[Adventure] The Paper Chase (Judge: renau1g)

[Cleverusername]

"Yeah, if I'm punching a guy in the face, you bet he's gonna pay attention to me." the human replies.

[sblock=OOC]
Ok, so three guys that mark. Well, Combat Challenge is good to lock down foes, especially if my grab misses, but if I have someone grabbed they are less likely to get away and will be forced to attack Baracus anyway, so in this instance, I think your mark would be nice to have your mark on him.

Baracus focuses in single target lock-down, but with both hands he can grab up to 2 enemies at once, and his Grappling Strike can be used as an OA with +2 to hit so enemies will need to give him a wide berth.

On the last foe, your mark seems best, especially if Baracus can grab the enemy and keep him locked down, and if Grys can stay out of its range.

So looking at our group, we have 5 melee PCs and 1 ranged one right? Grys can probably switch back and forth with your wizard powers right?

A suggestion in battle, we form two "strike" teams if we can do it. Perhaps Grys, Orsik, and Serris as one group and Baracus and kal-Tarron as the other? Otherwise it may be hard if we all try to get into melee with an enemy, and also set ourselves up in fireball formation. [/sblock]

 

[rb780nm]

"I will kill those that offend my masters, the others are yours," kal'Torran responds.

After a moment, he realizes that was not quite what he meant. "I can help out with other enemies, of course, if you need me - unless my masters require me not to."

[sblock=OOC]I'm an isolating avenger build - designed to pull my target out of the enemy formation (by damaging people around him and by getting bonuses if anyone tries to help him) - so I'll pull who ever "Balinor" decides I need to kill in that encounter away and stop them from attacking everyone else.
Assuming the build works as intended. I might change my mind in a few encounters.
I guess my target will be enemy controllers or leaders.

I like the strike teams idea from BA
[/sblock]

 

[raion]

[sblock=ooc]My mark hurts people next to me, who attack people other than me. It can last the encounter, as well. I'll be using it as a debuff, and as an alternate damage source. Don't stress overwriting it. Also remember, Marks and Avenger-whatnots stack, if you want to pull something nasty
Also, tactics-wise.. I'm a hybrid leader. Can heal, can heal more than expected if need be, but I shouldn't be relied upon for minionising party members.[/sblock]

"If you really want someone I'm messing with, go ahead and take them. Just don't bite off more than you can chew.. I can patch wounds if need be, but I'm not a miracle worker."

 

[MetaVoid]

OOC: I can immobilize somebody (at will power) as long as I continue hitting it. Everyone adjacent to the enemy gets damage bonuses against it. Alternate: I get adjacent in protection rune state and grand DR 2 to allies (or DR 5 if using goliath racial power)

"I can heal, by rewriting the reality of your wounds. I write them off as if they never were. But I do it while smashing enemies, not cringing in the back."

 

[Cleverusername]

"Hey, any of you guys good at knocking guys down?" Baracus asks

[sblock=ooc]
Anyone have some way to knock prone reliably? If someone can, combined with my Pin Down it should prove deadly. [/sblock]

 

[KarinsDad]

"No, I don't have any ways to knock foes down other than permanently." Grys says.

"Oh look, there's the university." Grys points. "Let's go find this professor."

[sblock=OOC]
So looking at our group, we have 5 melee PCs and 1 ranged one right? Grys can probably switch back and forth with your wizard powers right?

A suggestion in battle, we form two "strike" teams if we can do it. Perhaps Grys, Orsik, and Serris as one group and Baracus and kal-Tarron as the other? Otherwise it may be hard if we all try to get into melee with an enemy, and also set ourselves up in fireball formation. [/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]
Grys has only one ranged power and it is an "all creatures" area effect, so he can use it at range, I just have to be careful if PCs are in the area.

But, 3 of his 4 area effect powers are "enemies only". So for the most part, Grys just moves to the best square I can find and blasts as many foes as he can get and doesn't worry about allies being in the area. The more we bunch up the foes, the better it is for Grys' powers.

Also, Grys is not technically a melee PC. So for example, Serris' Ire Strike won't work too well with Grys.

But, we should be good to go with ranged attacks. kal'Tarron and Mythra both have a ranged attack.


I like the Strike Team idea. Five of the PCs have a decent AC, so we can pretty much gang up 2 or 3 PCs against whomever we want to. I don't think we have to pre-determine who works with whom unless there is a specific set of power/feat combos that work real well. The random vagaries of combat will ensure that whomever we fight with changes a lot. Plus, Grys is a bit of a skirmisher. He moves all over the place and doesn't stick with the same foes too often.


