[Adventure] Serpent's Skull: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv (DM: Mewness; Judge: THB)

[Mewness]

The Fungus God: Round 6

Hú Lí dances further away from the swarm in a flurry of silken robes, playing a lovely, flowing melody that harmonizes subtly with Takahaan’s movements, making his responses effortlessly smooth. The bushy plant finally clamps the struggling Jade in its thorns, but as all hope seems lost, the creature vanishes from this world, leaving its enemy bereft. The bushy plant immediately approaches Aerys and Takahaan in search or new blood.

A puffball explodes as Castile whirls past. Noriaki once again avoids the blast, but Castile and Takahaan are briefly overcome by the spores. Another puffball exhudes a cloud that drifts past Aerys and Takahaan with little effect.

[sblock=actions]Hú Lí takes 5 damage and moves to A7. Standard: canon of avoidance on Takahaan (Takahaan gains a +2 power bonus to defenses while the power is sustained).

Aerys: already acted.

Green zombie shifts to F4 and attacks Kane, critting for 18 damage. Kane is saved by his 2 temp HPs. Yay!

Purple shroom uses subjugating spores on Jade, hitting and “killing” him. Shroom moves to G5. Remember that it has threatening reach.

The minion at E5 explodes owing to Rain of Steel, catching Castile, Noriaki, and Takahaan in the blast. Castile and Takahaan are hit for 5 and cannot regain hit points (save ends). Noriaki is missed. The swarm regains 5 hp.

Swarm takes 9 damage from the flaming sphere and 10 from rain of steel. Running out of minions to attack through, it attacks Aerys and Takahaan through minion H7, missing twice.

Off-turn stuff
Virtue of Cunning: Aerys, Noriaki, and Taka qualify for the slide.
[/sblock]

[sblock=Controlling Aerys]Companion NPCs in Combat

Any PC can take a standard, move, or minor action to have an NPC perform an action of the same (or a lesser) type. E.g., if you want Pezock to use Icy Skewer, you spend a standard action. If you want him to move, you spend a move action. An NPC is limited to the usual number of actions each round (but those actions need not all be granted by the same PC). An NPC who has an immediate action can likewise only use it if a PC has an immediate action available to use on his/her behalf.

NPCs can take free actions and opportunity actions normally, without the direction of PCs. They are always considered to have their weapons in hand and don’t need to spend actions unsheathing them.

If all of the PCs act in a given round without giving any actions to a particular NPC, I will have that NPC take one non-offensive action. This will most likely be Second Wind if it is needed and available, and movement or Total Defense if it is not. (It won’t be necessary for PCs to spend their own standard actions to have NPCs use second wind.)[/sblock]

[sblock=PCs’ Off-Turn Actions]Interrupts, Reactions, and so forth are listed here to help me remember them. It would also help me if you specify triggers for these actions. If you don’t, I’ll try to use them in sensible places.

Black Fox
Virtue of Cunning (free action; ally is missed)

Castile
Combat Challenge (interrupt; adjacent marked target shifts or makes an attack that doesn’t include Castile)
Guardian’s Counter (interrupt; ally within 2 is hit by an attack that doesn’t include Castile)
Shield Edge Block (interrupt; adjacent enemy hits or misses Castile with a close or melee attack): used if it will turn a hit into a miss.
Bold Victory Armor (free; Castile or an ally within 5 bloodies an enemy)

Kane
Aegis of Shielding (interrupt; marked enemy hits a target within 10 and the attack doesn’t include Kane)
Channeling Shield (interrupt; an attack hits Kane or an ally within 10): used to prevent a big or bloodying hit.
Dimensional Vortex (interrupt; an enemy within 10 hits an ally with a melee attack): used if Kane can thump a non-minion with it.
White Lotus Riposte (no action; when an enemy Kane hit with an arcane at-will attacks him before EoNT, that enemy takes 4 damage of the same type as the at-will dealt)

