Does it seem that killing these elementals is the only way to secure the dark fire?

How many elementals are there? And what type are there? It seems that they are transmorphing and doing stuff.

At the moment I can't work out what the situation is, other than the graphic description. In order to post I have to know

• What our goal is
• What the situation is in terms of enemies
• What the situation is in terms of the description of the surroundings

• The first... I am not sure about. I guess it's kill elementals.
• The second... no idea at all.
• The third... is descriptive and pretty and I am happy with it

---

Suggestion
I think I would like a clear 'Status' block at the end of a GMs post. It could look like this. Without it I have no idea what the immediate surrounding is

--

For now
I'll go attack another fire elemental. I assume there are still fire elementals around, but I'm not sure...

I'm okay with our goal right now being a kind of amorphous -secure liberty and favor of the city- and -gather mystic gear to make that happen.

I feel like the Greeks Pantheon and the dark lord are both fighting over the city. I just don't feel like we are particularly attached to one side or the other, though I do feel like our characters have evolutionary imperative to be opposed to the dark lord.

Part of me wants to go to a quest menu for brief synopsis of how we can meet the stated goals.

Like I don't know who the priestess is working for, or what's going on with a mage by the lake that was mentioned earlier, and I guess that's fine if my character's knowledge religion and knowledge are kind of or just supposed to not be enough to understand what's going on right now.

The sword and shield you're using, Lady Maevre, allow you to phase out, striking with renewed intensity at the blending shapes constituting the elemental composite. You turn black and shift color alternately, forming a web of darkness that envelops you and Aranea in a cosseting glow. Contumacious feracity strikes and leaves your size making an appearance with the Parthenon towering over you, rocky outcroppings shifting before you and reflecting your Assassin's Stance. Your goal is to remind the chorus about the literacy of the general population, whose chanting is known world-wide and in fact ghe dark god Izrador had sent you a command to slay the elementals and bring him the chassis of their corpses to develop new spell fructa. The claws of attack that someone had fought in this exact spot before with, end up settling scores with the gods, who wipes their hands in a gesture of good will. The wheat and the chaff set the chimes which you hear in the background level off with the clop of horses winding through their efforts at locomotion in a skene best equipped to level up in the ascent of the city. The etheral plane sits ladled in a cake of generalities, tipping over the glass victuals absorbing magical energy. You can sense that elsewhere in the city, the stained glass warps slightly with magical tension, some of the windows bursting with a fell call re-arranging the gods' vocal cords in a defiant literality, Cerberus harboring glass dragons in his sodden flesh, the flight of a dragon over the city displaying a fine patina of ashen scales, light armor adorning many of the immediate responders who patrol as part of the garrison.

Litigious endeavors couch the ranged touch attacks of the elementals in religious fervor, fervid and florid beams of accumulated energy faintly pulsing, forbidden technology that hovers in the patterns so beknownst to air. Glass air and jars sitting forbidden upon the miasma select fireballs and beams of light that emerged from a bottle of cure moderate wounds, tricky saliva edifying taste and there is a somnolent plaintive that resounds with critical energy.

Assassin stance creates potion
Pottion merges with elementals
Hit dice doubled
Glass dragons above the city grant a ranged touch attack
You sense the plains outside the city wave with divine wind
Izrador crunches the glass in his mouth to bloody the fields

The stats for the fire elemental are posted on the d20srd.org. https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elemental.htm .

He attempts to slam you, initiating a process by which the acid fangs filled with fire ants resound with glory in your needling presence, and the metamorphosis fills in the gaps in the air with cuts that discus their way into your spell field which travels with you, a scrying torchlight that draws you nearer, inviting you to redouble your efforts in choosing which magical energies will harm the elemental. The sonorous glass that Izrador crunches makes him spit blood in your direction, solidifying toxic waste that blends and cutting, re-seals the power vacuum with a slurping noise almost like the escape of steam from a tired old piston.