Grys can also sometimes hand out free flank to a PC with his familiar. Perfect in a group like this since so many of the other PCs have melee attacks. It's just a bit action costly, so Grys has a hard time trying to do it a lot.


Grys also does more damage to any undamaged foes, so he also tends to attack one or more foes early on that nobody has yet attacked. But Mythra shouldn't worry about that though, if there is a group of undamaged foes and you can area effect them, go for it.
[/sblock]

 

[Luinnar]

In the distance you see a small figure in red reading a book on a bench. Seeing the party he slams the book shut and approaches the party. I believe you will be needing this Mythra smirks handing Grys a book titled "Cooking with Exotic Ingredients". Without a word Mythra turns away heading for the university. Martha follows, sad at not seeing the flying "rat" Keke.

[sblock=ooc]
I suppose Mythra will stay back and run support? Lets hope he does not get ambushed![/sblock]

 

[KarinsDad]

"That's what I was doing wrong. I wasn't using a book to cook with, I was just setting food on fire. Thanks Mythra!" Grys exclaims.

 

[Antithetist]

A little footsore, but having had plenty of time to get to know each other and their combat abilities, the rest of the party meet up with Mythra in the university quarter. The streets and skybridges around here are fairly busy with the constant comings-and-goings of students, visitors and faculty, but the atmosphere is considerably less crowded and noisy than in the lower wards of Sharn. It's a pleasant area to walk through, the paved streets lined with well-tended flowerbeds and trees, elegant facades on the sandstone buildings, the breeze cool and fragrant. A little way away, the majestic domes and spires of the university's central buildings gleam brightly in the sunlight above the lower buildings all around.

A few quick enquiries soon establish that faculty offices are located in these surrounding streets of the quarter rather than the central buildings. It doesn't take long to find Professor Farrow's office in particular, and you climb up a short flight of steps to knock on the door. It is opened almost immediately by a group of three young men dressed very smartly in lacy shirts and bright cravats, who brush past the adventurers without a second glance, carrying on their conversation as they go:


"...quite mad, they say."

"Yeees, quite, well... a fine line, they say, between genius and madness."

"Genius? That old coot? I declare he was never all there to begin with."

"Oh, well, come now, come now... very well respected in his field... don't you know?"

"Yeees, his field... and... remind me, what precisely was that again...?"


Tittering, they move off through the crowd. They left the door ajar on their way out, and pushing it open reveals a tall hallway, dominated by a heavy staircase of dark wood which climbs to an upper storey. There are doors leading off from the ground floor too, though, and one of them bears a bronze plaque inscribed with the legend: Professor Gilman Farrow.

A knock ellicits a few moments of silence followed by a sonorous "enter."

Filing into the Professor's study, you are first struck by the heavy smell of exotic cigar smoke which fills the place. The whole spacious room seems wreathed in a slight fog, smelling overbearingly of spice and charcoal. The walls are filled, floor to lofty ceiling, with bookcases, and every bookcase is crammed with books and files and pamphlets. These overflow from the walls, too, into drifts and piles which dominate most of the floor space. A few mysterious objects are dotted around - strange statues, two wands of carved bone, a large and exceedingly ugly clay urn, and a stuffed creature which appears to be some misbegotten cross between a peacock and a housecat. Whether these objects are intended as ornaments or subjects for research is unclear.

Finally, behind a large desk covered completely in scattered papers, sits the Professor himself. He reclines in a comfortable chair, with his feet on the desk (presumably having composed himself into this attitude after you knocked), smoking a cigar. He is dressed in a shabby checked suit, but his shoes look like very expensive leather. One sock is bright red, the other bright yellow. He has a small beard, oiled to a point, which he now strokes as he regards the party with beady eyes and speaks. "I confess I have a damnably poor memory for faces, but you fellows look scant little like any of my students. I suppose you must be here about the job, what?"


[sblock=OOC]Whew, that was a long post.

There's a good chance I won't be able to post again until Sunday, so hopefully this should tide you over. [/sblock]

 

[KarinsDad]

Before entering the room, Grys steps off to the side as the others enter. There, he summons Keke, turns it invisible, tells it to spy on the professor after we leave, and then enters the room with Keke. Keke goes and hangs out in an unobtrusive place in the room. Since he is the last to enter, Grys closes the door behind himself and looks for an empty chair. Grys will maintain the invisibility for the entire conversation and for a while after the group leaves.

"Yes professor. We are here for the job. Why don't you fill us in?"