran away to pillar to see if Meri had survived, growing at the retreating tentacled mass. Timur managed to move the construct towards the horror too, though perhaps too slowly to catch up with it.


What the final teacher, in its final form, was making for seemed to be the centre of the cavern.

Across the battlefield, the mists appeared to have parted and the activities were dying down. The titans seemed to be standing tall, with no foes around, or some final foe being torn to pieces. There was movement of wolves around, and howls that appeared jubilant.

It was the centre that the tentacles horror was making for. There appeared to be a green glow, not the sickening glow of dark magic but some healthy, revitalising shafts of light. Someone who could be Celindara appeared to be standing tall next to the altar, the actions of everyone buying her time to figure out the altar.

The last gambit of the teachers seemed as if it might have been an action to stop Celindara, and the sad worm thing was clearly in no condition to do anything but die at the whim of Meri or Nym. It was left to the teacher whose task it had been to slow down the group, and who had failed. With parts still falling off of it, it made one final, desperate movement onwards. Whatever it thought it could do, was infathomable.

Ok, so this should be the last round of combat! You guys need to do 2hp damage to the thing, or stop it from moving full speed so it won't be able to move across the battlefield fast enough to outpace you all. This will be the last battle of the day, so really any bonuses, etc to ensure you hit won't be wasted.

I don't think I need to wish you luck, indeed you can just go for the splashy finish, really :p

Final map: /games/63699/misc/gamemap.jpg?1476731332

OOC: Ouch.  Good thing I used Second Wind before or I'd probably be on something like -3 HP now.
Anyways, melee basic attack/OA:
Attack: 17 (12 + 5) vs. AC
Damage: 3 (2 + 1) - Might be enough to finish the thing if it actually hits :)

Did you account for your -2 to attacks for being prone? If not, you missed :(

Which is sad, as the mental image of Meri smashing the thing in the face as she falls seems strong!

And yes, I am a mean, mean DM finding evil ways to do more damage just when you think you're safe >:D

OOC: Ah nope, forgot that...
Could still use Inspiration on it though? ;)

That you could! Or I just realised retconning an augmented energy is also something I'd allow, since that's the one with the free action trigger after you roll the attack that grants +2. Up to you which you want to use...

Yes it would hit and kill the thing, so feel free to narrate all the actions and reactions in that case.


I love how you and Nym tend to actually kill critters with OAs despite being caster classes with 'poor' melee!

OOC: Will use Inspiration for it, since I may as well free that up now :)


As Meri began to fall, she drew back the staff, a last spark of energy glinting in one of the crystal points, and stabbed it towards the back of the creature where she had seen the skull only a moment ago, the staff leaving her hands like a thrown spear as she continued to fall away from the monstrous shape.

Twisting her body in mid air, she turned herself around, wrapping the black cloak around herself and also ensuring her backpack would fall on top of her, rather than the other way around...


OOC: *Thud!* :)

[Private to The Altweaver: Trying to protect her backpack from the impact was meant to save Many from injury, even at the cost of giving up a chance to break her own fall.  She's come a long way, eh? :)]

[Private to Meri: Awww, I'm sure he'll appreciate that when you finally free him! And yes, Meri has certainly evolved more than just her mechanical stats over this game :)]

The movements of the tentacled thing became slower. More parts came off. Long tentacles wrapped around protrutions out of the ground, and the tentacle would dislocate, then the blight miunt would collapse. The blob eventually toppled forwards and rolled ,revealing Meri's staff buried in its back. There was not much to actually strike, the thing really was mostly appendages, but the magic was slowly frying the small blight core.

A white shape, the skull form of the Teacher, pulled itself free. However, it seemed the long white tendrils it possessed had become the blight tentacles. The last few white strands pulled free as it lurked forwards, and the skull rolled to a stop. The sightless eyes looked towards where Celindara was completing her own ritual. The skull could not help its too wide grin with its oversized teeth. And yet it was an absolute certainty that the Teacher was the polar opposite of joyful at this turn of events.

With one final roll, the skull fell sideways. It did not move again.


And with that - VICTORY!

So, this was a fairly pitched battle - actually two combined in to one, I had up to 600XP and 800XP allocated for two fights. In the end you scored 1200XP (or 600XP each) for this confrontation. Which also means Level 6! Woohoo!

And you might want to note that while you used many of your combat resources, you do still have healing, items, and surges remaining. So, you know, you really can handle a lot in a fight if you need to. One of these days you might also end up closer together in battles to synergise more from each other too :p


Anyway, feel free to take a moment to come down from the battle, bask in the victory, recover 500gp items, and so on. When you're ready, we can then move you across to where Celindara is for the final wrap up to this chapter!

Woohoo! Death to all the bad things! :D

As the last of the Blighted enemies are dealt with, Nym looks around vaguely as though seeking more things to destroy. On seeing nothing further looming up to strike down herself or any of her allies, however, she instead stands there on rather wobbly-looking legs, giggling quitly to herself and apparently oblivious to her surroundings.

"Hee hee...yes, are they all gone?" she babbles quietly to herself. "I think, maybe, maybe they're all gone. That's it. Is that it? Fwooosh...no more fwooshy...ohh...but maybe there was another one somewhere...but it's fun. It's all fun..."

"Coming down" is right, I would say ;).

Slowly, Meri pulled herself back to her feet, wincing and rubbing at her chest where several ribs were most likely either bruised or cracked, perhaps both.  She looked towards where the tentacled Blight monstrosity lay, seeming to relax somewhat as it no longer appeared to be a threat.

After a quick look around to check for more enemies, she painfully tugged off the black cloak and her backpack, opening the pack and checking inside.
"You ok in there?" she asked.


OOC: Checking on Many.
Also staying away from Nym until she's fully come down from her "magic high" there, hehe :)


[Private to The Altweaver: Out of curiosity, is the Teacher's skull still there, or has it kind of "melted" or something?]

Hehe, if Nym couldn't tell the difference between friend and foe you'd've been nuked multiple times by now, I can assure you ;).

Many seemed the one concerned about Meri's health, perhaps still wondering if the artificer was under the influence of the mindwarping horror.

"Ah'm ok! An' ah'm Many. Short foh Mer-eh-nym. Do - you - re-mem-mer meh?" While his central eye was focused worriedly on Meri, his eyestalks were looking around, catching sight of Nym, the construct, and The Trickster, and not seeing anything else around. The right hand one swiveled around the most, clearly not buying the lack of evil creatures.

[Private to Meri: The skull is close by - as is the smokey heart. Neither are doing anything nasty :)]