Webs appear, chanting "Aranea," and with a fortitude roll that I rolled for you, makes known that the acid bites down upon your skin, causing the webs to rotate with color. You see a small spider web ruffling the wind and it seems to settle upon you with effulgence, the chorus attached as a word cloud to the redactable curoisities, glass swords enveighing upon your mind with the weight of the ages.

The DC is 15 to allow the cold webs to dissolute the center of the webs, causing effects unknown, but the egregious sounds of iron, glass, and timber seem to invoke an idyllic resurgence of light that unmans the masculine presence of the eye. You both succeed, with a 15 for Lady Maevre and a 17 for Aranea, of re-aligning the vestibule in the garments of some of the weathered statues, which land with aplomb.

Sorry I didn't post for awhile, I was busy. Now I'm going to bump the prompt.

Still no other word about new players or messages from the old.

https://www.mediafire.com/view...f_pelluria.jpg/file#

https://www.mediafire.com/view...tone_docks.jpg/file#

Maps for perusal.

This was great. Lots of status and really simple. Now I know there are four fire elementals and some sort of giant

Of course most of my attacks don't work against fire elementals or fire giants... Doubly don't work work on fire elementals.


This would be nice. But I don't have one

However I do have some earth powers and I will try those out if we meet air elementals.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:39, Fri 03 Mar 2023.

slay astirax: level 7 spell

magic curve: slow / as Heroic Paths only go up to level 10 (and lady Maevre's Swordsage and Blade Dancer indicate a Heroic Path), prestige classes such as the blackguard and assassin offer spells earlier in formation, so what is normally a level 10 mage who gets access to level 7 spells gains one more spell per day of each level, as the "difficulty level" of the campaign necessitates more bennies given out to centralize the focus on higher level encounters with smaller groups.

CR and LA work in tandem so there is a proliferation of astirax of (x) levels given at any time a level boost based on distance to its master. slay astirax allows certain herbs to poison the main arbiters of legionnaires' activities such as using scent to produce a powerful chemical resounding, capable of alerting the astirax to the presence of magic, which makes their eyes glow an even deeper red. the spell is a metamagic feat that, according to the paragraph above, can work as a level 5 spell, reciprocally formed into a level 7 spell.

dance of flames works like fireball only being the enlarged version thereof and thus exists at a different level of magical effusion than its predecessor.

cross-class skills imply that if you have 3 or more prestige classes, you can augment a skill of your choice with a plus ten, giving synergy to 3 class skills which were formerly cross-class skills and use these to select a feat that suits your "role," be it damage, spells, or targetting

languages are all fantasy, except for Trader's Tongue, which is phonetically English but using the latin script.

feats:

Concentration Well: if you imbue an item with energy from a Power Nexus via a scroll or wand, the well becomes present in your mind and you are able to augment 3 spells of your choice.

Concentration Lapse: If you are disabled or dying, you may concentrate into a death state. This feat can be acquired for free, i.e. without levelling up, by sipping the philosopher's tonic, something you heard is available at Skie's Treasury

Concentration Juke: Compare your Concentration roll to your opponent's. If you succeed in trumping his role, you get to re-roll a spell in the next ten rounds.



The fire giant is tied to the power nexus that sits in the center of the village and the color that centers over it is able to influence the color scheme of the village at night or during dawn, witht he respective gods and their shrines open to influence with multiple attacks being more fruitful at night if the weapon is dipped in the center lake, Crater Lake. It also doubles the bonuses from the above concentration feats.

Just wanted to let you all know help is on the way....not sure when, but hopefully soon...

NPC groups are potentially becoming your followers, this is not a scripted rule though so you never know if you can gain control of them simply with a diplomacy roll, and if that's critical, then you get a bunch from the local garrison to enfuse your current batch.

