Anauroch - The Great Desert

[Brainpiercing]

Where are you moving? (By the way, when stating movement coordinates, we have to decide on one of your 9 squares. So... Top right square.

[Omen of Peace]

Various expressions cross Mael's face as he listens to the thuds and the thunder of the clash, the very stone trembling under Don's paws.

[OOC for TT]
As an aside, you'll see along the way that touch attacks are often easy to land, except when the opponent has optimized against them specifically.

[OOC for BP only]

"The construct thingy that mashed the big guy is warded, boss. Going for plan B." Azur relays to his chosen vessel after he hits the invisible barrier.


[OOC]
Spot 14 to see if Agnak is dead.

I'll forgive you this time because I happen to think animating objects is really cool (yep, even as optimizer I get lured by shiny stuff).
Also, I don't mind giving the spotlight to New Guy (perhaps I should delay the animating, even? I can also possess him passively and enhance his ability scores).
Heck, I could possess dead Agnak if I wanted to play fake necromancer.

Like I said, I'm not looking for a permanent BSF vessel. The point is for Azur and Mael to overcome most obstacles with craftiness or charm or flight (!) rather than brute force. Though if it's good for the party I don't mind using one for a while.

Imitating Solid Fog sounds like fun ; we can hash out the details later but I'm in!

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

So...I didn't declare this, but perhaps for awesome dramatic purposes you will allow me to use my rocket boosters.  It's sort of hard to tell because of the big gray smudge where I'm standing but it looks like I have exactly enough movement to barrel through the Maug and smash him through both walls, ending up exaclty 24 squares away from where I started, in square AC 9 (24 squares move).  I will let you narrate the crashing through multiple walls...    I'm having fun!

[Brainpiercing]

I realize we forgot to design an activation action for the Rocket Boosters. I have recently added them to my Custom Content section, and now appended that activating them is a swift action.

As to breaking through all those walls.... I'm not sure. They weren't designed to be broken through, and should be at least 5 ft thick in all places. This means... unfortunately it will be very hard. A 1ft wall has a break DC of 35. A 3ft wall has a DC of 50 (and over 500 HP). A 5ft wall.... I don't think so. And unfortunately there IS a mechanic in the game to bullrush people into walls, which you would have to mechanically do, and you don't have it. And in any case you started a grapple, not a bullrush, so... I'm afraid this doesn't seem possible.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Hmmm, well maybe the walls are old and crumbling, I dunno... I just thought it would be cinematic.  Oh well. Carry on.  They will hit the wall and stop. Keep the Maug from taking a 5 foot step back...

[Brainpiercing]

The maug can't take any steps while you are grappling him, and holding him in the air.

So you want to fire the boosters and hit the wall nevertheless? The point is that you can't specify that only HE will hit the wall, you'll both hit it, because you don't have a critical game mechanic where one exists. The second problem is that rocket boosters use your Tempest Breath, which means that you won't be able to use your breath weapons for one round, IIRC.

BUT, if that's what you want, I'll oblige you, of course.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

yep... I want to ramp up the action one round at a time.  Grappling it for a couple rounds is fine.

[Brainpiercing]

Alright

With the awesome acceleration of rocket boosters the entangled pair of constructs raced towards the solid walls of the fortress. And did not slow down.

With an enormous CRASH the strange pair hit the first wall - the inner wall that was full of openings, anyway. Entire sections of wall exploded away with the impact. Once through the inner wall there was a dark cave behind it, but only seconds later the outer wall followed - and even the five feet of solid reinforced rock could not hold back the combined weight of almost 20 tons travelling at free-fall speeds. 

With titanic force the constructs hit the wall, and broke through with a crash that shook the earth. Armour and stone bent under the impact, sections of wall and rock exploded away, and an enormous cloud of dust filled the room and billowed out into the central cavern.

The entwined pair of constructs burst through on the other side, and continued to travel before coming to a stop just before the outside wall.

Alright... you and Jaslach basically hit the first wall after "falling" for a number of squares. You take 8d6 damage from the first wall, plus 2d6 non-lethal, then another 7d6 from the second wall. [31 lethal, + 5NL, + another 26 lethal.]
Jaslach takes 10d6 from the first wall and 7d6 from the second.[29 + 28]
You both finish at AC9, as requested. (with your top right square).