Noriaki
Shrug it Off (reaction; Noriaki is subjected to a save ends effect)

Takahaan
Guardian’s Counter (interrupt; ally within 2 is hit by an attack that doesn’t include Takahaan)
Vengeance is Mine (reaction; an enemy hits Takahaan)[/sblock]

[sblock=Hú Lí]The Black Fox Fox Spirit (Changeling) Bard 5
Initiative: +3, Passive Perception: 18, Passive Insight: 20
AC:21, Fort:14, Reflex:18, Will:19
+5 vs. AC, 1d6 damage

HP:23/44, Bloodied:22, Surge Value:11, Surges left:6/8
Action Points: 0, Second Wind: used
Powers: Fox Spirit Disguise, Wild Shape, Staggering Note, Vicious Mockery, Changeling's Armor
Blunder, Dissonant Strain, Fox Spirit Trick, Grasping Claws, Majestic Word x2, Words of Friendship, Noble Presence, Painted Drum
Stirring Shout, Song of Discord, Canon of Avoidance, Amulet of Seduction

Virtue of Cunning: Once per round, when an enemy misses an ally within 9 squares of the Black Fox, the Fox may slide the ally 1 square as a free action.

Conditions: sustaining Canon of Avoidance
[/sblock]

[sblock=Combat Status]This is copied and pasted from Roll20. Note that the Roll20 version will be updated during the round and supercedes this one.

GOOD GUYS

Castile 34/58 HP; 10/13 surges; AP used, SW used, rain of steel, can't regain HP (save ends)

Hú Lí 23/44 HP; 6/8 surges; AP used, sustaining canon of avoidance

Kane 2/49 HP; 7/10 surges; AP used

Jade (the fey beast) "dead"

Noriaki 18/51 HP; 8/9 surges; bloodied, silver phoenix rage, AP used

Takahaan 8/44 HP; 5/8 surges; bloodied, canon of avoidance (+2 power bonus to all defenses), can't regain hit points (save ends)

Aerys 16/51 HP; 13/13 surges; bloodied

BAD GUYS

Red Fungus Zombie dead

Blue Fungus Zombie dead

Yellow Fungus Zombie dead

Green Fungus Zombie 33 damage, pacification spores used, marked by Kane

Fungus "God" 59 damage, hidden roots used, AP used, marked by Kane, shielding fire, stirring shout

Yellow Blood Shroom dead

Purple Blood Shroom 19 damage

Creeping Spores H7, A12 minions. Aura 1: does 5 damage to enemies starting their turns in the aura.[/sblock]

 

[Dekana]

Castile swirls past Noriaki in a double-lariat like motion and ends up standing next to both the swarm and one of the spore clouds. This time, her wild axe strikes find their mark, and she pounds the Swarm with several blows.

[sblock=Castile actions / stats]Start of turn: Take 5 damage from the aura. Castile's at 29/58 and is bloodied.

Move: Pass Forward to B119 (movement with no OA from the fungus god). The minion will die at the start of its turn unless something moves it. Note that the flaming sphere deals damage if Castile starts her turn next to it, so should be fine as long as the sphere is moved before her next turn.

Standard: Crushing Surge vs Fungus God hits AC 29 for 17/2 = 8 damage and Castile gains 8 THP. I'll let Kane's mark stand. I added the Dwarven Thrower Waraxe daily power to the damage.

End of turn: Save vs no healing succeeds with a 10.


