Arc 3 - Glimmers in the Dark (Main Roleplay)

[Mongooseh]

Valac quickly brings up his left arm and tears away the tentacles wrapping around his head.

Then tries to bring down his sword on the mindflayer as a reward for its efforts.

 

[PupSage]

This Mindflayer needed to die ... quickly.


"Novi! Focus on the Mindflayer." Kuori called out to their new ally. She then reared up her morningstar and slammed it into the Mindflayer.

CRIT!
Standard:
Righteous Brand: Crit, 32 vs. AC for 20 bludgeoning damage, and [VALAC] gains a +4 power bonus to melee attack rolls against the target until the end of your my next turn.

Minor, sustain DR
Free Action: Heal Valac for 18hp
Move: shift 1 Southwest  

[PupSage]

Whose voice was that? It was familiar. Either way, the enemies were swarming and that Mindflayer was just sacrificing pawns left and right.

Time to make them regret those decisions.

Novi moves one square East of Kuori and begins to spin their weapon overhead, the momentum of the force drawing in the nearby enemies towards them. Then she proceeds to attack each enemy.

Hitting the Mindflayer last and following through with a second strike.

"Who are you?" Novi asks plainly to the female Goliath in the dark armor.
"You and your friends are quite impressive."

Novi vs T21 =14+14=28 vs AC for 11 dmg
Novi vs T23 =13+14=27 vs AC for 17 dmg
Novi vs T22 =20+14=34 CRIT vs AC for 20 dmg
Novi vs T27 =17+14=31 vs AC for 18 dmg a
Novi vs T19 =13+14+2=29 vs AC for 11 dmg
Novi vs MF =19+14+2=35 vs AC for 14 dmg
Novi vs the air =19+14 =33 vs AC for 10 dmg

Come and Get It
Encounter ✦ Martial, Weapon - Standard Action - Close burst 3
Target: Each enemy in burst you can see
Effect: You pull each target 2 squares to a space adjacent to you. You cannot pull a target that cannot end adjacent to you. You then make a close attack targeting each adjacent enemy.
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage. [1d10+8]

Controlling Weapon: +1 pull distance
---

IF MINDFLAYER IS STILL ALIVE

Sohei Flair: 23 vs AC for 14 more damage


Everyone adjacent to Novi is marked.  

[PupSage]

Action Point!

T19: 8+14+2= 24 vs AC for 24 dmg
MF: 9+14+2= 25 vs AC for 20 dmg
T21: 1+14+2= 17 vs AC for 21 dmg NAT 1 (whop Whop) (HALF Damage still)
T23: 6+14+2= 22 vs AC for 22 dmg
T22: 6+14+2= 22 vs AC for 18 dmg
T27: 7+14+2= 23 vs AC for 13 dmg
All Targets marked again, and knocked prone. Pic sent for sliding map. (T27 was yo-yoed to starting location, but still slid.

Shift the Battlefield
Daily ✦ Martial, Weapon - Standard Action - Close burst 1
Target: Each enemy in burst you can see
Attack: Strength [+14] vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage,[2d10+8] and you slide the target 1 square.
Miss: Half damage

Rushing Cleats: Increase slide by 1
Polearm Momentum: Knock target prone  

[Kowsauni]

The Table is Set.

The white circles are the goliaths in the cage. There is immense power radiating off the Mindflayer due to the ritual. This force is so powerful it makes it hard to move towards him. The squares between the innermost large circle and the small circle count as difficult terrain. The goliaths' cages are ten feet tall and fully enclosed (you just can't see the roof of the cages in the picture).

Initiative Order
Mindflayer, Dead,
Ruin HP 35/69, 5DR, concealment
Valac: HP: 46/82, +2 regen,
Kuori HP: 50/59 Regen 5, ongoing 5, 5DR
Novi HP:48/78
Thralls, T8, T16, T21 bloodied, T21, bloodied and immobilized
Irene

Ruin blasts the Mindflayer before running at the Giant. As he tumbles between his legs the giant kicks him in the gut for 15 damage.

Valac rips off the tentacles grabbing at his face before swinging at the mindflayer with his sword. However, the mindflayer commands the adjacent thrall to block the attack, causing the barbarian to cut into him instead.

Kuori bashes the mindflayer again before slipping away.

Like a living tornado, Novi does some crazy s**t with her halberd and by the time she is done several thralls lay dead at her feet.

The remaining thralls all attack. Novi gets hit by a small thrall for 7 and by the Giant for 13. Valac gets slashed by the large thrall for 13, and then stabbed for another 5. Ruin gets hit once for 4.