You've had to stop to not hit the outer wall, too, so you can't use your increased glide speed next round - unless you want to just make a turn. It's up to you now, the whole action sequence is already a mess.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Um...first of all, why would I take damage when I am using it as a shield...IT smashed through the wall, meaning it would take the brunt of the damge.  Secondly even if I took some damage, why would I take MORE than it?  If this is a "fall" (and it's not really, more controlled than that), then I am using the Maug to "break it."  I take 8d6 and it only takes 2?  I was rocketing "Maug-first" And if after what I just said, I still take damage, can you actually roll it and tell me how much I took and it took (like you did before)? Kinda silly to just spring a game mechanic on me like that, but if you insist I will deal since you are DM... EDIT  nevermind...I see now you put the damage in brackets.  But I still don't get why I took more dice than it... 57 lethal and it only took 34?  Thats somewhow wrong...

[Surreal]

OOC: I'm assuming I got greater blink up during the "prep" rounds.

Even while invisible, Mag's form seemed to shimmer and flicker from sight next to the others, as if a ghost fading to nothing. When the two behemoths crashed through the wall, the cavern heaved against their impact, sending stones flying in all directions. The party shielded themselves from minor debris, though Mag stood simply in place; falling rocks seemingly passing through his body.

Haven't taken an action yet. Can anybody tell if Agnak's dead from this distance? If not, I can spend my next two turns: full round to run up, second to check the body (won't have enough move to actually get out of the inner chamber though)

[Brainpiercing]

With dust filling the cavern checking on Agnak from the distance was now no longer possible - someone would just have to run in and look at him.

[Surreal]

With the second crash, it was clear that the two giants had "flown" deeper into the cave and were well out of view. After a moment's hesitation...

"Ah $#%& it... the rest of you stay out of sight and try not to get yourselves killed. I'll see if Agnak is still alive." And with that the goblin took off with surprising speed towards their downed comrade. Hunched down low to the ground, he almost seemed to run on all fours (well, three anyways). At times it almost appeared as if he ran through the nearby walls, but with the dust and debris one couldn't be certain.

OOC:

move to AE29, taking cover behind Agnak if possible
relevant skill checks? spot 23, heal 16, survival 32 (probably not applicable until next round if I used up all my actions to get there)
not sure how to handle hide, but with invisibility I'm still sitting at a +41 mod

[Brainpiercing]

Well... Agnak was supposed to die... As it is, Machinegun Joe (who had to be renamed of course) only managed to blow him down to -10 HP, IIRC. And since we're doing negative Con as a death threshold.... You can do first aid next round, since I believe you need to double move to get there.

Agnak had multiple wounds, and was unconscious. His chest hardly moved, just a trickle of breath went so softly that even the gurgling was hardly audible. He was bleeding out, inside and outside.

[Snizor]

'Damn goblin', Daelric thought to himself as Mag sped off towards the dragonling and Cat phased back into view, though only for a few seconds. Daelric quickly weaved his own invisibility effect to replace the one Maglu'glath had taken away with Cat, causing him to again fade from view.

"Follow me", Daelric muttered to Cat as he began following Maglu'glath.

OOC:

Cast Invisibility on Cat, then move to AQ 35.

[Brainpiercing]

[PRIVATE for MAEL]

Azur could see that Agnak was barely alive, and dying fast.

[ooc]

Forgot you, earlier.

I am assuming that you meant AB53 for Mael, and not 43, because 43 is right in the inner cavern.

Also, I'm assuming you meant to move Azur further towards Jaslach to posess him, and not to the new PC (M.A.R.C.V.), who is the huge (3x3) construct who appeared in the center. Because I remember we said that posessing PCs is a nono unless the PC agrees.  Thirdly, I'm not sure whether Azur is ethereal now or not. In order to posess someone he has to leave the ethereal plane, right? Since we have all those pesky mind-sighters around it would be good to always know when he is ethereal and when just invisible.

Cat had been strangely silent throughout the exploration of the tunnel and the encounter so far. He couldn't shake an uneasy feeling - the feeling that he knew nothing about the world, and might be outclassed at every corner.

He slunk after Daelric, his head held low in a prowling position, but his step less than predatory. Finally shame overtook him and he tip-toed past his human companion - after all, he had promised he would act as scout and muscle. The combatants had left the range of his mindsight, he could only peer into the dimly lit - and dust-filled - cavern like everyone else. He could see the strange goblin on his mindsight, that was all.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

So I have taken 70 hp of damage plus 5 non lethal and have fast healed 4 points, meaning I am down 66 hp.  Jaslach has taken 84 points of damage and it's now his (its?) turn...waitin' on you boss!