PC:Castile (Dekana) - L4W Wiki- Female Dwarf Fighter 5
Passive Perception: 21, Passive Insight: 16
AC:21, Fort:20, Reflex:17, Will:16, +5 saves vs poison, Speed:5
HP:8+29/58, Bloodied:29, Surge Value:14, Surges left:10/13
Initiative +2
Action Points: 0 (encounter)

Conditions
Rain of Steel (1d12+5 damage to adjacent enemies at the start of their turn)

Powers
MBA: Waraxe, +10 vs AC, 1d12+9 damage and gain 4 THP (see Combat notes below)
RBA: Waraxe, +10 vs AC, 1d12+7 damage, 6/12
Combat Challenge, Crushing Surge, Pass Forward, Tide of Iron
Bold Victory, Dwarven Resilience, Guardian's Counter, Hack and Hew, Shield Edge Block
Comeback Strike, Dwarven Thrower Waraxe, Rain of Steel

Combat notes: +2 melee / close damage with THP, +2 to attack roll on OAs, OAs stop enemy movement
[/sblock]

 

[jbear]

Kane's armour flashes as he desperately casts a spell of cold amongst his enemies hoping to force them back and away from his side while a part of his mind maintains the fiery sphere burning into the plant god. Kane moves the sphere before the flames reaches Castile who had bravely moved beside it.

[sblock=Actions]
Standard: Freezing Burst with Extended spell (Area burst 2 with -2 dmg) at G6 attacking Green FZombie, Purple Shroom and Spore at H7 ... and missed the one I needed to hit ... sigh. Purple Shroom slide 1 to G5 and White Lotus is active on it.
Minor: Sustain Sphere
Move: Sphere moves to A11[/sblock]

 

[Mewness]

OOC: @jbear: Castile moved to B11. Not sure if you want to move the sphere next to her like that. She automatically blows up any spores she's next to anyway. In any case, Castile's attack bloodies the fungus "god," which reacts with puffballs popping up hear Castile and Hú Lí. Forgot to apply penalty for Kane's mark, so the attack on Castile misses and the one on Hú Lí hits for 16, reduced to 8 by Kane's aegis. The fungus god takes 8 from shielding fire. The attack also provokes an opportunity attack from Noriaki (I accidentally rolled one for Castile, which is invalidated because it's her turn, so I used the roll for Noriaki instead, and it hit for 11/2 = 5. Talk about a crap damage roll). New spores appear next to Hú Lí and Castile. [MENTION=6676989]GROMkill[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6676736]Pentius[/MENTION] are still to go.

 

[jbear]

OOC: Sorry, I misread the letters all the time, I think because they are not immediately in line with one row, but kind of in 2. Sphere at D11 then.

 

[Mewness]

OOC: Yeah, I dunno why the letters and numbers changed their position--it's some problem with Roll20, and I can't change them back without moving them individually, which may screw something else up.

 

[jbear]

OOC: [MENTION=6676736]Pentius[/MENTION] [MENTION=6676989]GROMkill[/MENTION] Shall we wrap this up?

 

[Mewness]

OOC: If they don't show within the next couple of days, I'll close this out. I don't want to NPC more than half the party.

 

[GROMkill]

OOC: Me and Pentius are throwing in the towel for the campaign. No use beating around the bush by finishing the encounter when we know it's the end Sorry it took so long to post. [MENTION=14889]Mewness[/MENTION] Thank you for the awesome year-long (and then some) campaign. It was my first PbP experience, let alone 4e. Thanks for opening my eyes to what D&D can really offer! You're a fantastic DM, and I love the effort you've put into this campaign. [MENTION=75065]jbear[/MENTION] [MENTION=57009]Dekana[/MENTION] Thanks for stickin' with it as long as you've had. I've had a lot of good times playing with you guys. May we play again together someday! [MENTION=1642]BenBrown[/MENTION] Hope everything works out with your wrist/arm. The timing was a bummer I'll always remember Hu Li [MENTION=79628]twilsemail[/MENTION] I know you're out there somewhere! The Irregulars were the most clever creation I've yet to see.

 

[Pentius]

OOC: Yeah, GROM has the right of it. This has been a really fun campaign, but I just don't have the motivation to keep fighting fungus people for another couple weeks only to end it. If it had been Ieana, sure, i'd have pressed on for the closure, but not this. You guys have all been great, really, but I think it's time to call it.