gammpaknight

[gammpaknight]

After the last group was defeated by the Behir, a new band has returned with Treeborn and Jaxx falling and the others being more experienced with Telric and Sserathis joining Baskia and Garlain. The new party of tenth level adventurers dealt with the mated pair of Behirs and are now looking for their lair to ensure no other electrified monstrosities are around to grow up to menace the area. They traveled a few hours following their tracks to find a large complex. Walking passed a few buildings, they entered the mostly fallen fence line to a strange building where pipes were entering to. This lead to a building, the one that the green line leads to, with a large gaping hole that the creatures used as a watering hole. Moving in, they were hit with an electric charge from a power cable that was in the water, but they dealt with it by their new member, Telric, having mastery over the elements. After capping off the water, it quickly drained to reveal several bodies that had been covered in slime with one having a mysterious access card. To the south, circled in yellow, is an empty tank that has a single tree growing about a hundred feet down. Now they must decide where to go next.

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Azhanti moves slightly away and casts her spell. The phantom tentacles spring forth, but the Ark seems wise to her tricks as they just flail about and don't cause the effect she expects it to. Alyx's blade gets caught in the dirt as three of Mephis's blades sink into the flesh of the Steep Ark causing its eyes to roll back into it head as it crumples to the ground. Hartsk gets some distance and fires his bow at the Even Ark causing a howl of pain from the well placed shot. Moving 25', first to get around a small pile of building material, Ocean's spell erupts from her and into the Even Ark.

Parker is just as surprised as Ocean at the appearance of the Even Ark, but regains her composure to draw her blade and rush forward. As she does so, the Even Ark is ready with its blade. Chopping into her with a mighty blow, she keeps moving and stabs out at the Ark while crying out in pain. Slashing out herself, the blade bounces off of a thick metal plate that the Ark is wearing. "Parker! No!" Nikos says as he ignores not only the Swanky Ark, but that his weapon is damaged, and fires at the Even on instead. Turning a dial and flicking a switch, the blast makes an audible extra crack as it goes off, hitting the Even Ark and sending the beast 10' back, but it is still standing.

Pulling out a scroll, the Even Ark calls magic down to bind his wounds. The Steep Ark pulls life from those around it, but it is not enough to overcome the damage that had been afflicted upon it. The Swanky Ark pulls from those around him, catching the Steep Ark that had just drained it as well as Zisner [Private to Zisner: You take 2 Negative Energy Damage.], Ocean [Private to Ocean: You take 6 Negative Energy Damage.], Azhanti [Private to Azhanti: You take 5 Negative Energy Damage.], and Alyx [Private to Alyx: You take 1 Negative Energy Damage that come off your temp HP] and then attacks the man keeping him pinned in place, hitting the mutant easily [Private to Alyx: You take 11 blunt damage with 1 being soaked by your temp hp].

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Mephis's swords chop the Protective Ark to pieces with one piercing right through its head. Alyx charges into the Swanky Ark as it smiles and swats at the charging elf. However that smile turns to surprise as Alyx nimbly dodges under the crude swing and then stabs the Ark right in its thick meaty thigh causing a howl of pain. Hartsk keeps his distance from the in coming Arks as another of his arrows' painful blows are absorbed by the dense fur of his target. Axhanti's orb washes and engulfs the Swanky Ark and seems to effect him as normal, however his large size keeps him from being pushed around by the "water", it then disappears from view leaving the Ark confused why its not wet. Zisner seems locked in place as he can't decide what to do.

Nikos and Parker take their shots at the closest Ark. Parker's bullet hits the Swanky Ark with ease, but all that comes from Nikos's weapon is a thunk. "Uh oh," Nikos says as he opens the breach to look inside, pops out a bad cartridge, but he'll have to wait to fire again.

Suddenly the Even Ark pops into view only 10 feet away from Azhanti and Parker's position. With a crazed smile, a wave of dark visible energy flows from him catching Azhanti, Parker, Hartsk, Ocean, and Zisner. For all that flashiness, everyone only feels slightly inconvenienced. [Private to Azhanti; Hartsk; Ocean; Zisner: You take 1 point of negative energy damage. No need for a save as you can't reduce it anymore. Sigh. . . ] The Steep Ark heals up a little, sucking the life from Zisner and his fellow the Swanky Ark before lashing out at Zisner, the only road block to the rest of the party, dropping the enlarged mutant to the ground. [Private to Zisner: You take 5 Negative energy damage and 13 blunt.] The Swanky Ark follows up by drawing life from Zisner, Alyx, and the Steep Ark before swinging on Alyx who is just able to duck under the blow. [Private to Alyx: You take 2 Negative Energy damage]

OCC: Hartsk, did I make a mistake or is that a temporary boost to AC?

I should have not been rerolling the Disbelieve checks, but here we are. Oh well.

