Although the shadows and villains are slowly whittled down by the party's attacks, none of them are felled. That is, not until Scarm focuses his attention on one of them. That shadow suddenly vanishes from existence without so much as an attack from the kenku.
The shadow creatures continue their attacks relentlessly, starting with a pair of them that gang up on Beatrice. One misses due to its misplaced attention on Jarel-karn, while the second strikes true... or is about to until the swordmage intervenes and places himself in front of the attack.
Near Eithal, the shadow creature that dominated her teleports across the battlefield and unleashes yet another torturous wave of solid shadow. It rolls over all of the heroes except Eithal and sends Beatrice and Jarel-karn tumbling to the ground with pounding headaches.
One of the larger shadows steps into the shadows from Eithal's direction to flank Scarm. He easily dodges its attempt to bludgeon him. Kaz moans in undying pain once again and then grasps at Scarm with his flesh-stripped arms. He gets a hold of Scarm's neck and is about to take a bite out of his flesh when the kenku manage to slip loose at the last moment.
"Kaz" again speaks with the female voice.
"Squirm all you want. Your 'friends' here will do the work for me! GHAHAHA!" He points to the shadow that Damen has been attacking.
"You! Destroy this bird!"
The shadow complies without hesitation. Like the shadow creature that assaulted Eithal, this one projects a dark radiance that clouds over Scarm's head. He looks around in utter confusion.
[sblock=Beatrice]The fallen paladin, tears streaming down his eyes, says
"Athena has forsaken me because of YOU!" He stands up and resumes his battle stance.
"Perhaps... perhaps I can trade in my class levels to become a blackguard. But not before you pay for this crime!" He slashes at you, though his attention is not exactly on the task at hand, and you deflect his strike.
A second paladin moves in close.
"No, my leader! Resist the temptation! We will find a cleric for an Atonement spell back at the temple. As for you... SMITE EVIL!" This paladin lines up a perfect angle and is about to hit you when Jarel-karn pushes you out of the way and takes the blow.[/sblock]
[sblock=Jarel-karn]Your spectral father fades away from existence and then suddenly reappears right next to Eithal. He now turns his gaze to
you. He speaks straight to your mind, his voice filled with sorrow and anguish.
"Youuu'vve... abandoned me... in the valley... I cannot... bear it! You... you must... join me! Please!" With that, he projects a tidal wave of dark shadow toward you and the rest of the party. It sends you tumbling to the ground.
When you regain your bearings, you can't help but notice that the all of the swampwater in view has turned to
blood. Was it something your father did? This can't be real, can it?[/sblock]
[sblock=Eithal]You are strangely unaffected by the combat raging around you. Brastrix has maneuvered himself out of your reach, and you are still too dazed to pursue. Only Jarel-karn and Yishim are adjacent to you, and you obviously can't attack them. You resolve to stand up, get yourself back into the fight, and give Brastrix a piece of your mind.
| GM: | If you're still dominated when you take your turn, stand up. Not very exciting, I know.  At least you can still make 2 saves a turn vs the -5 penalty to saving throws.
If you take 10 or more damage from an attack, the ghost will take an equal amount of damage and you'll be able to make a save vs dominated. |
|
[/sblock]
[sblock=Damen]Your sister shrieks in pain from your bolt. She may be trying to kill you, but it's still not the most pleasant sound to hear.
She temporarily turns her attention away from you so she can deal with kenku that has been tormenting her. You see her cast some sort of Charm spell on him, whispering in pleasant, nonsensical phrases and tracing a heart with her fingers. After she is finished with the spell, "Harold" looks rather smitten with your sister.[/sblock]
[sblock=Scarmiglione]The children are quite right! Sir Moynifried lives in Daunton, so you can't very well break his windows. In fact, it hardly seems possible that he would travel all this way just to confront you - all for a little misunderstanding. Wouldn't he just wait in Daunton for you to return? As you stop to puzzle over this, Sir Moynifried promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
Only a few moments later when one of the shadows projects a dark cloud over your head, a horrifying sight befalls you:
everyone on the battlefield has turned into Sir Moynifried!
| GM: | You can continue to make Insight checks as usual. Success will help the others overcome their shadowy foes. However... the Drow shadow also dominated you this round. If you're still dominated when you take your turn, use Blazing Starfall on as many allies as you can without hitting the shadows.