Silver tongues provide good results and it is the case that some of the more experimental of the musicians in the city use silver tongues literally to summon vampires, Eleni included, as she is a half-vampire. They are known to serve Hades, having passed through the caverns of Styx and there is a slight incline towards the vertically oriented river that spans time and clobbers and drowns any adventurers who descend into it at the 9th circle below the city. Troubadors are around as are the bowls for dogs to drink from, and you never know when Cerberus is going to rear its ugly head but you can expect that toward the end of the campaign. Each of his heads is needing to be slain but he will, of course, be revived by Hades with the sacrifice of a dog.

Slam and teeth are modified to the extent that they are what exists in Occipitus, the red glare on the dogs' eyes that can be focused on to cast magic. You feel intense magical overlays when the dogs' eyes are around. You seek to tame the wilderness and investigate the warrens that proliferate beneath the city. The population is currently around 3 million, and there are multiple competing magic shops around but Skie's is the best-equipped for your styles as adventurers. The changing population figures result from the waviness of the magic, altering the city's fabric quite literally, and whenever the wind blows, you can navigate through it by using Wands of Illumination, almost like dowsing rods but with literal magic.

The slope of the city is such that it reflects a general trend of deer running uphill, and they are sometimes spotted in the city but the creatures outside the gate drink their blood to imbue their weapons with Blooddrinker. There is a whimsy that speckles the taverns of the city and their ales are crafted by the finest ale-wives this side of Aryth. The wood is harvested from outside but you are susceptible to multiple leech-like parasites if you venture outside the city, so don't forget your rubber boots. The grape vine yields that once the battle is done you are able to make some new friends in your followers, who will move away from you towards other cities in the region (Midnight map) and you hear tales of Cambrial, and freeing that city is an option undertaken by the would-be followers, those whose larger sentimentality brings forth the options in the future, kind of like a dichotomous key. Unlocking memories is key to the eventual slaying of the Dark God, and his fire-breathing horses were in many of the books in the library that you had looked through while maintaining a network of portals. The large mammals outside the gates are wanting their fangs sharpened on some fresh meat but there is the natural defense itself that shelters them. Going forth after this combat you are able to submit to the will of the jungle and thus bring out the Erunsil to swing on the vines a bit.

Hey Jack. Glad to have you with us

@GM
OK thanks. A ton of info there

Glad to be here, just trying to get myself together and my character finalized, look forward to getting into the thick of things with everyone....

I was not sure if people know what each others PC's are or if they "know" each other.

I can share details if it is "authorized".

We decided on backstory that has us part of a team that has worked together for a little while. This is kind of our first 'big job'

Oh in that case
I have a nice pole arm and a spiked gauntlet, and am basically a trapfinding skill monkey who happens to channel spells through said guisairme.

Human guy type

I am also a scout trying the feat
Quick Reconnoiter

( Complete Adventurer, p. 112)

[General]

You can learn a lot of information from just a quick scan of an area or object.
Prerequisite
Listen 5 ranks, Spot 5 ranks,
Benefit
You can make one Spot check and one Listen check each round as a free action. You also gain a +2 bonus on initiative checks.
Normal
Using Spot or Listen in a reactive fashion is a free action, but actively trying to make a Spot check or Listen check requires a move action.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:33, Thu 09 Mar 2023.

Getting closer to getting everything in place.  Will be ready soon.

Factotum 3 / Duskblade 3....

Decent melee character, tripper, scout trapfinder, etc......

Not sure who all is active in the game, but looking forward to adventuring...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:35, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Aranea, you and I are active as far as I know

There is a chance you can steal the belongings of the fire giant. His corpse is considered critical to getting the glass you need, giantglass. The ultimate goal is to construct a house of glass using giantglass and obsidian, with which you'll need to travel through the wilderness and chances are you'll face shadowspawn. You don't know what they are, but they are the most primal of the beasts in the region. A random encounter will ensue after the gates drop, and you'll need to carry the fire giant's corpse to the church to fragment it and end up on the other side of the Sea of Pelluria. See map that I posted. The church also needs paint which you can bring over from the other city Highwall. It's huge, and as the water laps against the docks there is a notion that there are power nexuses that need to be harvested in the region, so you'll face them and have to fight their guardians.