Because they are crazy cannibals, he had 3 things he could have done. I figured attacking would have been the best thing, but decided to random roll it. 1 and 4 would be attack, 2 would be channel, and 3 would have been a touch of madness. When you think the die roller hates you, just remember that it hates me more lol.

That would have killed Zisner, but since he's disappeared, I'll only incapacitate him from getting back up until the fight is over. He'll still be something the Arks can pull health from however.

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Messing around with various AI art generators to make a humanoid venus flytrap that's wearing chicago bears helmet and pads. Then used a random one and got this. lol

[gammpaknight]

Alyx tries to regroup from the strike from the fallen Ark while plucks the Protective Ark with an arrow. Ocean moves back as well as she twirls and sings, bolstering her companions. Mephis's swords fly out with 2 of them hitting the ground instead. The Ark howls in pain while Zisner holds his position to keep the Arks that are in coming from charging those behind him.

Nikos takes aim at the Ark who is partially engulfed by Azhanti's orb and fires hitting the Swanky Ark. Then Parker pops up and fires at the oncoming Steep Ark, hitting the already injured houndfolk.

The Even Ark is still invisible and does invisibly things while the Protective Ark moves in to swing at Zisner. The vicious creature slams into him for a might hit[Private to Zisner: You take 16 Bludgeoning damage], but this moves him ever so slightly causing the Steep Ark to completely miss. Finally the Swanky Ark moves closer to Alyx can then draws the life out of him, Zisner, and Hartsk, healing itself [Private to Alyx; Zisner: You take 6 necrotic damage][Private to Hartsk: You take 1 necrotic damage].

[gammpaknight]

Another of Hartsk's arrows fly off into the plain that he will have to collect later as Azhanti continues to try to control the battlefield with her orb of churning water that is barely held together. The ball rolls right in front of Alyx and down to the Rabid Ark who seems to take some damage, but is able to keep out of most of it. She then lashes out with her mind causing the Ark to howl in pain and grip its head, but it is still standing. Moving over the corpse of the Ill-Informed Ark, Zisner tries to put some pep in his swing, but the Ark is just able to block the blow with its shield. Alyx rushes the Rabid Ark to try and stop it and, as he does so, the Ark swings out with its battleaxe. Slamming into the side of the elf with a viscous hit that he is barely able to twist out of the way to avoid a grievous wound. However, Alyx returns the favor with a stab right into the creature's calf causing it to fall down and stop moving. Ocean then shreds the body with the magic behind her song making sure it will never rise again. She then backs up slightly so as to be able to face the on coming Arks. With the Rapid Ark clearly dead, Mephis turns his blades onto the closest Ark and kills it outright in a spray of blood that washes over Zisner.

Both Nikos and Parker have to stop to reload their weapons.

The Even Ark is still invisible while the Protective Ark continues to close on Zisner. The Steep Ark, now close enough, rushes forward swinging it club wildly. Scoring a hit the force of the blow is absorbed by Zisner's protections. Jumping over the small pile of debris, the Swanky Ark closes as it headed towards Alyx's position

OCC: I adjusted Azhanti's orb path because it would have caught Alyx. I'm going to give the Ark a +1 to its saves since it only is getting part of it instead of all of it. Alyx takes 12 slashing damage from a nat 20, but wasn't confirmed and his vigor at 10 of that. Please remove that notation unless you reup it.

Since the Rabid Ark was dead, I took the liberty of having Mephis take out the Disagreeable one instead.

If you are in one of the Pinkish circles, that is difficult terrain.

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In case anyone was wondering, I cancelled the fight with the Behir as it was becoming apparent that it was going to be a TPK. This is an experiment so we've moved onto the next scenario with them being 10th level and some trying new characters

[gammpaknight]

Hartsk draws his bow, but, when he looks at Ugol and Carlo, the bowstring slips and launches the arrow into the dirt, breaking the shaft in two. [Private to Hartsk: Please make sure, when recovering your arrows, you subtract one.] Note being close enough to Parker, Ocean doesn't feel her calming essence as she casts her spell. The sound erupts from the pile of old crates, but whether it fools anyone or not will be determined later. Alyx moves in closer carefully so as not to incur a free hit on the mutant. He then stabs out, hitting the houndfolk in the upper thigh causing it to yelp in pain. Mephis's swords fly out and into the Ill-Informed Ark causing it to crumple to the ground, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. Azhanti casts her spell and causes it to sweep across the front lines of the Arks causing damage across them all. She notices that the Black and White Ark almost loses its feet, but the shadow stuff that makes up the orb fails to actually move it. Zisner then steps up and puts the Black and White out of its misery with a slice that opens the creature's belly and sends it to the earth with a crash.

With the closest Arks down, Parker and Nikos both fire on the Rabid Ark, both seeming to hit, but the shots don't slow it down.