[Brainpiercing]

I'm sorry I should have sent the next version of the map around again, I'll do that tomorrow. Everybody with the excel file could adjust positions for now, if it's important, you all know where you are.

Jaslach was - if a construct could become so - utterly flabbergasted. This enemy had been BEATEN before, and now? There was just no comparison. This wasn't a fight he could win. He was physically quite incapable of becoming alto emotional about this realisation, BUT he was annoyed. Annoyance was a useful emotion. And he wanted to find out how he could have been so wrong for such a long time.

So... while still being held clamped in those mercilessly unbudging arms and penetrated by those merciless adamantine spikes, he just stopped fighting back. His arms went limp and he dropped the glaive on the floor. His stony eyes focused on the angry pins that came through his enemy's visor.

'That last time', he said loudly. 'What was riding you? There was no way we could have won if you'd been the same as now. And I've been sitting here for a thousand years waiting for a rematch, waiting for some of your folks to return, so that I could KILL them all again. BUT instead, you've been here all the time. Why didn't you fight back last time?'

[Read first spoiler first, and don't read second before you've gotten the mood right for a reply.]

Yeh, difficult character background stuff I don't think we've worked out previously. Improvise, I guess.

[Secondly]

NOT only do we have MORE construct erotical, it's even definitely homosexual construct erotica. At some point we'll have to do the CONSTRUCT PRIDE parade in Portland....

How cool would it be to play a HUGE GAY KILLER ROBOT??? Huge lesbian killer robots must have been explored somewhere before....

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

"Maug, ENEMY!"The giant war machine, even if it could remember the details of so long ago, was too enraged to stop.  It proceeded to crush whatever passed for life out of the hellish constructed mercenary.

Sorry, but it has amnesia AND its raging right now, probably not going to stop and chat.  Grapple check: 8 + modifiers (did you say I was at +24?) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2614494/


Oh, and I should mention I am leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) evening to work at a festival for 5 days.  I won't have any kind of cell or internet so my responses will be on hold for 1 week exactly.  Sorry!

[Surreal]

Looking at Agnak's broken and blodied body, Maglu'glath knelt down and placed a hand upon the giant's chest, seemingly in prayer. A survivor of many wars, he recognized fatal injuries when he saw them. There was hardly a pulse left, and air found no rest in his sundered lungs.

*"You deserved a better death than this my comrade. I shall grant you peace. Rest well, knowing that your great strength will live on, for the glory of Maglubiyet."
*(speaking in Goblin)

With that, Mag's hand began to glow ever so slightly. A moment later, Agnak's body shimmered shimmered and dissolved to dust, flowing into Maglu'glath. In mere seconds, nothing remained save for the Goblin; his normally orange eyes now shone with a brilliant copper.

[Brainpiercing]

[ooc for MARCV]

You're at 10Str+7BAB+8Size=+25, so your grapple check is 33

You can do iterative grapples, too. I'll just roll one for you to save time, you can counteract at any time.
Second grapple: 28

Jaslach's defense:
36 on first check
41 on second check. Interestingly enough I don't think I have to take an Iterative penalty on this one, because grapple checks are always opposed, and i'm not limited to my number of attacks. It might be smarter to just try and hit him (with a -4 penalty) than actually using iterative grapples.

Well, whatever. One note: Please make a damage roll, too, if you attack, and just put it in the ooc bracket. That way I can immediately apply damage if your attack hits.

As the mad construct did not react in the slightest to his words Jaslach brought up his arms in a last-ditch defense. With all his strength and a good deal of luck he managed to hold back the crush, and the terrible spikes.
'We're not done talking', he protested.

[ooc for everyone]

I'm an idiot. Mindsighters could have easily seen that Agnak was still holding on to life. Well... it makes no difference now.

[PRIVATE for Mag]

Agnak's essence was consumed by the hungry outsider that was so well hidden in the goblin. If Mag had anticipated an increase in strength through the process, he was disappointed. Agnak was not powerful enough to give him strength. If anyone could have listened they would have heard Agnak's soul scream as it was entirely devoured until not even the slightest trace of it was left.

[ooc]

50% check for possible resurrection: 9 (fail). Agnak is irrevocably dead. Only the gods can bring him back.

Agnak's posessions were left as a limp, flat husk. They were all that remained of the once great warrior.

Cat perked at the disappearance of Agnak's presence.
Big guy, half dragon, is gone, he remarked in Daelric's mind, matter of factly.