Help Us Kill Morrus - Just updated 23/03/05

Reliq al Suulak, Paladin and Fist of Raziel, watched as the last of his comrades climbed into the bag of holding. He pulled the drawstrings, flung it over his left shoulder and secured it to himself.

He smiled to himself as he recalled the many occasions that the ranger had pulled a small furry animal from his 'Bag of Tricks' to help overcome one situation or another.

"Call that a Bag of Tricks?" he thought to himself as he imagined the bag he now held, it's unusual contents and various scenes where he would pull one of his friends from it to deal with some problem. "This is a Bag of Tricks!" he finished with, and chuckled to himself. He then remembered that he'd definitely have to have a word with the Elf and his rather innapropriate uses of that bag: it was definitely un-ranger like.

He stared down the black, obsidian tunnel he'd volunteered to take the others down and took a few deep breaths. The Death Ward placed upon him by the cleric should protect him from the negative energy effect that permeated the tunnel but the glowing red runes that were spaced along its floor, walls and ceiling worried him.

Well it was now or never.

Reliq took to the air in his new Boots of Flying and raced down the tunnel.......

BOOM!!!..........An explosion of flame enveloped him. Fortunately the resistances provided by the mage held but still they were not enough to completely absorb it all and Reliq was now quite singed.

BOOM!!!.........A second explosion rung out but he was more prepared and managed to avoid all but a bit of the heat.

BOOM!!!............And a third; this one seriously burning the paladin and causing him to take a risk and stop to heal himself. Reliq sighed in relief as nothing happened whilst he used his magics and then set off once more.

Two more explosions caught him as he sped to the end of the tunnel however he weathered the effects of those last two far better but he was forced to use all but two of the rest of his spells in order to heal himself fully.

"Damn Githyanki bitch" he muttered to himself as he looked upon the door in front of him. It was pretty much a normal looking door, well crafted and solid. The only two things that disturbed Reliq were the heavy enchantments laid upon it but more interesting were the two plaques set into it on either side. One of the plaques depicted the Githyanki queen they had agreed to destroy: Reliq had been charged by Raziel himself with destroying her and the group as a whole had made an arrangement with the Slaadi king to do so in return for his promise not to set his people on a rampage on the city above. The other plaque was even stranger, depicting the Slaadi king and caused Reliq some concern what with it being placed with the other plaque.
Reliq looked at the door and wondered how he might open it. He had no magics with which to dispel the enchantments and the last time he tried sundering an evil object, namely a temple to Orcus, he nearly killed the rest of the party when it exploded. He smiled as he remembered that one, not at the near deaths it had caused but because of the complete and utter ruin he had smote upon that evil place. It was a good day.
With no other alternatives available Reliq tried the door in the normal fashion and went to open it by the handle……
BOOM!!!.................An invisible explosion of pure force this time struck Reliq squre in the chest and hurled him roughly 50ft down the tunnel.
BOOM!!!.................A fiery ball enveloped him once again as he landed causing some moderate burns. His chest hurt also from the strike to his chest; it felt as though at least one rib was broken.
“Damn you again undead whore, I am personally going to gut you just like I did your little sister.” His falchion, ‘Maelstrom’, hummed in anticipation.
Reliq once again flew down the hallway towards the door. Upon reaching it he noticed that his efforts had been rewarded for the door lay slightly ajar. He pushed the door open and entered the cavern beyond to find what he’d been after for so long now.
Some distance away, lounging upon an ornate throne of bone fused into rock, was the Githyanki queen; her eyes burned brightly as her gaze settled upon Reliq and a low, rasping laugh forced it’s way through her tattered lips.
“So you finally made it. We’ve been waiting for quite some time for you and your friends.” At this remark Reliq remembered the friends he had in his bag of holding and decided right then to unceremoniously dump them out onto the cavern floor. Before any of them managed any sort of complaint at this treatment their eyes caught sight of the Githyanki queen and they hastily composed themselves.
During this time Reliq took in the rest of his surroundings. To the left of the queen stood another of the three elite Githyanki guards, resplendent in their crystal full plate armour and wielding crystal greatswords. The last time he’d faced these had been bad enough and these were her personal guards.
More worrying were what stood to the left of the queen………three monstrously tall, black Slaad in full plate, wielding huge pikes. “What the hell was going on here?” Reliq mused and in answer to that thought, the last part of the equation revealed itself.
From behind one of the supporting pillars by the queens throne emerged the Slaadi king, dressed for battle, wielding a massive length of spiked chain and sporting an huge grin on his amphibious face.
“It’s been a good game whilst it lasted but all good things must end now I’m afraid and it’s not something you are going to enjoy very much either.” the Slaadi king croaked.
Between them both they taunted and threatened Reliq and his companions however Reliq only caught snippets of their conversation as he surveyed the area and it’s occupants about him.
Suddenly, at a gesture from the queen, bladed pillars of translucent black force appeared inbetween the two parties, turning quickly. Through the companions mind link Ozric the Diviner advised them all that the bladed pillars were infused with negative energy. Things were getting worse.
The door behind then closed by itself.
And then the Gith and the Slaadi warriors advanced upon them………..

