IC: Dichotomy's Age of Worms Redux, Part VI

[o3caudata]

Kushnak mulls the rules for a moment before responding.

"How many battles will we engage in per day? Is there a restriction? Will we know in advance?"

"And what of dimensional travel? Or expulsion? Summoning of additional fighters? What about permanent changes to a foe? Blinding them for instance? Or cursing them? Are there limitations or prohibitions to possesing opponents magically? Or divining strategy and plans of others while battles are not underway?"


[sblock=oc]

For the preparing, we have almost no money now. (oops) I think glitter dust is probably a good idea. Depending on the # of fights per day, we might need to get other stuff too.

I'd suggest trying for a couple Detect X spells during the meet and greet too. I'd like to know who's what anyway.

[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

After Kushnak weighs in, Erdolliel adds another question. "And what of skill? Will we be facing warriors of a similar skill as us? I'd hate to accidentally remove the spleen of some kid that just doesn't know enough to flinch."[sblock=oc]Who needs money anyway? Erdolliel can craft glitterdust and maybe some other useful spells too. She know has permanent detect magic too. If we want to be detecting evil or stuff though, we'll need to stock up.

Does anyone have anything useful in their random crap piles? Erdolliel has a couple protection from evil potions laying around and scrolls of darkvision and fireball. and a scroll of comprehend languages which is worth it's resale now that she's permanenced it and all.

Oh and the skill question is basically, "will I get us in trouble if I use Cloudkill and our opponents are level 3 or less?"[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

Ekaym smiles as he is peppered with questions. "Enthusiasm! Excellent!"

He points at Erdolliel. "The total payout of 40,000 is broken up into segments for each battle you win. Winning the first battle nets 2,000. The second nets 5,000. Then 10. Then 20. Plus some trophies and such that are worth some gold. So, while there aren't 'runner-up' awards, if you make it all the way to the end before losing, you'll still keep whatever you earned on the way."

Ekaym then turns to Kushnak. "Only one battle per day, so you should expect your competition to really throw everything they've got at you. And the restrictions I've already mentioned are the only ones. So all those great things you mentioned... all allowed! Though if you start trying to read other people's minds or something between battles, you can probably expect trouble from the other gladiators if you are caught. But I already like how you are thinking!"

He then turns back to Erdolliel. "People have to pay quite a bit to get the manager's license that lets them enter. Kids with no business being there generally don't have the funds or the... ummm... stones... to take the risk. Everyone knows that it is POSSIBLE to get killed. As long as you don't 'accidentally' remove that spleen after a person has surrendered, you are fine."
[sblock=OOC]Glitterdust is one of Neth's bard spells, so he could cast it up to 4 times a day. Although it is also the same level spell as blindness/deafness, shatter, and silence, which could all be really useful spells for arena battles. He can make scrolls, too.

Neth doesn't have anything particularly useful in his "crap" pile. 8 acid flasks, one alchemist fire, one holy water. That's basically it.

Also, if you guys have any input on spell selection and strategy stuff for Neth, I'll gladly hear it. To the extent that arena battling would likely be more tactical than dungeon crawling, it would be cool for you guys to think up such tactics rather than me. (Which isn't to say that I'd intentionally make Neth sit around with his thumb up his butt, but you know what I mean.)[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

"Very well. I believe we have some planning to do. How should we contact you?"

[sblock=oc]
So then, first off. I'm done with not posting every day. Priorities are teh suxor.

As for the planning, things i think are good:

Scrolls for remove blindness. (crippling) 187.5 a pop to scribe(only neth?) 375 to buy.

Cure wands for recovery stuff.

We should pick a spell for my ring of counterspells. I like enervation maybe?
Sanctuary might be useful for Neth maybe
Dispel Magic, everyone who can prepare it should have one or 2 handy.
Something to take care of invisibility. glitterdust is good, but if we have spots for invisibility purge, it is likely to be valuable
We can use silence to our advantage potentially. Silence on an item, in a haversack maybe?

My plan, as always, is going to be 'be big, strong and decimating' Regardless of the opponent, divine power and righteous might. Flame strike, seering light, blindness for distance.

Crowd control stuff is always helpful.