Irene slashes the thrall that attacked her, immobilizing him in place.

The mindflayer suddenly teleports back to the platform. Bruised, beaten and bloodied he is too weak to stand back up. Instead, he reaches into his robes and pulls out a dagger. After coughing up some blood he speaks in a raspy voice. "I've come too far to fail now. For...Lord CHRIMARL!" The mindlflayer plunges the dagger into his chest and his body instantly disintegrates into light. The light rises into the air and begins to grow and take form. Beams of light shoot from each of the cages into the center of glowering orb until the light becomes to bright for anyone to see. There is a giant flash and everyone is blinded.

Once everyone's vison returned they saw floating before them the massive image of an enormous Pit Fiend wreathed in fire and smoke. Yet, despite its terrifying presence, it did not move or react, its body remaining translucent. Kuori and Novi's people remained in their pens as well, though they appeared more ghostlike than before. Whatever the Mindflayer did, he seemed to further the ritual, but lacked the power to complete it. No evidence of his existence remained.

The thralls all lose their hostile stances and become just as dazed and confused as before. Several stare at the image of the pit fiend in abject horror and look ready to bolt.

Sensing the fight being over, Irene puts away her hand back underneath her long elegant sleeves and stares at the image of the archdevil in amazement. "Is... Is that Chrimarl? Is... he really here?"

End of combat

 

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

"Not quite. Continue as planned." Ruin spoke to Irene. "Kouri devils are your thing. You know anything useful about this drunk?" Motioning to the new pitfiend

Arcane: Ritual reversal... check +11 =25  

[Mongooseh]

Valac slashes at the pit fiend that had just manifested in front of him.  

[PupSage]

Kuori looks to the giant and speaks in giant. "Unless you want to fight that bit thing, please help us get rid of those cages. Can you lift them?"

Diplomacy 26 to giant  

[PupSage]

Novi will run to a cage and start using the hook of their spear to pull people out of the cage, starting with the Demi girl from before.  

[Kowsauni]

In addition to what he learned before, Ruin can tell that what the party is looking at are the astral projections from a pocket plane that seemed to be created specifically for this ritual. Everyone involved in the ritual was now partly tied, or rather, trapped in this plane until the ritual was either completed or reversed. It seemed to Ruin they would need to travel to the plane themselves to accomplish this, but how to get there, was too complex to figure out on his own. He would need to see the book that contained the details of the ritual to truly understand it.

Valac slashes at the fiend and his sword passes through it as if it wasn't even there. The pit fiend doesn't seem to react at all either.

The giant looks down at Kuori with his beady little eyes, for a moment he says nothing, but then he finally responds slowly in giant. "You help Broak get mind back, so Broak help you. But just this once. " The giant moves over to the nearest cage and begins to tug on it, though it does not immediately budge.

The cage that Novi saw the strange girl in that saved her was near the outskirts of the of the entire complex, but after running through serval cages she find her again. As she tries to pull her out she finds her spear pass right though her as if she was just a mirage or illusion. In fact it is the same for anyone she tries to move within the cages. It's as if they are ghosts.

Irene runs over and opens another one of the cages.  

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

"To whatever god is listening, I pray please don't say the Mindflayer has the book... currently." Ruin prayed.

"Anyone see a book? Ritual magic type of book." Ruin said out loud looking about. Before looking about. "The tribe, devil, and possibly mindflayer are in between a pocket dimension and here. we need the ritual now to free them... And it probably smells there."

Perception: 15  

[Kowsauni]

As Ruin checks around the place where the mindflayer fell, he sees no traces of a book, nor any book or a place to keep a book in the surrounding area. Ruin also does not recall seeing a tome on the mindflayer as he fought him either. The warlock is pretty confident there is no way this ritual was completely done from memory and the details of a ritual as complex as this would have taken up several pages in a tome, if not the entire book, but it does not seem to be here.  

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

Ruin tapped his head and looked around the arena for buildings.

"Miss Lostlights, What do you know of this foe?" Ruin asked Kouri and Novi

Short of jumping into one of the cages with a rope tied to his waist. Ruin was falling short on ideas.  

[PupSage]

"Lightlost." Kuori corrects him. "It's a devil, apparently named Lord Chrimarl, it's in the Hells, we aren't, and my guess is that to save our people that either we need to bring it, and them to us, or we need to go there and kill it, neither is a good option."


18 Religion  

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

"Unless if someone wants to hold a rope and toss me into one of these cages. Without the ritual book, I am lost on how we do either." Ruin spoke.