So ENWorlders, that’s a very brief telling of what happened last night and the situation we are preparing for next Tuesday and if I’m honest with y’all……..I be cr@ppin’ meself!!!
So what me and me group are asking for is some help and as an added incentive Morrus is our DM, and I know y’all wanna a piece of him!!!
Our party consists of:
Human Paladin/Fist of Raziel 15
Paladins mount: Celestial tiger
Elf Ranger/Blood Hunter 16
Human Diviner 15
Human Sorcerer 15
Human Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor 15
Human Samurai/Kensai 15

Unfortunately our Ratb@stard DM stripped the cleric and sorcerer of all their magic items and now they have but a handful of real minor stuff that we all pitched in for.

As far as I can remember everybody but the paladin is at full health, (paladins on about 115 HPs). Everybody also has about ¾ of their spell allotment left I think.

So if you feel you’ve got some kewl strategies up yer sleeve then please share them or if you just wanna go down the you’re doomed route and laugh at our misfortune then that would be ok also!

Now my computer access is somewhat limited so don’t think I’m ignoring you if it takes me a while to get back to you. Hopefully Inconsequenti-Al, (the sorcerer), Dpulse303, (the diviner) or Eccles, (the cleric) will be on line in the meantime.

Thanks everyone.

Darmanicus said:

So if you feel you’ve got some kewl strategies up yer sleeve then please share them or if you just wanna go down the you’re doomed route and laugh at our misfortune then that would be ok also!

Click to expand...

After all the trouble we went through to generate the lich for him? Nah! Instead, I shall laugh an evil laugh: MUAH-HAH-HAH!


(good luck!)

Yeah I was gonna say -- we worked for like an hour to build that NPC for him! So I have chosen sides, and thus cannot give you the needed advice. Though to be fair, he seems to think you guys manage to handle yourselves very well.

Ahh, delicious irony.

This is hilarious.

Really, my sides are busting at the comments.

You're in dire straights, as the real brains of enworld are against you. That spells DOOM.

Well, if Morrus uses a standard D&D cosmology, then githyanki are from the Astral and slaad are from Limbo. I don't know what plane you're on now, but a dismissal or two might eliminate some of the opposition, if you have them (though being at work now and not having dealt with either slaad or githyanki in a while, I can't remember if they have plane shift or not; still, it might provide a temporary reprieve).

Other than that, I don't know. It seems that the enemy's strategy depends on battlefield control; all of the slaad have reach weapons, there's the bladed pillars separating you from the enemy, etc. Maybe a few walls or other barrier spells of your own to keep them from hitting you en masse, or at least buying you some time to prepare. But at this level, keeping the enemy away gets hard, what with the availability of teleportation powers. By the same token, there's nothing (apparently) stopping you from dimension dooring over and whacking at the queen or king, though this could be foolish.

Hmm. Perhaps your energy would be better spent planning your next characters?

Four ideas leapt out at me:

1) Disarm or sunder the ones with weapons, for starters.
2) I bet the queen's grapple bonus is pretty atrocious. Evard's tentacles?
3) Use judiciously-placed walls to control the shape of the battlefield.
4) Summon monsters that can disarm, sunder, or grapple. It'll buy you some time to take something down.

-blarg

EDIT: Looks like Delemental beat me to the battlefield control one.

OK. Lots of sympathy so far then...

I'm the cleric. I can turn a lot, and am pretty maximised as a healing engine. Unfortunately, as you've already read, I've lost almost all my bag of tricks in the form of my scrolls and potions. I've got no option to prepare any new spells at this stage, as we're in a negative energy maze with moving parts, and 6 damn nasty villains moving towards us...