Junk i have:
scrolls - Comp. Lang., Longstrider,Magic Weapon, Pro Evil, Chaos, sanct., LR,Remove Blind
potions - remove fear

Do we want to have any of the planning talk IC maybe?
[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

Once alone, Erdolliel starts to strategize. "Alright, I can easily keep a dispell magic in my mind and a glitterdust. I doubt that the battles will go longer than 9 hours, so I will not be needing my extended mage armor, that leaves additional room for more scorching rays. I can increase your size, Kushnak, to make more formidable as well. In the arena, we shouldn't be working in close quarters."[sblock=oc]That's the basics for her[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

"Size shouldn't be a problem. I have the ability to do that myself."

"I will prepare a spell of restoration, in the unlikely event that one of us is significantly wounded in a way that our normal methods for healing are insufficient."

"There are several spells which could help make any of us more difficult to target on the battlefield. They may also assist us in a variety of situations."



[sblock=oc]
So, i want someone to make me a scroll of rage, and cast it on me using the extend rod right before the battle.

Ultimately, i think the more you guys can control and chip away at them, the easier it's going to be for me to smash things. Generally the same idea as always.

Also things which will help us/me:
Rage
Haste
Slow
Displacement
Mirror Image
Black Tentacles(could be KILLER with freedom of movement)
Stone skin(would be expensive, 650/shot to scribe or 800 to buy)
[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]Tentacles I got covered. Also improved invisibility. I will do a better post with spells I can handle in the morning.[/sblock][sblock=oc]Seriously?! The first post i made last night shows up after I post again finally this morning? sigh...[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]en hates me, this is my 3rd attempt to post

rage is cool, erd doesn't have, bard scroll is cheaper. how do scrolls deal with concentration +1 round?

black tentatcles is in as is ice storm and greater invis

more later after meeting.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

Erdolliel listens to the list of suggestions from Kushnak with a small frown. "I can help with some of those, but we'd need to invest for many of them. With our current finances, we can probably get a couple key scrolls, but we may need to wait until we win a round or two for additional tricks."[sblock=oc]stone skin would be expensive, and it is the same slot as black tentacles, ice storm (which I think those two are a good 1,2 punch right? the trick would probably only work once, but we could tentacle them first, then ice storm them as Kushnak moves in and then let him run around with freedom of movement.) and greater invis.

Mirror Image is same slot as scorching ray, glitterdust, and hypnotic pattern (which might be useless??) so buying a scroll might be worthwhile.

the rest are same slot as fireball, dispell magic, and fly. So I'm open to suggestions. are both ice storm and fireballs good or redundant? a good opponent won't let us use them at all, but who knows how good the opponents will be

I'm not sure how much crowd control we need or what forms either.[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

As you get to talking about strategy, Ekaym smiles and gets ready to leave. "If you need me sometime before the Free Dinner, come ask for me here." He hands the trio a note with the name of a bar and some basic directions. "I'm not staying there, unless I find someone worth staying with," he adds a sly wink, "but I'll be around enough. Oh, and make sure you aren't late to the dinner!"
[sblock=OOC]I think scrolls re: concentration for a duration time would work just as if the person had cast the spell normally.

Tactically, if Neth is casting a lot of spells (since he can't fight at all like either of you), he might become a quick target of enemies. He's pretty squishy, so it might be good to figure out ways to keep him from dying. Sanctuary is probably a really good idea. I had forgotten about it. Either that, or just kill the enemies even faster.

I'd, of course, never want to assume what the enemies will do, but it certainly makes sense to think that anyone who doesn't completely suck will try to avoid clumping together to get nailed by a fireball. On the other hand, spells that virtually cripple a single person could be really effective against smaller groups of NPCs.

Neth might just open with his bard song and then let it last however long it can after that, on the hopes that you can defeat baddies quickly.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]Erdolliel will just have to get her sword sharp and her arrows nocked to protect Neth I guess... Tactics sound pretty good to me, Erdolliel will probably only keep 1 fireball on hand for the opening salvo or if she gets lucky at some point. We could probably show up with some of the long lasting spells already cast (like mage armor) and save us the time/trouble of casting them in the arena. Maybe Erdolliel asked Ekyam about if that was legal before he left?[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]Ekaym would have told you that, in general, ALL the groups will have long-lasting buffs in use before the battle starts. And some shorter buffs (e.g. minute per level range) are used during the battle announcements (i.e. right after entering the arena, when the announcer introduces the fighting teams, the teams will be casting spells).[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

[sblock=TOSTHTSHOESHOI]Excellent start eh. BLEHOHHHHAHTSOEITNSHOETN_TDON_OD[/sblock]

[sblock=oc]
Here's my recommendation for things we do:

Given Neth the Extend rod.

create rage scolls using the extend rod. create rage scrolls and use the extend rod to cast them on kushnak immediately before the battle

buy a scroll of stoneskin for kushnak, plan on winning and buying more. (i have a bag of holding we don't need currently, that we could sell to finance it if necessary)

make sure we have enough wands to limp through. (i have none)

high level strat:

Erd should focus on control and disrupting any casters. (additionally blowing anything up that seems appropriate.)