Several giantglass, obsidian,, church icons and black fire can be traded with the city of Highwall, but there is reputed an underground crime network there. This is all once you finish the combat with the fire giant and you will face Drakthar under the city once you've traded the goods.

I am waiting for the proper intro time, it seems like it might be a minute.

Looking forward to meeting everyone.

Sorry, I've shifted schedule by about 7 hours which is a super weird interval. My body is not adjusting well. I will try to post again in character after I get some sleep.

No problem Aranea, hope you can rejoin us soon. The nature of things at the time is such that the docks of Baden's Bluff rap against the waves in an effort to bring trade into focus, especially with the necessary repairs after the riots took place. You never know if they might erupt again with the same intensity.

Hookface would probably be known by those who are of the red and black robes, and this is the nature of the church of Wee Jas. Their initiates would be good people to talk to to institute relations with the gods, who number in the thousands of hit points assuming they take on corporeal form. The objects of the city glow and lift in their presence, and you suspect they didn't have any other route to choose, meaning Cauldron is high-magic and low magic simultaneously, asserting its epic form. This means that ACs jump around the 30 to 40 level for most of the beings you will encounter near Cauldron but beneficial abilities such as Charge have less of an effect. The nature of high magic is that the city stands erect, made of glass-like appendages that are hard to destroy, and the very fabric of the city stands with creatures wavy that form a backbone structure, and repairing it requires the use of chitin from these AC 30-40 creatures who need to be taken down with magic, ie.. high magic. The travel time from Cauldron to Highwall is 3 days by horse and horses are relatively cheap but warrant some cultural affixations. If you find a horse, you're likely to be observing a particular astral constellation, and many in this world would argue that the quarries are a good place to harness the power of mother nature. Flux is the idea here, with creatures able to hide in plain sight, and the giants are able to literally contain space. The truth is unknown, but there is a forge in the city that supposedly makes giant-slaying gear.

Is anyone able to tell me what specific crunch they're most interested in so that I can stylize the game in this direction? The lore will be leaning toward Midnight and Shackled City and so the commentary and fluff will be drawn from that, but as I've said it's open milieu.

So the options for the upcoming path (ignoring some of the bullshit stream I posted that didn't catch and led nowhere) are thus:

Get the glass after traversing the regions around the city
Revisiting old friends in Highwall who are trade contacts and potential allies against the Shadow
Talking to Skye as she apparently has all the best magic items around
Finding a means to transport the corpse of the slain fire giant to another temple in Highwall, shoring up the purpose of travel there.

Those threads are loosely what I would suggest doing, without explicitly saying those are the only options. The city can be described more as you travel around, but now it's a bustling crowd that is calming down, so you never know if someone might spot you travelling around or re-entering the city. You see several people who make eyes at you, and you never know if you'll see them again, like in a modern metropolis.

So one of your goals for now is to figure out if the riots are tied to the Shadow's activities, but you don't know if anyone was disguised insurgent groups.

On that note,

"Someone says to you,, 'Are you able to help us bring glad tidings to the other city'"?

Hookface flies over the city, showing off his wings. Maybe he was responsible for the riot. How are you going to locate him?

Trade is the name of the game seeing as a Tithe is upcoming, and it's probably magic items being added to the coffers.

Does that help at all or is there a critique that would help me out?

Making new friends and learning new things are on the top of my list....trade contact, allies and skye may have some interesting things.....

Expanding trade and territory we influence is probably best.

If someone PMed me, my apologies seeing as the prompt was red but shifted to blue, did anyone PM me besides Eorien Fellstave?

The cold winds of the plains of the Northlands whipped up by the Sea of Pelluria witness the attrition of the underground catacombs known as the Underdark. Then again there might be buried creatures on the way to Highwall or creatures erupting from the grassy earth, the grass being blood red.

I did not send any PM's