My usual tactics are to repair the fighters. Feats tend towards healing, and using turning checks to quicken or give spells range. At this stage, I'm planning on leading out with:

1. Shout at the Queen that we surrender.
2. Alternatively, shout out what happens if we 'win' the game and kill all 6 lethal killing machines coming towards us.
3. Persuade the damn paladin that the ship has sailed on his crusade to kill the lich queen, and that we need to get the hell out with our lives.
4. Cast a Fire Storm, enhanced with Divine Spell Power, to damage the 6 slaughter-machines coming towards us. [Do I also target the queen and the Slaad King?]
5. Cast a quickened buff. [Either prayer (+1 to us, -1 to them), or Enervation (+2 Str & Dex, +5 ft speed to us), or Recitation (+2 to us, -2 to them). Recitation's looking favourite until the enemies get closer.

Spells I've got available are:

Domain Spells: Cure Light (Empowered), Cure Moderate (Empowered), Searing Light, Cure Critical (Empowered), Mass Cure Light Wounds (Empowered), Bolt of Glory, Sunbeam, Mass Cure Critical Wounds (Empowered). That last one's good for an average 75 points to every one of us and the lich if we're lucky...
0 Level: Detect Magic, Light (2), Purify Food & Drink, Read Magic.
Level 1: Bless, Detect Undead, Magic Weapon (2), Resurgence (2)
Level 2: Consecrate (2), Silence, Spiritual Weapon, Elation (2)
Level 3: Daylight, Magic Circle against Evil, Prayer
Level 4: Dimensional Anchor, Restoration, Recitation
Level 5: Flame Strike, Spell Resistance, Telepathy Block (2)
Level 6: Find the Path
Level 7: Summon Monster VII, Slime Wave
Level 8: Fire Storm

Slime wave might give Russ a second glance. 15 foot radius, con draining spell. It's all going to be about waiting for the enemy to get bunched up in the right way. I might even keep it for the bosses. Although it's going to damage their weapons and armour. Mind you, survival before loot, as my dear ol' da used to say...

Oh, and 13 turning checks left. 5 for a quickened spell, 3 for a ray spell, 1 (and a spell swap) for a decent heal, 1 for a heightened spell. And I can't turn the lich. No way.

I think I've said enough. That's it for clerical support. I'm just there for the healing. And the Fire Storm. New toy, and all that...

There's probably already an effect to stop teleportation already in effect. There certainly was in the corridor outside.

And we're in a large maze of shifting walls. Oh, and those walls are made of pure negative energy. So controlling the battlefield ain't gonna be easy.

The slaad are 15+ feet tall, and have level draining pike weapons. Steve? You need to take them on, as you're going to be immune to the level drain. Bull rushing the githyanki through the negative energy walls isn't a bad idea, but I'm terrified we might give Russ ideas if we start that!!

Summoning big scary monsters which can grapple is never a bad plan.

Hello everyone!

I'm the sorceror in this bunch. Although I'll correct that to Sorceror/Alienist, thank you very much!

Like Mr Eccles I'm very short of tricks after having all my items (even clothes!) vanish into some sort of chaos ether.


Some things I was considering:

Using the combat option version of Telekinisis, use bullrushes to try and force the living guys into the negative energy walls. See if that does anything good. My charisma vs their strength is probably a fair match, except I don't fly into the evil walls if I fail.

The Slaad and Githyanki 'mooks' might fall prey to Hold Monster or Confusion.

Got Solid Fog, which could be useful - our two frontline fighters have Freedom of Movement rings, so it won't impede them too much. Not sure whether our opponents will.

I'm a little short of really strong summons at the moment, Augmented Pseudonatural Summon VI's is the best I can pull out of the hat. Pity you're not allowed to summon whales 50' above peoples heads any more. Curse 3.5 edition.

Got Polymorph if anyone's got any really useful ideas.

My non defensive/applicable spell loadout is:
Level(Unused Slots)
1st(8) - Grease, Magic missile, True Strike.
2nd(8) - Scorching Ray, Glitterdust, Gust of Wind, Mirror Image.
3rd(3) - Bands of Steel.
4th(4) - Solid Fog, Sonic Orb, Confusion.
5th(2) - Telekinisis, Hold Monster, Wall of Force.
6th(3) - Summon 6, Greater Dispel, Disintegrate.
7th(3) - Delayed Blast Fireball.

Through use of Arcane Preparation I've got:
4th - 2 Empowered Scorching Rays.
5th - 2 Quickened True Strikes
6th - Quickened Scorching Ray, Empowered Sonic Orb
7th - Quickened Bands of Steel, Quickened Displacement.

Edit: openers.

1) Cry and beg for mercy.
2) Run away!
3) Quickened displacement if any of the fighters are close enough to benefit.
4) Fly upwards and dump a DB fireball to top off the clerical firestorm.
5) Try telekinisis.