Nethezar should probably use sanctuary and dedicate himself to support and control as appropriate.

kush will fly be flying, aided, divine favored, raged, bears endurenced, righteous mighted, stoneskinned bringer of pain. flamestrike and blindness available as appropriate. (3d6+17 dmg on +25/+20 attacks)... So MUCH PAIN.

I'm not sure we need to craft anything other than maybe wants, so... what should we do for the next few days. :s

[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]

kush will fly be flying, aided, divine favored, raged, bears endurenced, righteous mighted, stoneskinned bringer of pain. flamestrike and blindness available as appropriate. (3d6+17 dmg on +25/+20 attacks)... So MUCH PAIN.

Reminds me of when Eskard pretty much single-handedly cleared out the lizardfolk lair... except WORSE!

Neth still has 3 CLW wands with 50, 46, and 37 charges.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]like the plan, Erd can do crowd control and caster disruption while flying and invisible. crowd control will look like cloudkilling tentacles of icestorm and fireballs mainly, with disruption taking the shape of scorching rays of backstabbing doom. or something.

Does Kush want to be a LARGE flying, aided, divine favored, raged, bears endurenced, righteous mighted, stoneskinned bringer of pain?[/sblock]

[sblock=oc]You'd think I'd remember the answer from when O3 gave it last time... gonna exchange enlarge for more MM probably.[/sblock]

 

[o3caudata]

[sblock=stranded]

4th attempt to post. fyi, chrome+windows+enworld will flat out LIE to you apparently.

ALSO. ONCALL.

ALSO. BAM.
[/sblock]
[sblock=oc]
Ok, i think those wands will get us through the first fight at least, maybe more.

Unless there are objections, i'll sell the bag of holding and buy a stoneskin scroll. It'll need to be arcane, since it's cheaper.

That leaves us with ~1800 gold for anything else.

Rage is lvl 2 for bards, so it probably makes sense for Neth to prep/buy it for me.

Not sure if there were plans for haste, but that is also killer awesome for anyone foolish enough to let kushnak full attack.

At somepoint we'll have to stop making suggestions and just move ahead right.



[/sblock]

 

[Dichotomy]

[sblock=OOC]Neth can't prepare rage, 'cause he doesn't know it. (Might be a good thing for him to pick up the next time he gets to learn a new 2nd level spell... Which won't be until level 17...) But if we want to buy scrolls, he'll certainly cast it on Kushnak.

Haste, crushing despair, and glibness are Neth's 3rd level bard spells, of which he can cast 3 per day. Glibness won't be of use in the arena, and I'd guess that haste will help more than crushing despair. (Though Neth might as well use both.) So, unless a battle lasts a long time, Neth probably has haste covered.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]Erd could get rage, it would edge out either a fireball, fly, or dispell magic, and I think that having to concentrate might limit her usefulness in crowd control, so maybe scrolls would be best. Let me know if either of you disagree. I suppose 9 rounds of Rage might be enough for many of the battles, if we're lucky, which we probably won't be.

Erd can totally cast stoneskin when needed.

Did anything ever happen with getting Goeken into this?

Ready to move forward, although I'm on the East coast for the next week.[/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=oc]No worries, I am back from the east coast, feel free to continue the conversation any time. [/sblock]

 

[TiCaudata]

[sblock=moving on]Alright, seems like we're just waiting on something or another. So I went ahead and sold the bag of holding (O3 be sure and mark that off) and bought a scroll of stoneskin and one of bardic rage ( ) That leave us with 1641 left, unless I calculated the scroll wrong, I just charged us what a 2nd level scroll would cost.

Erd will spend the next couple days learning stoneskin. What are y'all doing?[/sblock]
[sblock=wait...]I'm assuming that having stoneskin is more important than having ice storm, black tentacles, and improved invisibility. Although I'm not certain, I think that replacing Ice Storm would be the way to go. Could someone advise me if 1) it's NOT more important than those, and 2) she should replace a different one.[/sblock]