If the Drow shadow is killed before your turn comes up, you'll instead stand there and drool for as long as you're dominated. (The way I read the dominated entry, "your dominator" has to choose your actions, but it doesn't say the death of the dominator ends the domination.) Like with Eithal, failing your save against the dominate would be bad. |
|
[/sblock]
[sblock=Yishim]You successfully struggle to maintain your grip on reality. So when all of the swampwater in view suddenly turns to
blood, you know it must be real, and not an illusion.[/sblock]
| GM: | Eithal and Scarm are dominated. Eithal can make another saving throw to snap out of it if she takes 10 damage from an attack (which also will damage the ghost). Scarm's dominate is simply save ends for now. Note that they get +2d6 damage on their attacks while dominated.
Scarm's successful sanity check destroyed Sir Moynifried.
Sanity check: The intense psychic energy radiating from this area is eroding your sanity. Once per round, you may attempt a DC 23 Insight check as a move action to not go insane. |
|
[sblock=actions]Fallen Paladin: Non-evil-smiting
Longsword vs Beatrice misses Reflex 17 thanks to the -2 from Jarel-karn's mark. Shift to M11 after the attack.
Paladin 3: Can't do anything because it's immobilized and doesn't have a ranged attack. It makes its save vs immobilized.
Paladin 4:
Smite Evil vs Beatrice would hit Reflex 26, but Jarel-karn intervenes with
Guardian's Counter. They switch places and Jarel-karn takes 8 damage from the attack.
--Jarel-karn: MBA vs Paladin 4 misses AC 20. (
1d20+16=20).
Brastrix: Fails to recharge Destabilizing Strike. Charges Scarm, moving to L15.
Cutlass vs Scarm misses AC 18.
Ghost: Move:
Dimension Step, teleporting 8 squares to L16.
Shadow Wave in a close blast 5, targets enemies only.
- vs Beatrice crits for 17 psychic damage and she is knocked prone.
- vs Yishim misses Will 17, but deals 5 psychic damage on the miss.
- vs Jarel-karn hits Will 26 for 11 psychic damage and he is knocked prone.
- vs Scarm misses Will 20, but deals 5 psychic damage, reduced down to 0 because of his resistance. Missed by 1 again, you lucky bird.
- vs Damen misses Will 19, but deals 5 psychic damage on the miss.
Kaz:
Devour (Destabilizing Strike) vs Scarm hits AC 28 (includes CA and concealment). By my count, Scarm's AC bonus is currently 25 thanks to having 2 adjacent enemies, so he uses
Swift Parry to turn this into a miss. Do feel free to correct me if I have your AC wrong.
Kaz makes his save vs immobilized.
Drow: Recharges Dimension Step.
Corrupting Mind vs Scarm hits Will 22, including -5 for total concealment. (Kaz lets the Drow-shadow know what square to attack). Scarm is affected with mental disarray (save ends). This has the effect of Dominated, Scarm gains +2d6 extra damage on attacks, and the Drow is invisible to Scarm. The drow fails it save vs dazed.[/sblock]
[sblock=combatants]
Warriors
AC 23, Fortitude 19, Reflex 19, Will 18
Brastrix: 78/78 HP
Kaz: 78/78 HP
Sir Moynifried: dead
Arcanists
AC 25, Fortitude 22, Reflex 23, Will 24
Drow: 33/89 HP, bloodied, dazed (save ends)
Ghost: 89/89 HP
Pre-4th Edition Paladins
AC 22, Fortitude 19, Reflex 21, Will 20, Resist 10 all, +5 saves vs charm
Shadowy Form: Has concealment against enemies 2 or 3 squares away and total concealment against enemies 4+ squares away.
Minion (MAD at work
).
Paladin 1: dead
Fallen Paladin: 1/1, marked by Jarel-karn
Paladin 3: 1/1
Paladin 4: 1/1
Beatrice: 14/59, bloodied, prone
--Killer: 29/29
Damen: 42/64
Eithal: 67/86, prone, -5 penalty to saves (save ends), mental disarray (UEOE)
Jarel-karn: 51/89, prone
Scarmiglione: 59/59, mental disarray (save ends)
Yishim: 20/45, bloodied
[/sblock]
[sblock=terrain]The trees are all blocking terrain - they cannot be moved through and they block line of sight. Impassable squares are marked as black on the map. For the larger tree, that's G13:H14 only (the roots are normal terrain).
The assorted shrubs are difficult terrain to move through.[/sblock]
[sblock=map]
[/sblock]
read Smite