The Disagreeable Ark lays unconscious as its body reflexively drains the life of all around it (Zisner takes 2 negative damage). This causes the Unlikely Ark to fall to the ground and kills its companion the Squeamish Ark, it then stands and picks up it's club. The Even Ark does things unseen by the party. Rushing forward, the Rabid Ark looks at the spot where the noise is coming from, but, seeing nothing, continues to move and gets right within reach of Ocean, an easy looking meal in its eyes. The Protective, Swanky, and Steep Arks all tire of trying to hit Ugol that they turn and start rushing towards the party. The Protective Ark is slowed by the low scrub of the grasslands while the other two are not and get closer to the party. The Unlikely Ark lays on the ground unconscious.

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Alyx fires his arrow and sees it bounce off the creature's thick hide and then he moves up with blade in hand to backup Zisner, while Ocean repositions herself behind a rusting stack of beams and wavy metal sheets to prepare. Mephis's blades come flying in with a decent result as the Ark howls in pain as Hartsk's arrow launches directly into the snarling Squeamish Ark's mouth and out the back of its head, its yip cut off halfway as its eyes roll into the back of its head and the body collapses in a heap. Zisner's strike was coming in true until the Ark turned into a greatsword knife block causing it to duck under the swing just in time. Azhanti's orb of water, which is full of small rocks, grass, and twigs, rolls over the two closest Arks. The unconscious Ark can't see the orb to believe or not, so it seems to just dance over the creature causing minor damage to the body while the Ill Informed Ark totally believes the orb to be real, but it dissipates before it can fully pick it up. Alyx's swords also get shuffled a little, but the orb created of shadow stuff isn't strong enough to move them.

Seeing her opportunity, Parker lines up a pistol shot at the Ill Informed Ark and hits the houndfolk, but doesn't drop him, she then reloads her gun. Nikos, sure that the front line can handle the last standing Ark, fires at the Black and White one causing the first hit to be put on the creature.

Now the Arks.

The Black and White Ark double moves closer as the Disagreeable Ark does the same. The Even Ark is invisible so, unless someone is using magic, the party has no idea where she went. The Ill-Informed Ark begins to drain health from all those around it and then lashes out at Zisner, but his armor deflects the blow. The Protective Ark continues to shoot up at Ugol with continued failure while the Rabid Ark continues to move forward, but seems to be headed towards where Ocean moved. The way its head is tilted makes her think he isn't heading at her directly. Yet. The Steep and Swanky Arks continue to waste ammo as the Unlikely Ark sturs from the ground, shaking its head, and then stands up while the exact same thing happens with the Squeamish Ark.

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Close ups of the battlefield

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Alyx, a mutant with telekinetic powers, launches his bundle of swords closer to the arks while Azhanti, a blue skinned mutant sorceress, moves a ball of water over one of the Arks. Even though it is made of shadow stuff, the Ark doesn't know that, but it doesn't pull the houndfolk off its feet. Zisner, now a large winged human, and the rest of the group, continues to hold for the coming attack as the two married humans, Parker and Nikos, take shots at the Arks, downing one and injuring another.

The Arks continue to bare down on the party with several getting under Carlo, the rogue goblin monkey, and Ugol, Hartsk's Roc companion, with the three shooting up at them, but missing horribly. One of the Arks moves up and pulls health from its companions while another drinks a potion and disappears from view. The rest rush the party.

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The party continued to fight the Behir with Finmo, the halfling rogue, the only one to land an attack. His reward was to be hit by the jaws of the Behir, knocked unconscious, chomped down on, and then swallowed whole and presumed dead.

Behind the DM screen: The two attacks were both crits and Finmo is at Dying 3. This little experiment of mine isn't going to good for them.

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The party attacks the behir with only Jaxx getting a lucky hit that causes the beast an immense amount of pain. Gerald, Jaxx's construct, moves up to provide itself as a tasty treat that the creature takes the bait. However, this has put the construct, Jaxx, and Treeborn, who ducked for cover unlike his ysoki friend, just into the behir's breath weapon line.

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The oncoming Arks either take pot shots at the party or just surges forward. Two of the Arks are felled by the group increasing their chances of survival

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Half of the party is caught unawares of the coming Behir. Jaxx, the ysoki inventor, moves to cover while sending his scorpion like creation forward. Treeborn, the conrasu kineticist, also moves into cover while the human ranger Garlain calls out what it is, using his hunt prey ability to bolster his friends, and then fires an arrow into the wastelands.

The behir roars and rushes forward to get closer. Climbing over two hulks, it prepares itself to attack the party.

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The party starts to pepper the closest Ark almost dropping it before it can pull vitality from its neighbors. The rest of the Arks move twice to get closer while the injured one lags a little behind.

Note: The injured Ark used its drain life ability to draw 1d6 from 3 of its packmates to heal itself as a standard action.

[gammpaknight]

Start of Combat